On July 9th, after lunch in Forks, we parked at Rialto Beach and headed out onto the coast. This would be day one of nine. My pack weighed about 43 pounds, and the men’s packs weren’t much lighter. Except maybe for Ambrose’s. See, he found a loophole in our usual packing strategy. Typically, he carries most of our shared food and I carry our shared gear (tent and cook kit). This time, we split the food equally, but didn’t split the gear!
The afternoon was cloudy and couldn’t decided if it wanted to drizzle, mist or rain. We got some of each of those on that day, though it never turned into a soaking downpour. After a hike about a mile and a half out, we found a spot to camp and settled in to watch the tide roll in.
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| Ambrose at the start of the trail. |
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| Ellen Creek looks like it experienced a washout in the years since we were here last. |
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| Ambrose walking through Hole in the Wall. |
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| Ambrose and Bill navigating some relatively easy rocks. |
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| Ambrose watching the tide roll in during a break in the rain – okay, it was still kind of drizzling. |
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| Looking back at Hole in the Wall from our first night’s camp. |
