[jtostenr]

This was originally supposed to be a hike to Marmot Pass via the Tubal Cain Mine trail, but unfortunately the road was washed out and I did not find the alternate route to the trail. My apologies to Voyageur since I was not able to meet up with him.

I ended up heading down to Quilcene and hiking the Big Quilcene trail to Marmot Pass. This is a great trail that parallels the river for a few miles climbing gradually. The trail then begins to veer away from the river and gets steeper. At about 4.5 miles I reached Camp Mystery, pitched my tent and had some lunch. At this point the trail has gained about 3000'. I grabbed the top off my pack and headed for the pass. The trail climbs a bit more then reaches a grassy meadow just below the pass. Once I reached the pass, I decided to head up to Buckhorn Mtn. and Iron Mtn. The path basically goes straight up the side of Buckhorn Mtn. so it can get pretty sketchy at times. I eventually reached the top and couldn't believe all that I could see. After a few minutes, I realized that I could see downtown Seattle! I headed over to Iron Mtn. and after some scrambling reached the top. It's strange that Iron Mtn. seems taller once you're on top even though it's 32' shorter than Buckhorn.

I started heading back and there was small rabbit there to greet me on top of Buckhorn Mtn. Coming back down, I was glad not to have a 40 lb pack on since it was so steep I ended up sidestepping half the way down. After a little while, I made it back to Mystery Camp. Nice easy hike out early the next morning.

I would highly recommend this hike if you ever venture into the Olympics. It was a lot of fun. Total mileage was around 13 miles and about 4500' elevation gain. You reach almost 7000' so you get to see quite a bit. I will definitely plan on doing this one again.

One interesting thing I almost forgot to mention was that I got to see a couple of F-15's fly by when I was on Buckhorn Mtn. The first one flew by above the mountains, but then the second came screaming down in the valley to the west, above the Dungeness River. It was pretty cool to see one fly by below me! Too bad I didn't have the camera ready.

Jeff

[sarbar]

The road reroute is this: Go down Palo Alto Rd. till you hit #28 then immedialtely take a right down #2870 till it connects back to #2860. Then continue on as one would before. This is a permenant reroute (since at least last year) For better directions check out the Olympic National Forest website, it is in much better detail
That hare is an intresting little guy! We had him visiting us all night and morning 5 weeks ago in the snow up at Camp Mystery! He was a cutie!

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