Dosewallips, day 3, afternoon

September, 2017

Yep, we’re still only on day three.

Exploration of the Interrorem Cabin and a hike along the Ranger Hole Trail this morning was followed by lunch back at the trailer and a little nap in my anti-gravity chair.

I used to say “…and then I read for a bit after lunch.”  But I had to stop saying that when friends of mine snapped a photo of me “reading” … the book was on the floor and my chin was on my chest and I was sound asleep.  So now I just admit that I had a nap. 🙂

Refreshed from today’s nap, I jumped in the big white truck and this time headed north on Highway 101.  The highway turns inland and runs through the beautifully forested and rocky foothills of the Olympic Mountains.

Photo above is Highway 101 not too far south of the town of Quilcene.

My first destination this afternoon was the US Forest Service Ranger Station at Quilcene.  Rumor had it they had maps that were not available online and I found out that’s true!  I collected everything I could get about the area.  Everything was free except one map (the best one) which was a whole whopping $5.  I walked out of there with a bundle of great information.  I also learned lots of interesting stuff from the Ranger herself.

On my way north heading towards Quilcene, I had seen a sign pointing to Point Whitney Tidelands and Lagoon.  So on my way back south, I followed that sign down that side road and discovered a lovely gravel, saltwater, beach right on the edge of Hood Canal.

The sign above out at the beach was quite confusing to me at first.  I kept thinking the blue area was water.  Silly me!  Actually, the blue area is land … and the white area is water.  What troubled mind would color the land blue?

The beach was public and was full of clams and oysters (some info here).  Just a few yards from the beach was a research center and shellfish “seed” plant run by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.  The physical plant had been built by the Washington (State) Department of Fish and Wildlife but had been abandoned by the state in about 2002.  The facilities have been taken over, legally, by the S’Kallams.  Excellent video of the current operation is here.

For readers who are not familiar with shellfish of the pacific northwest, the fellows in the video link above talk about “gooey-ducks”.  They aren’t discussing ducks.  They are talking about a particular kind of clam.  The word is spell “geoduck”, but all of us pronounce it gooey-duck.  Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it.  🙂

The Interpretive Center was closed so it’s on my list for a visit some other time.  You readers with a sharp eye will see the reflection of me in my truck in the building’s window.

Next door, this State of Washington WDFW (Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife) building was sizable but I saw no activity there even though it was the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday.  The only vehicle on site was that blue pickup truck with a flat tire.  I supposed the state had abandoned this building as well as the research/seed facilities.

I enjoyed a nice long beach walk since the day was so gorgeous.

 

 

Photos above and below are looking NE (above) and straight north (below), at the southern end of Bolton Peninsula.  I have been here in my boat on two different cruises down Hood Canal so it was fascinating to see the area from land too.  What a pretty corner of the world!

And then it was late afternoon and time to head back to Dosewallips State Park and my trailer.  I was thinking I would like to just sit a spell and read my book before dinner, think of that!

But that was not to be ….

I got distracted again ….

Just a hundred yards or so north of the turn into the State Park, a sign beside the road mentioned a helicopter landing area and access to a clam beach.  How could I pass that up?  There was a huge grassy area that a helicopter could land in during emergencies, probably mostly medical emergencies I would suppose.

 

The geese, however, must have figured that humans created that open space just for them.  It was a “landing” zone after all.  Is that goose with the yellow beak a gray goose?  Does anyone know?  It seemed there was only one of them there that day.

Which reminds me of the Tennessee Ernie Ford song “Cry of the Wild Goose” from my childhood.  It’s a cool song for those who feel a bit of wanderlust.  Being retired is wonderful … you have time to think about all of this nonsense.  🙂

There was a small parking area in the far corner of the helicopter landing zone with these signs (above).  One pickup truck with a slide-in camper was already there.  I parked and headed on foot out the very wide, nicely kept path towards the beach.

 

The beach was actually a LONG walk out.  This wildlife viewing platform appeared first.  The two people from that pickup camper were up there.  They waved to me and said hi so I climbed the stairs and joined them.

Turns out they were on their way home, north to Victoria, BC, Canada, having been camping for a month along the coast in California and Oregon.  They had one extra day so decided to stop at Dosewallips State Park for one night and then take the ferry from Port Angeles, WA, to Victoria, BC, tomorrow.  They had heard about Elk sometimes being in the area but figured they wouldn’t see any.  Ha!  Did we see Elk!  AGAIN!

The Elk were all over the grasslands between the viewing platform and the beach.  We counted them as best we could and came up with 48 Elk which meant two herds were there.

Turn your speakers on and turn the sound up before you start the video below.  The alpha bull bugles!  It’s a higher pitched sound than I thought it would be.

The bull was about 20 feet from the viewing platform, on the opposite side of the platform from the path thank goodness.  You’ll also hear what I call “mewing” sounds in the video — those are the cows.

 

After the bugling and mewing, the cows headed in from the grassland.  They didn’t move quickly, but they were definitely on the move in the direction of that alpha bull.

The three of us humans on the viewing platform were so engrossed by the alpha bull and the cows that we did not pay any attention to what was going on near the path behind us.  But the woman from Canada eventually turned around to look at the path back to our vehicles and said “oh oh”.

Her husband and I then turned around to see what was going on … we all saw two more bulls (not the alpha bull, but two more), each one about six feet from the path on one side of the path, and two cows, each about ten feet from the path on the other side of the path.  We were boxed in!

 

This was not the alpha bull (above), but it was a bull nonetheless right beside the ONLY path out to our trucks.  Another bull was behind him … and two females were closeby on the other side of the foot path.  We would have had to walk in between them, and that would have been absolutely foolish.  In fact, we could have been killed.

The three of us talked about how to get back to our vehicles and decided we didn’t dare try to get back until the Elk had moved through, which could take hours.  Each of us checked our cell phones … no coverage.  We really were stuck and it was after 6pm and getting colder.

I’ve joked about being in a predicament in past posts in this blog.  Those have all been written with a wee bit of humor.

This, however, was no joke.  We stood (and sat and stood and sat) on that viewing platform for over an hour.  The man from Canada did walk down the steps of the platform once and walked not even five feet from the platform but the alpha bull immediately came around from the opposite side of the viewing platform and headed straight towards the man from Canada … the bull Elk with head in the air and nostrils flaring.  The Canadian fellow took the stairs two at a time back up to the platform!

What saved our bacon eventually were four more humans.  We could hear them coming along the path through the trees and tried to think of a way to warn them.  When they appeared out in the open, in front of them, on a leash, was a dog.  The Elk here are very much afraid of dogs, since dogs smell like wolves to them.  When the Elk saw and/or caught wind of that dog, those Elk scattered!  And the three of us hurried off that platform and scurried back in through the woods to our trucks.

We got back to the campground just a few minutes before 8pm.  My dinner was a little later than it usually is that evening, but I sure was happy to be back at the trailer safe and sound.

Another great adventure, eh?  More than I thought I would have this day.  And more Elk sightings and encounters too.  And more wonderful people.  And a long walk on a perfect, quintessential, pacific northwest beach at that fishery/research plant.  And a great trip to the Ranger Station in Quilcene.  I suppose I could just sit outside my trailer and read, but where would the excitement be in that?

 

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12 Responses to Dosewallips, day 3, afternoon

  1. Ginger D says:

    What an adventure that turned out to be. Glad someone came along with a dog to scare the elk off.
    Beautiful pictures, and a neat video.

    • Ann says:

      Thanks Ginger. 🙂 I took seven or eight videos of that darn bull before I could catch him bugling in a video. I was just about to walk out there and give him a piece of my mind!

  2. Sindri says:

    Great story Ann. I wonder what would happen if you tried to bark at the elk. Ha!

    • Ann says:

      LOL! Woof! Yep, I bet THAT would have scared them away. Thanks for the really helpful suggestion, Sindri. Too funny. ? Thanks for reading and commenting.

  3. Tim in Montana says:

    Wolf urine in a spray bottle. There are several brands. Repels elk and coyotes and just about everything and works better than pepper spray against bears. That was funny about barking at them tho .

    • Ann says:

      Thanks Tim! I’d never heard of wolf urine so I looked it up online and indeed there are a number of brands that sell it in small quantities or in bulk by the gallon. One website says if there are threatening animals in very close proximity to you, spray the urine on yourself and the other animals (including bear, just like you say) won’t touch you. You’d probably want a shower fairly soon, but at least you’d be alive to take a shower. Thank you!

  4. Sondra says:

    The Elk are so cool…And it’s always nice to meet other campers who enjoying viewing nature. The Goose is a greater white fronted goose. I have to say that map drawing looks like a first grade art project…lol.

    • Ann says:

      LOL! Well, I did pass first grade, if I remember correctly, at least I think so, or maybe not! .. that was a lot of years ago. I’ll try to create more refined drawings in the future Sondra. haha! Don’t bet on it.
      Thank you for the name of that goose. I wondered why they call it “white fronted” so I googled that and found out it’s because of the white patch immediately behind/above the beak. Excellent, Sondra, thank you.

  5. OMG. I was laughing and not laughing. That was a great video…but being stuck up there on that platform? I would have worried, especially if I was alone, which I often am. Glad you had company. Figures a dog would save the day! 🙂 🙂 🙂

    • Ann says:

      I was sure glad for the company on the viewing platform too, Dawn. Somehow if someone is in trouble right along with you, then it’s not as bad. And yet, we sure weren’t going to risk our lives. 🙂 Someone would have had to pee eventually, but that’s probably the worst that would have happened. And YES, dogs are the very best aren’t they. 🙂 Katie would have taken care of those Elk in short order!

  6. Arlene says:

    Vewwy scawwwy.

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