[Hesman]

A bit of an introduction: the Anderson, O’Neil and LaCrosse Pass loop is a hike I have been eyeballing to accomplish for about 12 years. I’d also be hiking a trail I had yet to hike on: the O’Neil Pass Trail between the East Fork Quinault Trail and Marmot Lake on the Duckabush. I made an attempt about three years ago, but wasn’t able to complete it due to painful foot problems. Since then, the hike has been on the front burner bubbling over, with the need to be completed. I was able to cobble together a day and a half of paid comp time and two paid days off from work, attached to my weekend to give me five and a half days of hiking time. I would be pretty much be walking the entire time in order to complete the hike. I had wanted at least 6 or 7 full days of hiking so I could take my time, but I wasn’t about to get more paid time off from work and since I don’t have that big of an income, I couldn’t afford to take leave without pay to have more time to do the hike. I knew that I’d most likely have some wet weather for part of the hike and little did I know that on September 5th that a massive rainstorm and lightning storm would move through the Puget Sound Region. This storm missed me by a couple of miles and I had quite the lightning show for a couple of hours with minimal rain. This storm caused a couple of people to wonder about my well being. When I returned to civilization, there was a message on my cell phone from my boss wondering if I was still alive and safe. Secondly, the storm made my dad hike in to find me to make sure that I hadn’t floated away, became a drowned rat or if I might need a dry pair of socks. Also, on this hike, I saw more people out hiking than I have ever seen on a hike: 45 people. With that, lets get the show on the road. Day One: 9.3.2013, Trailhead to Dose Forks I started up the Dosewallips Road late in the day with partly cloudy and bright sun poking through where it could. I began hiking at 4:00 in the afternoon and smoked up the road and trail to Dose Forks in three hours flat. That’s a total of 6.9 miles for those who would like to do the math. This gave me an hour of good daylight to setup my tent and eat dinner. Not too much excitement for the first few hours of the hike. Day Two: 9.4.2013, Dose Forks to Camp Siberia and Anderson Moraine I awoke at about 6:00 in the morning and was on the trail by 7:30, making my way towards Anderson Pass. For the rest of the hike I would pretty much keep to the same routine: wake up at around 6:00 and be hiking by 7:30, then walk like crazy for the rest of the day, eat some dinner and then crash in my tent to get up again and do it all over again. It began raining lightly, just as I began hiking and the rain would last for the next hour. When I arrived at Big Timber, I stopped to take a brief rest. There were some people camped at Big Timber who were having a very smokey fire, so I soon left to continue up the trail. At Diamond Meadows I stopped again for a brief rest and smiled because by this time the rain clouds had been replaced by blue sky and sun. When I reached Honeymoon Meadows, I found a spot in the sun and ate my lunch. After lunch, I made my way to the Camp Siberia Shelter. Along the way, I checked out the campsites at the LaCrosse Pass Trail junction to see if they would be worthwhile to camp at later in the hike, if I did end up camping there. At the Camp Siberia Shelter, I contemplated on whether I should camp here or at Anderson Pass itself. In the past I had seen running water at Anderson Pass, but I wasn’t sure if it would be there at this time of the year. I decided I would camp at the shelter where there was water and then take a late afternoon stroll to the Anderson Moraine area. As I would soon find out it was a wise decision to camp at the shelter because there were some people already camp at the pass and there wasn’t running water nearby. I spent about 4 hours hiking to and from the moraine area and I hiked down to the lake and along its shores up to the edge of the Anderson Glacier remnants and all the while it rained like heck. Of course, once I returned to my tent the rain had stopped and the stars would later come out for part of the night. Upon returning to camp I ate dinner and just before I crawled into my tent for the night I saw an all white deer and I guessed it might be an albino. Since it was getting late in the day I was only able to get a blurry photograph.

Diamond Meadows

Mt. Anderson

Busy Bees

Camp Siberia Shelter

Anderson Pass

Purple Monkeyflower

Mt. Anderson

Anderson Lake

Remnants of Anderson Glacier

Anderson Moraine

Moss and Water

Mt. Anderson Panorama

Day 3: 9.5.2013, Camp Siberia to Marmot Lake Once again, as soon as I began hiking, the rain started and this time it last for about three hours. Just as I reached the meadows at White Creek on the O’Neil Pass trail the clouds opened up and the rain poured down. There were two people camped at White Creek and they mentioned that they had seen 8 bears at Marmot Lake. I would see none the entire hike. About half an hour after leaving White Creek, the rain stopped, the clouds parted and the blue sky shone brightly. I was able to have quite the good view down the Quinault Valley and of the Burke Range. When I was almost to O’Neil Pass, I got within 50 feet of three elk. At O’Neil Pass I stopped to enjoy the view, take a few pictures and find a presidential series dollar coin. It was the Andrew Jackson dollar coin. When I finally reached Marmot Lake, I discovered that there was a group of 12 people camped at the lake and they had taken nearly all the available campsites, except for the sites on the ridge above the lake overlooking the Duckabush Valley and Mounts Steel and Duckabush. Only one of the sites had enough dirt for my nonfreestanding tent. I was grumbling a bit about the 12 person group taking nearly all the campsites. I later realized that I had set up my tent at the exact same campsite I had camped at 12 years before. As I was cooking dinner, I could hear some thunder coming from the East Fork Quinault Valley. It was a slow moving lightning storm. By the time I had finished my dinner and hung my food on the jury rigged bear wire it began to rain lightly, so I crawled into my tent to rest and read the book I brought along. For the next three hours lightning frequently struck Mt. Steel and Mt. Duckabush right across the valley from my tent, which was out in the open. I briefly entertained the thought that my tent might attract some lightning and I’d end up well cooked by the lightning, but figured I wouldn’t be tasty to the bears if I was. I woke up later in the night at around midnight to go pee and saw that the lightning storm was in the vicinity of The Brothers.

Leaving Anderson Pass

Roosevelt Elk

Grouse

O'Neil Pass

Mt. Duckabush

Anderson and White Creek Meadow

The Burke Range

Mts. Steel and Duckabush

Day 4: 9.6.2013, Marmot Lake to LaCrosse Pass I was off hiking at my usual time and made my way to Lake LaCrosse because I hadn’t been to Lake LaCrosse before. When I was in the area 12 years before I had only made it to Hart Lake and the ridge between the East Fork Quinault and Hart Lake/Lake LaCrosse to see if I could see the Enchanted Valley Chalet, which I did. Anyway, not long after I had left my tent, it began raining very heavily and the wind picked up. It would rain heavily for the next ninety minutes. By the time I had returned to the trail to Hart Lake the rain had stopped, so I made the quick hike to Hart Lake before returning to Marmot Lake and my tent. Once I returned to my tent, I packed up and began the walk to the Upper Duckabush Camp. On the way, while I was minding my own darn business, a bee thought it would give a nice painful sting on the arm. Besides having a puffy arm near the sting, it didn’t affect me. When I reached the Upper Duckabush Camp, I ate a quick lunch, filled up my water bottle and set off down the Duckabush Trail to the LaCrosse Pass Trail. Since I wasn’t sure where I was going to end up today, I figured I’d camp where ever I felt the most tired. I had planned that I’d try to make it to either LaCrosse Pass or Honeymoon Meadows for the night. Just as I was starting up the trail to LaCrosse Pass, I met two guys coming down the trail from LaCrosse Pass. They were hiking from Honeymoon Meadows to the Duckabush Trail and back to Honeymoon Meadows in one day. They caught up with me and were impressed with how fast I was hoofing it up the hill with a heavy pack. Near the pass, I had to stop and rejuvenate my sapped energy levels with deliciously yummy low bush blueberries. The blueberries were a happy distraction from hiking up to LaCrosse Pass. When I reached LaCrosse Pass, I knew that I wouldn’t be hiking any farther. I was tired and my feet had just begun to develop some painful hot spots after being wet since September 4th. I had forgotten my tape for rub spots in my car and I had remembered I had forgotten it by the time I had reached Big Timber and wasn’t interested in hiking back to my car to get the tape. At the time I figured I’d be a rock star and soldier on. But, now that I was getting some hot spots on my feet, I was wishing I hadn’t forgotten the tape and I decided the next person I saw, I would make an attempt to bum some tape off them. I set up my tent and ate some dinner and all the while, I was rewarded with a fantastic sunset behind Mt. Anderson and Mt. LaCrosse. I must have taken 50 pictures in a span of an hour. I was thrilled that it had cleared off because the last time I was at LaCrosse Pass 21 years ago, I did not have a camera with me and wished I had because of the awesome view of Mt. Anderson. I’d have to say that the best view of Mt. Anderson is from LaCrosse Pass.

Marmot Lake Island

Best Sign Post Ever

LaCrosse Pass Sign

Mt. Anderson

Mt. Anderson

LaCrosse Pass Sunset

LaCrosse Pass Sunset

LaCrosse Pass Sunset

Lake LaCrosse Panorama

Hart Lake Panorama

All Quiet in the Forest

Day 5: 9.7.2013, LaCrosse Pass to the campground at the end of the Dosewallips Road. I woke to a rather stunning sunrise on Mt. Anderson and it took me a little longer to get packed up since I was busy taking pictures. Since there was no water at the pass, I planned on making breakfast at Honeymoon Meadows. Off down the trail I went. Well, as it would happen, the next person I saw was my dad, who had hiked in looking for me because of the all the rain and lightning he had gotten at his house. He hiked in to make sure I hadn’t floated away, was struck by lightning or, perhaps, needed some dry socks. Of course I bummed some tape off him for my feet. So, there I was hiking down the trail from LaCrosse Pass, minding my own hiking business, nearly to the trail junction with the Dosewallips, and around a corner in the trail is my dad hiking up the trail. All I had to say was to make a questioning sound. And he said it looked like I wasn’t too wet and that I was still mobile on two feet. We returned to where he had camped at the campsites at the trail junction at the West Fork Dosewallips. Since I had run out of water at LaCrosse Pass, I cooked up a lake breakfast before setting off down the trail. We made good time to Big Timber where we ate lunch and I rested my feet which were now beginning to feel the effects of having walked with damp socks and boots for the last 4 days and rub spots that were starting to become a little bit more painful. Once we began hiking again, I walked a bit slower and once we had left Dose Forks to hike to the campground at the ranger station, I was walking even slower because of my feet. When we arrived at the campground, I immediately put on my sandals to dry out my feet that looked like very wrinkled prunes. We setup camp and ate dinner. After dinner I went to bed early to rest my feet and by morning, they felt much better.

Mt. Anderson

Big Winged Insect

High Dose Bridge

Mt. Anderson Sunrise

Day 6: 9.8.2013, To the Trailhead! We were up early and off down the trail after eating some food. I ended up wearing my sandals for the rest of the hike since we would be only hiking on the old road. We made good time down the road considering my feet were a bit cranky even with sandals. When we arrived at our cars, I left first in my car and I looked back in the side view mirror to see if my dad was following. He wasn’t. He was standing next to his car waving his arm looking grumpy. I backed up and found out that his car wouldn’t shift out of park. We quickly determined that the brake-shift-interlock devised had gone kaput and that the fuse for it had burnt out. It burnt out a couple of more fuses, before my dad used a bit of metal from his stove’s windscreen from as a jury rigged fuse which worked in letting him shift from Park to Drive.

Dosewallips River

Dosewallips River

[NWtrax]

sounds like you had some challenging weather at times, but the photos came out beautifully. we got hit by a freezing rain storm up in the Lacrosse area one august, would sorely like to return and never been up by Anderson before. Great report H., thank you!

[glenoid]

Enjoyed your TR. Thanks for the pic's...We were in the area the end of August. Went in Enchanted valley, up to Camp Siberia, back down to White Creek and the traverse to O'Neil, down to Marmot but then up to stay at Hart. Visit to LaCrosse, down to the Duckabush, up to First Divide and out the Skok. Nice trip also except for a stormy miserable night at Siberia where the place earned it's name for us.....Three bear, a herd of elk, three (nightime only) storms, lots of sun to dry out with, and few people....

[silence]

The LaCrosse Pass sunset shots are stunning ... a nice reward for enduring all the wet weather from before Did you find water up there?

[IanB]

Beautiful photography! "Exciting" to imagine a high camp with lightning strikes so close by!

[silence]

Thx .. I remember a small stream below the pass but that was very early when there was actually snow there. If one wants to haul their water up there ... approaching from the Dose side is a lot more relenting than from the the Duckabush side. Again ... beautiful pix and a wonderful classic Olympics adventure!

[silence]

yep ... that's what i was saying ;-)

[Get Out and Go]

Looks like a beautiful Olympics experience. Nice "All Quiet in the Forest" mood. ...They're all great.

All Quiet in the Forest

[TPayne]

[RodF]

Thanks for sharing your photos, HJT! Admire your willingness to brave the weather (the forecast led me to stay home that week!). With all that rain, how was the Duckabush ford, the blown-out one between upper Duck and Marmot Lake? Heard there was a windfall above the ford that might be used?

[Hiker Mama]

Glad you were able to cobble together enough time off from work to do this amazing trip!