"Damn, Son."

"Woke up this morning feeling fine. I had something special on my mind." That is to walk over to the restroom and get started with the day. As began the morning stroll, I got big surprise to tell. I saw the two elk out in the meadow. When, I returned to the campsite I knocked on the passenger window to wake up Tom after I changed clothes and brushed my teeth. Tom is very passionate about wildlife and parks, so of course got his digital camera out and took about 50 photos of these guys. They were having a fight. It was a duel to see who was the strongest bull elk to get initiate into the pack/ tribe of older elk. The squealing sound they made was funny. These two elk we saw, by the way, were the same elk that were sitting on the side of the road where we had entered the park and we were 10 ft from the streets were turned on to get to our campsite. I'm kidding the number of photos. I probably took about 6-8 shots.
We ate oatmeal for breakfast. I had the cinamon flavored oatmeal, Tom had banana. We also drank hot chocolate because it was very cold outside. Here's where the damn son expression came about. When we got the cups out, something just wasn't right. Your boy here didn't think about quality only quantity. I had thought we needed a lot of cups and we ought to keep the price down. Friends, I bought 70 cups with Dora the Explorer and Diego pictured on each one. Paper cups!!! lol. Bad choice. They were practically metal like wax and our fingers were barely touching the steaming flames. hahaha. Want more miscues? Sure you do. I didn't think to get cookies, matches, beef jerky, or firewood. The last item we got later, but with the strong winds we were getting plus chilly temperatures, it didn't matter. Needless to say, we did get through all the hot chocolate and we set on another adventure of hiking.
We picked this trail called "Tom's Creek." We were mesmerized. The trees kicked ass!!! We saw more of the Hoh River. Finally, we found Tom's Creek. We thought that the body of water we jumped over while on the trail was the creek, nope keep moving. It was this towering waterfall we spot that lead down into the river. Now, that was a cool spot. We took the long walk back and it started to rain. Something I learned on the way back, if you stand under a tree you won't feel the rain. The tree protects you from being wet just like standing under a bridge.
When we got back to our campsite the soup cans were eating for lunch. Campbell's Chunky Beef cans. I bought about 6 of them, we were left with 2 at the end of the trip. We felt, it was time to explore outside the park. We decided we wanted to check out the most Northwestern port of the state of Washington, Neah Bay. Great call!
So, we hopped on the highway 101 which became the route 112, which then became the 113 going west. It's really not hard to factor, the signs tell you where the route is going and you take it. haha. We stopped this small Native American town of Forks and got gas. After we dealt with hundreds of twists and turns on this windy road. We already passed Sekiu and Clallam Bay, we then reached Neah Bay and we couldn't go any further. The sign basically said, this is Native American land or game preserve and you'd have to pay for a permit to enter. There cool murals near the entrance. We drove a long way and it was getting to be dark. Which is no surprise we rarely ever saw the sun. In Washington, sunset tended to start around 5:30 or 6 pm, and this was before daylight saving time was in effect. Although, Tom, took pulled to the side of the road to take pictures more than once, he was not very pleased with long drive to Neah Bay. This when I familiar quote came up more than once, Damn, son!!
We turned around and repeated our course back the other way. We picked up firewood which we ended up saving for later in the trunk. Then, a big breakthrough happened. Tom, got the call from his ex-girlfriend. Reception was aweful on his phone. He decided to stay in the town of Forks because whenever he was in a populated town as opposed to the rainforest his phone would have good reception. He worked out the details on sleeping arrangements while on the phone with her, and he also called home letting his mother know he was ok. I did the same. We also visited the Bogachiel River. Not much of a memory there. It was just Tom, trying to get a few shots and then finding nature's restroom. lol. We were golden. We found a place to stay towards the end of the trip instead of another night of camping or staying at a motel.
It was raining hard we when returned to our campsite. I also detected that it was very wet on the right side of our tent. My sleeping bag was orignally placed vertically and parallel to the right side of tent. So, I made it horizontal and off to left with my head placed toward the corner. The sleeping bag was wet on the outside. Because it wouldn't stop raining we brought the stove into the tent and cooked up top ramen for dinner inside. hahaha. We didn't fairly well; although, Tom was kind of grumpy and demanding. He and I were drinking the Konakee beer bottles imported from BC and Rainier Beer cans. He drank more than me, but he still managed to get back to the car. I went over to the restroom afterwards and upon returning, Tom didn't have his trusty flashlight on to guide me returning to the tent and my shin made contact with the firepit. Ouch!!! It's okay the pain is gone now.
I turned into bed around 10:00 pm. I was awake at midnight, and the raining coming down hard. I mean it wasn't hail, but it was loud and unstoppable. I had a puddle inside the sleeping bag down at my feet. I rushed over to the rental car where Tom was sleeping. I think this was at 1:30 a.m. He seemed to be saying make the best of the situation, see if you can fall asleep if not you can move to the car. I was like ok. Back to bed I went, but it didn't last long. Finally, at 4:00 a.m. I had enough of this shit. Water was coming up from under me at every minute, the puddle had grown inside the sleepbag. Our tent, well techinally, my tent where I slept was flooded!! :( So, it was time to move over to the car and try to get some sleep. I kept checking the watch it was 5 then 5:30 a.m. At long last, it was daylight and about 6:45 a.m. when I opened my eyes. It wasn't raining as hard. I think mother nature took a short break 'cause it was drizzling with off and on sprinkling next time we checked. Night over. Damn, son!!