[Silas]

Disclaimer: smoke from recent marijuana legalization obstructed many-a-view during this trip as you, the reader, will see in the following pictures. Without further ado, the cast and characters of the expedition:

Name: Bullet Profession: Retired high school math teacher Favorite Mountain House: Beef stroganoff fortified with two oatmeals Favorite book: The Poisonwood Bible Olympic Peak: Pulitzer, known for eloquent diction, prose, and a cold lake

Name: Milkmaid Profession: Builder, work party leader Favorite Mountain House: San Francisco freeze dried kale and stale pantry bulgur Favorite book: How to not lock your keys in the car at the Quinault Ranger Station, for Dummies Olympic Peak: Hamilton, great peak, better musical

Name: Honey Profession: cultivator of vine maple Favorite Mountain House: Rice and Chicken Favorite book: Trout Fishing in America Olympic Peak: Mystery, elusive, beautiful

Name: Red Beard Profession: cartographer Favorite Mountain House: Breakfast Skillet Favorite book: CRUNK: the complete history of Atlanta-based rap Olympic Peak: Zinhorf Day 1: We left early to drive from Seattle to Port Angeles for permits at the WIC and dropped a car at Sol Duc before meeting up with our fourth crew member in Quinault. Locked keys in the car delayed our departure. Keys were retrieved. A flat tire delayed our departure. Air was pumped. We hit the Irely Lake Trailhead around 4pm to start the ascent up to Three Lakes. What did our backpacks have in common with a Colorado real estate mogul? Lots and lots of Mountain Houses. Packs were still heavy though as we trudged up into the 90 degree heat. We camped near the first of the Three Lakes and were greeted like an old friend by flies and mosquitos. Bullet had hundreds of bug bites by now.

Beautiful Three Lakes

Day 2: Stevia was added to coffee and the sun beat down on us like we were on the set of Lawrence of Arabia. After a morning swim we packed up camp and headed for the primitive Skyline traverse. Views of the Valhallas were westward and water nowhere. Our parched throats were only satiated by the occasional pond. Heat led to sweat which led to horrible chaffing. Luckily we weren't hiking to Colchuck Lake so bottomless hiking could be used to the full effect of mitigating said chaffing. The afternoon heat just plain hurt as we hiked under Kimta Peak through old burns. The heat and sweat made it unlikely that we would be camping at Lake Beauty, so we set up at a tarn to swim and relax for the night. Zinhorf sang us lullabies while we hid from bugs in our tent and watched the alpenglow on the eastern Olympics. Bullet had thousands of bug bites by this time. Maybe they liked his blood? Bullet gets his name from a bullet of squished-together sleeve of PB and Js that clumped together as a unifying community he ate everyday for lunch.

Nice view of Zinhorf

Day 3: A morning swim and we were off. We made slow progress to the intersection with Lake Beauty before dropping our bags, celebrating Milkmaids birthday, and running down to swim with gorgeous views of Olympus to the north. We continued on the Skyline trail and saw a herd of elk as we came to Seattle Creek. More heat, more swimming, more Mountain House. Unfortunately for us we didn't have the funds for Mountain House ice cream sandwiches this trip. By late afternoon we made it to Low Divide and saw the first people since leaving Three Lakes three days before. We made pudding for birthday celebration and warmed our bellies with bourbon as low clouds cut through between Mt. Christie and Mt. Seattle. It started to drizzle as we read Trout Fishing in America in the tent.

Skyline Trail

Ya Beauty!

From whence we came

Day 4: Socked in and drizzling, we said goodbye to Milkmaid. She needed to leave early to work and hiked down the North Fork Quinault by herself. Honey, Red Beard, and Bullet travelled north as more clouds rolled in. We talked to some folks who had just completed the BRT, but one in their group had to be rescued by the navy after a compound ankle fracture on Mt. Queets. Unfortunate. We arrived at Chicago Camp and headed up the Elwa as it started to rain. Math problems kept our minds off of the cold. We arrived at the end of the trail in a complete downpour. At least this rain will put the fires out, we thought. Hmmmm. We crossed the river and began looking for the trail up to the Snow Finger. The Elwa Basin was thick, wet, and cold, and we couldn't find anyway up. Defeated we put up our tent and discussed options. Maybe we weren't supposed to complete it this year? Maybe the good weather earlier this summer on Del Monte Ridge counterbalanced with bad weather now? Could the gods of the Olympics be angry with us that we hiked bottomless on the Skyline trail? We decided to hike out. Let's hike out the Elwa and try to hit the hot springs, Red Beard said. Let's hit up hurricane ridge, Honey inquired. Next year we will do the BRT. Disappointed we fell asleep for an afternoon nap as the tent slowly flooded. Vision of Muir, Beckey, and the Press Expedition visited the three of us in our sleep telling us of the trails existence. We woke up at 7pm and Honey begged the other two to look with her for the trail once more. Red Beard and Honey set out in the evening mist to look for the trail one last time. Bushwacking brought back memories of Stetattle Creek. A cairn was found and then the trail. We hiked up 1000 feet until we could see the descent onto the Finger. We had the key. We unlocked the door. These are the moments that we live for. You plan a trip for years, study maps, dream and then you think you need to turn around. And then right at the last moment you find the trail. Jubilation. Tears of joy mixed with rain drops splattered on our face from slide alder. We descended back to the tent to tell Bullet the news. This was a better feeling than free dress day at Catholic school.

Looking for the trail

THE TRAIL!

Wet Elwa Basin

Day 5: We awoke at 530am so we could make up lost ground. Ferry Basin was the goal. But wait, what's this? Smoke in the sky? Noooooooo. We bushwhacked uphill and followed the trail from the night before. Slipping on the slide alder on the way down to the Finger got all three of us excited for a trip to Wild Waves! Oh yeah! The Snow Finger was broken up and we kept having to take out micro spikes off. A beautiful landscape though. Dodwell-Rixon Pass had a gatekeeper, a black bear with a nose full of berries, the first of ten we saw during the entire trip. Queets Basin was a grand cathedral of what-ifs as we started planning the next trip into the Baileys. A second bear was spotted with binoculars. The Humes Glacier retreated. Mt. Queets split clouds. Food was devoured. Clothing dried. Ticks were discovered and excommunicated from our shins.

The infamous PB and J Bullet. So many calories.

Queets Basin

Mt. Queets

Snow Canyon on the BRT

Bear Pass

Ticks!

I will save you all from the description of the route from Queets Basin to Ferry Basin as it has been described numerous times. All I will say is this: it is overwhelming. The beauty is overwhelming. The texture is overwhelming. The feeling of being in the heart of this place of mythos and legend is overwhelming. As we crested the ridge above Lone Tree Pass we thought we heard a rock slide only to be surprised by a herd of 60 elk sprinting down the south face of Pulitzer. We made camp at Lake Pulitzer and swam in the coldest water of the trip. The Mountain Houses were dwindling. In the middle of the night we woke up, the smoke had cleared and we watch the meteor shower over Ferry.

Lone Tree Pass

Elk Herd

Pulitzer

Day 6: A lazy morning and a close bear encounter started the day. We descended into the beautiful Ferry Basin. At one point we stopped and watched 4 bears on the slopes of Stephen. The bushwack down to Cream Lake was descent with only a few slide alder. We got onto a dry creek bed and made it to the lake for lunch. Pitching the tent was necessary to enjoy our trout and to get away from the bugs. We ascended out of the "Cream Lake Vortex" via a boulder field and picked up the trail to Eleven Bull Basin. We only lost the trail while sidling along a few times. Sometimes you just need to put your pack down and look. Ya digg? During a snack break on one of the steep hills, Honey's pack tumbled down the side of the hill reaching terminal velocity before flying out of sight down a cliff. Well there goes our food, a sleeping bag, and all of the used Mountain House packages we were planning to make a quilt out of to commemorate our trip. No bear was going to eat our stroganoff! Red Beard grabbed both 60 meter ropes we packed for just this reason and we performed 26 double rappels to try and retrieve the pack. Just kidding we didn't do that. Red Beard and Honey both hiked down to see if the pack could be retrieved. Much to out surprise our old foe from Stetattle had come to our aid like Lafayette at Yorktown! Honey's pack was resting soundly in a bushel of slide alder at an angle of pi/2 radians. Red Beard retrieved the pack solidifying his first nomination for Washington State Husband of the Year. At Eleven Bull we saw the first people since Low Divide, 2 friends from college. What are the chances? Beautiful views of Olympus were obstructed by more smoke. We will have to return.

Ferry Basin

Looking at bears

Cream Lake Interstate

Looking back at Pulitzer and Ferry

Retrieving the lost pack.

Day 7: We planned to hike to Appleton Pass, but smoke and heat were making the trip hard. The walk out from 11 Bull took us through some tough, steep gullies, but we were able to find the trail on the other side. Whenever we questioned whether we were on the right path we followed Michelle Obama’s advice, “When they go low, we stay high.” Staying high, we were able to see the trail below. We crossed the Catwalk, swam in Heart Lake, and descended into the Sol Duc Valley. Over burgers we planned the next trip into the Baileys, more time for wandering, relaxing, and Mountain House. Much to our chagrin, dinner did not come with a shower at the hot spring resort.

Boston Charlie's. Not the best water during the trip.

Catwalk in smoke.

Heart Lake

Made it!

Trip casualty.

[Kim Brown]

Well! All I can say is, I am looking forward to more reports from you guys!

[omhk]

Great photos, and a really fun TR to read

[Fatrick]

Enjoyed the trip report! The snow finger trail can be hard to find, glad you stuck with it. It took me 3 trips before locating the proper route. The first two times I gave up and just came down on the other side of the river...not the longest bush whack I've ever done, but darn close. The trail is much better.

[bobbi]

fantabulous! great adventure! I enjoyed your prose and photos

[k_arc]

Great TR & photos! I like your method of story-telling. We're eyeing the Bailey in a couple of weeks although were thinking to go from north-to-south. So the gulleys along the Mt. Carrie - Stephen Traverse weren't too bad? Saw a TR from another hiker earlier this year who turned around out there. Thanks!

[Silas]

k_arc, the gullies south of Mt. Carrie were not too bad. There was a pretty steep one, but we luckily went up it; could be worse going down? I read that trip report also. Maybe it was an early season hike and the snow made it sketchy. The one gully that was hard to navigate was just south of 11 Bull Basin. We ended up climbing up above it and then descending into 11 Bull. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[RodF]

Re: Elwha Basin way trail, please report difficulties locating the trail out of Elwha Basin to the Elwha Snowfinger at the "Please email us your trail report" link on the Olympic NP Trail Conditions page. This is actually a hazard for those trying to found their way down from Dodwell-Rixon or Bear Passes in deteriorating weather or approaching darkness. This trail, which has existed since USFS built it in 1920, needs to be marked and minimally maintained. Many of us have been trying to convince the Park of this for three years. Park has refused to allow WTA volunteers to do it. More visitors need to help us request minimal maintenance of it be allowed, or it will be lost.

The Mountaineers on Elwha Snowfinger 1920

[RAW-dad]

Great TR. Re. 11 Bull Basin - you most definitely need to return. Here's the view last year:

Olympus morning

[Fatrick]