Dani, me and Colorado get ready for the Bailey Range hike.
Some of us are more ready than others. We started at the Sol Duc Trailhead. Or SoleDuck depending on the signage.
The start of the Sol Duc trail.
Me and Jake next to a big blowdown. We would find out that this is not even a big tree for this park.
Sol Duc Falls
Or SoleDuck Falls.
My foot just missing a banana slug.
More waterfalls.
These trees are big.
Me crossing on an improvised bridge.
There are several "bridges" like this in the park.
Its not even noon and already we are off trail due to a washed out bridge.
Found these falls in the middle of a steep climb.
Approaching the Heart Lake Basin.
Dani heading up towards the basin.
Jake taking in some R&R already.
This is Heart Lake burried under snow. We would see a lot of snow this trip.
Apparently, this guy is a regular at the Heart Lake campsite.
VFTT (View From the Tent)
Another shot from out campsite.
Jake's tent. I went Tyvek Sleeding on the slope to the right earlier in the day.
Dani getting an early start climbing to the ridge.
Climbing...
Hey - its me.
Out first view of Mt. Olympus. Awesome.
Close-up. Mt. Olympus.
Jake and Dani traversing a snowy slope.
Um, yea.
Taking the easy way down. We were a little unsure where the path was at this point.
Mt. Olympus.
The southern part of the Olympus Massive.
Another close-up.
Snack time.
While traversing around Cat Peak, we had dry trails and lots of flowers.
More flowers.
This is what most of our day looked like on Day 2.
Dani and flowers.
Orange flower.
Orange and purple flowers.
Because most of this hike isn't on a maintained trail, you run into this stuff.
Notice Jake planting his axe. A slip here would be no joke.
The Hoh River and Hoh River Valley. This leads out to the ocean.
Not all of the snow had melted on this route.
This made the walk interesting.
This cliff area was NOT on the route, but we thought it was. We spent over an hour here.
Its steep and scary and dropped straight down. I wish I had noticed the trail around this the first time...
Mt Carie.
Jake on the Cat Walk - a narrow knife edge between Cat Peak and Mt. Carrie.
More Cat Walk action.
Looking west down a valley off of Mt. Carrie.
After the Cat Walk, there is a steep climb that ends with this field..
.. that was right out of a movie.
We took lots of pictures.
And celebrated.
And I apparently picked my toes.
Panorama of me with the Olympus Massive taken from the shoulder of Mt. Carrie.
Back on the path.
Just another ho-hum part of the trail.
Yea, this trip stunk.
We did have to contend with stuff like this. Steep steep downhills. Jake kicked a rock that rolled for over 1000 feet down.
I'm a huge dork.
Looking up at the top of the ridge.
You can see a distinct footpath that we were following.
Unless is was burried under snow.
Here you can see the trail with flowers. But notice - its not maintained and its not flat. All day you are sidehilling and your feet usually are at an angle sloping down.
And sometimes you have to cross a washout.
Drink Fat Tire.
Our campsite on night 2. We didn't find any flat spots so we just set up on the snow.
VFTTent
Taken at a small lake near Stephen's Peak.
Then we had to climb stright up. This was a killer. Jake was in front.
Then me.
Then Dani.
We made it.
Then, we dropped 1500 to Cream Lake. We didn't find Cream Lake, so I took a picture of this mudhole. This part of the hike sucked. Especially since we thought we had passed this already.
Open field at the bottom of the nasty descent.
After lunch, we headed right back up. There was no trail to speak of.
So we followed these nice waterfalls.
Why not? They were nice.
And we ended up here after a lot of work.
We were very happy to be back up on the ridge and out of the thick growth.
Climbing up a finger of snow.
Gaining the ridge once again.
Not sure what the name of this lake is, but it was very cool and a great sight when we came over the top of a small rise.
Jake and I.
One of many water crossings on a snowbridge.
Walking on the ridge in the late afternoon.
So - which was do we go?
This was the best water I've ever drank.
Jake and Dani discuss possible routes.
This is te start of Day 4 - the best day of the trip.
We bee-lined it up to the top of the ridge, and got as much altitude at possible.
I tried to cross this snowbridge, but I chickened out.
Here we are on top of the Bailey Range.
Almost died here.. I'm glad that I'm a pro with the ice axe.
This is the Hoh Glacier, a really dirty, nasty looking thing.
At this point, we have no trail and no idea where the "official" route is, so we are making our own way.
Look - no snow!
Just for a minute, though.
Mt Ferry.
Jake crossing a flat snowfield.
Mt Scott, a landmark we used to pinpoint our location.
Jake climbing in search of the elusive Bear Pass.
Dani making her way.
Following the ridge south. Notice that really narrow part over there? This was an interesting challange.
Doesn't get any better than this.
Looking down on Queets Basin.
This basin is our home for night #4.
Looking down Queets Ravine.
Lots of pictures being taken.
Mt. Olympus as seen from the south.
Me looking down on the Elwha Snow Finger, our route off the ridge.
We got to Queets Basin at 4 PM, and the sun was directly overhead. We needed to rig this shelter to keep us from getting cooked. Being in the open snow like that is similar to being in the desert.
Our tentsite and out cooking site.
Sun going down on a fantastic day.
The three of us saying goodbye to the Bailey Range and hello to the Elwha River.
Panorama taken from Queets Basin.
We follow the Snow Finger down until we fall into the river.
There was a little debris.
And a giant snow dam about halfway down.
Jake in the photo for scale.
Dani and I climbing the Snow Dam.
Dani on top of the Snow Dam.
And we just ran out of snow.
And because the river was so high, we needed to whack up the side of the ridge, go over, then back down to the river. Several times. This is one of those spots.
Natural bridge.
When we finally found the trail.. there wasn't much left.
Spring storms had created a LOT of blowdowns. This was a very difficult afternoon.
Near Low Divide, we ran into this guy.
Here is Colorado doing his best to scare him off.
Dani with what's left of the trail. Some spots got completly washed out with the spring storms.
Typical trail.
More blowdowns.
Jake scrambling for the flag, which is where the trail picks back up again.
Yup - this sucks.
Out last day started with a good ford.
Jake's turn.
Dani making her way across.
Heading down to the North Fork Trailhead, we actually saw some clouds.
Jake is on the trail, I'm standing where it used to be.
This whole area was solid ground. Notice how high the erosion mark is on the right.
Banana Slug
The washouts didn't end.
Fortunately, the closer we got the car, the better marked and cleared they were.
Another improvised bridge.
And this is why they hadn't been able to get pack animals in to help with the cleanup.
Apparently, there was a bridge here.
The ladder was nice, however.
Giant blowdown with a rootball that was twice the size of Colorado.
We finished. 6 long, grueling days was worth it for the best hike I've ever done.
Now, its Fat Tire time.
On the beach in the park.
Hole-in-the-Wall
Doug said we should do some tidepooling.
Not sure what that is, but we did EXTREME tidepooling.
Jake and Me.
Hole-in-the-Wall.
Not walking anywhere.
Our second night on the beach was fantastic.
Getting ready for the sunset.
Driftwood.
Awesome sunset. Enjoy.
