[awilsondc]

TL;DR version - Brief outline of our trip: Day 1: Obstruction point high traverse to Moose and Grandview, trail from Grand Pass to Cameron Pass, set up camp in Lost Basin, climbed Lost. 14.3 miles 5,948 gain Day 2: Lost Pass - Point 6068 - Claywood via a high route (described below) - Fromme - Sentinel - Hayden Pass, trail back to camp. 11.1 miles 4,973 gain Day 3: packed up, tagged Cameron from Cameron Pass, then back to the car via the trail through Grand Valley. 15.8 miles 6,715 gain Trip total: 10 peaks - 6530 - 6585 - Moose - Grandview - Lost - 6068 - Claywood - Fromme - Sentinel - Cameron. 41.2 miles 17,636 gain Long version: The year was 2006. Trevin and I were in grad school. I had just purchased my first cell phone, a flip phone of course. Facebook opened to the public for the first time and Pluto was kicked out of the solar system. I was really getting into exploring the great outdoors and Summitpost was in its heyday. It had basically become my guidebook to find new places to go. Logging on one day I came across this picture of Lost Peak in the Olympic National Park and fell in love with the idea of going. Sharing the page with Trevin, we both decided that was a place we wanted to visit some day. Only, some day never happened. Years went by but there was always another trip to do and we never got around to Lost Peak. It almost didn't happen this time either. I had another trip planned for my 40th birthday, but a poor forecast made us look for something with better weather and the best weather was on the Olympic Peninsula. You know... sometimes things you really want don't happen until you are ready for them. With my North Cascades trip looking pretty bleak with a poor forecast, Trevin and I began to shift gears to a 3 day trip deep into the Olympics. Of course Lost Peak is what drew our attention to the area, but it's far from the gem of that region. There are a lot of peaks to climb around Lost Pass and we planned on tagging as many as we could. We decided to start out at Obstruction point so we met up on the morning of the 6th, and after a stop at the Port Angeles WIC to pick up bear cans we made the drive up to the trailhead and were on the trail around 9:15. We checked several forecasts prior to the trip and most said rain around 8-9 and clearing up after that. There was one forecast that showed on and off rain all day. Spoiler alert, the worst case forecast came true. Starting out it was 40 degrees, socked in, and a bit windy. The trail was pretty easy for the first few miles and we soon came to the turn off that headed to Moose Peak. Rather than descend down into Grand Valley we decided to take the high traverse to Moose Peak and on to Grandview Peak. We headed down the trail and a short bit later we summited our first peak of the day, a mere bump on the ridge but it's got a peakbagger page to sign so it counts. After a bit of a descent and a traverse we found ourselves at the saddle north of Moose Peak. We dropped our packs and tagged Peak 6585 to the north for peak number two. Then it was on to Moose for peak number three. Here we started to get some clearing of the clouds and got some nice views down into Grand Valley. It looked lovely and we looked forward to walking through the valley on the way back in a couple days.

Trail near Obstruction Point

Paintbrush and Lupine

Lupine

Much of the morning was like this

Odd spot, but thriving

Choss

Hiking to Moose

Descending from Moose we lost the trail a couple times, but found that there are several hiker / game trail that all pretty much join up on Moose's south ridge. Down the ridge, then up to the summit of Grandview which involved a touch of bushwacking where we discovered the trees soaked in water which we tried to avoid. There was some scrambling on the north ridge of Grandview, class 3 at times and chossy but nothing too horrible. There was still a high layer of clouds, but we could see Grand Valley and the Cameron Creek valley down below. We had considered doing the Lillian Ridge to Cameron Pass traverse, but without any interest in McCarthy Peak or Lake Lillian we decided to add the extra ~1.5 miles and 500 ft of gain in exchange for the easiness of the maintained trail. Still, the thought of 2300 ft of elevation we'd have to lose to get down to Cameron Creek only to have to gain it back was a tough pill to swallow and we knew it would be even worse on the way out on day three. On the plus as we dropped down from Grand Pass we entered through a gorgeous wildflower meadow which was amazing. After that we entered the forest and made our way down to Cameron Creek. Then, it began to rain.

First views of Grand Valley

Grand valley

Vibrant and alive

Cozy lil scene

Trevin and boulders

Looking back at Moose

Hiking to Grand Pass

Grand Pass views

Down into the forest

It was only a light mist kind of rain, just enough to soak the brush and eventually our pants and shoes. Hiking up Cameron Creek was nice, plenty of streams to cross and wildflower meadows to pass through. The trip really started to get good as we passed through Cameron Basin. Wow! Thin forested wildflower meadows down low turning into a high country meadow up high, and just stunningly beautiful. A couple deer were grazing on the trail as we entered Upper Cameron Basin. One walked right down the trail towards us before sauntering off into the brush, a lovely encounter. We waited until the last possible water source before filling up on water for the push up Cameron Pass. This turned out to be a bad idea as it was fricking cold with the cold wind coming down the north face of Cameron Pass, and it started to rain harder to the point we put on rain gear. Brrrr, we were glad to get moving.

Cameron Creek

Moody views

Trevin IDing plants with his app

Gentle cascades 1

Gentle cascades 2

Towering Lousewort

More wildflower meadows

Waterfall

Cameron Basin

Hiking through Cameron Basin

Doe

Head shot

Pure Olympics

As we got closer to the pass we had some decisions to make. Our original plan was to summit Cameron from the pass and carry on through to the ridge that connects to Lost, then summit Lost Peak. However visibility was poor and we knew we'd have no views and possibly difficulty navigating. Cameron was supposed to be one of the best peaks on our itinerary so we decided to save it for day three on the way out, head down to Lost Basin and set up camp there and do Lost if we had the time. So that's what we did. By the top of the pass the rain had eased off. There were gorgeous wildflower meadows heading down from Cameron Pass, and they were soaked. We got wet, fairly wet but not as wet as we'd get later in the trip. Lost peak was showing through the clouds and fog and it was good to finally see it in person. We passed some marmots and headed up to lower Lost Basin where we set up camp. We still had three hours before dark so we decided to climb Lost even though we knew we'd have no views. The standard route is from the east via Lost Pass but we decided to hit up the saddle to the northeast since it was closer.

Ascending towards Cameron Pass, basin below

Looking down on Cameron Basin

Lost Peak

Marmot

We hiked up through Lost Basin on the south side via a boulder field and gained the saddle. From here we had a dilemma. Looking up to the summit visibility was bad, maybe 100 feet. I could see gendarmes and brush which I knew would be soaked. Now, I believe this route goes just fine from reading other reports but I couldn't see **** and didn't want to get soaked in the brush so we decided to traverse the east slopes looking for an easier route up which was challenging with low visibility. Our route sucked. Steep sidehill traversing, some steep chossy scrambling, and some trees to schwack through but we made the summit. Zero views and zero time spent on top. We descended west directly down into Lost Basin. It sucked too. I think we did everything but the easiest route, haha. Back at camp we had a bear wander into camp. Well, it was like 100 yards away. It saw us and took off into the brush. It was only my second bear encounter in the wild, but we'd have more this trip!

Traversing from the saddle

Chossaneering

Lost Peak views

Lost Peak descent route

The night was cold and wet. I was glad I had brought my 1 man tent, Trevin got quite a bit damp in his bivy. We woke up to clear skies, and by woke up I mean slept in until 7:30. I was up first and got the bear cans from our spot on the hill and took some photos. After breakfast we packed up for the day. We were moving by 10.

Morning

Sunrise

Breakfast

Humming bird

We hiked down the basin to the trail and on to Lost Pass getting absolutely soaked by the wet brush. Our feet were sloshing in water, it was that bad. At the pass we ran into a family of four who had just arrived at the pass after a night in Dose Meadows. They asked us where we were headed and we pointed out our route from Claywood to Fromme to Sentinel which was all visible from the pass. They were blown away, like seriously shocked we'd be climbing those peaks and kinda excited about it. We started off and climbed some steep meadows and brush towards peak 6068. At the top of the slope, just before disappearing out of sight from Lost Pass we turned around and the family below let out a collective "You can do it!!!" and cheered us on. Once on the ridge we took a moment to stop and wring out our socks before continuing on to point 6068.

Life finds a way

Claywood from Lost Basin boulders

Wildflower meadows coming up from Lost Pass

Lost Pass and the family that cheered us on

Along the way we could see a high route up to Claywood. It looked super steep, but tempting. The only beta we had was a report from someone who had also hiked up to 6068 hoping to do a high route, but the route wouldn't go and they ended up doing the Claywood Lake outlet stream route. We figured we'd do the same thing, only the outlet stream route didn't look very good either. Trevin called it the waterfall route because that's what the outlet stream looked like. So what to do... We considered dropping down to the trail and just doing the peaks from Hayden pass but that would cost us a lot of time and probably a peak. We decided to check out the outlet stream route and if it didn't look good we'd drop down to the trail and ascend via Hayden Pass. Funny thing happened, as we descended we got pretty close to the high route and from this angle it looked like it would go. It was definitely steep, but we had a good feeling and decided to chance it knowing that if we had to bail the extra time involved would cost us a peak, but if we succeed we'd save a ton of time.

Claywood route

Peak 6068 from the start of the Claywood route

Claywood route 1

Claywood route 2

On top of the worst choss from where I traversed

The route is pretty obvious, it looks like a path that goes up a bit, does a short traverse, then goes up some more to the summit block of Claywood. It was very steep hard packed dirt and choss. Not the most pleasant and definitely some terrain where you wouldn't want to tumble down the mountain side. I stayed right up the first ramp then close to the cliffs for the short easy traverse that felt like a sidewalk, then stayed left up the second ramp which had the worst of the steep dirt and choss until it looked like there was a good spot to traverse loose junk over to solid terrain on the right. Easy up from there. After finishing the second ramp with the knowledge that the route was gonna go we crested the ridge and got our first view of Claywood lake and were blown away by the beauty. Stoke was through the roof! This area is really cool, definitely one of my favorite in the Olympics. We didn't stay long at the summit as we had more peaks to climb!

First view of Claywood Lake

Yeah!!!

Claywood summit views

Trevin on the final scramble to Claywood's summit

Claywood summit selfie

The trip from Claywood to Fromme wouldn't go on the ridge. Several times we had to drop down on the SE side and eventually we decided to drop down into a boulder basin and picked out a line of ascent for Fromme. The views from Fromme were great, but Claywood was better. We took a moment to full our water containers with snow since there was no water on the route from Lost Pass to below Hayden Pass on the trail. We had a snack and then departed for Sentinel. Mount Anderson was looking pretty bad ass from here, and is getting higher and higher on my want to climb list. Descending from Fromme we eventually reached the trail that lead to Hayden Pass. Here we came across a group of three, two young men just coming down from Sentinel and a dad waiting for them. We exchanged greetings and headed up Sentinel which had a hiker's trail to the summit. At this point we could both tell weather was moving in. The forecasts all predicted rain that night, but one forecast showed rain starting at 5. Again, it looked like the worst case forecast was going to come true. We had wanted to get Sentinel's Sister but with the weather moving in we decided against it and headed back down to Hayden Pass.

Descending the Claywood - Fromme ridge

Yellow things

JUMP!

Ascending Fromme, Anderson behind

Fromme summit views

Mount Cameron

Claywood Lake and Mount Claywood

Sentinel from Fromme

Sentinel as we descend

Trail to Hayden Pass

Hayden Pass sign

Hiking up Sentinel, Fromme behind

Sentinel views

We took the trail from Hayden Pass down to Dose Meadows which was nice but I was expecting better, then the long 1300 ft of gain back up to Lost Pass. When we got back to the pass, wouldn't you know it, that same family we had seen earlier in the day was coming down from Lost Peak. "Did you do it?" they asked. We told them we had succeed that they were pumped. As we parted ways we could hear them discussing how it would be a good story to tell when they got back. We were also stoked about the peaks we had bagged and were glad that it had enhanced their trip as well. Right about this time the rain started up and we were glad we didn't go for Sentinel's Sister. We hiked back to camp getting soaked in the process. It was a soggy evening with light rain on and off and clouds and fog blowing through Lost Basin, very moody and kinda cool. Once again around dinner time we saw a bear, this time 300 yards away. It wandered off into a clump of trees and didn't emerge from them. We wondered if if had a den in there, and also wondered if it was the same bear from last night. It rained off and on all night.

Heading down from Hayden Pass

Fromme from the trail down to Dose Meadows

Dose Meadows

Lost Pass sign

Lost Peak

Dinner in the rain

Bear heading to its den

Moody foggy clouds

We woke up to socked in skies and everything was wet. We packed up and headed back for Cameron Pass. Hiking down from Lost Basin we decided to try a higher route hoping we could avoid wet brush. We could not, everything was soping wet. We found a creek and ended up hiking down directly in the creek because it was drier. I was glad I had brought rain pants as they kept my pants dry but shoes and socks were again sloshing soggy wet, the worst of the trip. After the climb up to Cameron Pass we again wrung out our socks and stashed our overnight gear and began the climb up to Cameron.

Creek in Lost Basin

Wet lupine

Wet flowers

Nearing Cameron Pass

The ridge up to Cameron is really cool. Lots of false summits. Clouds were beginning to clear and the views were stunning in all directions. The best route is to stay on the ridge, even over the gendarmes and such, until the final false summit where we traversed a bit before topping out on Cameron, our tenth peak for the trip! Cameron was great, my second favorite peak of the trip after Claywood. Awesome views in all directions. Trevin was itching for the middle and east peaks of Cameron, but I stubbornly refused being satisfied with the true summit and knowing we still had nearly 5000ft of gain to go with our overnight packs and time to consider. It turned out to be the right call, which Trevin noted as we were slogging uphill later in the day. On the way back we ran into a solo hiker who had done the full Lilian traverse. After hearing his description of the section from Grandview to Lillian we were affirmed in our decision to take the trail instead of that part of the traverse. It sounded not so fun. Back at the pass we changed into DRY SOCKS (ahhhhh) for the trail back to the car.

Traversing a gendarme

Views from Cameron are expansive

Cameron summit view

Lost Basin

Heading down from the summit

Downclimbing a steep section

Tree on a rock

Descending from Cameron, Wellesley behiind

Lost Peak

Tragedy struck shortly after leaving Cameron Pass. I ran out of pictures on my memory card for my camera and found out that I didn't take my spare memory card!!! Oh, the horror! I annoyingly spent a lot of time hiking and trying to delete unwanted photos so I could at least take some pics on the way back. Trevin basically ran down the trail from Cameron Pass to Cameron Creek, I could barely keep up! haha. Finally we reached the big climb up to Grand Pass, 2300 ft to slog up. Usually this is where a trip starts to suck. Tired feet and body, just ready to get back to the car... As we started up the trail I surprisingly didn't feel too bad. I felt like an old pickup truck going up a steep grade, just throw it in low gear and let it do work. It actually wasn't that bad for me. We took a brief break at Grand Pass to recharge before heading down into Grand Valley.

Cameron Creek

Cameron Creek Valley

Critter

It was cool to have a new experience heading down through Grand Valley on the trail, since we had taken the Moose traverse on the way in. The light was transitioning to that evening light and there was a lot of low clouds blowing through. I had so many reasons to feel horrible, tired legs, bear canister not packed the best digging into my back, some horrible heel rash on both heels from all the side hilling in wet shoes and socks, etc... but for some reason I was able to disassociate from the pain on a level I had never reached before and was able to really enjoy the rest of the hike, like really REALLY enjoy it. As we passed Gladys Lake we saw another bear. It came fairly close to the trail. It saw us but paid no mind, instead concentrating on flipping over rocks and looking for bugs to eat. I really wished I had more photos on my camera but I got a couple ok shots. It was a really cool experience having the bear so close to us. Hiking through Grand Valley was fricking cool with the evening light and low clouds. So moody and magical! Again, we had another section of gain to do, about 1300 ft this time. My attention was focused on the amazing sights around me, not paying much attention to the aches and pains of my body. It was pretty cool. Finally as we reached the long gradual couple miles back to the car I reached the ok I'm ready for this to be over point. We passed a few deer and there were a couple more grazing in the parking area when we arrived. My only real disappointment for the trip was not getting any sunrises or sunsets, but we were treated to a decent sunset on the drive back. After dropping Trevin off I finally got home around midnight and had a good night's sleep. This trip was amazing, right up there with the best I've ever done.

Descending from Grand Pass

Entering Grand Valley

Bear in Grand Valley

Looking for grubs

Is this heaven?

Grand Lake

magical

Mountains and clouds

Olympus

41.2 miles 17,636 ft elevation gain

[benneke]

Great trip and report! I really love the photos of Claywood Lake, I've been thru that area several times but never deviated from the trail, I will have to check out Claywood next time I'm back there If you ever end up doing the Lillian - Cameron section, the Olympic Climbers Guide has a pretty good description that saves time.

[Magellan]

Outstanding! Thanks for writing it up.

[Cyclopath]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Wow, Claywood L. is gorgeous. I don't think I'd even heard of it before. It has a bit of resemblance to Chickamin L. I'd say. The way it's situated and it's surroundings.

[Gimpilator]

This is a great report. Makes me miss the Olympics. I totally remember the online beta you found for Lost, because it's still fresh in my mind many years later. It left that big of an impression. Those photos and report were put up by Byron, right? I actually ran into him on my last Olympics trip. Thanks for posting this.

[RAW-dad]

Great trip and TR! Thanks for sharing.

[awilsondc]

[rubywrangler]

Happy birthday!

[silence]

Great trip! Claywood Lake is beautiful.

[ozzy]

Wowww boys!! That's one of the prettiest areas of the Olympics I've seen!! What an arduous adventure yall had!! Way to go get it, cheers and thanks for the awesome tr!!

[neek]

spectacular and diverse set of photos, and you used the mist to your advantage. i gotta get out that way more!

[bobbi]

OMG! what an adventure! I'm happy you two got 'Lost'

[awilsondc]