Hoh lota boondocking
Big Blue has been getting a workout this week. Not one, not two, not three, but five different locations in and around the Hoh rain forest area of Olympic National Park. It all started with getting out of town for the Labor Day weekend. To avoid the crowds we didn’t want to go to any established campground, and since we hadn’t been boondocking in whole weeks (!) we needed to get back out in the wild. Kerri, as is now customary, scouted and bookmarked a bunch of possible locations on the maps. And after restocking supplies we set out to spend the weekend, at least, in the rain forest surrounding the national park. A few spots turned out to be a bust, but we eventually came upon a welcoming little spot in the forest. There was nothing all that special about it – just a clearing large enough for Big Blue and far enough away from asphalt to be alone for the rest of the evening. The dogs could run free, which they desperately needed. We could – and did – walk down the tree covered dirt road to look for mushrooms and what ever else resides in the forest.
Our second day consisted of hours and hours of scouting dirt roads. We had actually stumbled onto a perfect spot within minutes of starting our day but I argued to keep looking anyway. I don’t know what came over me as I am usually the one arguing to stay put and Kerri the opposite. Nearly four hours of trying this and that dirt road can get very exhausting, so by late afternoon I was getting grumpy and fully regretting my early decision. Finally, at the dead end of barely-marked dirt road we found our spot to pull over and enjoy the forest a bit. There wasn’t much around so no one would be camped anywhere near us during our one night stay, which is just how we like it. Kerri and Moose set out for an hour or so of mushroom hunting while I setup camp and took the time to relax my tired brain (hey, driving is hard).
On our final weekend day we decided to roll back into the town of Forks to restock those two items we usually forget before heading out. I know, I know. You’d think we would have gotten our shit together with remembering our shopping list, but we are who we are. What it did allow to happen was a surprise meetup with Adam and Jenn (and Imogen) of tinyasscamper.com who just happened to be passing by on the highway and saw Big Blue in the grocery store parking lot… nice! So we caught up over a lunch at the slowest Mexican joint in town, which worked out great. Always cool to meetup with other travelers on the road.
Stuffed with tacos and burritos we set back out to find our work-week location. We didn’t have to do a lot of scouting as we had already set our sights on this spot we saw earlier in the morning. It was not the easiest to get too as it involved a few hundred yards of driving over large river rocks but Big Blue made it, nice and slow. Set about 150 feet from the Hoh River was a small sandy nook in the trees that we fit into just right. With the river to our south we had all the sun we wanted during the days. 
It was here that we settled in for our work week and some mostly-alone time. I did get a random text on my phone one afternoon, “Moose is down by the water if you are wondering” (Moose carries my phone number on his tags). I replied with a simple “yea he does that, he is OK if you are. I can come grab him if you want”. Another reply from the texter saying they were fine with him visiting. After I finished my lunch I walked down there to see Moose sitting on the lap of one of the two 30-something girls parked river-side in their van. Moose invited them to Big Blue for drinks later and we all ended up hanging out for the evening trading stories. They were from Ohio and brand new on the road so we offered up a couple tidbits of advice as well as our extra fire extinguisher (yea, we told that story too).
