[meck]

Bottom line up front: Trail is in great condition from Staircase to where the snow begins. Snow begins in earnest at about the ~3500-3600 foot level. Traction devices would be a good idea for the morning, but the snow was generally soft enough to comfortably travel across, only aided by trekking/ski poles, by midday. 4-5 feet compact snow at First Divide (good luck getting down to Home-Sweet-Home!). 4th of July was looking to be a great weather day, so I decided to go venture into some unvisited-by-me territory. Started off cloudy, leaving the TH at around 0830. Cruised along the trail past Spike, Pleasant and Nine camps which all seemed to be in fine condition, while the weather got progressively more summer-like (surprising considering it was not 5 July....). Briefly visited Big Loop camp to investigate some very distressing yelps/screams. It turned out to be some sort of young-person outdoor group playing a game, who then thanked me for investigating the yelps. Having not heard any gunshots, or spotting any crazy-eyed axe-wielders among them I decided they were most likely telling the truth, which was good since running 5 miles back to the Ranger Station for help while being chased by crazy forest axe maniacs would have been a bit challenging (though what a story that would've been). Only ran into one other soul on the way in. A back country Ranger had spent the previous evening at Nine Camp, and had enjoyed the complete NW experience by hiking in during the Tuesday downpours. He had a lot of good info on the trail ahead and it was nice to know that at least one other geographically local individual knew that I had passed along the trail. Reached Nine Camp (which is Ten miles in) at 1143 and ate lunch (non-Skokomish Tuna Sandwich, perfectly processed & pressed made-in-Mexico York peppermint patties, and a WApple). After mustering the motivation to press on, hard not to do with sunny blue skies teasing your eyes skyward, I pressed on! Up, up and up along the trail (more or less), which seeing how the foliage and terrain was a mixture of leafy greens, evergreens, dark piney-greens, and no-greens reminded me of every other hike in the Olympics all rolled into a single vertical stretch! Mt. Skokomish was visible and grand. Never did find Two-bear camp, one-bear camp, or bear-wire camp, so I must of strolled past it!

Now the great thing about snow, is that you can go cross country/off trail without worrying about smashing fragile alpine plants! Now the bad thing about snow, is that you can go off trail 'cause you can't see the smashed/no-plant trail! I was able to follow the trail, or where the trail was hibernating, to probably somewhere around 3900' elev, at which point I decided to wander around in a loop for a while because that's just what you do to make yourself feel like you're making progress even though you aren't actually making progress. Not seeing any obvious signs of a trail I asked myself which was the easiest/laziest/least amount of brush to remove (in other words where I would put a trail) direction. I picked the easy snow slope to the west and headed on up. Trail found, I confidently moved on again... and promptly off the real trail, again, about 100 yards later. I was drawn to that perfect-looking clearing, that just calls to you ("Here I am, snowy and tree free with a spectacular view of Mt. Steel"), right at the point where you should be turning Right on the trail. Well that direction is wrong, not right, unless Mount Steel is your goal, in which case Left is Right! This was ~2:00pm

Mt Steel in all its glory!

across the duck small shot

Pseudo Pano across the Duckabush with White, LaCrosse, and Elklick visible.

I spent the next half-hour taking lots of pictures of Mount Steel (that's only considered a Class I-2 !), and gazing north across the Duckabush valley to White, LaCrosse, Elklick. Absolutely gorgeous views! While snacking, consulting the map, and observing a distinct lack of First Divide sign markers, I began to consider that perhaps I was not actually at First Divide trail crossing... hmm troubling...though maybe not that troubling. Wandered around for another forty minutes traversing around the big bump on the ridge line saddle while wearing crampons since I'm to stubborn to give up elevation just to avoid a few semi-steep snow slopes (they make such a wonderful screachy noise on the rocks! I bet goats love that sound) and eventually found the First Divide sign (it must not have been so happy to see me as it was looking kind of down). While contemplating future visits I glassed the terrain, searching for the Home-Sweet-Home shelter with no luck (the map says it must be down there, and maps never lie, right!?). Took some more pics of Hopper (or rather Hopper's western shoulder).

Hopper's west shoulder

First Divide sign, LaCrosse (?) in the background, pack in the foreground

Having made the most of my time there, and talking myself out of doing something foolish like trying to reach that inviting little hill above HSH, I turned around and began the fun of trying to find the right hook of the trail (which I guess would be a left hook while going down) at ~3:30pm. Encountered 1 backpacker on the way down at the "wandering meadow" area and made sure to mention the right-not-wrong hook in the trail ("follow my foot steps in the snow coming down, not up"). Thankfully he had followed my tracks up and when I began wandering too far to the west, he guided me back to the east. Had dinner at 9 camp, which was now occupied by 6 people, and left at 5 and a half PM. Met another very nice heavily loaded backpacker (these folks sure made me glad to be carrying a day-pack!) and spoke with him for a few minutes. He'd been a back country ranger a while back and knew a lot about all of the trails, cross-country traverses, and best camping spots. He also explained why no shelter could be found at Home-Sweet-Home (what kind of Home provides no shelter?). He was definitely someone I would like to cross paths with again at some point on the trail.

obligatory shot of the turn in the Skok before reaching the TH, sun was still barely poking over the ridgeline

Otherwise uneventful all the way back to the TH, arriving at 8:27pm. Left just in time to catch all of the fireworks displays over the sound end of Hood Canal (while avoiding catching the fireworks being set off in the middle of the road ) More pictures to come later.

[bkellygr]

That is a long hike for one day. Is that around 26 miles you did? Thank you for sharing your experiences and the pass conditions!

[Phil]

What a great day you had! Very persistent snow up there it seems.

[ranger rock]

Nice TR and pictures thanks.. I'm wanting to go up a 4,500 foot peak, I guess I'll wait a bit.

[silence]

one of my favorite early snow trips .. we did it back in 2010 on the 4th .. we hit solid snow around 2 bear .. then it was out with the gps .. even so we went too high at north pass .. but eventually found the trail again .. i tried to talk my old man into going back again this year but he wanted to try something new .. anyhow thx for the memories .. here's my pix from the trip .. btw .. imo well worth the extra weight of the backpack .. http://www.flickr.com/photos/33792231@N00/sets/72157624443474060/detail/

[meck]

Added three more pics. @bkellygr: Yeah, I think it was around 26 miles round trip. The 18 miles along the river though flew by quickly (between stopping for snacks and talking with folks I was averaging about 3 mph). The trail crew must have been there recently (the work looked good). I don't remember having to step over even one blowdown! @ Phil & ranger rock: thanks, it was a great time to be out there! @silence: those are beautiful pictures! I love the morning light on the mountains! I've never been able to get my plant/foliage close up pics to turn out right, yours really 'pop'

[HumpnoocheeGirl]

Awesome! Thanks for the report. This is also unvisited by us, but on the list.

[Eeyore]

That's a neat trip. I did it about this time last year, although I stayed the night at Nine Stream. I was up as far as Nine Stream again this year, 6/20-21, and met the trail crew coming in to work as I was on my way out. There were nearly a dozen trees across the trail then between the bridge and Nine Stream, a couple in big clumps.