Colin's PNW40 Birthday Adventure

On May 10, I received a cryptic map in the mail.

This mysterious correspondence was the beginning of my friend Colin's meticulously planned 40th birthday adventure. Now a resident of Olympia, Washington, Colin was facing down the 40-year milestone, so invited three of his friends, all also turning 40 this year, to join him in an exploration of the wilds of the Olympic Peninsula.

Now, avid readers of this blog (there are none) would know that Colin and I have had a few adventures before, the most recent an almost-disaster on the slopes of Mt. San Gorgonio. Apparently, Brian and Adam had also had their run-ins with Colin's adventurous side, so we were as prepared as we could be for what Colin had in store for us.

I flew to Seattle on the weekend between my paternity leave and my return to Honduras. Colin picked us up and drove us down to Olympia, where Colin treated us to special 40th birthday home brew and Valerie navigated our fortunes with mystery witch cards.

The next morning we set out on a sailboat that Colin and his sister had recently purchased for what was technically the newly christened boat's maiden voyage. Luckily, Brian has been sailing down in the bay area and he added expertise and confidence to Colin's captaining of the ship. We had successes in tacking the boat, sailing it to Hope Island in the southern Puget Sound, and hiking around it.

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We had less than success in operating the dinghy's temperamental motor, not getting sunburned, hooking the docking buoy, and keeping up with the boat after jumping off. I also drew first blood in my dangerous job of quartermaster, keeping the team plied with snacks and drinks.

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We slept on the boat that night, motored back to the harbor the next morning, and after a quick taco lunch reset, drove up to Olympic National Park. Colin surprised us with a pit stop at the Hardware Distillery Company, where the proprietor seemed to enjoy pouring us tasters of pretty much every single liquor he had distilled. We also stopped at the beautiful Crescent Lake for a quick dip.

That evening, we stayed in a yurt in the Sol Duc Rainforest Retreat, which was filled with wooden gnomes and was absolutely charming.

The next morning, we set out on the backpacking portion of our trip, hiking about 13 miles from the Madison Creek Falls trailhead to the Boulder Creek campground. We also visited nearby Olympic Hot Springs. I came down with some kind of sickness as we pulled into camp, so I went to bed early while the other guys played Settlers of Catan.

Waking up to another beautiful blue sky day, we backpacked back down the mountain and drove to an AirBnB in Port Townsend, where we enjoyed warm showers, a home cooked meal by yours truly, and beers at the Pour House.

On our last day, we kayaked in Lake Cushman (yes, we sure did end up doing a lot of things!), had a yummy Mexican food lunch at Puerto de los Angeles, unpacked/packed, and headed for the airport.

I really appreciate Colin's sense of adventure, which is very similar to my own. He showed us so many beautiful aspects of this wonderful corner of the world and I will definitely be back. Happy birthday, Colin! Happy birthday to us all!