Monday, September 12, 2011

Olympic Peninsula of Washington

Zak the firemaster

My last entry was quite a while ago I see.  My apologies to my readers, but I can't really say I'm sorry because it just means I have been living in the wild, out of range of internet coverage.  Loving it!

After leaving the beautiful hot springs on the Columbia Gorge at Bonneville, WA,  Zak hopped out in Portland, OR to visit his buddies who moved there from Fort Collins.  I continued on to visit my dear old friend Michelle.

Today is her birthday!  September 12.  Happy Birthday my dear friend!

Michelle and I decided to do a juice fast together, after first dining at a beautiful restaurant in Eugene.  Delicious fresh oysters, lovely cocktails, beautiful slow roasted wild boar, and a lovely Tuna Tartare.  Scrumptious meal and great service.  Good bottle of wine also....

The next day we began our fast, and a major Feng Shui of Michelle's place.  During the next 6 days, we transformed her bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom.  Next time I blog, I'll have the before and after photos for you.  We did a lot of work in the "Wealth and Abundance" area of her home, and while we were there, Michelle found a forgotten notice that she needed to renew her nursing license, and was inspired to call her credit card company and get her interest rate reduced from 28% to 0% interest.

She also decided to sign her beautiful dog up for training with a company named "Sit Means Sit".  Her german shepard, "Nanuck", has been charging the fence in her front yard, scaring her neighbors, kids on bikes, and one guy in particular, who threatened to kill her dog while I was there.

Clearly time to change the energy in her reputation.  Nanuck is off to school next week, and I'll let you know how it goes for them in future blogs.

The first night, I arrived late and put the four horses in Michele's front yard.  So funny to see, and MOST of the neighbors were cool about it.


Always in search of wood to burn...
Beats a gym workout everytime!
 Zak and I are back together again.  I picked him up in Portland and we headed to the coast of Oregon.  We stopped at a State Park geared for horse camping, but it wasn't our cup of tea.  Too suburban for us.  The camp host even scolded me for parking "on the grass" when I stopped briefly to grab a shower on the way out.  The "grass" was dried up, yellow scrubby stuff, and I really wasn't parked on it anyway.  It's an interesting phenomenon that those "camp hosts" end up controlling little bitches who think they own our state parks.

From there, we hit the Oregon coast, but it was not exactly horse friendly in the area we chose to land.  So we drove north and almost got back into Washington before stopping to camp at a boat launch near a wildlife refuge.  The horses spent the night tied to the trailer, and Zak and I put our mats down on the launch, and enjoyed a lovely night, waking to a beautiful sunrise.

Next morning we crossed a bridge over the Columbia Gorge, and arrived on the Olympic Peninsula.  We found camping in Capital State Park, and have been riding the trails there for a couple of days.  It's a Park in transition and should be nice one day, but at the moment it has quite a lot to be desired.  The trails are in pretty poor condition, but the "Friends of Capital State Park" are in motion, and Zak and I were the first to cross the new and sturdy bridge they completed minutes prior to our arrival.

Clearing trails and maintaining campsites is a big job.  We've seen all sorts of variety in our travels, and Zak and I both rated the Capital State Margeret McKinney Horse Camp with a 2-3 out of 5 stars.  At least there is pumpable, potable water in the campsite.  And the camp host is not a little bitch yet.

Our plan is to hang here a couple of more days, and then head up the Peninsula to the Olympic National Forest and National Park.  It's a rare sunny day, and we are feeling pretty happy to be here!

Midnight - such a good boy!