Manifest Part 6 (Finale)
Chapter 20: Back in Forks
Our camry had about 1/5 of tank of gas left and the closest town was none other than our beloved Forks. We headed back into town, and once again, the only place that was accommodating was that trusty Circle K that nourished us just 72 hours earlier.
At this point, we were mega-dehydrated and exhausted. What better than to gorge on a bunch of cheap ultra high calorie junk food? I bought the same breakfast sandwiches as last time, a big bag of chips, a gatorade, and a 44oz big gulp. I can say after drinking the entirety of a big gulp in about 20 minutes why certain states wanted to ban the beverage. If we consider that the daily sugar intake should be around 36 grams, I had just 4x'ed that with a single 79 cent beverage. Even after hiking 18 miles with a pack on, I'm pretty sure I broke even in calories, or maybe even exceeded what I had burned. I knew I was actively putting garbage into my body, but it didn't matter. Junk food already tastes good on its own, and it tasted even better after the hike. For about 15 minutes, my stomach just churned and growled, and I thought I was going to be sick, but somehow I felt great afterwards. I guess my body needed all of the nutrients it could get its hands on.
The most memorable gas station in the world for me is probably the Forks Circle K. Despite providing me with the most delicious food ever, there's a funny story that occured in the Circle K. Basically, there was this tweaker that was walking around the gas station. He mumbles something to Sam, but he was too invested in looking at the macronutrients of the refrigerated jalapeno burger. Nick was casually browsing the aisles when the tweaker yells, "I'm going to kill you. You are going to be so dead," and then immediately proceeds to growl and snarl at Nick. The cashier lady gets up, raises her voice, and yells at the tweaker to leave the building. She then checks in on the customers in the store, ensuring that we were safe. So basically, this Circle K has great food choices, and has a staff that protects its customers. I made sure to leave a great review on Google.
Chapter 21: Nowhere to Sleep
Originally, we were supposed to sleep at Olympus Guard Station that night, but that of course didn't happen because we were already outside of the park. Nick quickly searched for campsite permits along the western coast of Washington, but they were all booked. The Fourth of July weekend crowds were in full effect by now. Having no choice, we took a gamble and drove into a random campsite along the beach. We drove around for a bit, but every parking spot was filled with tents and cars. As we were driving out, some old guy came up to our car and asked if he could help us. We informed him that we were looking for a place to stay that night, and he directed us towards this ranger station road that leads back up to Olympic. The place didn't have an address, so I entered coordinates and gave verbal instructions to Jeff as for getting there.
We made this sketchy turn down this pretty narrow road. At this point, it was around 11PM, and we were pretty delirious. At first, there were no cars anywhere on the road, and we got pretty psyched out. We were in the middle of nowhere, and there were no cars, and some random old guy just told us to drive up this random road. But after about a mile, we saw a few pullouts with some cars. We asked them what they were doing, and they just said they were setting up camp for the night. This gave us the reassurance to spend the night on this road. We continued about two miles down the ranger road until we got a pullout large enough to accomodate the Camry and our tent.
Nick, Sam, and I quickly set up the tent and got comfy. Jeff was insistent on sleeping in the car that night for some reason, so the tent was super spacious that night. I was a little alert when initially falling asleep, but we didn't put the rain cover on that night, which mean an open view of the night sky above. I fall asleep peacefully to the silhouette of the surrounding trees and the glistening stars.
Chapter 22: Olympic Coast Again
Nick and I woke up at around 5:30, made eye-contact, and the immediately fell back asleep. This was probably the most romantic thing I've done this year. The three of us in the tent woke up about three hours later. Jeff had been up since 5:00AM because he needed to train for his half-ironman in two weeks.
We headed to the beach, excited to check out the tidepools at low tide. I continued to limp around due to the large blisters on the bottom of my foot.
Once we got to the tidepools, we walked around and explored the area for a good bit. Sam would slip on the rocks a few times and fall into the water. The area was covered in muscles, ascidians, barnacles, and starfish. We ventured onto these rocks that jutted pretty far out from the shore, and noticed some otters frolicking in the water. I tried to capture them on my camera, but my lens didn't quite have the zoom. We explored for a bit more before beginning our drive to Seattle drop off Nick at the airport. The Manifest journey was coming to an end.
Chapter 23: Manifest Ending
The drive back to Seattle wasn't too eventful. We stopped at a McDonald's along the way continuing our junk food streak. Once we got to Seattle, we had a bit more time to kill before dropping Nick off. The city was surprisingly hot and we got sick of it pretty quickly. We headed back south towards SETAC, and the Manifest team lost its first member. Sam's flight departed about three hours later. In the meantime, Jeff, Sam, and I grabbed one final dinner before returning the trusty white Camry at the airport.
Funny enough, Jeff's flight didn't depart until the next evening. He got to the airport so early that he couldn't even get through security because there's a 24 hour limit before departure time. Eventually, we all got inside the airport and waved Sam off before he departed on his flight back to New Haven.
It was just the varsity squad, me and Jeff. My flight departed at around 7AM the next morning which meant that we were going to spend the night at the airport. For some reason, Jeff was super excited about spending 24 hours straight at the airport. In retrospect, he said he lost his mind a number of times, but shoutout to him because he is a trooper for real.
Having nothing to do, Jeff and I bummed around the airport before finding a random corner to fall asleep in. Jeff brought out his trusty 50 degree rating sleeping bag, and I just slapped on a down jacket. We fell asleep rather quickly. The two of us made sure to set like 15 alarms to make sure I didn't miss my flight. Luckily, the ground wasn't comfortable enough for me to get that deep of a sleep, so I was awake well before my departure time.
Jeff and I walked to my gate. I couldn't tell if that nine day trip had been nine hours or nine months, but that was that. We gave each other a hug, and I told him, "I'll see you in the fall." On the plane, I thought of a Chinese saying my mom had taught me a while back: "天下没有不散的筵席"– there is no never ending feast.
Epilogue: Reflections
If you've made it this far, I'm afraid to say this really is the end of the "Manifest" journey. Before finishing this series, I wanted to wrap up with some reflections and insights that this short little adventure with my friends has given me.
From the rest of my blog, you've probably seen that I've been blessed with plenty of opportunities to travel, and this was no exception. However, at the end of the day, the people and your mindset matter infinitely more to crafting a positive experience than the destination or resources you have to expend. This was a relatively low-budget trip secured by a few college students trying to have a good time. We slept in tents (and the Camry for Jeff) for a majority of the nights and primarily ate Costco brand and fast food. Even though I never want to see Kraft Mac N Cheese ever again, I enjoyed every second of cooking it and eating it because I was bantering with my friends. I included specific snapshots about the Manifest team trying to tie a bear sack, grubbing on food in the Circle K, wearing In N Out hats for no reason, and enjoying the views of the Blue Glacier because it was this shared experience that made this trip so valuable.
And so, the Manifest journey comes to an end. Thank you for following this personal adventure with some of my closest friends. I hope this story inspires a sense of wanderlust and encourages you to create your own "Manifest" story.
Best,
Cory Fan
