John woke up during the night needing to pee, so he asked for his sandals. I had them outside my side of the tent, so I unzipped the flap and reached outside in the dark. I pulled them inside and handed them to John. He exclaimed that he had just stepped on a slug with his bare foot. I felt bad for the slug, but I was so paranoid the slug was in the tent that I made John look with the headlamp. He assured me the slug was outside, but I still had trouble falling asleep.
I woke to the sound of a bird cawing loudly. It was annoying, but not as much as the children yelling and a car alarm blaring last night when we were trying to sleep. We ate breakfast and packed everything up.
The 18-mile ride back on Hoh River Road was dry this time. We reached Hwy 101 in 90 minutes. John called Kalaloch Lodge to ask if they had any cancellations. No luck. We hoped there would be a site at the campground. Soon after we returned to the highway, a cavalcade of Volkswagens (Bugs, buses, and vans) passed us.
We took a short detour to Ruby Beach. Unfortunately, we decided we didn’t have time to walk down to the beach, so we admired the view from an overlook. We returned to the highway and rode rolling hills to Kalaloch Campground. We asked the camp host if there were any open sites. Luckily, they save a few for walk-in, so we secured a site and then continued to the lodge. We ate a delicious lunch of Beyond Burgers and seasoned curly fries.
We returned to the campground, set up the tent, and then walked down to the beach. We saw a large shape in the distance and decided to investigate. It was a decomposing gray whale. Wanting to be rid of the stench, we continued down the beach toward people flying kites. Walking back through the campground, we met two cyclists and we shared bike tour stories and plans. John is lying on his sleeping pad in the sun while I am grateful to sit on a dry picnic table.
Today’s Mileage = 42.24
Total Mileage = 210.51
