Olympic National Park without a car with Olympic Hiking Company

Lifelong Olympic Peninsula resident Tommy Farris, founder of Olympic Hiking Company, joins Jennie to talk about year round shuttles available to get around Olympic National Park and how to connect those with transit to Seattle and Victoria BC. We also talk about guided hikes and snowshoe trips and Tommy’s favorite trails in Olympic National Park where he grew up.

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Transcript

Jennie Flaming: 0:00

Welcome to The Washington State hiking podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, and I'm your co host, Craig Romano, Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely, seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun and inclusive. Are you curious about how to get around the Olympic Peninsula, or trying to figure out how to do a one way hike, or you just really love the Olympic Peninsula? Well, if any of those things apply to you, you're gonna love today's episode. You Tommy. My guest today is Tommy Farris. Tommy is the founder and owner of the Olympic hiking company, and today we are going to talk with Tommy all about the Olympic Peninsula, everything from how to get to places if you don't have a car or you don't want to deal with driving, all the way up to what some of his favorite places are. Tommy is another born and raised Washingtonian, just like me, and so it is so fun to have him here today. Tommy, welcome to the Washington State hiking podcast.

Tommy: 1:21

Thanks so much. Jennie, I can't wait to talk about trails and the beautiful backyard here in Olympic.

Jennie Flaming: 1:26

Yes, yes, it's so wonderful having you. So to start off, can you introduce yourself a little bit to everyone you know? How did you get to the Olympic Peninsula, and how did you find your way to the work you're doing now?

Tommy: 1:43

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was lucky enough to move to the Olympic Peninsula when I was five years old. My family, my mom and dad and sister, we moved into a small log cabin west of Port Angeles, and little did I know that growing up on 10 acres of forested property near the Strait of Juan de Fuca was such a amazing thing to do when you're five years old. So I had old growth forest and ocean right in my own, you know, backyard. Literally grew up and went to the small town or went to the small school Crescent school in Joyce, it's a K through 12 school. And so my high school graduating class had 15 students. So I ended up making the transition from small town living on the Olympic Peninsula to the University of Washington. So my high school graduating class of 15 turned into a college campus where my first lecture had 700 students in the lecture hall at UW and so that was a great transition. When I was in the peninsula, I grew up playing three sports, and, you know, didn't really do a lot of hiking in my spare time. As a family, we were pretty busy. And so it wasn't until I was actually in college where I really started to realize what an incredible gym I had in Olympic National Park in my backyard. And so for a freshman School Business School project, or freshman year business school project, I had to create a new idea or new business. And so I was shocked that nine out of 10 students I met, that I met at U DUB, had never even been to the Olympic Peninsula, let alone west of Seattle. And so I knew, you know, how beautiful it was with Hurricane ridge and Lake crescent. I knew the big icons, but never did I realize just how incredible of a world class destination we had. So basically, kind of how I ended up getting into working with Olympic hiking company was, it was a college project I couldn't stop working on. I started to solo hike these top rated trails to build a website. And the business concept was, you know, to summarize where to go and how to get to the Olympic Peninsula and the best things to do. And so throughout college, I continue to work on it. And even though I started my career in accounting and finance, I was also on the side, getting a business license, getting my LLC, and just continuing to work on that as a passion project. By the time I got to 2016 I was ready to, kind of make that transition back home, and then eventually started my business. So I moved back in 2014 and started Olympic hiking co in 2016 that involved, you know, to get that started, putting my house on Airbnb and buying a 12 passenger van and going through all the red tape to become commercially authorized with Olympic National Park. And then by that summer, I started offering guided day tours in Olympic National Park. And my most popular tour was a guided trip up to hurricane ridge that lined up with the ferry schedule, with black ball ferry line, so Victoria travelers, for the first time, could be able to, you know, day trip up to hurricane Ridge without a car. And so that was kind of how I got my my first break and marketing package there. Fast forward to where we're at here, ending, ending this season here, we're a team of 20 employees. We provide the same naturalist guided. Tours, but we also provide Trailhead shuttles throughout Olympic National Park. We provide overnight guided backpacking trips, and we're also starting to expand into other areas of Washington state, including Mount Rainier North Cascades. But Olympic is home. It's definitely going to be where the heart of our operation is always going to be, and we are fortunate to serve about 4000 hikers each year. So that's the rapid pace, you know, from growing up here at age five, not knowing how lucky it was to call this place home, to now getting to share that with people that visit here for the first time, or many times.

Jennie Flaming: 5:34

Yeah, that's awesome. And you know, Tommy, one of the reasons after I met you that I was really excited about doing this episode is I so often talk to people, whether they're locals here in Seattle or visitors from around the country or around the world, who are like, wow, I really want to go to the Olympic Peninsula or especially to Olympic National Park, But unless you're going to be just driving a rental car, you know it's so it can be really challenging to figure out how to get around, and so I'm really glad that we're going to talk about that today. So thanks for sharing your story with us. Okay, so let's start with winter, because this episode is going live in winter, in December, and we're recording this in December, so winter is top of mind. So for those of you listening, Olympic hiking company does guided tours, hiking and snowshoeing, and also provides shuttles. And so we're going to talk about both of those, along with, towards the end, some of Tommy's Like, Favorite hikes on the peninsula, even if you are driving. So Tommy, let's start with winter. Can you tell me a little bit about one, the type of tours that you offer in winter, and two, can you tell me a little bit about the winter hurricane Ridge shuttle. Yeah,

Tommy: 7:04

absolutely. You know, winter, for me, I think is one of my favorite times of year, because with Hurricane Ridge staying open, being open on Fridays through Sundays and Monday holidays, that's typically from Thanksgiving to the end of March. You know, most of Olympic really remains accessible, except the soldoc. So for us, we feel like it's such an incredible time to visit the park without the kind of the challenges of that heavy summer visitation. And so up at hurricane Ridge, we're going to be starting our fourth consecutive season of offering our guided snowshoe tours atop hurricane ridge. And these are really designed to be a great like one on one experience for, you know, first time snowshoers or those that are just simply wanting to get a little bit more winter experience with a local guide. We'll cover the basics of how to, you know, outfit your snow shoes, tips for you know, snowshoeing in general, looking at avalanche awareness and what to look out for while doing winter treks. And along with that, our typical naturalist guided inter throughout these areas, really talking about all the incredible wonders of the Olympic Mountains and the geology of the park and just why winter is such an amazing time of year to recreate. In conjunction with that snowshoe tour, we've organized a shuttle service to basically provide a four wheel drive shuttle bus from downtown Port Angeles up to hurricane ridge. And this has been a really great partnership with a local nonprofit that manages this key and snowboard area. And we utilize local lodging tax grant to fund this shuttle, which keeps it affordable. And so basically, if you didn't even want to do our snowshoeing tour with us, you could buy a general ticket for$25 per person, plus your national parks entrance fee if you don't have a park pass. But we really wanted to see winter access at hurricane Ridge improve, because there has been, especially after the pandemic, some really long delays, and the park can only send up the first 150 cars from a parking constraint perspective. So with this four wheel drive shuttle bus, if you're flying in from out of state, or even if you're just coming over from Seattle and don't have a four wheel drive vehicle, you can park at sea level in Port Angeles and kind of make a simpler drive from whether it's SeaTac airport or taking the ferry to Bainbridge and driving over to Port Angeles, repurchase the shuttle ticket and know that you're going to have, you know, safe access to hurricane ridge. The exciting thing is that the park has been a great partner with us, and gives us a guaranteed parking spot up top to where, no matter how long that line is, our shuttle bus will get up and park. And we're able to save at least 15 to 20 spots because we have a 28 passenger capacity on the four wheel drive shuttle bus with our transportation partner. So, long story short, four seasons of doing winter wreck atop hurricane ridge. So whether it's riding our shuttle or riding our doing our snowshoe tour, those will operate on. Saturdays this winter, starting on the 21st of December, and that's going to go all the way through the end of March.

Jennie Flaming: 10:07

Awesome. That's wonderful. And for those of you listening, first of all, if you haven't been to hurricane ridge on a sunny winter day, of course, you don't know in advance it's going to be sunny. But, I mean, I think it's even more stunning than it is in the summer. I mean, it's just so incredible up there.

Tommy: 10:27

Oh, I couldn't agree more. I mean, to be able to see the snow capped Olympic Mountains, to see those glaciers replenished, yeah, you know, where else? You know in Washington State, I know there are some unique places, but to be able to have the Olympic Mountains in your view on one side, and then the Strait of Juan de Fuca on your other. On a clear, sunny day, those blue bird days are incredible. But even if it is snowing, that drizzly rain that you experience in the Puget Sound or Olympic menstrual or lowlands of Washington State turns into this magical fluffy snow, and even if it's a kind of horrendous day down low, generally, we're having a better day up top, because everybody likes snow more than rain.

Jennie Flaming: 11:08

and it's so wild, because, you know that drive is not it takes a while, but it's only like 17 miles to like, go from, you know, a drizzly, gray day to a winter wonderland in that short distance is really pretty amazing.

Tommy: 11:27

Yeah. Our tagline is you go from sea level to ski level and about a 45 minute drive, which is pretty unique, and potential to do that.

Jennie Flaming: 11:40

For those of you listening, one other thing too. I wanted to mention Tommy that I don't think you mentioned. That is particularly challenging for people visiting in rental cars, but also sometimes for locals, is the Park Service chain requirement, and this is a nice way to like not have to deal with that.

Tommy: 12:02

Oh, yeah. I mean, that's a huge thing. I mean, most of our guests that we serve each year are traveling from out of state and renting a car, and a lot of rental car companies will prohibit you to putting on tire chains. And of course, if you live in the lowlands of Western Washington, you're probably not in possession of tire chains, and maybe they're just, you know, you're like, oh, I have to go to Les Schwab and get another set. But yeah, to avoid that requirement that the park does require you to always carry tire chains in your vehicle, and sometimes, yes, to put them on on those extra snowy, icy days. And so, yeah, let us take it, you know, take advantage of being able to be a passenger in a in a four wheel drive shuttle bus with tire chains and with a commercial driver, and be able to look out the window and enjoy all 17 miles of those views versus, you know, gritting your teeth the drive kind of, uh, sometimes those icy roads. And, you know, we we definitely enjoy, you know, being able to drive those roads and have a local driver that is very comfortable in that environment. So definitely being able to avoid the the chains and all of that is definitely another reason why it makes things a little bit more simple.

Jennie Flaming: 13:08

Yeah, absolutely. Anything else we want to talk about with winter before we move on to summer?

Tommy: 13:16

I think I would just say that winter, we do a lot of custom private tours in the winter time. And we also do a half day tour, which is really convenient for those traveling from Seattle if you wanted to make it a day trip. But yeah, just something I would say about winter, and I kind of touched on this a little earlier, just to see the rainforest, and even just, you know, non rainforest like Lake crescent and soldoc, but seeing these areas, you know, so lush and green after getting all this rainfall is just really beautiful. Yeah, I have been personally going to see all the king tides on the coast from a safe distance, you know, on various bluffs. But yeah, going to see the king tides at Rialto beach or at first beach in La Push or even, you know, Ruby Beach. I just think it's a really magical time of year to visit. And, you know, our company is continuing to expand our offerings, you know, throughout the year. And I definitely think that, you know, I think so often people kind of wedge the Olympic Peninsula into the May through September timeframe. But I would just encourage anyone listening if you really want to take an adventure. You know, unlike you know, maybe North Cascades National Park or Mount Rainier, which are so much higher in elevation. You know, much of Olympic remains accessible. So a really great time of year, just to be, you know, wandering through our forest and seeing our coastal you know, you know, coastal areas even on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, like Cape Flattery or salt Creek. So, you know, we operate year round for reason, and we hope that we continue to make Olympic a year round place for all visitors and locals in Washington State.

Jennie Flaming: 14:50

totally awesome. Okay, by the way, I'm gonna put Olympic hiking company, the website in the show notes. So you know, we've talked about, we haven't even gotten to summer yet, but we've talked about all these different options, but you can learn all about the different ways that you can work with them there. So I'll be sure to have it there. All right, we're gonna take a short break, and when we come back, we'll talk about summer. Hi everyone, Jennie here. I hope you're enjoying this episode so far, since it is the holiday season, if you're listening to these episodes in real time, I wanted to let you know that this is a great time to support the podcast. If you're looking for gifts for folks or things for inspiration for yourself in the new year, check out Craig's books. They are all linked in the show notes, all of his amazing hiking guides to Washington. And I also have my weekly newsletter with weekly hiking, hiking inspiration, real time, current weather, current conditions, all of that, as well as my Seattle seasonal hiking Guide, which is digital, and my hike guide planner. So check all of those out. Those are all in the show notes, along with our tip jar. And this is a great time to support the podcast as we head in to 2025 so thanks for listening, and happy holidays. We are back with Tommy Ferris from Olympic hiking company, and we're talking about all the different ways that you can get out and explore the Olympic Peninsula all year round. So we've been talking about winter. We're gonna transition to summer now, so Tommy, can you tell us a little bit about some of the summer shuttles that you operate. So for those of you listening, if you're trying to plan especially a backpacking trip on the Olympic Peninsula and trying to figure out, okay, like, am I gonna where am I gonna put my car? How am I going to get back to my car without Uber or Lyft? You know? How am I going to trade keys with somebody? How is all this going to work? So, Tommy, can you talk about how people can arrange for a shuttle with you to get to different places on the Olympic Peninsula and different hikes. Yeah,

Tommy: 17:24

it's definitely one of my favorite things to talk about, because I feel like every time we have even an untraditional shuttle request, it's like playing a giant game of, you know, just like of chess and moving these pieces around to make it all work. But we take great pride in that of the 4000 hikers we serve, about half of those are backpackers doing through hikes throughout Olympic National Park, awesome, and most of those come on the Olympic wilderness coast. We have a starting April 1, basically a daily shuttle service that's available for all of the Olympic wilderness coast through hikes. So that's including the south coast, which can be third beach to Oil City, either direction, or the North Coast, which would be Rialto to Ozette, or Ozette to Shy, shy, or even doing that full stretch between Rialto and Shy, shy. So we have a shuttle service that kind of basically runs that full route and serves every Trailhead at least once a day. Kind of go in both directions. And hats off to our fork shuttle team. They are doing a daily schedule and usually driving about 300 miles a day. Between our two employees out there. They make a lot of backpackers very happy. Yeah, we kind of, we take ourselves as basically, you know, we're the ski lift on wheels for backpackers, yes, we, you know, basically just say, Hey, Park at where you want to end your hike. So maybe you want to end your hike at Rialto beach, and so park there and at the beginning of your trip. We would take you from Rialto and drop you off at OST at the start of your trip. So that way, when you do that coastal through hike, and you're managing your tides and your campsites with your wilderness permits, you can make your way back to your vehicle with no stress of trying to line it up for a shuttle, which is really convenient.

Jennie Flaming: 19:13

That's really a smart way to think about it. Yeah.

Tommy: 19:15

And sometimes the tides dictate something else. Sometimes people need to start first thing in the morning and they need to arrange their shuttle at the end of their shuttle at the end of their trip. So aside from our drivers running that schedule, our operations team, we're available seven days a week, and we're always answering our phones and emails, and we provide a lot of references and resources. So you know, if you're from you know Nebraska, and you're doing the Olympic wilderness coast for the first time, you might not be as familiar with the tide chart and the certain restrictions that, hey, you can only make this passable section at a certain time per day or a certain window. So we're pointing them out to where to find their tide charts, how to connect with the wilderness Information Center, which is always the best resource for your you know, back country questions and, yep. We kind of feel like we play an important role of just, you know, when you book your summer permits on recreation.gov which typically open on april 15 each summer for May 15 through October 15, window, people are booking those wilderness permits. And then we see a big uptick of people booking their shuttles also on april 15, and kind of lining those things up together, that makes sense. And I would just, you know, to kind of wrap up the talk on shuttles. It's not just the coast. You know, whether you want to do a through hike from soldoc to hoe whether you want to do a through hike from the Elwha all the way down to Quinault or from graves Creek all the way out to the eastern Olympics, either at dosi Wallops or staircase, you name the through hike route, we're generally going to be able to take it on because aside from our, you know, 12 passenger vans, we also have the ability to rent, you know, a four wheel drive truck or SUV to get people in those more remote trail heads and locations. And you know, we hate to say no. We try to always find a way to say yes, because as as of last year, we are the only authorized Trailhead shuttle service in Olympic National Park, and we take that seriously, and we want to help as many hikers as possible.

Jennie Flaming: 21:11

Yeah, that's awesome. So to kind of summarize that you've got a daily scheduled shuttle around the Olympic wilderness, Coast Trail heads, and then beyond that, you can people just contact you to say, like, this is the hike I'm trying to do. Can you help me get there or get back?

Tommy: 21:33

Exactly, yeah. So we have that one van that runs seven days a week, April 1 through about september 30 on the coast, and we try to kind of keep that available and open and as a 10 passenger capacity there. So definitely, as soon as you know you want to book that hike for the permit, definitely book your shuttle as soon as possible. And then, if you're looking at anything else in the park, yeah, we do all the other customer shuttle requests on a on a request basis, so sending a contact form on our website, and then we look at our schedule to see how we can, you know, squeeze that into our schedule. That's why we have such a big team. We really bolster it up in the summertime with a lot of great local employees that either work full time for us or part time. And then that way, on those extra busy days, maybe we have, you know, six shuttles running on the coast, and we have three guided tours out of Port Angeles, and we might have two or three custom shuttles in a given day. So that's why it does take a village for us to make a busy July day happen. Your summary was very accurate. We're always happy to try to help any possible route in the park. Yeah.

Jennie Flaming: 22:39

And you know one thing too, that I was thinking about while you were talking Tommy about, like, figuring out how to make stuff work, I agree with you that that is so fun. You know, I'm usually doing that for folks who are visiting Alaska and who are like, Ah, how can I make this work? But it's so fun to take somebody from like, I really want to make this happen and I can't quite figure it out, to being like, Oh, this is what I could what I do. Like, I can totally help you figure this out. And so I think that's so cool that you can do, you and your team can do that for a part of Washington, that people sometimes get a little overwhelmed by the logistics, and it's really cool to know that there's someone who can be like, You got this, or I got this for you. That's really fun. Love it.

Tommy: 23:32

Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely something that we love to be able to offer that service. And you know, we've even found creative ways of getting people here without a vehicle altogether. So we're always happy to be that that local connection, and for people to kind of get that special personal touch when they're planning a backpacking trip out here.

Jennie Flaming: 23:49

Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, so before we dive into some of your favorite, personal favorite hikes, can you talk a little bit about the guided tours that you offer in the summer,

Tommy: 24:01

absolutely. I mean, this is definitely still the bread and butter of our operation. We hire an incredible team of local naturalist guides that lead incredible tours. And our most popular is our ho rain forest Rialto beach tour. The whole rain forest, as you know, is getting more and more popular each year. But be for the guests to be able to go out with a local guide and be able to have our guide identify all the lichens and mosses and micro plants of the rain forest, talking about the natural history of the area and just how incredible these old growth trees are. I think guests really enjoyed that interpretive experience, especially visiting for the first time. Yes, this is the another area in which you know, being able to not have to worry about the drive and being able to fully enjoy all the scenery on that drive is incredible. So it's a nine hour day tour that departs from Port Angeles at 730 in the morning, and returns are. After a morning in the rainforest, we we visit Rialto beach in the afternoon on the Olympic wilderness coast. And Rialto is one of the few drive up access beaches and Olympic National Parks are really maximizing our guest time to be able to enjoy the Olympic coast. Besides that, we have another great kind of multi destination full day tour where we go to soul Buck falls in the morning. It's a beautiful, short, two mile round trip hike to a gorgeous waterfall. Oh so pretty. It's It's amazing the spring, you know, you might have some snow clinging onto it in March and April as we start, and then as you get into the fall, the salmon might be running up the salmon cascades again. So it's a really beautiful spot year round. But especially, I love spring and fall. We do a quick driving break at Lake crescent, you know, give guests the opportunity to see the lake Crescent lodge for the first time, and then end the day with, you know, summer hiking atop hurricane ridge. So as we get into July and August. That's where, especially in July, the wildflowers are in peak bloom there. And just who can beat sub, you know, sub alpine meadows in the summertime atop hurricane ridge. So that's, those are our two full day tours. And the only other experience that's really popular, and I mentioned it a little bit earlier, was just the the half day tour of Olympic National Park that we offer, which is really designed for for guests, that it lines up with the Seattle Bainbridge ferry. And you can even take the straight shot bus from Bainbridge Island to Port Angeles, and it gets you into the afternoon time slot with us, where you could visit the Elwha river hike to merrima falls at Lake crescent, and end the day at Salt Creek, right on the straight of Juan de Fuca there.

Jennie Flaming: 26:48

salt Creek. Salt Creek is one of my favorite places in Washington

Tommy: 26:53

Which means that you know all about tongue point, and if you get the right tide schedule, one of the best tide pooling area in the peninsula, and it's only 30 minutes from Port, Angeles. So the half day tour is really designed to be this, you know, less drive time, action packed sightseeing and light hiking, for those that are just trying to make it all happen in a short afternoon, or a day trip from Seattle or even Victoria. And so those three kind of main day tours we offer spring, summer and fall are really kind of built around what clients often consider the top destinations of the park. And it's a lot of fun to be able to not only just take these travelers to these wonderful areas, usually for the first time, but really given that deep, immersive experience of just how incredible these places are why it's so important to leave no trace and keep these places wild and hopefully inspire them to do more adventures in other national parks or even Olympic again.

Jennie Flaming: 27:51

Yep, yep. Um, for so listeners, I will also put the link to the strait shot bus in the show notes. So if you're like straight shot, what is that? So it is a bus service that goes multiple times a day, I believe it's three times a day, from the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal to Port Angeles. It also makes a couple of other stops, but the reason it's important is it would allow you to go car free completely from downtown Seattle or from SeaTac Airport, because you could go get take the light rail downtown and go over there. So it allows you to get to Port Angeles, totally car free. So that's a pretty cool option, and I will put that in the show notes. One other thing I wanted to mention because, you know, I have spent a lot of years working as a guide. And, like, this is a really boring thing, but like, parking is such a hassle in some of these places. And so one Ben, in addition to all the things that Tommy mentioned, like having an amazing, knowledgeable local do the driving and and talk to you about where you are and what you're looking at, and take care of all the logistics, but like you don't have to deal with parking, it's such a big deal.

Tommy: 29:23

Yeah, I mean, that's a huge point, because especially in the summertime, in Olympic it's gotten harder and harder to find that parking spot each time. And, you know, it allows us to really maximize that time, dropping off all the guests at the load zone. Give them some time to, you know, check out the visitor center, use the restrooms before getting out on the trail. And the other thing too, especially for you know anyone visiting Olympic for the first time, whether Washington State resident or out of state traveler, international traveler, you'd also don't have to worry about which is the best trail? What's the best viewpoint? Like, where do I get the best photo? Like we are in these places every day. Right? We know where the elk have been. We know where you know certain wildlife sightings have been. You know the wildflowers are best blooming here. And we see these places change on a daily basis, and bring kind of that local Intel each time to really maximize your tour. So whether that's you know, if you're coming in, may we know that, you know, Hurricane Ridge is still under quite a bit of snow from the winter time. So we're going to maximize seeing waterfalls and being able to maximize our time at soldoc and Lake crescent, and just making those slight little adjustments that in addition to parking we know, we're going to prioritize our time on these specific trails on a given day, and it changes seven days a week based on the weather and all the other factors. Yep,

Jennie Flaming: 30:44

absolutely okay. Tommy, so I want to know, and I know everyone listening does too, what are some of your personal favorite hikes in Olympic National Park and why? Oh,

Tommy: 30:57

I mean, it's a perfect time to tell you that going into overnight backpacking trips for me is where my heart lies, and I have a personal goal to hike all back country mileage in Olympic National Park. So there's 611, miles of total trail in the park. It's going to be quite the adventure. But for me, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's definitely going to be an ambitious goal, and I have one of my best friends is stupid enough to try to join me on this quest.

Jennie Flaming: 31:29

Yes, it's important to have a friend like that who will join you for your crazy

Tommy: 31:35

Absolutely. Yeah, definitely, for a lot of reasons and safety, of course. But then, of course, just having someone to talk to after, you know, beating up your legs for 12 miles on the trail, right? But, yeah. But for me, hiking in the interior, through through the Olympic Mountains, is really where I find a lot of joy. I grew up in the really lush forest of the Olympic Peninsula surrounded by ocean and beautiful trees and ferns. And so I love my waterfall hikes and rainforest hikes, but for me, when I can really get deep in the wilderness and the interior of the Olympic Mountains, doing big through hikes, hopefully conquering new mileage each each year, that's kind of where my heart lies. And so you'll often find me starting hikes out of the obstruction point Trailhead or deer park, or hiking in from Quinault, or Dosewallips to get into these different interior sections. You know, of course, anytime you're hiking near the seven Lakes Basin, near the soul duck, or going towards blue glacier on the Hoh River Trail. Those are some memorable adventures I've had. Was fortunate enough to join a mountaineering trip up to Mount Olympus, which was absolutely incredible cool. But for me, end of year, September backpacking trip, once those pesky bugs have died out a little bit more and the right the nighttime tips are a little bit cooler. Hiking in those interior routes is definitely where I find the most joy, personally in my own adventures

Jennie Flaming: 33:07

That's awesome. Love it. Yeah, and by the way, listeners, we do have a couple other episodes where we went in depth into Olympic National Park as well. One of them was, well, both of them were back in August. So episode 25 Craig and I talked about some of our favorite hikes on in Olympic National Park and on the Olympic Peninsula. And then episode 26 which was the one right after that, was about visiting hurricane ridge with the summer shuttle that's provided by plowing transit. So if you're enjoying this episode and these ideas that Tommy has shared, those are a couple episodes to go back to to get even more. Okay, Tommy, before we wrap up, I would love to know if you have any like must visit restaurants or breweries or anything like that on on the Olympic Peninsula or in the in the Port Angeles area, let's say,

Tommy: 34:19

wow. That's again, I could be an episode all to itself. It could. Yeah, I'll try to keep it brief for the highlights. But it's amazing to be able to, you know, in the day of hiking in Port Angeles, and be able to dine in the downtown waterfront district there. So yeah, whether that's next door, Gaster pubs quite popular. Being able to start your day, even going to Grayson's for a breakfast burrito or a lunch is a great thing in our building, at the port angels Wharf, Silver Linings cafe, the coffee shop in our building opens at 630 The morning, which is very convenient if you're trying to get an early start. So that's a go to for all of our clients. Another post hike treat would be going to wellies the ice cream shop also in the port, Angeles Wharf, which is a New Zealand style fruit based ice cream, which is really tasty. Yeah. My my brain will be bouncing around because now I'm thinking about ice cream, which means Granny's Cafe has to be talked about with their soft serve and a must stop if you're coming back home from Lake Crescent or on your way there on a hot summer day, of course, they have lots of great, you know, meals too, for tasty burgers or even other fun desserts. I was out at La Push, and I'm always trying to find places that you know, maybe you wouldn't think of because you're in these, you know, beautiful remote areas, but the rivers edge restaurant in La Push just reopened, and you are literally on the water looking at some of the massive sea stacks in La Push, and that was one of my favorite spots to grab a bite after looking at those king tides recently, and so that that was another great spot. Yes,

Jennie Flaming: 36:08

I agree with you about that. I think that is a place not many people know about, but it's awesome. I totally agree, yeah. And

Tommy: 36:19

right nearby is the Quileute Oceanside resort. And again, if you're into stormwatching and you want a cozy cabin in the wintertime, like, what an amazing place to stay, right on the Pacific Ocean there. And, yeah, get to see, you know, so much history of the Quileute tribe as well that's showcased in the rooms and things like that. Yeah. But yeah. I mean, I could, I could keep Rowling off a lot, but thankfully, you know, we're really blessed something like the peninsula with a lot of great dining. And I guess one other plug I'd love to give would be country air natural foods in Delhi. It's our locally owned grocery store right in downtown port, Angeles, and awesome. That's actually our proud provider of all of our picnic lunches and the sandwiches that we curate for all of our guided day tours. And so if you're looking for a fresh smoothie or a grab and go sandwich and or even just groceries, if you're staying in the Airbnb in Port Angeles, a great local grocery store with awesome locally sourced vegetables and produce and things like that. So definitely stop there. And if you're going through forks, forks outfitters is a one stop shop for everything, your grocery store, outdoor hardware store, you name it. And of course, that's you know, going to be easier to see along the way, since it's, you know, so clear as you're going to one on one, but definitely, you know, give yourself if you thought you're going to spend five minutes in there, might as well round it up to about 20 minutes, because it's going to be a lot to to shop for. And, yeah, great, great business over there in Forks.

Jennie Flaming: 37:55

Love it. Those are wonderful tips. Well, Tommy, thank you so much for joining me today and talking about all these wonderful places on the Olympic Peninsula.

Tommy: 38:09

You're welcome. Jennie, it's a pleasure to be on and I would love to chat with you again, and thanks for all that you do to share the wonders of this beautiful state.

Jennie Flaming: 38:17

Well, you're welcome. Thanks again. Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Washington State hiking podcast.

craig: 38:27

do you have questions for Jennie and I to answer in future episodes? If so, the link right below the tip jar lets you leave a voice memo for us. We'd love to hear from you.

Jennie Flaming: 38:35

And if you are enjoying this ad free podcast, please help support it by contributing to our tip jar. You don't need an account, and there's no commitment. It's the first link in the show notes. We also have links in the show notes to our work, both Craig's books, my website. If you would like to support us further, hey, again. Thanks again for joining us, and we look forward.