[dean brittain]

Lena Lake was our destination until we saw the Boy Scout troops with half a dozen dads at the trailhead. It took about .5 seconds to decide to do our backup plan. Sweet, just one car at the Duckabush. The first mile looks to be an old road, then crosses the wilderness boundary and drops down to the valley. A few minutes after the series of switchbacks on Big Hump, a huge root ball has taken out about fifteen feet of trail so use caution. Alot of those woop, woop noises in this part of the forest. What makes that sound? Besides the root ball, the trail is in excellent shape. We went about a mile past 5 mile camp with no obstacles. There was a solo backpacker at 5 mile camp so we decided to give her some privacy and find ourselves a more secluded spot. Just five minutes further we found a nice spot on the river. I like this river's wild appearence, big boulders, and deep pools. We explored up trail awhile and saw an old campsite off trail near the river where the valley had opened up. The spot seems old and a little spooky. As I'm looking for a safe way to get the gravel bar, Lisa tells me to follow her quickly. We made our way back to the main trail. She told me that she heard a very low, deep-throated growl feet away from her a few seconds earlier. We guessed it was a cat of some sort, and left it at that, but she was freaked out the rest of the night. It rained for a few hours before bed. Along with our tent leaking, the mice were eager to poop all over my pack. Sunday's weather was nice. A pleasant hike back to the car except for unleashed dogs running up to my wife barking and growling. The owner said "Don't worry, he's a barker, not a biter." As if we would've known that! Nice hike overall. We would like to go to the end someday.

[reststep]

Sounds like you had a great hike. As regards the woop woop noises in the forest as far as I know it is grouse that make that noise. I heard a lot of those noises on friday on the Putvin Trail and saw a couple of the birds in the trees. Maybe an expert can tell us if they are grouse.

[sarbar]

Yep! You heard Grouse The first time I heard one was when I did Mt. Zion by myself in that creepy dark secondgrowth! Hoo-boy can I scare myself easily.....Then last summer we encountered a mama grouse with her tribe of babies waddling down the North Fork Skokomish trail! That was cool-until she started chasing us!! Freaking ankle biters they are if you get close to the kids. They look like a dwarf turkey imo.

[Larry]

Dean Brittain wrote: >>>We would like to go to the end someday. Dean: The upper Duckabush is one of the PREMIER streamside hikes in the Olympics, and just gets more and more wild and beautiful as you ascend the valley. It's a great entry to LaCrosse Basin...classic. You should do it.

[big ben]

The trail up to lacrosse pass from the duckabush is a healthy exercise as i remember and leads to wonderful meadows. The last time I visited this area, my friend and I saw two bear cubs wrestling each other. Further up the trail took a sharp turn and we almost walked head on to a small black bear and before I could take a picture, this blur ran down a steep grade out of sight. On the same trip, some malevolent bear slashed my tent ( when we weren't inside ! ) when he couln't reach the goods hanging from the bear wire. Drock

[Captain Trips]

Speaking of the Olympics, is the road to Mt Constance still washed out as the website seems to indicate, washed out five miles to the the trailhead ? Might be a good time to summit Constance from the Avalanche couloir. Drock

[Steve]

They taste as good as turkey too! Lots of meat for a little bird like that.

[sarbar]

Yeah, but I'm sure I'd have been pecked to death before I killed it