Week 34 Apr. 23 & 24 - South Duk, Beach Clean-up

Total Distance: Approximately 10+ miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 150 ft. 
Time: Saturday at 12:00 am - Sunday 2:30 pm 
Weather: Beautiful, warm, and sunny on Saturday. Mostly cloudy, cool, rainy Sunday with some sun breaks.

This weekend was the weekend of the Washington State Coast Clean-up sponsored by Washington CoastSavers.  I used this opportunity to help students at the school I work at earn community service hours and to have the school's outdoor club sponsor an overnight trip. Friday, after school, four high school seniors, a parent, and I drove 4 hours to the Lake Ozette Ranger Station with our gear for a 2-night 2-day trip.

Due to all the activities my students are involved with, we could not leave Tacoma until 6:30 pm.  We hit the road, stopped for dinner, and pulled into the campground at midnight.  We set up camp, and I found myself in my sleeping bag and dreaming in no time.  The next morning, I got up around 7:15 am and checked our group in with the volunteer coordinator.  I got a big role of trash bags, and I got the low down on how all of this needed to work.  We were going to hike 7 miles to our site, and pickup as much trash as we could carry out.  At the same time I was checking in a large group from the Friends of the Olympic National Park were checking in.  They were going to drive in using old logging roads and park access keys to just north of our site.  They had several trucks and were only going to be 2 miles from our section.  We worked out a plan and followed in our car.

We stashed our van in the woods, geared up, and walked to the beach.  The walk took only 15 minutes.  Then we were able to walk about 2.5 miles down south to the Ozette River.  This was the river we were going to ford from the south side.  The river was deep and moving quickly.  I was so happy we did not have to ford it.  We set up camp, had a quick lunch, and began clean the beach.  It took about 15 minutes to fill 8 trash bags.  We picked up plastic bottles, floats, buoys, rope, and all sorts of debris.  Then we walked it back the two and a half miles to the trucks parked at the end of the old logging roads.  This was a true "onion."

Some of you readers may know about "orchids and onions."  Most of you have probably inferred what it means, but here is the explanation I heard many years ago on a backcountry trip.  The orchid is the moment that was pure beauty.  The moment when you were awestruck by whatever was going on at the time.  So perfect it was like a wild orchid in full bloom.  The onion is that bitter moment.  So strong and overpowering you could cry or want to just never do anything like this again, when it took something deep inside you didn't know you had to persevere.  It is that moment that, like an onion, when it cooks in your memory it sweetens.  Carrying these trash bags was hard and annoying, but the minute we packed them in the trucks, I was so proud and happy.

We walked back to camp and laid out in the sun by the Ozette River.  I went into the water and dunked myself.  Soon after three other kids did too.  We made a fire and had dinner.  We sat and talked until 11 pm.  It was a blast.  That night some rain came in, and we all slept in until 11 am.  We got up, broke camp, and hiked out, picking up trash as we walked out.  We got back to the van around 2:30 pm.

Orchid: Great Saturday sunshine.

Onion: Hauling garbage back to the trucks. 

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