4001 Miles: An awful sunny day in Forks.

To the open ocean!

Today, for the second time in my life, I found the remains of a dead bug in my eye. Each time it's happened, a part of my soul wilts and dies. I feel less desire to continue living today than I did yesterday. Last time, Mark picked the bug out with tweezers. But without him around or any appropriate tools, I had to coax the slimy gnat, coated in my eye fluids, to my tear duct and nudge it out of there. Great mental image, huh?

My photography doesn't suck. Washington is just slanted.

Anyway, I'm in Forks, WA now, the site of the unfortunately famous book/movie series Twilight. I've seen signs for several Twilight tour companies and merchandise galore. But I'm assuming the movies weren't shot on location so I don't know exactly what the tour companies exhibit. Can anybody with more Twilight acumen enlighten me?

I spent last night in Altaire Campground in Olympic National Park. Since I was only spending the night in the park and leaving in the morning, I unethically snuck past the ranger station so I wouldn't have to pay absurd cyclist national park fees. When I crossed into the park though, a scene from an old western starting playing out. Imagine me on one end of the face-off. On the other, a giant, unleashed black dog thirsting for my blood. It stood 100 feet away in the middle of the only road into the camground, barking at me like I had come into its house on Christmas morning and peed on its puppies. I was frozen, somewhat in fear, but mostly at the absurdity of an unleashed dog in a national park without an owner in sight. Thankfully, I was on a bit of a downhill stretch so I backtracked about 300 feet so I could gain some speed. I went hurtling at that dog like I was going to slice it open with my bike tire (something I really wanted to do). In that moment, I felt so cool. But then a car came and almost hit the dog, sending it running into the forest. I felt less cool.

The foliage in Washington is very reminiscent of Jurassic Park

The campground itself lay on the banks of the Elwha River so I fell asleep to the sound of rushing water. It was great then, but not so great when I had to pee in the middle of the night and I didn't want to leave my tent. I rode out this morning at 8-ish for Forks, 60 miles away. I'm in town for an hour or two buying groceries and doing laundry. Then I'm heading out to some secluded beaches by La Push, WA, 15 miles away to camp for the night.

Tomorrow, I'm heading into Hoh Rainforest. My phone corrected it to Hog Rainforest in one of my last posts so know that that isn't correct. It's only 30 miles from La Push so I'll probably leave early in the morning, do some hikes in the forest, and call that my rest day for the week.

Along with a miniscule book selection, even compared to towns 1/10 the size, Forks Memorial Library also has a 30-minute limit on their computers. I meant to add pictures to this post, but I won't have time. I'll try to see if I can get an extension. If not, I'll add them soon.

See ya!