Camp is all packed up today for the trip back to Seattle. One the way back I'm going to
stop off at Dungeness Spit to check out the light house. I've seen a few pictures and it
looks worth checking out.
Turmoil at Dungeness Spit
I may end up remembering this as the stupidest thing I did on this trip. When I got to
the Spit, I looked at the map and talked with the Ranger. I discovered that the light
house was a five mile hike, 0.5 down a step hill and 4.5 along a beach. I was told that it
would probably take me 5.5 hrs round trip. Also, about 3 hours from now there was an 8
foot high tide and I would probably have to cross above the water line where the driftwood
was (i.e. huge dead trees). It sounded like an Ok hike albeit farther than I have gone in
a while and about 5 times farther than I have ever carried my 35 lb. large format camera.
But I really wanted to go. I knew that it being that far of a hike meant that there
probably wasn't many 4x5 large format pictures of the place. To give you some idea
of the scale of this, here's a map.
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From the little car to the little camera, it's a 5 mile walk, down a
steep hill and across a sand ad pebble beach.
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I decided to make it to the first view point about 0.5 mile away and decide whether or
not to go from there.
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The light house is so far out you cannot even see it here. In
real-life, it's a little white dot.
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So I decided that I had to go. It didn't really seem all that far. So I decided that I
would stop and rest ever mile and decide whether to go on or not. In retrospective, I
learned that I am a poor judge of distance.
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This is the 3 mile marker.
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This is how much further the light house is.
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At the 3 mile marker, I'm tired but still doing really well. However, I just realized
that I forgot the sun block back in the car. I'm averaging 3 miles per hour, including the
rest time (about 5 minutes ever mile). The camera pack feels a lot heavier than 35 lbs.
though...
It only took me about 2.5 hrs to get here, a little faster than I had thought it would
take. I am pretty tired but eager to take pictures. For the last 2 miles, being able to
see the light house really kept me going.
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What you see when you first get there.
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Back side of the light house. It's a really great picture place.
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After taking several pictures, I decide to go on the tour and go to the top of the
light house. After this I took a little rest before I headed back. All in all I was
here about 40 minutes.
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Looking back the way I came. That little bit of tree line on the left
side is where I started from.
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I don't have any pictures of the way back. Needless to say, it was very tough walk
back. The ground is so flat that you can't tell how much further you have to go. If it
wasn't for the mile markers, I'd have had no idea. Even with these every mile seems longer
and longer. I'm down to about 2 miles an hour now with a 15 minute rest ever mile or so.
The tide is really high and the beach logs are hard to navigate in places. And when there
aren't any beach logs, you have to walk on medium size smooth rocks. It just zaps all the
energy out of you. Did I mention that I also forgot the food in the car? (I had plenty of
water though).
By the third mile back I'm beginning to realize that ~6 mile is probably the farthest I
really want to try and go in the future. Unfortunately, I've already gone 8 and still have
2.5 miles to go, the last 0.5 uphill. I was starting to get nervous about that last half
mile. It was a pretty steep hill. For the last 2 mile I was able to walk right along the
water line on the firm, wet sand. Except for the odd 4-5ft wave that would come
along, I stayed mostly dry.
Was it all worth it?
I ended up making it back to the car around 8:15pm, roughly 7 hours from when I left. I
saw that same ranger when I got back. She was wondering if I was coming back or not. That
last 0.5 mile up the hill was as bad as I had thought it would be. I did feel some sort of
a sense of accomplishment in having made the trip, all ~10-11 miles of it. I was
really glad to see the car though. I rested for awhile, got something to eat and then
started the drive back to Seattle.
8/10/98 - I dropped off the film today from this trip. The pictures I
got back from the Dungeness light house are probably some of the best pictures I have ever
taken. The color slide I have is the best color picture I have ever taken in my life,
large format or otherwise. Also, it is probably the best picture I have ever seen of the
Dungeness light house and certainly one of the few large format pictures ever taken of
this place. I am really glad I went there.
