Hello Everyone.
I hope you are all having a wonderful September out there. September and October are probably my favorite months of the year, with fall colors and moderate temperatures and when the days are still long enough to get a lot out of. I’ve spent all of this past week since my last newsletter in and around Olympic National Park. I’m headed back into the backcountry tomorrow, so I wanted to get this post done before I take off down the trail. It’s been a spectacular week in the scenery department and I will definitely have plenty of photo editing to do next week, but I’ll give you a preview of those photos along with this post.
When I wrote last week, I was on my way into Olympic and made my first stop at Lake Quinault on the southern end of the park. I enjoyed a couple of lovely short hikes in the rainforest there and a delicious dinner at the Lake Quinault Lodge. The lodge is a classic old park lodge designed by the same architect who did the Inn at Old Faithful in Yellowstone, and while I couldn’t afford to stay there, I could definitely afford dinner and a beer on the veranda. I had a lovely filet of King Salmon in the Roosevelt Dining Room and after the sun went down I sat reading my book by the fire until it was time to fade out into the night.
The following day I headed around the lake to the Wilderness Information Center to chat with the ranger there about my upcoming hikes and to have them print out my backcountry permits for me. They were great and very helpful and had a lovely ranger station in a field in the rainforest. I took a short stroll out to the old Kestler Homestead site nearby before making my way back to the highway and north to the Kalaloch campground along the coast. There I was able to get my backpacking gear out from where I store it under my bed, blow off the dust from not using it for a few years and get it packed and ready for the morning. The only issue I faced was the need to pack a warmer and bulkier sleeping bag than I would have liked which took up a lot of space in my backpack, but it was needed and definitely appreciated during the cold nights on the trail.
This packing process took some time, but I was finishing up in the late afternoon and so I made my way up the coast to Ruby Beach just 15 minutes north of the campground. I was sure happy that I did because not only is it a beautiful beach (it’s been ranked one of the best in the world), but the sunset was also really good that night. I was out there for quite some time, taking photos and enjoying the beach and headed back to camp after dark, where I had a quick dinner and an early night.
I was also up early the next morning and on my way into the heart of the Hoh Rainforest. This is one of the most popular areas of the park and can get really crowded. When the parking lot fills up, they stop letting cars in until it clears up, so I definitely needed to get in early. On the one hour drive north from my campground, I got a beautiful view out to the Destruction Island Lighthouse and I also saw a small heard of Roosevelt Elk in the morning mist. Once in the rainforest, I finished up my preparations for my trek, filled up my water bottles, had a nice filling breakfast which cleared out my fridge before setting off up the trail.
That first day I hiked just over 9 miles to the Olympic Guard Station. It was basically a flat hike with lots of pretty scenery along the way. The first day of carrying a pack is never an easy one after a long hiatus, and this was no exception. My legs felt strong and my cardiovascular system was good, but my shoulders and my back sure felt it. When I arrived, I found a nice flat place for my camp, popped a couple of ibuprofen, set up my tent, filtered some water from the nearby creek and then cooked up my delicious dehydrated dinner. I brought a novel with me to keep myself entertained and enjoyed a quiet evening in camp, reading and enjoying the peace of the backcountry. The sun went down around 7:30 and there wasn’t much to do after that so it was definitely an early night out there.
The following day I was up early as well, but took my time enjoying a hot breakfast before breaking camp and heading up the trail. It was six miles up to my next campground at Elk Lake, and a couple of thousand feet of elevation change along the way. It was challenging, but I made it there in time for a late lunch. I set up my camp and then decided to try and push on up to Glacier Meadows and the end of the trail at the Blue Glacier. I had five hours of daylight and five miles to cover so I thought I would be okay. I could have gone in the morning, but I was afraid I would come back tired and then have to climb back downhill (which is harder for my knees than uphill) six more miles to my camp which wouldn’t be the best idea. It made more sense to push up that evening and then sleep in and make my way back down fresh and rested. It was a tiring climb to Glacier Meadows and when I finally got there, I found no glacier and no meadows. I had set a hard turnaround time for myself to be certain that I was back in camp before dark, and it was nearing that time when I got there. I pushed on hard up the hill towards the glacier, but hit my turnaround time and did just that. By that time, the whole area was clouded in anyway and I didn’t know what the view would have been like, but I made the right decision and started back down. Having seen photos of the view of Blue Glacier and Mount Olympus, I was disappointed I didn’t make it, but not disappointed in my decision. I did get back to camp before dark and that was the safest bet for sure, especially since I was tired after 12 miles of hiking and by that time of the day, I was the only one on the trail. On the way back into Elk Lake, I saw the most spectacular phenomenon though, which almost made up for missing the glacier view. The sun was setting to the west and shining up the Hoh River Valley and underneath the fog. At first glance, it looked terrifyingly like a forest fire, but when I realized it wasn’t (and breathed a sigh of relief) I stood there in awe until the sun was down. It was simply awesome. I headed up to my little campsite, made a quick dinner and collapsed into my tent satisfied with my day and my efforts!
I headed back down the trail the next morning and back out to the Guard Station camp (there’s a seasonal ranger cabin there, closed for the winter at this point), arriving in midafternoon. It was nice to be off the trail a little bit early that day and be able to relax a bit, enjoy the sounds of the rainforest, read my book and have a leisurely dinner in my camp. My guest for dinner was a beautiful 7 inch bright yellow banana slug which I thought was pretty cool and was better company than many.
I packed up in the morning and made my way back to my van. This was my fourth day on the trail and my body was feeling good and I was into the groove of things by that point. It was still a 9 mile hike with a full pack, but it was easier than the walk in and I noticed things I hadn’t when I was busy thinking about my back and shoulders. By the time I was halfway there, I started running into day hikers which was a good feeling and let me know I was going to make it. It was definitely a beautiful and enjoyable four day excursion into the rainforest, but it was also nice to get back to civilization. After I packed my stuff back into my van, I headed to the nearby Bogachiel State Park for a delightfully hot shower and then on to the town of Forks. I stopped for a quick and very cold beer in town and then beat feet west towards the coast as it looked like another beautiful sunset was in the making. I cruised out to Second Beach near La Push, one of my favorites from a previous visit to the area, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. The beach was spectacular and the sunset was pure magic. It was the perfect way to end the day. From there, I headed back to Forks and enjoyed a pizza and another beer before slipping comfortably into my own bed for the night.
Yesterday I spent the morning cleaning up my gear and myself, did some laundry and hit the store to resupply. Forks Outfitters is an absolutely amazing little store for a small town and they had everything I needed and then some, and at surprisingly reasonable prices. Before leaving town, I stopped in to check out the Forks Timber Museum and I’m definitely glad I did. In addition to some very informative displays on the area’s timber industry, there were some wonderful personal accounts of the history of the town and the people who had lived there. It was well worth the time I spent there and I especially enjoyed the old fire tower they had to look at. Apparently during a lightning storm, when you had to be especially vigilant in watching for fire, you were supposed to stand on a wooden stool with glass feet to keep from being electrocuted.
Leaving Forks behind, I made my way north until I ran into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Olympic Peninsula’s northern border and then west and onto the Makah Indian Reservation. My first stop was at the Makah Cultural Center which is a wonderful little museum along the coast. In the 1960s, a big rain uncovered a portion of the old village of Ozette which had apparently been covered by a mudslide over 500 years ago. The mud had preserved everything as it lay, and the site has been called the “Pompey of America”. This museum displayed some of the many artifacts recovered and told their story through the lens of the Makah People. It was awesome to see all of their exhibits and I especially enjoyed the recreated longhouse which really gave a feel for how these people lived 500 years ago.
When I finished with the museum, I continued west along the coast to Cape Flattery, the northwestern most point in the continental United States. There was a beautiful trail there that led the mile from the parking lot to the point, and gorgeous scenery when I arrived. A lot of the trail was along a cedar boardwalk which reminded me of the Ewok village in Return of the Jedi. It was cloudy, but it had been sunny on my backpacking trip and the outlook for this coming week is also good, so I won’t complain about a few clouds on the days in between. While I was out there, I was remembering being down in Key West and the southeastern most point several years ago on this journey, so this was a really cool place for me to be. What a long, strange trip it’s been to get here. The day was starting to wane though, so I headed back into the town for a bit and then continued back to Clallum Bay for the night.
This morning I was up early again and had my breakfast overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The clouds are clearing up as I write this and I expect that when I step outside I will be able to see Vancouver Island across the water on the Canadian side. I’m going to hang out up here for a bit and then make my way back into the park, where I will stay at Sol Duc Campground this evening. Tomorrow morning I will set off on a 3 day, 2 night hike around the Seven Lakes Basin and I’m really looking forward to being back on the trail. The weather is supposed to be cool and sunny and I really hope to be able to see Mount Olympus and the Blue Glacier from the ridgeline there. It will make up for having missed that view last week to some degree. It looks like a beautiful hike and I will definitely tell you all about it next week.
When I get off the trail, I plan on spending another day or so around Olympic and then I will start making my way out of the peninsula and down towards the big cities of Olympia and Tacoma. I should certainly be there by the time I write this newsletter next week, and I hope you’ll come back and see how it all went. Have a wonderful week out there, try and get away from the news cycle for a few days if you can and I hope to see you all back here next week. I’ll have stories from the mountains to share. Thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike