This morning, I woke up at about 6AM with the intention of visiting the International District before meeting Omer, Chloe, and Theresa at the airport rental car pickup building. Unfortunately, I boarded the wrong bus and ended up at Redmond, WA instead. By the time, I started heading to the airport I didn’t have time to stop in the International District anymore. Instead, I met the group at the rental car building, we rented the car, and began driving to Olympic National Park.
Here is some information about each of the group members:
- Omer Peretz (https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/omer-peretz)
- Omer was born and raised in Israel (spent 8 years of his childhood living in the US) and currently lives near Tel Aviv
- Omer completed his army service last year and is currently working as a birthright security guard/medic
- He has been traveling for a few months and has visited Thailand, South America, and the west coast of the United States
- Omer’s book recommendation: The important things in truth (in hebrew)
- Chloe Smyth (https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/chloe-smyth-1)
- Chloe currently resides in Brisbane, Australia, and was raised in the UK, Scotland, and Australia
- She has been working in interior design and has taken a few months off to travel the world, eventually planning on ending up in Vancouver and spending a few weeks here
- Chloe’s book recommendation: Siddhartha (audiobook)
- Chloe’s music recommendation: Kygo’s remixes
- Theresa Li (https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/resilein)
- Born and raised on a rural farm in Austria
- Spent 6 months studying abroad in Houston, TX
- Spent the last couple of months traveling through South America and the West Coast
- Theresa’s book recommendation: Clockwork Orange
- Theresa’s? music recommendation: Matavenados
The drive to Olympic National Park took about 4 hours. On the way, we stopped at Walmart at Jimmy John’s, eventually arriving at the Visitors center around 4PM. At the visitor’s center, we decided to hike a loop consisting of the Lake Angeles Trail and Heather Park Trail. The plan for the hike would be as follows:
- Day 1: Hike from the trailhead to Lake Angeles (approximately 4 miles)
- Day 2: Hike from Lake Angeles to Heather Park (approximately 5 miles)
- Day 3: Hike from Heather Park to trailhead (approximately 4 miles)
The first four miles of the hike steeply ascended about 2,000 feet through lush green rainforests. After about 4 hours, we arrived at Lake Angeles, an Alpine Lake surrounded by higher land in all four directions. There were a few campsites along the edge of the lake, which were mostly occupied. Luckily, we found a nice spot a minute down the trail where we camped for the night.
