Pee with a view

With all our commitments done, we ventured into new territory; unscheduled travel. With nothing on the calendar but to get to Colorado before winter we waved goodbye to our Washington family and pointed Marcel further North West in hopes of making it to un-civilization before the sun set. Kerri had a few pins on her map, in public lands just to the East of Olympic National Park. With a few hours of driving we made our way to the general area where I veto’d Kerri’s spot for a spot (1) I saw on my mapping software that just begged to be checked out.

I chose this particular location because of the soft-serve ice cream cone like road that swirled its way up a small mountain to the very tippy-top where satellite view clearly showed someone camping in a small treeless area. The spot was labeled as “Seattle View” by previous adventurers, which only strengthened the curiosity.

Marcel was eager to go up the pothole riddled dirt road while being caressed by trees and bushes on both sides. We are quite fortunate to not give a damn about the paint on Marcel at this time, as we got straight into the serious bushwhacking, eventually making our way all the way to the pointy tip of the ice cream. We held our breath as we rounded the final turn, worried someone else may already be occupying this spot, and knowing it would be too small to share. As luck would have it it was empty.

With Marcel parked and leveled we got straight to absolutely nothing. We recreational camped for the first time since we started the van-travel thing again. Foggy mornings, campfires in the evenings, short excursions to explore the immediate area, and a whole lot of laying around ensued – all with that advertised view of Seattle in the tiny break in the trees. This was just what we needed. Three nights we stayed here, our longest stay to date but for the 9 days we were broke down in Fort Bragg. Days without driving meant I get to check off a thing or two from the long todo list of van repairs we have already collected.

After 3 nights alone atop a mountain we were finally [partially] decompressed, from being around so many people for the past two months, to try that spot Kerri had first pinned. It wasn’t far down the road at all, and I was keen to do more dirt roads in Marcel. So, down the mountain we went. Marcel getting another massage from the trees and bushes as we dropped in elevation. Then to a neighboring dirt road where we began the climb back up another mountain. A large open area (2) awaited us on this mountain too. One which the satellite view made it clear we would have an unobstructed Starlink connection this time around. And those morning nature calls came with the massive view of Mount Rainer on the horizon and Hood Canal below. Who could ask for more?

Previous campers left us a load of firewood, and we were planning to have ourselves a nice evening campfire until we found out that a burn ban was in effect as of this very day. No campfires but in established fire rings. Instead of a fire that night, we took a couple small bundles of wood for the next time we were in a campground-proper. 

We only stayed a single night atop mountain number two. In the morning driving up the main forest road to get a quick glimpse of the local waterfall deep in the forest before turning around to retreat right back down the same road. Half way back to Highway 101 a fork in the road convinced us to take it. This would be more pot hole filled dirt and/or gravel roads as we paralleled some power lines running to the south-west. Another branch off of dirt road exploring did not reward us with a nice place to call home for the night so we ventured as close to civilization as we dared and pulled off at a nice spot (3) just off the main dirt road, barely a mile or two before reaching asphalt.

A night without internet, just enjoying some peace and quiet with each other and nature was a nice end to a week-ish down some forest roads on the east side of the Olympic Mountains. We were finally getting back into the van-groove with improvements and fixes to the van happening almost daily.