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| Backpack | 41.00 Miles |
13,000 AEG |
| | Backpack | 41.00 Miles | 4 Days | | |
| 13,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | I connected with a fellow HAZ member for this one. We headed out of Sol Duc to visit some lakes and do some bushwhacking. This was a quality trip with three bear sightings, several grouse chicks, and many gorgeous lakes and tarns.
Day 1: We hiked about 100 yards down the trail to Sol Duc Falls before veering off up the hill. We'd read a description of a route up a spine and onto the wooded ridge between the Sol Duc and its N fork. The bushwhacking wasn't that bad, considering where we were. Still, our first few miles were slow as we wrestled through salal and fallen trees and found few game trails. This ridge was surprisingly hard to follow and our topo maps lacked significant detail. As we continued east along the ridge, the going became easier. We descended to two tarns near the upper N Fork Sol Duc basin to camp. Here I first noticed a recurring theme for our trip: the tarns already had significant bathtub rings, an indication of this summer's dryness.
Day 2: We traversed into the upper N Fork Sol Duc basin, stashed our gear, then headed over the ridge to Mud and Blue Lakes. Mud Lake is bright teal. Blue Lake is very clear and looks deep. We descended a very steep grassy slope to Mud Lake and both slipped a few times. The hike down to Blue Lake was much gentler. I noticed large patches of heather and dwarf fir trees with brown leaves, clearly recently dead. I wonder if this is also a product of the heat/ dryness.
After returning to pick up our gear, we rejoined the ridge and traversed S below an unnamed peak. We followed good game trails for much of this traverse, but it was long. We spotted a bear during our break near Appleton Pass and another between Appleton and Spread Eagle passes. They wanted nothing to do with us. We followed the Cat Basin way trail to Swimming Bear Lake for our second night. Travel was much faster with a constructed trail to follow! We noticed more patches of dead heather across the hillsides on these east-facing slopes.
Day 3: We detoured out towards the Bailey Range. Upon reaching the end of the trail (CCC work stopped when the war started, leaving dead ends in the cliffs here and at Dodger Point) we ascended to a saddle and split up. I wanted to visit the "catwalk" further along the ridge, the start of the Bailey Traverse, and my friend would summit Cat Peak.
This all went swimmingly and when I paused on my return to the saddle for a snack, I noticed the chopping of a distant helicopter and watched it fly low along the ridge towards me. I thought, are they shooting goats (ONP is removing non-native mountain goats) or searching for a hiker? The helicopter spent a good minute hovering above the catwalk, a quarter mile below me, and I figured they could see me watching. Then it flew overhead and up towards Cat Peak. At this point, my friend and I were both worried the heli might be looking for the other. Luckily, we had cell service here so we could check in. The heli circled me again and someone short-roped down on the boulder field above me on the ridge. I ran up and assured him that I was completely fine and did NOT need an assist, and he told me they were looking for an overdue hiker on the Bailey Traverse and asked if I knew anything. I had little information to share and wished him luck. Sadly, they found this woman deceased a day later.
We continued along to Hoh Lake in what felt like sweltering heat and humidity but was probably mid-70s (sorry, Arizonans). On our last day, we hiked out of Hoh Lake and reached the trailhead just after noon. We started our trip with no sign of recent human travel and ended amongst a weekend crowd of tourists. |
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