[geyer]

Dates: September 2-3, 2018 Distance: 39 miles Accum. Elevation Gain: 14,400' Total Humans Seen: muchos For my annual trip to the Olympics, I knew I wanted to make my way to the Carrie Glacier. And for a long time, I thought I wanted to do it as a challenging out-and-back day-trip. But when I was doing my requisite pre-hike research on Google Earth, I discovered the Carrie and Stephen basins. I couldn't find a way into the Carrie basin that wasn't a total pain in the ass (or over the glacier), so I stuck with the Stephen Peak basin with the hope that I could traverse the glacier from Carrie to Stephen. My day trip was now at least an overnighter (preferably 2 nights, but the stars didn't align for this.) Day 1: Sol Duc to Heart Lake, Mt Carrie, Stephen Peak Basin, Distance: 18.4 miles Elevation Gain: 8550' Elevation Loss: 5300' I got out the gates quickly around 6am and made it to Heart Lake in about 3 hours. Most people just seemed to be waking up when I was already halfway done with the 7 lakes loop There were some goats here walking right down the middle of the path. Goats love human bootpaths. I got in three different goat-jams over the next 36 hours.

0.8 miles in - Sol Duc Falls

fall, is that you?

Don't they know they're supposed to yield to uphill hikers!?

I made a left on the high divide trail where I got stuck behind some more goats and continued past to where the trail is unmaintained and becomes the Bailey Range traverse. I had heard that the catwalk was scrambly and made things interesting but I didn't know much about it. After a while on the trail, I had started to think I had already passed the catwalk or that maybe this thin trail with steep runout on my right was actually the catwalk, kind of like the Kendall Katwalk . Where is the scrambling?! Suddenly the trail just ended like nothing I had ever seen before. Just one massive cliff in front of me with nowhere to go but up and only minor evidence of other humans. In my brain I thought "Finally some scrambling! this must be the catwalk" For whatever reason, it did not occur to me that maybe, just maybe, I had passed a turn on the trail that went up and to the left before this cliff. Captain Hindsight was not there to save the da! Too late now, as I was already up on some very exposed loose dirt, checking every gully to see if it went up to the actual trail. About 6 gullies and some veggie belay later, I had realized my mistake and found my way through to the trail. This sucked way too much energy out of me, especially so early in my trip. So I stopped and took a nice long break.

Maybe 30 minutes later...

traffic jam

Deer

Cat Peak

That mistake made the actual catwalk feel like a cakewalk. It took about 25 minutes to cross. Once I was past this, I started heading up the ridge towards Carrie Peak. I was the third party within an hour to summit, which seemed strange for such a remote peak. The glaciers were every bit as cool as I'd hoped, but they were a little too broken up for my liking, which meant I brought my ice axe and crampons for nothing.

The heaping choss pile that is Mount Carrie

"Unofficial" Carrie Glacier (west)

Carrie Glacier (east)

summit pano

two tremendous bivy sites on the ridge

walked along the ridge a bit to get a better vantage

back down

great view into the Hoh

Nobody tells you this, but the Bailey traverse path does not believe in switchbacks. When you have to cross a gully, you go straight down, then straight back up. There's no moderate terrain - only flat or steep. You better have your footwear nailed down because if there's even a little wiggle room in your shoes, your feet will be sliding all over the place on these steep parts. I know from experience Got my first blister of the year thanks to this. After coming down Carrie, I continued over towards Stephen when I came across what seemed to be the popular campsite for all the traversers. It was approaching 6 pm and I still had a few miles, plus some uphill to go. I chatted with one of the parties, who was on day 3 of their traverse and asked if I was going to Cream Lake. I had (and still have) no idea where Cream Lake is, but it sounds interesting. I think I piqued their interest with my destination because I saw them again on Monday mulling the decision to go where I had been.

Oly

Clouds coming in as I ascend up to Stephen

golden hour clouds

The views along this section of the traverse are just neverending panoramas of the Hoh, Blue, and White Glaciers, along with the Hoh River valley, and views of Queets and Bear Pass. I made it up the ridge of Stephen Peak just minutes before sunset, and as luck would have it, clouds came in and blocked what otherwise would have been a phenomenal view of the sunset on Mount Olympus. I decided it wasn't worth hanging around the ridge and descended into the basin where I was greeted with an equally phenomenal and moody view of the vibrant blue basin lake. Somehow the light only seemed to be touching the lake because everything to the east was still clear of the clouds. Ahh, the rain shadow at work.

basin views

I discovered there was a bootpath leading down to the basin and a second party was camped in a very not LNT-compliant site between two braids of the melt stream about 50 feet from the lake. Did I confront them about it? No because it was getting dark and I had my own well-being to worry about. So here I am, passive-aggressively posting about it on the internet...

You can see the light on the left is the campsite I was referring to

first time attempting MW with the new camera.. not my best effort

Anyways, I must not be up to date on my Olympic sekrits, because I thought for sure I would have this basin all to myself. Plus I was a little upset that their tent was right in the middle of where I had planned to shoot the milky way [rabble rabble rabble] Day 2: Stephen Peak Basin to 7 Lakes/High Divide, Sol Duc, Distance: 20.8 miles Elevation Gain: 5850' Elevation Loss: 9100' The next morning, I awoke before dawn to capture the scenery in twilight and start exploring the basin. Pictures just don't do justice to how broad this basin really is (and how pretty everything is in the morning light).

morning twilight views

wispy clouds

moon

closer to sunrise

oversaturated

first light

soft morning colors

looking at the lake from lower

golden hour light further up the braided stream

flowers

looking back to the lake and that fricken campsite

stream views

The basin split into two here. going right seemed like the best bet to get to the carrie glacier

high tarn

tarn views

looking down into the basin

some awesome mini-canyons carved into the rock

daytime colors

I left the basin a little after 9 am and got on my way back toward the 7 lakes loop. After an 18+ mile day on Sunday, fuel and rest breaks were very frequent - probably 10 minutes per hour. Breaks were easy to come by since huckleberries dominated every inch of trail-side real estate. I have never seen so many before! Things were going well until a branch stabbed me in the face on the catwalk...

looking back from the ridge

Hoh pano

more clouds

Mount Tom and the White Glacier. I want to ski this baby

Oly

Tom, with his head stuck in the clouds

Once I made it back to the High Divide, I was tempted to just go straight back the way I had come, but I figured the loop would make it more interesting. I'm glad I went, but sheesh did it feel long! Call me a sinner, but once I got past the lunch lake turnoff, I realized I had a cell signal, so I started messaging friends to keep my mind alert. This was partially because I had solid evidence that my brain had already turned to mush when I turned right down towards Lunch Lake and lost 500 ft of elevation only to realize that this trail did not go back to Sol Duc. This would normally be pretty embarrassing to reveal, but the signage is not totally clear, so meh

Heart Lake

High Divide views

7 lakes basin first views

more traffic

jeez, quit being so dramatic

whatchu lookin at?

Future "my face when... " meme

basin

some people I didn't know that I knew

Bogachiel valley

Lunch Lake & friend

Lunch

friend

This sign only faces the Lunch Lake trail, and I didn't look at it

This is the sign you'd see on the High Divide trail. I mistook 7 lakes basin to mean the loop. oops

The last bit of trail down to Deer Lake, Canyon Creek, and Sol Duc is less scenic than all the previous bits, so I put my camera away and intermittently ran down the trail to beat the sunset. Running with an overnight pack is difficult. Running with hurting feet is difficult. Running on roots and gravel is also difficult. Put it all together, and let's just say I did not make it back to my car before sunset. But I have never been so glad to have brought car flip-flops.

Is there some tectonic activity going on up here? Massive cracks in the ground and trees uprooted

I couldn't tell what those brown dots were, so I got the tele lens out - elk!

'sup Oly?

tarn near a buch of campsites

[silence]

Awesome trip and photos ... well done! This is a area that of course many of us I've read about and maybe even visited (I wished), but I've never seen such intimate shots of it at this time of year ... usually it's earlier snowy pictures. I guess no place is esp sacred or secret anymore, and I have to be OK with that, whether I like it or not, because no one has special claim on a spot. It's just disappointing to work so hard to get someplace so remote and then have to share it, esp if that neighbor is not being respectful in one way or another. I'm not surprised you met folks up on the Bailey, but yeah it's a little more unusual to see a camp in that out of the way basin. I feel your pain about the bad judgement for their tent site in such a fragile riparian zone, esp with plenty of other low impact sites to choose from. Just the other day I was appalled and disheartened to see a report where they were camping and trampling on delicate alpine zone mountain heather fields ... where some of the communities are known to be up to 10K years old. Being woody plants these are easily breakable no matter where they are, but in this zone they are esp vulnerable because of their short growing season. BTW ... in both places not only does the ranger explain the most essential LNT principals before issuing a permit, but they are also included with the permit. And, when signing your XC permit you are acknowledging that you will adhere to them. So, it goes without saying, that it is the responsibility of each individual to understand them fully, esp when going off-trail Here's a link to LNT: https://lnt.org/learn/7-principles More about the fragile alpine ecosystem and why we should be more vigilant with our steps when traveling in it: https://www.wnps.org/ecosystems/alpine_eco/alpine.htm

[Bootpathguy]

[awilsondc]

You gotta post those goat traffic jam videos! Excellent report, as always!

[RAW-dad]

Nice TR and bummer that Stephen lake was double booked!

[BaNosser]

Thanks for taking me back.. Stephen Basin is a special place.. Your photography is exceptional

[geyer]

Thanks everyone. Agree with Silence about that campsite. a little education can go a long way.

[Monkey Del Mar]

A little late in posting this, but I was one of the parties that you met right before you reached the summit. (I spent roughly an hour at the summit, 1-2pm). Mine was a 3-day adventure, with a camp at "Swimming Bear Lake", where I had not one but two bears as weekend companions! That site made for a shorter exit on Monday, though I also found that the return via the upper part of the loop was never ending. Here are a couple of shots that I took on my descent; I think this might be you:

Great trip, though I am in no hurry to walk across that choss pile anytime soon.

[BC knip]

Monkey. we're heading over there from Victoria on Sunday for our first trip into ONP. We're heading out BR for 5 days out and back, just exploring around. I've been reading about Carrie and that last run to the summit, is that what I'm seeing in the picture on the right? I had read folks normally take the snow, but sometimes take the scree, but it looks to me that staying high on the side of the rock might go quite well, or at least less sucky than that scree?

[cascadetraverser]

Ferry basin is soo cool; nice photos!

[Monkey Del Mar]

Hello BC. Yes, that photo shows the last bit to the summit once you cross the bowl. I also read that some folks travel on snow, but it was almost all gone when I went last September; the path I followed is generally outlined in the photo below:

It was mostly tedious loose scree with a few solid spots. The actual ridge looks too broken to be easily doable. Of course you may have different conditions next week. Best of luck! It is a very nice summit and of course lovely area in general.

[geyer]

[BC knip]

awesome, thanks very much