Liz got spanked!
Elwha, Washington
Went for our morning walk and found the jackpot of wild black berries at the campground; they were easy to access on the other side of a short wooden fence, so we were surprised they hadn’t been picked over
Went to the Colville bike trails and rode a mix of green and blue; there were a few fun turns, but we didn’t gain much speed and our hard tail bikes made it harder to ride as we felt every rock and tree root beneath us
Went back to camp for lunch and sought out a trail where we could take Oslo, since very limited in the national park (we’ve found that more of the U.S. parks limit or prohibit dogs on trails compared to the Canadian parks); we opted to skip the long trek to the Olympic hot springs, since the road leading to the trailhead was closed and would have been a 19 mile round trip on the bikes and on foot
We decided to head over to Crescent Lake and take the Spruce Railroad trail; it was nicely paved with lots of bikers and hikers; we stopped off so Oslo could swim (he missed the fresh water lakes after swimming in the ocean around a Tofino for the last week); we walked through the tunnel that was nearly pitch black and made our way to Devil’s Punchbowl to cliff jump; there were small groups of people hanging around the shoreline and bridge; a boy climbed up and did a gainer off the top, making it look effortless; several others encouraged us as we got ready, mentioning “it wasn’t that bad” - looking back, it was poor expectation setting; I opted to go first, climbed up to the top at 50 feet above the water and psyched myself out; I stood up there for a few minutes and internally questioned my life choices; I jumped and somehow fell into a seated position with my legs bent, smacked the water with the back of my legs and butt and instantly felt the searing pain mixed with the shock of the cold water; I made it over to the exit point where Matt had to help me out and I sat down on the bridge to get my bearings as the pain sunk in and my legs turned several shades of red and purple; Matt was up, climbed to the top and only spent 30 seconds at the top before jumping in; his jump was a 10/10, keeping his body in a pencil position and the onlookers applauded; after the jumping was done, Oslo kept himself occupied by repeatedly letting the ball slip off the rocky edge and into the water, jumping in to retrieve it; he met Sugar, a hyper cream colored golden retriever and they dove in one after the other
We slowly walked back to the truck and headed back to camp, made burgers for dinner and watched Bill Burr’s latest Netflix special at the Red Rocks Amphitheater
Campground: Elwha Dam RV Park
