Day 222: Gorge

We spent the morning hanging out with the guys next to us who are from Washington, from "the other side of the Mountains," (the Cascade Mountains). It was great to learn more about people from Washington and have him learn about the South; he has always wanted to visit the East Coast and, "see what its like on the other side of the country." Its crazy to think about it, learning what its like on the other side of the country, but thats why I am here... there's a lot to learn and many differences.

Later that night, we headed to the concert. There are two main reasons why I am here: I never never seen Dave Matthews live, and I have always wanted to see a concert at the Gorge. The Gorge is an amazingly beautiful music venue that sits right next to the Columbus River with the deep river gorge surrounding the venue; the general admissions seats are on a massive hill that overlooks the Gorge.

At night you can experience two almost completely different concerts at once. You can either lay down and stare at the almost perfect display of stars or you can stand up, allowing the music and the lights take over your body. A good night with great music and amazing surroundings.

Day 221: Gorge

This morning, William and I had to get to Gorge to see part of a three day Dave Matthews Band concert. Before we left, we headed into downtown Seattle and go to the top of the Columbia Center. Today is a much clearer day, so I was able to see much of the mountains and the bay. After we saw the city from above and gathered supplies, we headed out, except we decided to take the long way. Instead of taking I90 pretty much all the way to Gorge, we took Highway 2 through the Cascade Mountains and then down the Columbus River to Gorge; a slow but beautiful drive.

We ended up getting to the campsite pretty late; by the time we set up and pre-gamed some, we made it in for the last couple songs. Tonights concert ended much earlier than we both expected, 10pm. While we missed most of the concert, it was still a good night getting to know the people camping around us and enjoying a clear night's sky.

Day 220: Seattle

After a good morning of sleep, I headed into cloudy downtown Seattle. The first thing I wanted to do was see the whole city. I went up to the top of the second tallest building west of Chicago, the Columbia Center; at 73 stories, I was able to see everything that wasn't covered by fog, cloud, and rain.

Afterwards, I hunted for a sports bar where I could watch my Gamecock's first football game against the University of North Carolina. Luckily, its 3pm here on a Thursday, so no one is at the bar drinking, except me and two other USC fans, what are the odds.

At halftime, I headed to the airport to pick up William. It is good to see a good childhood friend after almost 9 months. We headed to the hotel to drop off his stuff then we headed back into town. We ended up going back to the same sports bar to grab some food. Afterwards, we walked across the street to the Seattle Space Needle to head to the top. The Space Needle was built for the World Fair of 1962, at the time, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. However, it was meant to be disassembled after the World Fair, as it was just a model of what skyscrapers were going to look like in the 21st century. The city refused to buy it, so Howard Wright, the contractor, bought it in 1977; the tower makes money from tour fees and the rotating restaurant at the top.

We then drove around downtown to get a feel for the Seattle nightlife.

Day 219: Seattle

So, today I was not too good of a tourist. As you can tell, I am pretty behind on my blog, so I spent most of today writing my blog. I was surprised that I had not caught up to today by the end of the night.

Day 218: Seattle

A night full of rain was followed by a morning full of mixed clouds with a clear lake at the base of the mountain and right next to my tent; not a bad view from bed.

I broke camp and headed to my next trail, and I ended up beginning at the wrong place, about 3 miles before I was supposed to. While the hike was beautiful, hiking a couple extra miles up a mountain is not a good way to start the day.

That afternoon, I made it to the part of the woods I was assigned to camp. Unfortunately, it was on the hill down the other side of the mountain. Not sure if it was the best decision, I decided to hike out of the woods and head to Seattle. Since it was past 7pm, I would not be able to get another permit; I was also worried about hiking in another spot and being fined by a Ranger, and since good friend of mine is meeting me in two day in Seattle, I figured I might as well go to Seattle.

I checked into my hotel and fell asleep before I could put my bags down.

Day 217: Mt. Rainier National Park

This morning I headed out to Mt. Olympic National Park in Washington State. Instead of going straight to the park, I headed West to the mouth of the Columbia River. During the early 19th century, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Louis, MO set off on a mission to the West Coast; through Oregon, they canoed down part of the Columbia River. Currently, there are some National and State Parks around the river's end in both Oregon and Washington, there is also a great museum on the Oregon side.

I enjoyed the museum, they had a lot to display on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, current day Coast Guards, and the commercial shipping industry. This area combines the hard Pacific Ocean currents crashing into the end of the Columbia River with close to annual fog, cloud, and rain coverage, creating what is known as The Graveyard of the Pacific. I saw some pretty intense videos of large and small commercial freight boats getting thrown around by the waves. Because of this, the Coast Guard is among the top trained, prepared, and practiced in the country. And since this area on the West Coast (including both Portland & Seattle) is much closer to China's main ports than Los Angeles is, the Coast Guard gets a lot of practice.

After I finished up with the museum, I set off fo Mt Olympic National Park. It turns out that the Ranger Station is too far away for me to reach by 5pm (it is currently around noon), so I decided to go to Mt Rainier National Park, it turns out they have a Ranger Station that is open until 7pm. The drive through Washington was much different from Oregon, so far it has been nothing but trees. To my surprise, I passed a lot of logging sites and most of the trucks I passed were transporting tree trunks. I figured that, legally, it would be difficult to be in the logging industry in Washington.

After getting a little lost, I finally arrived and got my camping permit. Since I got in late, I chose a short hike to Snow Lake. Once I began the hike it started to rain. You'd think it would be a miserable hike, but the only bad part about it was that I knew the stuff in my bag would be wet. There was something about hiking in the woods, at night, and in the rain that truly added to the outdoor manly feeling you can get from camping; I really think my beard grew an inch that night.

Oregon Wrap Up

I really did like Oregon; I could have spent days just driving through countryside on back roads. Oregon is a green state in terms of both nature and technology. I was constantly reminded of the south: the people are nice, the trucks are big, and the so are the farms. Although, in Oregon, the deer crossing hazard sign is accompanied by cow, snowmobile, and horseback crossing signs as well. From mountains to rivers to fields, I think that it would be amazing to see Oregon by air.