Waking up in Heart O’ the Hills campground, Taylor climbed down from “upstairs” (as we have found ourselves referring to the rooftop tent, lol) to start boiling water for coffee, while I “made the bed” and pulled our books and headlamps down from the tent. All the sudden I heard a quiet, “what the…”
I looked down to see what was happening, and Taylor was holding our bag of bread with a hole in it and said, “I think we have a mouse.” Eek!
We didn’t actually see or hear the mouse, but upon closer inspection, found a couple of tiny bits of evidence. Thankfully, it was in the bed of the truck (not inside the cab) and we had most of our food sealed up in the fridge or animal-proof containers, with the exception of one loaf of bread and a few oatmeal packets.
The idea of a mouse climbing around our stuff thoroughly grossed me out, though, and Taylor was immediately worried about the potential of it chewing through wires or nesting in an area that could cause damage to the truck.
So we spent 45 minutes pulling everything out of the bed of the truck, examining it closely, making sure everything was still sealed and intact, and playing the Tetris game of fitting everything back in a way that keeps things accessible.
Our first stop after leaving the park was a Walmart, where we picked up two live traps and set them with peanut butter. From Hurricane Ridge, we wound back out of the national forest area and followed the Hood Canal south, before re-entering the bottom corner of the park at the area known as Staircase.
I don’t know who is writing content for the national parks web pages, but I have been loving their descriptions of the incredible places that we’ve explored so far. Their précis of Staircase is no exception: “Enormous trunks reach for the sky, lacy limbs stretch to the sun, grooved bark is sanctuary to tiny creatures in the vast cathedral of Douglas-firs that dominate the forests on this side of the Olympic Peninsula.”
Perfection…both the writing and this area of the park.
We only had one afternoon and evening in Staircase, but the park gifted us the perfect hike and excursion: a short jaunt along the Staircase Rapids Loop, which followed the North Fork Skokomish River, crossed a suspension bridge over tumbling rapids, and required a balanced walk across flood debris in a few washed out portions of the trail.
Marveling at the turquoise-hued yet crystal-clear water, we debated jumping into the deeper pools of the river, but Taylor dipped a finger in and confirmed that it was icy cold, and we weren’t sure we had enough sunlight left to dry out and warm up (without our towels with us or any shower facilities at the campground).
Finishing our hike, we headed back to camp for our last night of sleeping in the tent for a while. In the morning, we started the drive into Seattle, where we’d fly out of SeaTac to return to Minnesota briefly for our friends Hannah and Teddy’s wedding.
A college friend of mine, Kevin, very generously let us park our truck behind his house for the ten days that we were back in Minnesota and he also gave us a ride to the airport, as well as some excellent recommendations for hikes once we returned.
We are so incredibly grateful for the many friends and family members who have supported us in different ways on this trip of a lifetime!