Olympic Coast

All of this warm Bellingham weather prompted Ian and I to throw together our backpacking gear and head to the coast.  We opted for a short hike out to Yellow Banks.  A few years ago we hiked a long stretch of the Olympic Coast during spring break and I noted on the map that there was a great campsite and "beautiful, sandy beaches" at Yellow Banks.  Sounds nice!  So we headed out with Abel.

It should be noted that the drive to Lake Ozette is not for those who don't enjoy car rides, or those who are troubled by car sicknesses!  Abel and I both fall squarely into those camps.  We arrived, albeit somewhat worse for the wear at the Lost Resort on Thursday night.  The plan was to spend the night at the "resort" and start hiking Friday.  The resort was "rustic", I promptly locked the key in the cabin, and it turns out they were doing some plumbing work that they'd failed to mention!  We worked all of the above issues out and managed to get back into the cabin before dark.

The hike out to Yellow Banks was pretty quick, only 5 miles and most of it was on a board walk.  Abel loved every minute of it, so much so that he really didn't want to sleep in the pack!  Hilarious.  We did more scouting for a nice site than we thought we would, turns out the beautiful site I noted is great for grown-ups but a little sketchy for little folks.  In the end we stayed at the "not baby friendly" site and it totally worked out.  We just spent most of our time on the beach!
We've decided that backpacking with toddlers is more work than backpacking with infants.  We've also realized that it's all about preparation.  So before our next trip Abel is going to try out his sleeping set-up and we're actually going to use the checklist I created last year so I don't forget my insoles!  I should also mention that Ian finally found the perfect, lightweight backcountry flask, a plastic baby bottle.