Olympic NP, Aug. 8-13

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vibramhead
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Olympic NP, Aug. 8-13

Post by vibramhead » August 19th, 2014, 8:59 pm

Olympic National Park is huge. At nearly a million acres (95% of which is designated wilderness), it's almost twice the size as North Cascades NP and more than three times the size of Mt. Rainier NP. Not a single road traverses it, and only the Hurricane Ridge road penetrates it any distance. So, planning a backpack there, even for a week, requires winnowing through many fine options. Fortunately, it's hard to go wrong.

I opted for an 83-mile route starting at the southwest corner of the park, on the wet, windward side. I started at Graves Creek trailhead on the East Fork Quinault River, hiked up the Enchanted Valley Trail, over Anderson Pass to the leeward side of the park, down West Fork Dosewallips River, up the main Dosewallips, over Hayden Pass, down to the Elwha River, up the Elwha to Low Divide, and down the North Fork Quinault River. Here's an overview of the route:

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It's a 4 hour drive from Portland to Graves Creek traihead. I left Portland at 8 a.m., stopped at the South Shore Ranger Station for my backcountry permit, and got on the trail by 12:30. My pack weighed 35 pounds, including a week's worth of food in a bear canister. The weather was perfect: blue skies and about 60 F. I encountered hardly any bugs, that day and for the rest of the trip.

Here's the trailhead:

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The Enchanted Valley Trail is one of the park's most popular backpacking routes. It goes through a lush rainforest, interspersed with lovely meadows, and it's not very demanding for the first 15 miles, gaining only about 1200 feet over that distance.

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The first day, I walked about 10.5 miles to Pyrites Creek Camp, passing several groups of hikers on their way out or camped along the way. The trail was in good shape, clear of blowdown. Pyrites is a nice place to camp. There are tent sites scattered along both sides of the creek, and bear wires on both sides. One party was camped on the west side, so I chose the east side, which was nicer anyway. The temperature only dropped to about 50 that night, and all the following nights, even up high, were similarly balmy.

The next morning, I continued up the East Fork Quinault toward the Enchanted Valley, and had my big wildlife sighting of the trip: A black bear with a cub. The mother looked at me, but seemed unperturbed. She'd seen my kind before, and she ambled off in no great hurry. Here are some rather murky photos of the two:

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Shortly before reaching the Chalet, the trail crosses the river on this bridge:

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Then, 13.5 miles from the trailhead, you reach the much-loved, and presently-fretted-over, Enchanted Valley Chalet:

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It was built in 1930 as a backcountry lodge, before the park was established, and it's served as a ranger station for the past several years. But now, because the river is doing what all rivers do, which is meandering around its flood plain, the bank has eroded to the point where the Chalet is teetering on the brink. Now it’s shuttered tight. In a few weeks, a contractor for the Park Service will move it back 50 to 100 feet, giving everyone a little breathing room to decide the Chalet’s long-term fate.

The meadows around the Chalet are chock full of tent sites; I must have seen at least a dozen parties camped there. This is where most backpackers turn around. I kept hiking up the valley, and saw hardly anyone for the rest of the day. In another mile or so, a sign identified this tree as the Largest Recorded Western Hemlock:

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Frankly, while it’s a very nice tree, there’s nothing obvious that stands out about it. From here, the trail begins to climb in earnest towards Anderson Pass. While the route remains mostly forested, the views open up here and there:

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Once you pass the Chalet, blowdown becomes more frequent along the trail, but it's wasn't a major issue. At 4500 feet, Anderson Pass is 2500 feet above the Chalet, but it still doesn't quite break timberline, so it's forested and there isn't much of a view. There is, however, a little pond on the pass that was bubbling with fat tadpoles. From the pass, a short spur trail leads north and up 1500 feet to the Anderson Glacier. I still had a lot of miles to cover, so I opted out of the side trip.

Continuing east from the pass, I dropped into the West Fork Dosewallips valley, and shortly got a view to the south of Mt. La Crosse:

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After hiking through Honeymoon Meadows, Diamond Meadows, and several miles of drier leeward-side forest, I camped Saturday night at Big Timber Camp, about 16.5 miles from where I started that morning. It was a nice site by the river with multiple tent sites and a bear wire. One other party was camped there, but there was ample room between us.

Sunday, I continued down the valley, crossing the river twice on good bridges. Here's the West Fork from the second bridge:

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At Dose Forks (pronounced "Dosie"), I hung a left onto the Dosewallips Trail and began the long climb up the valley of the main fork of the Dosewallips River. The Forks are at 1700 feet, and I was headed for Dose Meadows Camp, at 4400 feet. Sunday was much warmer, climbing to the mid-80s by afternoon. When the trail was in the trees, this wasn't an issue, but as I gained elevation and hiked through a series of meadows exposed to the full sun, it got pretty hot.

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The trail stays high above the river most of the way, but it crosses numerous creeks, so I never had to carry much water. I saw a few other hikers along this trail, but once I passed the junction for the Gray Wolf Pass Trail, I saw no one. Once I hit the meadows, the ground became riddled with Olympic marmot burrows. The trail was so honeycombed with them in places that it felt like walking on a big block of Swiss cheese, so I really had to watch my step.

Fun marmot fact #1: In 2009, thanks to lobbying by some determined school kids, the Washington Legislature named the Olympic marmot the state’s official endemic mammal.

Fun marmot fact #2: “When greeting each other, these very sociable animals will usually touch noses or nose to cheek; in courtship rituals they may inter-lock teeth and nibble each other's ears and necks.”

Despite all the burrows, I only saw one marmot, but I heard the shrill whistles of several more.

I reached Dose Meadows Camp, 15 miles from my last camp, at about 5. It's a lovely spot, with two bear wires and several tent sites scattered among the trees along the margins of the meadows:

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That night, as the evening darkened, I heard coyotes yipping. I think they were raving about the fine marmot dinner that they'd shared that night. Coyotes aren’t native to the Olympics, but they’re abundant now, and they’re a major marmot predator.

Monday morning, I got going early to get all my elevation in before the day heated up. It was another 1400 feet from Dose Meadows to the top of Hayden Pass, which is 5800 feet. On the way up, I saw a doe and a fawn:

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Approaching the pass:

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I made the top by 9 a.m., and it was the high point of the trip, both in elevation and scenery. Here’s a view southeast with Sentinel Peak on the right:

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And here’s the view northeast, looking back down the Dose Valley:

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And here’s the view west toward Mt. Olympus:

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It was already 80 degrees at 9 a.m. From here, it’s a 4000 foot descent over 8 miles on the Hayden Pass Trail to the Elwha River valley floor. The trail seems lightly used; it was overgrown in places, and there was a fair amount of blowdown. It hit 91 degrees by mid-morning. Most of the wildflowers were dried up and gone by this time of the summer, but I saw a few along the way:

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Once I hit the Elwha River Trail, I turned left and headed upriver, through beautiful old growth forest. Fortunately, given the heat, the going was pretty flat.

The Elwha is noteworthy, not only for its beauty, but because it’s currently the site of the second-largest environmental restoration project in the U.S. Only the Everglades Restoration Project is bigger. On the lower Elwha, two ill-conceived privately-owned dams blocked fish passage for a century, decimating salmon runs. Starting about 40 years ago, a small Indian tribe called the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe began pushing for the dams’ removal. Eventually, conservation organizations and some enlightened politicians joined them, and Congress appropriated $300 million for the Park Service to get the job done. Now, one of the dams is gone and the other one should be gone by the end of the year.

I made camp that night at Camp Wilder, by the Elwha, having made 15.6 miles that day. I hadn’t seen a single other hiker all day. Camp Wilder is a nice spot, with numerous tent sites spread out over a wide area, a bear wire, and even a shelter, in excellent shape:

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Tuesday morning, just as I was getting packed up, a light rain started and persisted all morning. This was certainly preferable to the previous day’s heat. I continued up the Elwha:

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I saw no other hikers on the trail. Eventually, I came to a ford over the Elwha at Chicago Camp. The water wasn’t more than shin-high, so wading was no problem. Then, I climbed 1600 feet to my last pass, Low Divide. There are a couple of lakes on Low Divide. Here’s Lake Margaret:

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On the Divide, I passed the junction for the Skyline Primitive Trail, which was an alternate route that I’d considered taking. It would have added 15 miles to the trip, over some very rough terrain, but is known for its outstanding views. On a rainy day like this one, it was just as well I wasn’t taking it.

Here’s a view of the lower ramparts of Mt. Seattle from Low Divide:

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I dropped into the valley of the North Fork Quinault and began losing elevation rapidly. The weather cleared in the afternoon, and I passed several other hikers headed up to the Divide. At Sixteen Mile Camp, the trail crosses the river via a ford. The water here was swifter than the ford on the Elwha, but it wasn’t more than knee-high.

After 17.3 miles, I made camp at Trapper Shelter, setting up my tent in the one flat spot by the shelter. While I was lounging around camp after dinner, a ranger and his companion stopped on their way up the trail. The ranger told me they’d received a signal from a locator beacon on the Skyline Trail, and were hiking up to check it out. These two guys had a hell of a hike ahead of them. They’d already hiked 8.5 miles from the trailhead, and it was another 8 miles and 2600 feet of elevation to the ranger station at Low Divide, where I assumed they’d spend the night. From there to Skyline Ridge would be another 1400 foot climb on a rough, unmaintained trail.

Shortly after they left, thunder began to roll, and it rolled for an hour before the rain started, driving me into my tent. It rained steadily all night, spattering on the tent roof. I finally woke at 3 a.m. and lay there thinking about the unknown, presumably injured hiker, 4000 feet above me on Skyline Ridge, being lashed by the storm. I also fretted about whether the rain would swell some of the creeks I had to cross the next day. Unable to sleep, I got up at 4 a.m., hauled my gear into the shelter, made breakfast, and read a book until it got light enough to hike at 6 a.m. I headed down the trail for the 8.5 mile home stretch, while the drizzle continued.

Fortunately, none of the creek crossings were a problem. Here’s the North Fork Quinault:

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I reached the North Fork Trailhead at 11 a.m. My route had inscribed most of a loop, but it wasn’t quite closed. Between me and my car was 10 miles of gravel road. Fortunately, I’d planned for this. Before starting my hike, I’d stashed an old mountain bike, complete with panniers, in the woods near the North Fork Trailhead, covered with a tarp. I was pleased to find it still there, undisturbed. I was able to fit most of my gear into the panniers. And what better way to finish an 83-mile hike than with a 10-mile bike ride, on wet gravel roads, in the rain? I was back at my car by 12:30.

Here's another view of my route in Hillmap:

Time spent hiking will not be deducted from your life.

GPS tracks on Wikiloc.

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kylemeyer
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Re: Olympic NP, Aug. 8-13

Post by kylemeyer » August 19th, 2014, 9:50 pm

I've actually had almost this exact route in mind for a long time, but including the Skyline Ridge. Did it seem like too much valley floor forest walking? Thanks so much for sharing the trip!

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vibramhead
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Re: Olympic NP, Aug. 8-13

Post by vibramhead » August 20th, 2014, 5:15 am

kylemeyer wrote:Did it seem like too much valley floor forest walking?
It was a lot of valley forest walking, but it's really beautiful forest, and it didn't wear thin on me. But being up high at Hayden Pass certainly was great. If it hadn't been so hot that day, I would have taken a side trip from there to 1000 Acres Meadow, which I've heard raves about. Certainly, if you added Skyline Ridge, you'd see tons of high country. Just be careful up there!
Time spent hiking will not be deducted from your life.

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Zia
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Re: Olympic NP, Aug. 8-13

Post by Zia » August 20th, 2014, 5:57 am

What a fabulous trip report! I have yet to hike in that area but it is one that is on the top of my wish list. So incredibly beautiful!

justpeachy
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Re: Olympic NP, Aug. 8-13

Post by justpeachy » August 20th, 2014, 7:41 am

Awesome! What a beautiful trip! The scenery in ONP is just fantastic. :D

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vibramhead
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Re: Olympic NP, Aug. 8-13

Post by vibramhead » August 21st, 2014, 5:59 am

Zia wrote:What a fabulous trip report! I have yet to hike in that area but it is one that is on the top of my wish list. So incredibly beautiful!
justpeachy wrote:Awesome! What a beautiful trip! The scenery in ONP is just fantastic. :D
Thanks, Zia and Cheryl!
Time spent hiking will not be deducted from your life.

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artic
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Re: Olympic NP, Aug. 8-13

Post by artic » August 21st, 2014, 8:31 am

I am planning on doing this same trip in early Sept, but I had planed on doing it in the reverse direction you did. Would you recommend one direction over the other?

And I think I might head to Goodwill and see if I can pick up a disposable bike because I was not looking forward to the 10 mile road walk from one trail head to the other- That was a Great Idea

Thanks for you trail report you answered a lot of questions I had concerning camping sites and stream crossing.

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vibramhead
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Re: Olympic NP, Aug. 8-13

Post by vibramhead » August 21st, 2014, 6:06 pm

artic wrote:I am planning on doing this same trip in early Sept, but I had planed on doing it in the reverse direction you did. Would you recommend one direction over the other?

And I think I might head to Goodwill and see if I can pick up a disposable bike because I was not looking forward to the 10 mile road walk from one trail head to the other- That was a Great Idea
If there's any reason for favoring counter-clockwise over clockwise, it's that I think you're better off going downhill on the Hayden Pass Trail. That trail climbs 4000 feet to the pass over 8.5 miles from the Elwha Valley floor, and long stretches of it are waterless. Except for one small site about a mile up from the bottom, I didn't see any good campsites along it. I don't think this is a huge factor, but it's part of what led me to choose the direction I did.

As for getting a disposable bike, I can understand why you wouldn't want to expose a nice bike to any risk, but I really think that if you stash your bike 20 feet from the road, and 100 yards from the trailhead, the chances of anyone even seeing it, much less taking it, are very remote. I did lock mine with a cable, and put a note on it explaining why it was there, but I'm very sure nobody came near it. It was just about invisible behind the ferns and brush. I marked the location of mine with a waypoint on my GPS. You could also just tie a bit of orange flagging to a bush.
Time spent hiking will not be deducted from your life.

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artic
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Re: Olympic NP, Aug. 8-13

Post by artic » August 22nd, 2014, 12:39 pm

Thanks for the reply- counter-clockwise it is and thanks for the info on being able to stash my bike hidden off the trail head.

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