[sarbar]

On friday D3Fold, Rainrunner, Ford and me headed over to the Olympics. They had never been to Rialto Beach, so we stopped and went dayhiking out to Hole In The Wall. The weather was just gorgeous! Ellen Creek is still running a little high, but very easy to cross and no wet feet mostly. After dayhiking and having a long and leisurely lunch we headed thru Forks to the Hoh. Met up with Foggydew at the campground and found some nice sites above the river....Met up with CascadeCritter and his girlfriend who were heading out that night on the trail. Got back to camp and Skagit was there. Hoosierdaddy and Adam his son showed up later in the evening, bringing his oh so good italian wedding soup...nummy! Had a nice evening talking and sitting around a fire.....Dicentra and The_Turtle showed up late in the evening. Got up to blue skies again on saturday and packed up. Hit the trail and had a great hike to 5 Mile Island camp, where Foggy, Ford and me had a nice lunch. The blowout is right after-where a good 1/4 mile of trail is completly gone. One must go down into the river bed and pick around the graveyard of trees and rocks till you can find your way thru-the flagging is minimal. Once you regain the trail, you promptly ford the creek after. The trail was nice afterwards though. The 7.8 mile camp has lost it's new bridge and the creek is pretty deep on the other side...weeeee!!!!! Right after is another creek to ford-with a deep end also Foggy and us had the sweet encounter of a bull elk with a large rack in the trail-right after we encountered McPuck and his friend S. from the backpacker.com forums! The hike thru the old forest fire above the river was blasting hot-it is VERY dry out there-the whole Hoh Forest is crispy We set up our camp at Olympus Guard Station camp, 9.2 miles in. After setting up and doing camp duties, I had a nice kick back and relaxed all evening...while Hoosierdaddy and Rainrunner made for Hoh Lake. Ldyblade met up with us-she had gone out 2 days before us. The only bad thing was there was something rotting nearby (that icky salty smell of animal rot When the wind picked up, that was all you could smell...peeyew!!!!! But hey, it was gorgeous out on saturday night. We got an early start due to the heat we knew we'd be seeing. Halfway out Foggy and us encountered a herd of elk thundering across the trail in front of us We could hear the babies calling. Limped my way out with a double blister on my pinkie toe...yuck. All out by 12:15. A really nice 18.4 miles in 24 hours Lunch was at the Hard Rain Cafe on the Hoh rd..good salmon burgers on the deck out front. All in all, besides that awful blowout, the trail is a delite to hike...though a little rain would be a GOOD thing!!! All the photos: http://community.webshots.com/album/133499346czORWj The photos below: Rocks at Rialto The blowout Camp in the evening part of the posse

Hoh 2-1 (Small)

Hoh 5-1 (Small)

[frankm3]

As usual, sounds like you guys all had a great time. I am looking forwarded to getting back there with a friend later on this season, we are planning to go all the way back to the glacier. Did any of you guys worry about being camped out close to what seems to have been a carcass of some kind? I am not too sure that's something I'd have felt real comfortable doing knowing who might be coming back for it Did you guys hear anything in the woods? There was decent number in your group, I guess; as I normally travel by myself, I would have probably would have not stuck around too long.

[sarbar]

Well....let's put it this way-had it been just me, I might have mosied up to Lewis Meadows to camp (1 1/2 miles up). Ldyblade had been there already overnight-and hadn't been able to find whatever was rotting-it may have very well been on one of the forested river bed "islands" nearby. There were 4 other parties I saw at our camp (it's a biggie). I didn't hear too much in the night-the bear wires there are nice and high. Now the cat urine smell on the creekbed? Yummy....I didn't stick around long there

[jimmymac]

Frankm3, Sarbar, other stewards of fact & wisdom: Is it true that a cat will stop feeding on whatever's left of a kill by the time it really starts smelling? I had heard that bears and dogs clean up the leftovers that are "beneath" the cat's freshness standards. I'm wondering how much truth there is to this premise.

[sarbar]

Hmmmm...that's one I will study up on! All I know is whatever it was-it was beyond "eating" - it was maggot stage by that smell. The only real bad part was when I was laying in my tent and the wind blew it in....yuck! Of course, it didn't smell as bad as the dumpster in loop A at the frontcountry campground-that had been sprayed recently by a skunk! The weekend of bad smells

[foggy]

that was some definite stinkage......OMG I was very glad to leave that stink....other than that, it was very awesome. http://forums.backpacker.com/thread.jsp?forum=6&thread=40187

[sarbar]

Ummmmm....I have brought back scat Uh Oh! Now I know I am a nerd I met 2 bobcats this winter in the wilds! They are gorgeous creatures.

[Lead Dog]

Cougars like all cats bury their poop. If you find some then it probaly was dug up.