A glorious fall week-end for one last bikepacking trip in the Olympics. Olympic Adventure Trail Westward on day 1 and Olympic Discovery Trail on the way back on day 2.
We hiked a loop route in Discovery Park , Perkins Ln , stairways including the Moving Stairway , and limited views to the Olympics , Puget Sound , downtown Seattle , Mt. Rainier and Queen Anne . The historic Discovery Park and Magnolia neighborhoods were enjoyable to hike.
Hamed and I were successful in brushing the route between the end of the old logging spur and to within 150 feet of the NF-4832-141 road. Given the time of day and tiredness of my arms from all the sawing work and the thicket of Devil's Club between us at the road -- we called it for this trip.
Great shoulder season loop scramble, especially on a clear day.
Quick, Steep and Quiet- Good for training.
Lovely, lovely trail, beautifully restored. We left from the Middle Fork TH and hiked 5 miles to the bridge at Cripple Creek, which has beautiful falls.
Fun and companionship and cold clear conditions and Western larches and Mountain Queers make for a good day out!
An early winter adventure on a beautiful clear day!
We had a lovely hike to Ollalie Creek Campground, which started with a wonderful short trip to the Grove of the Patriarchs, which includes a cool suspension bridge, and ended with a quick side trip to beautiful Silver Falls.
Seven nautical mile round-trip paddle along an historic section of coast at the northern end of Camano Island. This area was once a major logging community and home to the first shipbuilding operation in the Puget Sound region.
Trail was in relatively good condition. There were a few small downed trees on the trail from yesterday's wind storm. Watch for hanging branches toward the top.
A surprisingly pleasant shoulder season conditioner (~16 miles, ~5900’ gain), with added drama from an intimidating forecast that never happened. Gorgeous fall colors, treecicles (portmanteau of icicles and tree), plus much stoic cloud gazing.
We hiked to Susan Jane Lake , our destination . Views of Josephine Lake would have been impacted by storm activity . The Fall colors were beautiful in the berry areas.
Successful run -- despite gate being locked
Started at 8 AM, hiked to the summit. Returned to the cars by 2:30 PM
About a foot of new snow in the Headlight basin beyond the pass made navigation difficult since the trail was completely covered. Became more of a snow scramble than a hike. We reached the bottom of the basin past the grove of larches, but decided to turn around towards the part where the trail goes over rocky terrain and was not visible.