Forum Index > Trip Reports > Dungeness, Milk Creek and Royal Basin
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Eaglecadd
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Eaglecadd
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PostTue Aug 11, 2020 4:51 pm 
I’m finally getting around to posting some trip reports and hikes I did a little bit earlier this year in July. I’ve been out backpacking almost continuously the last month so I haven’t had any opportunities to sit down and write or go through the pictures. So finally here it is. I’ve been up to and past camp handy many times. I have never stayed at camp handy itself usually because it is so crowded and often messy. I typically will go further upstream to a large open meadow that I do not believe has a particular name. It is at the junction of milk creek and the main stream.
One of my favorite side trails In that area is Milk Creek. You have to cross a log or wade the stream to get to Milk Creek from the main trail. There is an old mining camp and a bear hunters camp on the west side of the main creek there. There are two routes to get up Mill Creek and into the upper basin. The main trail leaves from the hunters camp on the right or the north side of the creek. That is a very steep trail and does not offer many views of the Beautiful waterfalls coming down Milk Creek. On the other side of the stream there is only a tiny way trail. That is the route I prefer to take because it takes you right along the stream and you get to see the many high and beautiful waterfalls coming down very steep slope from the upper valley. There are many Rhododendron’s on Mossey green slopes to walk up through on that side of the stream.
Once you reach the top of the stream and level out into the upper Valley the tiny way trail goes along the north side of the valley up out of the slide alder. It goes in and out through trees and wet side slope areas as you ascend the valley. There is a pretty stream down through the valley but it’s mostly hidden by the slide altar and willows in the bottom of the valley floor.
Once you get higher up in the valley do use of the stream and access to water are more available. It was getting late one afternoon and we decide to start looking for a place to camp in the valley. The valley floor was damp and not too inviting. Suddenly, one of my friends stopped and spun around quickly. He said “I just saw a cougar“. Naturally we were all excited and begin asking him questions. Where did you see it? Was it staring at us? What exactly did it look like? “Well all I saw was a long tail”. Well there’s only one thing here in the Olympics it has a really long tail. We never saw any more of it after that so I assume it wasn't stalking us.
My young friends decided to climb up to the top of a knob in search of a piece of flat ground we could put 4 tents on. There really are very few places one could set up a tent anywhere along this route so when they found a reasonably flat space high up above the valley floor which also turned out to have a magnificent views of the stream and upper valley, we took what we could find for flat ground and set up.
As we were sitting around having dinner we realized there was another presence among us. A small brown Spanish rabbit joined us. It obviously was not afraid as it probably had seen very few humans. That evening the fog rolled in the valley up to our elevation. Overnight it got very damp and all of our tents and gear got wet.
In the morning we stayed around camp a little extra time and hung out all of our gear to dry out before we hit the trail. The morning was absolutely stunningly beautiful blue skies once again. From our vantage point we could see Mount Shuksan in the distance down the valley. Once we were repacked after drying out we set off to continue up the valley. The last of the trees in the valley disappeared as the valley makes twists and turns as you ascend. We had hoped to reach the upper valley and cross over into deception basin from there but when we reached the cirque at the top of the valley we realized it was too steep and too dangerous for us to cross. The upper Valley is really very beautiful rocky and unspoiled There were still quite a lot of snow in the area at that time. As you know when you’re making plans to go through areas you’ve never been through that do not have trails you have to be adaptable to the situation. We made the choice to climb up the pass and drop over down into upper Royal Basin. I’ve been up into lower royal basin before but never to upper Royal basin. When we reach the summit of the ridge between the two valleys and look down into the upper royal mason we could see they were a number of people in there. For many days of hiking on this trip and previous one we were pretty much alone all the time so seeing so many people in one place was kind of disheartening. However the beautiful scenery in the area made it worthwhile.
We slid and skated down a steep scree slope and started meandering through the upper valley to find a suitable campsite. We went up and down over all the little ridges and moraines all over the upper valley until we found a nice flat screen area right below a terminal moraine and just above the main lake where we settle down for the night. My young friends from Hawaii seem to have endless energy at 31 compared to me at 69. At that point what I wanted to do was sit down and nibble on some snacks and relaxing for the sunset. They had other ideas. They started climbing Moraines finding house sized boulders dumped casually on top of lateral moraines, more rambling streams, and of course more amazing mountain views from higher up on the cirque walls. I enjoyed my rest.
During the night I had to get up to Pee. I heard some noises adjacent to me and looked up to find a large male Mountain goat staring at me with it’s big white eyes. Now I know that the Park service killed most of the mountain goats in the park last year so I was rather surprised to see one here. Some of them are very elusive. They cannot however resist the need for salt and so it was very persistent. I finished my task and went back to bed. A little later a second young goat appeared as well. No harm no foul as far as I’m concerned so I consider this a pleasure to have seen them as I have many many years in the past. The next morning was our planned day to leave the valley. It really was so strange to see so many people gathered together in the valley after we had had so many days alone. Many people were wearing masks and I’m happy to see that people are taking this situation seriously, it just seems a bit odd backpacking with a mask. Our trip out down past Royal Lake was pretty and pretty uneventful. The trail was in good shape and the traveling pretty easy compared to the cross-country stuff we had been doing so it was nice and easy on our feet. This was definitely a route worth doing in my opinion even though we did not get into deception basin. I’ll have to approach that from a different place next time.

Hike until you Drop!

clochard
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reststep
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PostTue Aug 11, 2020 5:45 pm 
Beautiful pictures and interesting route. Thanks for sharing. I think that camping area past Camp Handy opposite Milk Creek is sometimes called Grindstone Camp. I am not sure where I heard that but I think it goes way back.

"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
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bobbi
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PostTue Aug 11, 2020 9:37 pm 
Eaglecadd wrote:
that's my boulder! biggrin.gif
what a fun trip! I'm sure the kitty was just sizing you all...here, kitty kitty! glad you had a great time!

bobbi ૐ "Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way!" - Oh, the Places You’ll Go! By Dr. Seuss
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silence
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PostWed Aug 12, 2020 6:45 am 
Great adventure! Beautiful scenery. The upper Milk Creek valley is stunning.

PHOTOS FILMS Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. – Bob Dylan
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IanB
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PostWed Aug 12, 2020 9:10 am 
Thanks for the photos which bring back memories! If I ever make it back up that way I will have to try your waterfall way trail.

"Forget gaining a little knowledge about a lot and strive to learn a lot about a little." - Harvey Manning
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reststep
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PostWed Aug 12, 2020 9:14 am 
bobbi wrote:
Eaglecadd wrote:
that's my boulder! biggrin.gif
Looks like a good spot for Oly.

"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
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RAW-dad
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PostWed Aug 12, 2020 12:03 pm 
Eaglecadd wrote:
I’ve been out backpacking almost continuously the last month
I'm so jealous! A bad knee this summer is keeping me from hiking in ONP for the first time in >25 years. Keep the TRs coming and keep on keeping on! Also, if you haven't been to D basin, it's well worth the effort, but you prob know that.

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostWed Aug 12, 2020 12:10 pm 
Eaglecadd wrote:
Now I know that the Park service killed most of the mountain goats in the park last year so I was rather surprised to see one here.
I think they've been in the relocating phase, transporting them to various places in the Cascades. I think killing the goats they couldn't capture is the last phase. Anyway I saw a TR indicating there are still some around Mt. Ellinor.

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Geezer
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PostWed Aug 12, 2020 9:49 pm 
If you like cross country, a nice way to get into Deception basin is to hike to Heather Creek camp on the park boundary and then follow a way trail northwest from the camp up and over Fricaba pass down into Deception basin.

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Eaglecadd
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PostThu Aug 13, 2020 8:07 am 
Two comments: Last year, we watched helicopters transport body bags of goats out of the Olympics. I am not really surprised that some are returning though. I believe the NPS only removed goats from Natl Park, not surrounding National forest...different departments that unfortunately don't always cooperate well. and so the goats will return. I do know of the route to Deception Basin over Fricaba ridge from Heather Creek. Maybe next year.

Hike until you Drop!
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philfort
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PostThu Aug 13, 2020 11:48 am 
Eaglecadd wrote:
Now I know that the Park service killed most of the mountain goats in the park last year so I was rather surprised to see one here.
They relocated nearly half of them over the past few years, finishing up a week ago: https://crosscut.com/environment/2020/08/olympic-goats-take-final-flight-their-new-cascade-home The remaining half are to be killed.

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RodF
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PostThu Aug 13, 2020 6:20 pm 
Fabulous report and photos. Thanks for sharing! up.gif
Eaglecadd wrote:
I believe the NPS only removed goats from Natl Park, not surrounding National forest...different departments that unfortunately don't always cooperate well. and so the goats will return.
NPS and USFS are both participating. In August 2019, "A total of 22 mountain goats were removed from Olympic National Forest in August. Sixteen mountain goats were removed from the Mount Ellinor and Mount Washington area and six from The Brothers Wilderness."

"of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt" - John Muir "the wild is not the opposite of cultivated. It is the opposite of the captivated” - Vandana Shiva
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Eaglecadd
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PostFri Aug 14, 2020 2:17 pm 
Sorry, my bad. I have nothing against either NPS or Forest service. I was sad to see the animals in bags under a helicopter. I do believe they do harm to areas especially when they over graze and over populate Mt. Ellinor has always been one of those areas with a problem of over population. Maybe someone can answer a question for me. Are they NATIVE to Olympics and Cascades? What is going to be the continuing policy to deal with them?

Hike until you Drop!
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Eaglecadd
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PostFri Aug 14, 2020 2:20 pm 
Oh yeah, one more question, If goats are relocated to Cascades, what guarantee is there they won't overpopulate and or damage those relocation areas?

Hike until you Drop!
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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostFri Aug 14, 2020 3:30 pm 
My understanding, they are native to the Cascades, non-native to the Olympics, thus removing them. I also believe they are a LONG way from being overpopulated in the Cascades. This is viewed as a good opportunity to boost their numbers and also improve the diversity of the gene pool in the various locations in the Cascades. The linked article was a bit troubling that there's only been around a 50% survival rate of the transplanted goats, and that's only about 50% of the Olympic population. So if eradication is successful, the goats will be gone from the Olympics and only about 1/4 of them will have survived.

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