Sand Point Olympic NP backpack

“I left on the first ferry out of Edmonds on Sunday the 22nd at 7 am, and got to the trailhead at Ozette at 11:30. I hit the trail at noon, and donned my Stabilicers for the slippery boardwalks to Sand Point. I made the three miles in just 1 1/2 hours, despite my super-heavy pack, probably 80 pounds. The Stabilicers are essential in my opinion, since three miles of super-slippery wood is 2.9 miles too much without them. When I got to Sand point, it was high tide with big waves, and the driftwood logs were being tossed about like matchsticks. The sound of this was awe-inspiring and scary. I took a movie of it with my digital camera, it's pretty cool but didn't really capture the sound. After watching this spectacle for a while, I set up a luxury camp with a two-man, four-season tent, and an 8x10 tarp stretched over a pre-made driftwood table with "recliner" that some industrious person kindly constructed in the best view location. I then proceded to spend the next two full days doing nothing and going nowhere. Oh, I managed to grill a steak and about 20 colossal prawns, and down a six-pack of Heineken on ice over the two days (yes, I hauled in charcoal and ice to last two days!), but that's about it. I saw deer on top of a sea-stack and in my campsite with me, and eagles, and the most incredible skies I've ever seen. Sometimes "mostly cloudy" can be spectacular! Once the dayhikers cleared out Sunday evening, I saw only seven people over the next 48 hours, none of them camped at Sand Point. I kicked the deer off the seastack on Monday evening and watched the sunset from there, truly one of the great places to do so. Monday night was clear, and once the moon set, the stars were amazingly bright. Tuesday morning looked kind of raw, so I toweled off my tent and took it down, and sure enough it started to rain really hard right after that, so I was lucky to still have the tarp covering the table and comfy chair. I waited until high tide at 3 pm to see more waves crash into the driftwood, but the tide wasn't high enough like on Sunday. The hike out went by in just 1 hour and 15 minutes with the lighter pack helping, but also the torrential downpour adding some incentive. The boardwalks were so slippery that I probably would have broken a leg without the Stabilicers, really. More nimble folks could do without them, maybe, but not me. Pictures are posted at nwhikers.net, trip reports section. My first two bag nights of the year, out of many more to come I hope!”

“Nice report. When I was younger my first backpacking trip of the year was always somewhere on the Olympic coast... usually around this time of year or in March.”

“That is one of my most favorite places on the Washington coast. Sounds like you had a great trip. I can see where you were in my mind's eye. I agree with you that those boards are really slippery.”

“Peel and butterfly the prawns, then coat liberally with a mixture of crushed garlic, coarse ground sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and parmesan cheese. Grill over a hot mesquite fire until the outside gets crusty, then consume with an artisan sourdough bread and plenty of good beverage-of-choice. Yummy!”

“I forgot the lemon zest. Add dried lemon peel to the above "coating" ingredients. Sorry.”

“Slug - Sounds like a great way to spend a couple of days at the beach. I'll be sure to get a look at the photos”