Message from Forks

Hi Everyone! Here we are, at the beginning of our trip, enjoying every moment so far. The coast was such a beautiful place to start. We had 4 days along the ocean, with plenty of food, so we got to take our time. What a fun place to be able to stroll along with no rush. We kept a good pace, but we would stop or slow down when something presented itself to be explored.

We made it into Forks this morning for a whole day off. We get to enjoy a day watching TV, eating good food, and doing misc things like catching up on e-mail. So here I am getting a journal entry in! I have been writing in a journal every night of the hike so far, and each night the entry gets longer. At this rate I am going to need a new book every other day in a few weeks. Well alight, maybe thats not quite true, but I think I might need to slim down how much I write each night. I know some nights I am going to be too tired to write a lot down before I fall asleep face first in my journal.

Well we have enough time to slip in some of the most interesting things we have seen so far. The ocean is beautiful of course, and all the rocky formations off shore are a wonderful backdrop. Bernie spent 3 years out along the coastal stretch that we hiked studying Sea Otters. So it was wonderful hiking with him through this area learning all about the Sea Otters. He would point them out to me, and share tid bits of information on them as we went. About a year and a half ago we hiked this same stretch of coast, so I got a beautiful introduction to it, and I feel honored to hike it a second time. We got to see probably about 100+ Sea Otters this time. There are moms out there with their little pups, thats cute to watch.

There are Bald Eagles all over along the coast, we would see at least 15 each day. They are an amazing bird, when you get the chance to get semi close to them you realize just how big they really are.

There is all sorts of fun sea life in the inner tidal areas that we got to explore. Its fun moving through those areas step by step seeing how much life can exist in one little place.

Yesterday we got to see a Mother Black Bear with her baby. They were walking straight toward us, and while it would be fun to sit there and watch them move through nature we decided to make sure they knew we were there before they were frightened by us and decided to not be friendly. They ran the opposite direction with plenty of space in between us. It was really fun to see them wandering up a logging road.

We have been seeing all kinds of tracks also. We may not have seen the animals themselves yet, but there has been signs of their trek through an area. We have seen Elk, Coyote, River Otter, Raccoon, Deer and Bear tracks and scat.

A great local lady Elizabeth "Missy" who lives on the Oil City road invited us in for tea as we passed by her house yesterday. She was a great person to visit with. She told us all sorts of interesting historical facts of the area. Her parents lived on that property in the early 1900's and they passed it onto Missy and her husband in the 1940's. Missy was born and raised there, and doesn't see how she could live anywhere else. She has an art studio attached to her house, and we got to go see all her great artwork. It is defiantly a passion for her.

Its been wonderful experiencing nature on a moment to moment basis, seeing everything intimately as we flow through nature. We love to learn all the new plants and birds as we cross paths with them in this great journey called life. Its all a wonderful Meditation in Motion.

We hope you are all having a wonderful time!

Wayfaring Bern and Enchanted Stace