MAIDEN VOYAGE
I
spent Friday night and Saturday at Brian and Jill’s place on Bainbridge
Island. On Saturday, Brian and I finally
sat down to come up with a plan for the following week. Brian had to work on Thursday, so we had four
days at our disposal. We gave serious
consideration to a loop trip in the northeast part of Olympic National
Park. The loop would connect Obstruction
Point, Grand Valley, Grand Pass, Cameron Creek, and Deer Park. This route was appealing, since the road to
Obstruction Point is typically closed through most of the year due to
snow. Late September is the perfect time
for that hike, since the area is accessible.
Ultimately
though, we decided to go a different direction.
Brian has wanted to hike the High Divide / Seven Lakes Basin for
years. I had hiked it back in 2002 as
part of a longer trip connecting the Sol Duc and Hoh
River valleys. On that trip though, the
2 days we spent along the High Divide were entirely in the fog. I was looking forward to revisiting the area
to see what I had missed on the previous trip.
Brian
was still recovering from a broken leg, so we went with a less ambitious
plan. We decided to take 3 days to cover
the 19 mile loop. That left us with one
day to kill. I still wanted to visit the
Obstruction Point area, so we decided to dayhike there on Sunday. That hike would give Brian a chance to test
his leg. After our hike, we’d drive over
to the Sol Duc entrance and car camp. That would put us in position for an early
start Monday morning.
Saturday
night, we called Matt to invite him along.
We knew he didn’t have much in the way of backpacking gear, but we
thought we might be able to improvise.
At the very least, he could join us for the dayhike on Sunday. He seemed pretty enthusiastic Saturday night,
but by 8am Sunday, he hadn’t made an appearance. We gave him a call and woke him up. At that point, he confirmed what we already
suspected – he wouldn’t be joining us.
We
left Bainbridge Island at 8:30 and headed for Port Angeles. We stopped at Subway and Safeway, before
driving on to the National Park’s Wilderness Information Center on the edge of
town. We picked up our backcountry
permit there, along with a bear canister, which are now required for overnight
trips in the Seven Lakes Basin. I was
delighted to find that the Park Service is now offering Bear Vaults, in
addition to the crappy Garcia canisters that they’ve used in the past. The Bear Vaults are lighter, yet they hold
more. I wasn’t surprised to see a giant
stack of Garcia canisters behind the counter, while there were only a few Bear
Vaults remaining.
Once
we had our permit, we headed up the road to Hurricane Ridge. Just before the end, we turned onto the
narrow dirt road leading out to Obstruction Point. This road is an exciting drive, as it hugs
several sheer cliffs along the way.
Fortunately we made it there without encountering any oncoming
traffic. The parking lot was full, so we
improvised a space. We gathered our
gear, and hit the trail towards Deer Park at 11:30.
It
was a sunny but chilly day up at 6000 feet.
In my rush to get on the trail, I made the mistake of leaving all of my
extra clothing behind. We hurried down
the trail, in an effort to generate some warmth.
The
trail contoured around Obstruction Peak before climbing an open slope below Elk
Mountain. Along here, we spotted several
Marmots cavorting among the rocks above us.
We were well above treeline here, and the view into the interior of the
park was staggering. We gazed out over
Badger Valley and Grand Valley towards the high peaks beyond. Back behind us, the icy massif of Mount
Olympus towered over the rest of the park.
We
passed below several summits of Elk Mountain as we gradually climbed. Near the far end of the peak, we scrambled
the rest of the way up the ridge. From
there, we had a commanding view of Olympus and the rest of the park. On the opposite side of the ridge, low clouds
hid Port Angeles and parts of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Beyond the strait though, we could easily
make out the city of Victoria, on Vancouver Island in Canada. This was a great spot, so we settled in for
lunch. It was still chilly though, so we
didn’t linger particularly long.
We
rejoined the trail and began descending into a gap on the ridge. The drop was sudden and surprisingly
steep. We finally bottomed out at the
Roaring Winds backcountry campsite. The
site looked a bit uncomfortable, and there was no water. On the other hand, it would certainly be a
scenic place to spend the night.
One
final climb led us towards Maiden Peak, or, as we took to calling it, the
Maiden Head. As we climbed, we took
turns making every conceivable joke we could think of about maidens. Personally, I think maiden is a word that
just isn’t used nearly enough anymore.
We
left the trail and scrambled up through tundra, talus, and scree
to the summit. There we took a long
break and enjoyed the view of The Needles.
They are among the most rugged peaks in the park. Beyond The Needles, Brian spotted the
distinct shape of Mount Buckhorn. This
was exciting for both of us, as we’d climbed Mount Buckhorn a couple of years
earlier.
After
our break we started back. The trail on
to Deer Park heads downhill, into the trees, and we wanted to get to camp
before dark. We dropped back down to the
notch we’d named Wench Gap. From there,
we suffered through a steep climb back up Elk Mountain. Once on Elk Mountain, we were home free. The rest of the hike back was quick and
uneventful.
From
Obstruction Point, we drove back to Port Angeles. From there, it was on past Crescent Lake to
the Sol Duc entrance of Olympic National Park. We headed straight for the campground, which
was probably about half full. We
selected a site above the river, and Brian set up the tent while I got dinner
together. That night we grilled steaks
and corn on the cob, and added instant mashed potatoes to the meal. The steaks were good, but we both agreed that
the corn was the highlight. Brian
managed to coax a bit of heat and a lot of smoke out of some wet firewood. By the time we had some decent coals, we
realized we didn’t have anything to roast our marshmallows with. In the end, we roasted them using titanium sporks. This worked
surprisingly well, and we washed the marshmallows down with the last of the
beer that I’d liberated from Brian’s refrigerator. We went to bed shortly thereafter, as the
chilly evening drove us into our sleeping bags.
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