The next day, I spotted seals swimming past my beach, and a bald eagle was patrolling the cove from the sky above.
I left early in the morning to continue my loop of the Peninsula, stopping briefly at the Olympic National Park visitor center, where I looked over maps of the park while surrounded by bear canisters, which the park lends to backpackers and climbers for a nominal donation.
I made a final stop in Port Townsend to fill up on fresh seafood before the long drive south, and then cruised down the rainy, winding east side of the peninsula back to Portland with an expanded knowledge of the region I call home.
—The Rubber Tramp Jeff Kish writes a weekly column on a laptop aboard the customized Ford Econoline in which he lives. You can catch up on Kish’s past stories: The Rubber Tramp Diary, Entry One, and his back story about shuttling through-hikers on the PCT.
