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I just got back from a really sweet little excursion to the Olympic peninsula where it was raining like I’ve never seen it rain before. I mean, I’ve seen it rain really heavily like that, but not so heavily and steadily. 3 inches fell each of the previous three days and there were 6 inches forecast for the day we were leaving. It was pretty amazing, I mean it is technically a rainforest, receiving between 12 and 15 feet of rain per year… but this rain was relentless, the river was rushing and roads were washing out. As we drove out we could see small river after small river coming out of the forest, dumping water into the gully on the side of the road. If I weren’t moving to Boston, I’d invest in a good poncho. I know they look stupid, but we took a 3 hour hike, before it really started raining, and everything got totally soaked, drenched to the bone. Luckily, it was really warm for November, so it was still enjoyable to hike and get soaked. Really nice actually… I love weather like that, so powerful… real magical being in the woods in warm rain like that.
I remember being a kid and when it rained a lot, putting on some old clothes and shoes and just running through the woods, splashing through puddles and getting totally soaked and loving it.
We found a bunch of chanterelles and some boletus edulis. Also, we found a bitter bolete which was really interesting. Looks kind of like a butter bolete, real pale brown cap, yellow pores, but it has a rosy rhubarb stem and the pores and flesh blue drastically when touched, cut etc.
The drive back was a bit taxing with the constant downpour. Aberdeen was flooded in places and generally depressing in others. It’s sad to see the economically depressed towns of the Olympic Peninsula. Has been, once were, no longer… The logging and other industries moved through these towns a long time ago leaving clear-cut forests and large numbers of people without the means of survival to which they were once accustomed. Natural resources don’t last forever and, as I do live in a wooden house, I understand our need to sustain ourselves and I understand the need to build shelter and protect ourselves from the elements. However, it sure must have been nice on the peninsula before they cut down all the trees. You can tell when you’ve entered the Olympic National Park because all of the sudden the trees are back. All around you, 300 feet tall, thousands of years old… amazing. It’s just not the same with farmed trees, you can’t get the same type of ecosystem back in such a short period of time, it just doesn’t work. It’s a damned good thing we have our national parks, state parks and other protected areas because, if left to our own selfish judgment, we would strip this earth bare until there was nothing left.