[haydenslides]

This was our second trip to the Bailey's...the first time we went was in August of 2009. Here's a link for a trip report on our 2009 expedition: https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7978008 We were a little wiser, older and "grey-er" our second time around/12 years later, but we had a hell of a good trip! My buddy and I have been hiking with each other for almost 20 years... I couldn't think of a better trip partner:

*BAILEY RANGE VETERAN PRO TIP: If you are considering attempting the Baileys, know that this is largely an OFF TRAIL trip that involves some risk! If you don’t like exposure or risk, are inexperienced with off trail navigation, or if you’re not physically prepared, this route will hurt you or kill you! Prepare yourself before you go!* The Route: Sol Duc TH - Appleton Pass - Cat Basin - The Catwalk - Cream Lake - Ferry Basin - Lone Tree Pass - Bear Pass - Queets Basin - Elwha Snowfinger - Elwha Basin - Low Divide - 16 Mile - North Fork Quinault TH I'm going to part this one out into daily trip report uploads... Day 1 - 7/26/2021, Sol Duc TH to Appleton Pass Due to ONP Goat Removal Operations, we were only allowed to hike to Appleton Pass the first day, and hold there until heli ops were complete the following day at 1100 hrs. We got a ride up to the Sol Duc TH to begin our journey. We were stopped by a friendly ranger who checked our BC permit at the Sol Duc/Appleton trail junction. We had a beautiful, sunny day to hike up to Appleton Pass.

Pond along Appleton Pass Trail

Appleton Pass

Oyster Lake

Mt Appleton

Appleton Pass Camp

Appleton Pass was gorgeous, however, here we experienced some of the worst mosquito swarms of the trip. We retired to our tents rather early this night to avoid being eaten alive! Day 2, 7/27/2021, Appleton Pass to Boston Charlie's We spent the morning of the second day waiting for our 1100 go time and attempting to not look like a mountain goat. The goat removal team started working over the area to our North at daybreak, first flying low in the valleys and then working their way uphill. I assume they were driving the mountain goats higher, were it would be easier to shoot them. One goat must have been particularly cagey, as the park shooter took almost 20 shots. Although we were where the WIC had told us to hold up at, the park heli made numerous close passes over us. They never fired anywhere near us, but I was feeling thankful that I didn't have long white hair and a beard...

At 1100, we started making our way towards Cat Basin.

This was a lovely section of trail with beautiful meadows

Looking back towards Mt. Appleton

Trail En Route

Looking down from Spread Eagle Pass (Windy Hollow)

Mt Olympus from Cat Basin Way

Cat Lake aka Swimming Bear Lake

We took a refreshing swim in Cat Lake, had the place to ourselves

Cat Basin

Mt Olympus

End of the Trail

At the end of the trail, we scrambled up the hillside and then dropped down to the Catwalk

The Catwalk

My second time on the Catwalk seemed much less intimidating than 12 years previous (when I got off route and was forced to climb some sketchy vertical rock!) This time it went easy peasy We made camp at Boston Charlies and took in the mind bending view of Mt Olympus. We scoped out a bear below camp that we hoped would not come visit us in the middle of the night. I was particularly worried about my bear can at this camp, as it would not take much for an inquisitive animal to send it rolling down into the Hoh or Cat Creek valley's...

Boston Charlies

Looking North from Boston Charlies, Cat Creek

Boston Charlies camp, Night 2

Boston Charlies

The tarn at Boston Charlies had thousands of teeny tiny worms in it, suspended in the water and the mud. We decided not to filter any water here! We were officially on the traverse now Day 3, 7/28/21, Boston Charlies to Dehydration/Mosquito Camp Up at dawn, I was pleased to see that my bear can was right were I had left it! Today we were to tackle the dreaded Carrie gulleys... I still had nightmares about them from 12 years previous (ha ha not really, but I was not looking forward to them)

Epic bluebird view of Mt Olympus after departing Boston Charlies

Looking west down the Hoh

Headwaters of the Hoh

Flanks of Carrie

and the gulley crossings begin

there was a particularly nasty drop to this gulley

I ripped a hole in the ass of my shorts on our first trip to the Bailey's on the drop to this gulley...well I did it again in 2021! Tradition!

11 Bull Basin

11 Bull Basin

11 Bull

Sporty

Sportiest dry gulley crossing of the trip

Gnar gnar loose and steeper than it looks

*BAILEY RANGE VETERAN PRO TIP: ice axes are good not just for self arrest and cutting steps on snow; they are also amazing for cutting steps on dry, dirt, ball bearing death gulleys!*

I believe we made an unplanned camp at the bottom of this slope on our last trip...glad to cruise right on by this time!

We wanted to scout the Stephen Lake route, so we ascended to the notch/saddle on climbers right. It was an ass burner going up the talus slope

Top of the ridge

View down towards Stephen Lake. Epic.

We decided not to go this way, as we were not certain we were up to the route. Having gone the Cream Lake route in the past, we decided to stick with a route we knew. For anyone who has descended into the Cream Lake Vortex, I am sure you are laughing at that comment NEXT TIME we will go the Stephen Lake Route!

We dropped off the Stephen Lake notch back to the traditional route.

Lower Cream Lake

And here we made our only route finding mistake of the trip... We had info that said that there was a high route (not the Stephen Lake route, but lower and staying above Cream Lake) that would take us into Cream Lake Basin, but then it would drop in a nice, non-slide alder choked route to the basin. We followed numerous game and man trails that zigzagged everywhere and never went. We were losing daylight and were very low on water. We made one final scout of the area and begrudgingly decided that we had better find a place to camp before dark. We dropped down a boulder field and found the nastiest camp of the trip:

This hellhole we christened "Dehydration/Mosquito Camp"

We turned in for the night grateful for the spot we had found and hopeful that the next day we would find the route. Day 4, 7/29/21, Dehydration/Mosquito Camp to Lake Billy Everett Up at the crack of dawn, with 200mL's of water to my name, we departed camp to again attempt to find the "mid route" to Cream Lake. Again we came up empty, wandering a maze of dead end game trails. We turned around to make our way back to the rock cairn marking the drop to the Cream Lake Vortex. It was hot. There was no shade. I was almost out of water. This was my low point of the trip...a dry tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth kind of low. We dropped at the cairn into the forest. A well worn path led straight down until it reached the edge of massive patch of slide alder. This didn't look anything like what I remembered from 12 years ago... But...there was a trickle of water! We purified and drank, discussed our plan and drank some more. We ended up entering the slide alder and followed a creek ravine down towards Cream Lake Basin as far as we could before it waterfalled out and we had to reenter the forest. After what felt like hours of bushwhacking, we broke out into Cream Lake Basin! and... hoardes of hungry mosquitos Say what you will about the hell that is the descent into Cream Lake Basin...but there is no denying the serene beauty of Cream Lake:

Cream Lake

We took a break here, cleaning up and eating lunch. We then worked our way up the inlet Creek and found the route up into the magical Ferry Basin

Reflection Lake, Ferry Basin

Lake Billy Everett

Lake Billy Everett

We had scheduled a rest day, which turned into a 1/2 rest day due to our route finding error. We spent the afternoon enjoying the splendor of our camp at Ferry Basin

Our friends in the red helicopter came buzzing through in the late afternoon, shattering the stillness but looking ever so cool (I have a thing for helicopters) Lake Billy Everett basin was hot and mosquito-y, but we got some much needed down time here... Day 5, 7/30/21 Lake Billy Everett to Upper Queets Basin This was my favorite day of the trip...a significant portion above treeline on ridges and glaciers...and perfect visibility with bluebird skies! Route finding through this section is obvious...in clear weather. We were blessed with an outstanding day *BAILEY RANGE VETERAN PRO TIP: Do you NEED an ice axe and crampons for this section? No...but I would argue that bringing them and reducing your chances of a fall or injury WAY OUT IN THE BACKCOUNTRY make it worth packing them along... We took Petzl Leopard aluminum crampons which weigh very little and a light weight ice axe. I wouldn't want to get hurt out here...but I have spoken with many people that have taken only micro spikes and no ice axe...If you refer to the trip report for our previous trip, there is a lively discussion regarding safety gear*

Ferry Pullitzer Saddle

Lone Tree Pass

We climber the climbers left edge along snow edge...sporty! We looked closely at this problem for a while before we committed to the route...

Mt Childs Glacier - The glacier was significantly more melted out than it was when we were here in 2009

Traversing to Bear Pass Glacier

Bear Pass Glacier

Queets Basin

Upper Queets Basin

Dodwell Rixon Camp

Day 6, 7/31/21, Dodwell Rixon to 16 Mile N Fork Quinault

Mt. Olympus/Humes Glacier

Top of the Snow Finger

The Snow finger this year was in much better shape than in 2009. We wore our crampons on the descent, but they were overkill

Big Snow Hump was easy peasy

Down the finger and out the way trail to

Elwha Basin

We made our way down to Chicago Camp on the Elwha Trail, and then made the long trudge up to Lakes Mary and Margaret and Low Divide

Low Divide RS

Crossing the divide, we flew down the trail to our last camp at 16 mile on the N Fork Quinault

So many hikers at 16 mile... and a privy! Day 7, 8/1/21, 16 Mile to N Fork TH Only took one picture this day...

We had prearranged a ride from the N Fork Quinault CG, grabbed a burger at Amanda Park and made our way home! This was an amazing trip with a great friend... Funny thing: we're older now with kids and responsibilities. There were a few times on this trip when we both agreed that we just weren't into that kind of risk anymore. That we should do some more tame, on trail hikes in the future. But within a few weeks of getting home, we were already talking about how freaking awesome it was and how are we going to tackle our next Bailey Range trip

[jaysway]

I love the picture of your Appleton Pass Camp, what a beautiful spot with the meadow in the foreground with the giant glaciers of Olympus in the background. I would love to do this whole traverse some day, but I'm worried about my fear of heights on the Catwalk. Glad it went easier this time versus last time.

[haydenslides]

jaysway- thank you for comment! Yes there are some places on the route that do have some exposure... I think that a person could work their way up to it by getting out on some more exposed spots a little bit here and there, gradually increasing their comfort level

[RAW-dad]

Looks like a great trip! Thanks for sharing.

[meck]

I really enjoyed this TR and your photos (brought back "fun" memories of both the gullies and the Cream Lake vortex, and running out of water above it as well).

[haydenslides]

Raw-Dad- ha! Yeah we were right in the area of your picture... Yes, we both have agreed that we'll attempt the Stephen Lake route next time...It looks beautiful and we talked to two different parties that had done it recently after we had gotten back, and per their report it was not bad. Thanks for your comments! meck - too funny, sounds like we had very similar experiences

[graywolf]

I've only done the traverse once back in September 1976. There wasn't an obvious trail back then like there appears to be now (not in all sections, obviously). We traversed Olympus on our trip so had ice axes and crampons with us, and the ice axes did come in handy on the side of Mt. Carrie. Those gullies sucked! I still remember how the left side of my foot soles felt like they were being torn off. I know it may be hard for some folks to believe, but boots back then didn't come with insoles, and we just toughed it out. We camped at Cream Lake, and as beautiful as it was, I swear that the sun set early behind the cloud of mosquitoes. Great trip report and photos - thanks for the memories.

[haydenslides]

graywolf - oh man I can relate to your memory about your left foot! No insoles?! Thanks for you comments!

[Trailhead]

Great photos and TR. After 7 trips across the Baileys, many of them solo, I admire your achievement but I no longer consider this route "off trail". The well worn boot path has become very easy to follow. I've made the rookie mistake of dropping into the Cream Lake vortex once but learned from the real veteran pro's of the route. The elk have shown me there's a much easier way....The cairn above the lake doesn't mark where you should go down, it actually marks when you turn off and go up.