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GranolaGirl
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Joined: 15 Oct 2007
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Location: Forest
GranolaGirl
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PostWed Jul 13, 2011 5:55 pm 
So I have been on a search for bears lately and was intrigued by a hike I did with my father unit back when I was a little fart in 4th grade. We had hiked in the Quinault and seen a bear right long side of trail, we also didn't make it to Enchanted Valley so this sounded intriguing to me. In fact I remember my Dad having to carry my kid back pack and his own back pack at around 4 miles when I was too pooped to continue. The trip started on Monday-I had gotten about 3.5 hours of sleep because my brain was thinking it was christmas eve and it wouldn't stop thinking about the joyous trip that laid ahead. I got up at 4:50am and went to work my stimulant drug dealing job (barista) and worked until 12 noon. I then drove out to Olympia to pick up my friend Kate and off we went. We got a fake excitement once we picked up our permit when a big suburban was stopped in the middle of the road with it's doors wide open not allowing us to pass. (insert deliverance music here and hum it through out the rest of this paragraph). Two large women with missing teeth and a little girl were standing around outside, and I thought for sure she would move when she saw us coming but instead she walked up to my car and proceed to tell me there was a cougar across the river, or possibly a lynx. All is forgiven! I thought as as I eagerly bounded from my "should not drive on deep gravel roads" car and grabbed my canon. I ran from the car barefoot like a raging moose and jumped up onto a huge rock protruding out into the water and climbed it to get a better view while the amazon women looked on confused at my wilderness antics. Unless it was a costume party and the cougar decided to dress up as a deer, then there was no cougar. In fact there were two deer probably wondering what I was making such a big deal about running out of my car like an animal paparazzi. After we saw the fougar (fake cougar) we climbed back in the car and drove to the trail head. We were so excited to get going that I left the map and permit back at my car, the map was actually left on top of my trunk. Yes ladies and gentlemen I was that girl on Monday. It's moments like this that I remember how awesome I am. Luckily a map isn't as important when going on the Enchanted Valley trail because it is straight. Kate and I both carried about 40 pound packs but were still able to go about 2.5 to 3 miles an hour. We booked it, or better yet novel-ed it piggy backing some other wild humans through the amazingly mossum (like awesome but with moss) ancient forest. It was "like heaven all it needed was a trampoline" Kate said. However apparently in heaven the bottom of your shoes fall off and you have to trip over them until you get to Pony bridge where you just rip off the whole bottom. Yes Kate's borrowed boots fell apart like a flaky biscuit with in 2 miles of the hike. She continued to hike without the bottoms totally fine, so maybe the bottom of the boot was just for looks. Just for fun ya know...Or not. Whatever. After this it began raining which it continued to do for 3/4 of the trip but we didn't mind. This rain forest was the prettiest rainforest I had hiked in since I hiked the same hike back in 4th grade. Jungle green moss draped over every branch and the ground was carpeted with oxylis, fern and salal (sp?). We reached O'Neil Creek Camps around 7pm and decided to call it a night. We set up camp right next to a group of 6-8 campers. We made some amazing homemade ginger broccoli beef on my new whisper lite stove and relaxed. Soon the other campers came over to hang. The hikers were in their 50's and said they had seen some other hikers that were "14-15 you know around the same age..." it soon became relevant that they thought we were in early high school possibly, especially when one of the women asked if I was in girl scouts because I might have been one of her girls. This I found very irritating. Did I look like a a little brown and green cookie seller? At that point I would not have minded owning some delicious minty chocolate delectables, but I didn't own or sell these hand held desserts. I did not come out into the wilderness to be asked if I was in girl scouts. They then asked how I we were going to hang our food, I told them that I brought rope. One of the women said well there is bear wire here you should use this and proceeded to try and babysit me by tying my food and trying to hang it for me on the broken bear wire. When she figured it was broken she called over her hiker friends and 4 or 5 of them tried to help her hang my food for me while I stood non confrontational cursing to myself wondering how I get myself into situations like this. When you go to someone's house do you take their food and prepare it for them if they are half your age? They were trying to be nice but I did not come out to the woods to be under estimated or taken for a 14 year old girl scout. I was definitely past puberty and willing to prove it by using our huge girly guns to move our tent and gear to a different camp site that was secluded didn't include forest parents. The hikers closest to us at this camp site were hilarious. They looked like Cabelas models, they were all in camouflage. The floating heads looked like they would be fun to talk to though so I started talking to one of them and he told me he was from Texas and this was his first time hiking. He pointed down to his COWBOY BOOTS in which he has hiked all the way in on and said in a thick Texas accent "Ma feet hurttt". It was kind of awesome. The evening ended with a soggy fire and some much needed sleep. So far the wild animals included a wood pecker, a grouse, two fake cougars and our wild forest parents. We hoped to add to this. The next morning it was blue skies, unbelievably beautiful. We made some sausage and ate it over biscuits and gravy fit for a king. Today Kate opted to wear her five finger shoes instead of her excuse for hiking boots or what was left of them after the bottoms fell off. We headed out to Enchanted Valley and after about an hour it started pouring rain. This was okay though, we were prepared with the right rain gear (or so we thought...remember this part of the report later on...) The hike there was more and more impressive weaving through fields and creek beds, dark forest, and open cliff sides. Soon we made it to the valley. Words can't express how breath taking this place is. That being said, take a deep breath in right now. There that's what it's like. Well...kinda. We set our packs down next to the river and looked around, I found a brown snake, which I still have yet to figure out what kind it was, and I took some pictures of beautiful wild flowers but was handicapped by the pouring rain so I put my camera away and began to make lunch. We made Thai peanut noodles with chicken and crushed almonds and cashews. Right after this the food coma hit. BAM. Kate and I passed out face down in the dirt with the rain pouring on our backs. I wish I had a picture of this. People must have been walking by thinking the hike had killed us. We laid there for a good hour until we were woke up my our past forest parents. They came up to our site and informed us of elk in the meadow and a bear on the hill. Let me tell you, I suddenly took back all my irritated thoughts of these kind people. We never would have seen this bear even if we had woke up. The bear was across the river up on the hill pretty far away. It looked like a small moving black bush dot. You really had to be looking to find it, so I am really grateful they were doing the work for us, we would have slept through it. Thank you forest parents. We named the bear "A Goal" (pronounced middle eastern "aaaagolll") because it was our goal but it was just out of reach. The elk were beautiful, we saw about 20 in the valley and another herd on the way out. The hike out was even more wet, but beautiful still. Once we got back to O'Neil Creek in the same day we were exhausted and satisfied. Until I opened my "hiking on a budget" tent. Our sleeping bags had become islands in a large tent lake. No bieno. We moped the unwelcome lake up with a wash cloth and laughed it off. First and last time I use that Kleenex with toothpicks tent. We made some delicious gordidas with Spanish rice, sausage, tomatoes and cheddar cheese and sat next to a really warm fire in which I accidentally melted to socks on trying to dry them out too close. (Another moment when I remembered how awesome I am). We soon retired and slept like dead men having hiked 14 miles in the rain. It was a good sleep. What wasn't good was the morning after. We woke up on sleeping pad rafts. It had rained all night, and we were now afloat on the sea of Quinault in my fish bowl tent. I think I even saw some narwhal whales swim past. Both of our packs were submerged in Quinault sea. Last time I hike on a budget. Tent fail. The brand is called WFS I decided it must mean "water f**king sucks" tent. We poured out the fish tank in our tent and quickly ate some left overs from the night before not being in the mood to cook anything after our rafting excursion. We left around 9am and hiked out in about 3 hours. The hike out put us both in better moods. We warmed up and the group morale was appreciative and happy. All in all the hike was a success. I am really grateful we have awesome places to hike to so close to home and so beautiful. Good times for all.

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Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!



Joined: 27 Mar 2003
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Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!
PostWed Jul 13, 2011 6:04 pm 
"Fougar" ! I love it! ykm.gif How about "Fauxgar"? hmmm.gif

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Hwy
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Hwy
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PostWed Jul 13, 2011 6:27 pm 
I like the way You write...excellent tr

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klock
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klock
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PostWed Jul 13, 2011 6:29 pm 
Awesome report, your writing style is really engaging! up.gif up.gif Now then... where are your photos...? hockeygrin.gif

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forest gnome
Forest nut...



Joined: 24 Apr 2003
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forest gnome
Forest nut...
PostWed Jul 13, 2011 6:42 pm 
niiice trip report! luv the style, keep em coming!

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Damian
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PostWed Jul 13, 2011 6:49 pm 
up.gif Wonderful report. You've learned well wink.gif

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bobbi
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Joined: 13 Jul 2006
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bobbi
stillaGUAMish
PostWed Jul 13, 2011 7:27 pm 
your meals sounds delicious hungry.gif great read and if all happened as written, what an enchanting adventure! up.gif you wrote: We warmed up and the group morale was appreciative and happy. All in all the hike was a success. I am really grateful we have awesome places to hike to so close to home and so beautiful. Good times for all. a perfect ending with this attitude! biggrin.gif

bobbi ૐ "Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way!" - Oh, the Places You’ll Go! By Dr. Seuss
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Quark
Niece of Alvy Moore



Joined: 15 May 2003
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Quark
Niece of Alvy Moore
PostThu Jul 14, 2011 9:05 am 
GranolaGirl wrote:
We made Thai peanut noodles with chicken and crushed almonds and cashews
This meal sounds familiar. up.gif I've never seen fugar before! Post some pics and get out there again and do another writeup for us, willya?

"...Other than that, the post was more or less accurate." Bernardo, NW Hikers' Bureau Chief of Reporting
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Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!



Joined: 27 Mar 2003
Posts: 16874 | TRs | Pics
Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!
PostThu Jul 14, 2011 9:42 am 
Who hasn't encountered the dreaded fauxgar when backpacking? You know, yellow eyes staring back at you in the night in camp, the snap of a twig followed by complete, utter silence, those times walking down a trail, usually in the evening, heading back to your car, when you can feel malevolent yellow eyes on the back of your neck? That's just another manifestation of the fauxgar. paranoid.gif

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Stefan-K
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PostThu Jul 14, 2011 11:00 am 
nice report. written so well it doesn't even need pictures.

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Snorting Elk
Always in the Rut...



Joined: 29 Jun 2011
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Snorting Elk
Always in the Rut...
PostThu Jul 14, 2011 2:50 pm 
Freaking Awesome report!!! Right up there with Angry Hiker. I wanna go hiking with you! We can see who cooks up the best backcountry faire and make fun of the other hikers and look for the ever elusive "Fougar" LOL Todd

"The Road of Life is always under Construction!"
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Hiker Mama
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Hiker Mama
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PostThu Jul 14, 2011 4:06 pm 
Too funny! But I can feel your enjoyment and wonder coming through. I've had a tent like yours before. Not a fun way to spend a night. Hope you've managed to dry out...

My hiking w/ kids site: www.thehikermama.com
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GranolaGirl
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Location: Forest
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PostThu Jul 14, 2011 11:57 pm 
Nice observation Quark! Yes that meal would sound familiar to you! I like to think I act/hike like him. He is a pretty neat dude. smile.gif I will try to post pictures tomorrow after I finish selling my stimulants to passers by.

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Bedivere
Why Do Witches Burn?



Joined: 25 Jul 2008
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Bedivere
Why Do Witches Burn?
PostFri Jul 15, 2011 12:40 am 
Fun read - you obviously know how to have fun even when conditions might not warrant it, and that's a good thing. wink.gif Your avatar is killing me. dizzy.gif

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GranolaGirl
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Joined: 15 Oct 2007
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Location: Forest
GranolaGirl
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PostFri Jul 15, 2011 2:17 pm 
Pictures from the trip!!
Fougar
Fougar
Jurassic Park (Quinault)
Jurassic Park (Quinault)
Elk
Elk
Elk butt
Elk butt
Bridge
Bridge
Chalet
Chalet
Rainfall
Rainfall
Strawberry
Strawberry
Enchanted Valley
Enchanted Valley
Enchanted Valley
Enchanted Valley
Enchanted Valley
Enchanted Valley
Emergency Use
Emergency Use
Enchanted Valley
Enchanted Valley
Scarlet Gilia
Scarlet Gilia
Ginger Brocollii Beef
Ginger Brocollii Beef

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