To paraphrase a favorite quote: "The bugs were angry that day my friend..." Went up with a bunch of good friends to Hurricane Ridge out on the Olympic Peninsula for a day trip and what turned out to be the most intense and beautiful sunset we could have ever hoped for.

The Olympic Mountains from Hurricane Hill summit

The clouds broke apart as we drove up the winding road, making our way to the Visitor Center (where a deer was taking shelter from the bugs and heat under a tree) and made our way onward to the trailhead for Hurricane Hill. What started out as a few mosquitos quickly began to blossom into swarms, and though coated with copious amounts of bugspray, it didn't deter them much, and the breeze was insufficient to force them away. At one point, Erika donned her raingear to cover up, and I was running up and down the hill taking shots and then running back to take shots from a spot I'd run from to get away from the bugs. Rakesh's solution was to douse himself in even more bugspray, and this seemed to work well until the very end when the sun was setting and nothing was detering those little bastards!!

All in all, the bugs made this hell for a hike, but because of that we made really good time both up and down, saw some deer rapidly trying to escape the mosquito hordes, and Ptarmigans bathing in dirt to keep them off. And of course, the sunset in the end was practically to die for, so it all worked out, and a few dozen bug bites later... I am still glad we went! More photos to follow later when I've had time to sort them all!