Washington Peninsula

Forks, Washington
September 13-20

We had always wanted to explore the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park on the Washington peninsula, so we decided to home-base out of Forks, Washington to do just that.

All that we knew about Forks was that it is the setting for the Twilight novels, but I was sure that there would be a lot more to the area. It just so happened, however, that we ended up visiting Forks during the weekend of the Twilight festival. I avoided downtown to keep from having to interact with any cosplay vampires.

We spent a couple of nights in an actual campground in Forks to catch up on very overdue laundry, and enjoy the luxury of washing dishes with as much water as desired. Then we moved up the highway to another Discover Pass free site. It was a developed campground, much like the Spokane one – no hookups, but marked, paved sites, complete with picnic tales, fire pits, and restrooms. We spent 5 chilly, wet nights living under the dripping evergreens. Even though the temps were only in the 60’s we never could quite get ourselves warm.

We learned a few important things about boondocking this month, and in no specific order they are:

1. You might buy whole bean coffee when you have no electricity with the assumption that your coffee grinder will work if you plug it into the converter in the truck. But you would be wrong about that – so buy ground coffee to avoid caffeine-free mornings.

2. Yes, the propane furnace will work when there are no electric hookups, but the fan that blows the hot air out of the furnace into the house is electric. This means that the longer you camp in one cold place, the fan gets weaker as it drains the RV batteries. Cuddle accordingly.

3. For cold, rainy days without electricity, baked foods are the best option by far. Quiche, banana bread, and other items that require nearly an hour in the oven are preferable, especially when baked right before bedtime.

4. My computer uses up 10% of its battery life each day, even when it is in sleeping mode. So remember to shut down after each use if you hope to use it 3 or 4 days from now.