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The Guy From Bend
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The Guy From Bend
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PostTue Feb 18, 2003 4:45 pm 
Speaking as a guy who has to drive from Central Oregon to get to either, I vote for the Olympics. Any time I head to your neck of the woods (northern Wash.), I have to be backpacking. And if I'm backpacking, I prefer the solitude and wildlife that the Olys offer. Although, I'm probably heading to the No. Cascades this summer. Nevermind.

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smmslt
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PostTue Feb 18, 2003 9:07 pm 
wooly wrote:
What is considered the North Cascades? Is that everything from Stevens Pass north?
Depends on who you ask. Stevens Pass is one boundary, which is my preference, but some people include everything north of Snoqualmie Pass. The mathematician quoted in my link used 48° as his southern boundary, which is just south of Glacier Peak, but he wasn't intending to define the extents of the range.

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Quark
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PostWed Feb 19, 2003 12:02 am 
Lemme tell you about this Damian character. If you don't like stories and don't want to waste valuable clicking time, move on please. We were gonna meet at the Third Beach TH for an 2 day trip. I was going in from Seattle, he was driving up from Tokeland, or Boring, Oregon or someplace. So I woke up on the day we were to meet, and was sick as a dog. And I mean SICK. So I called Damian, told him I'd have to bag that day, but MAYBE I'd make it the next. The next day dawns, I'm still sick, and it's raining like a bastard out. Windy, too. So anyway, I popped every pill I had in the house, regardless of it's purpose, and even dug some unidentified medicine-ish looking stuff out from under the floorboard mats of my rig and ate that, then headed to the coast (I stopped in Port Gamble to buy more drugs and a frog made out of seashells at the gift shop there). The closer to Third Beach I got, the worse the weather got. Sleet, hail, rain, thunder, wind - you name it. I thought, "sheesh, what'm I doing? I know the guy is nuts and all, but this is ridiculous.... Nobody in their right MIND would be out in this weather, not even me." I figured he bagged the trip and went home, but on I drove. Just in case. I 'rounded the bend, and big surprise, Damain's car was the ONLY one at the TH. I'm tellin' ya, he's a nutcase. So anyway, I hiked down there and pitched camp with him. It wasn't easy, either, in that weather, but SOMEBODY had to keep an eye on him. He helped me with my guylines 'cause I don't know anything about knots and guylines. Still don't. I just keep tying lots of square knots, one after the other, is how I tie stuff up. It was a rough night weather-wise, and not a lot of people see beauty in stuff like that, but I do, and Damain does, so it was great. All I had to eat was oatmeal soaked in white gas (my stove leaked). Damain bought me a hotdog on the way home, so I didn't die. So I'm not saying he's a bad man, just crazy. So I wouldn't listen to anything Damian says except maybe if he says I'm great and all that sort of thing. I've had too much coffee tonight and need to quit jibbering. 'Bye.

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Allison
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PostWed Feb 19, 2003 1:56 am 
Ya know, Quarky, if you'd *just* come around to my way of thinking regarding canister stoves, the concept of fuel-soaked oatmeal would be instantly obsolete! cool.gif

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Pop Warmer
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PostWed Feb 19, 2003 12:08 pm 
I figured Quark had moved beyond the confinements of cannisters, and parlayed to pop can stoves.

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Quark
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Quark
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PostWed Feb 19, 2003 5:00 pm 
Al, I will never regard canister stoves the way you do. I look upon them with disdain and contempt. Not to mention hatred, aloofness, petulance, unmitigated horror and illusory quadratics. I have moved on to soda pop can stoves when hiking alone. Thanks to rubberlegs for coaching me on building mine. But when with Damian, one doesn't need a stove (though I insist on bringing mine anyway). He's so crazy he'll whip up his famous Phad Thai right there in the middle of gale-force winds on the beach, smiling the whole time as his uprooted tent whizzes by at 62 mph. The point is, is that DAMAIN IS CRAZY and everything on the Olympic Peninsula is either dangerous, ugly, or both.

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Allison
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PostThu Feb 20, 2003 1:37 am 
Okayokayokay, now tell me again what is wrong with canister stoves? And no fair saying they are no good because I once brought a half a canister instead of a full one, right after I got the dang thing.... Hey speaking of old tired arguments, not one, but two sleeping bag makers have bags coming out with synthetic fill covering down, perhaps bringing the best (or the worst) of both together. It's like turning you and me into one fabulous babe! How 'bout them apples!! ha.gif

www.allisonoutside.com follow me on Twitter! @AllisonLWoods
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Quark
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Quark
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PostThu Feb 20, 2003 10:09 am 
Hey, just like Donnie & Marie Osmond! I'm a little bit country, you're a little bit rock & roll. But baby, we can make it work afterall (why didn't the FCC censor that incestuous wierdness? I can't help but to notice The Donnie and Marie Show isn't on anyone's "favorite TV show" list). So you and me, baby - it's just the canister stove that's in our way now! Give it up!!!!

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Timber Cruiser
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PostFri Feb 21, 2003 3:07 pm 
Quark wrote:
Al, I will never regard canister stoves the way you do. I look upon them with disdain and contempt. Not to mention hatred, aloofness, petulance, unmitigated horror and illusory quadratics. I have moved on to soda pop can stoves when hiking alone. Thanks to rubberlegs for coaching me on building mine. But when with Damian, one doesn't need a stove (though I insist on bringing mine anyway). He's so crazy he'll whip up his famous Phad Thai right there in the middle of gale-force winds on the beach, smiling the whole time as his uprooted tent whizzes by at 62 mph. The point is, is that DAMAIN IS CRAZY and everything on the Olympic Peninsula is either dangerous, ugly, or both.
I prefer "wet and wild" when describing the peninsula since I don't consider myself dangerous or ugly. Apparantly neither of you have the right stove for our conditions over here... ...John Huelsdonk(1867-1946), who came to the Olympic Peninsula in 1892. He was the first settler to homestead on the Hoh River, about 30 miles up the valley. Short of stature, with massive torso and powerful arms, he was known as "The Iron Man of the Hoh" because of his strength and accomplishments. He had to pack every thing miles up a rough mountain trail that forded streams on narrow logs. An apocryphal tale relates his meeting a neighbor while carrying a heavy cook stove to his cabin. The neighbor commented on his heavy load, and Huelsdonk reportedly said the load wasn't that bad, but it was hard to cross the streams on the narrow logs because the 100-pound sack of flour in the oven kept shifting around.

"Logging encourages the maintenance of foilage by providing economic alternatives to development."
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Newt
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PostFri Feb 21, 2003 4:21 pm 
This is great. NN up.gif
Quote:
...John Huelsdonk(1867-1946), who came to the Olympic Peninsula in 1892. He was the first settler to homestead on the Hoh River, about 30 miles up the valley. Short of stature, with massive torso and powerful arms, he was known as "The Iron Man of the Hoh" because of his strength and accomplishments. He had to pack every thing miles up a rough mountain trail that forded streams on narrow logs. An apocryphal tale relates his meeting a neighbor while carrying a heavy cook stove to his cabin. The neighbor commented on his heavy load, and Huelsdonk reportedly said the load wasn't that bad, but it was hard to cross the streams on the narrow logs because the 100-pound sack of flour in the oven kept shifting around.

It's pretty safe to say that if we take all of man kinds accumulated knowledge, we still don't know everything. So, I hope you understand why I don't believe you know everything. But then again, maybe you do.
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Dave Weyrick
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PostFri Feb 21, 2003 4:56 pm 
If you all only lived in Paradise (Poulsbo), like I do, you may have developed a perspective similar to the one I have. First, the Eastern Olys open a full month before the Cascades at similar altitude. I had 25% open water on Lower Charlia Lake (Quilcene drainage) and caught a bunch of cutthroat in the middle of June last summer, when Cascade lakes at 5000 ft. were still solid. Allows one to enjoy the high lakes when it's light for almost 18 hours. Somehow over the last 25 years I'd developed the idea that the Olympics were not as rugged as the Cascades...then I went into Diamond Lake up the main fork of the Dosewallips. The 3 miles of off-trail up Hidden Creek to the lake are just as nasty as Cascade bushwhacks, and so is the last mile into Charlia once the way trail peters out. My favorite place in the whole world is a little spot along the coastal strip of the park, and I don't even fish when I go there! You take the ferry to sleep in your car either in line or on the water, usually on the way back when you're dead tired, or to eat in comfort; not to save money or time. But then I may just be getting as crazy as Damian and the Olympics are too far away and not worth the trip and not deserving and too wet and not topographically correct and....

If I'd known ya was gonna use bait I wouldn't a brought ya!
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Larry
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PostTue Feb 25, 2003 12:13 pm 
Dave Weyrick wrote:
Somehow over the last 25 years I'd developed the idea that the Olympics were not as rugged as the Cascades...then I went into Diamond Lake up the main fork of the Dosewallips. The 3 miles of off-trail up Hidden Creek to the lake are just as nasty as Cascade bushwhacks...
Hey Dave: I have gone to that lake in upper Hidden Creek, only from the other side. Here's a little account I wrote up several years ago. It's in the old Word 95 format, so it might not look like the original, but you'll see the text. What a bushwhack! 📎27Diamond.doc (33 KB)

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Dave Weyrick
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Dave Weyrick
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PostTue Feb 25, 2003 10:41 pm 
Great trip report Larry! Your route was the one recommended to me, but it looks so steep and the High Dose Bridge is out, so I went in from the other side. As the pic shows, the lake was 75% frozen and the open water had a thin skim in the morning. Other pic shows the lower meadow and my route in (lower), and out. A very secluded basin. Do you fish Larry?
Diamond Lake
Diamond Lake
Hidden Creek
Hidden Creek

If I'd known ya was gonna use bait I wouldn't a brought ya!
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Larry
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PostWed Feb 26, 2003 9:07 am 
Dave Weyrick wrote:
Great trip report Larry! Your route was the one recommended to me, but it looks so steep and the High Dose Bridge is out, so I went in from the other side. As the pic shows, the lake was 75% frozen and the open water had a thin skim in the morning. Other pic shows the lower meadow and my route in (lower), and out. A very secluded basin. Do you fish Larry?
Hey Dave: GREAT photos. Thanks for sharing. I see you did just about the same as I usually do when trying to ascend and descend a route. Came up fairly close to the creek, then went out by traversing high to get to a descending ridgeline. That always seems to be the best bet. It's never easy, though! Haha! And, thank goodness for elk trails making it at least a little bit easier at times. I don't currently fish, but I've gone out with fishermen before. While they fish, I usually take photos. A good tradeoff. I did a lot of steelhead fishing in my younger years on the Quinault and Wynoochee Rivers. They were much more plentiful in those days. I can't think of anything much better than bushwhacking. I know that seems weird, but there's a certain amount of satisfaction from having to really work to get to a destination...I think you know the feeling. Larry

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