(Belated) Trip Report - Mt. St. Helens and Olympic NP

Wow, I meant to do this a while ago, but I was just organizing some magazines and found the notebook that I was going to use as a journal for my road trip back home from WA. It has exactly one entry, at which point I switched to my little 4x2 Rite in the Rain notebook (meaning that entries are fairly short, but it was much more portable for backpacking). For those that don't know, my friend Julie and her boyfriend Justin met me in Everett, where I'd been living (they had spent the past month in San Francisco), and we began our journey back east (backpacking a lot along the way). So here is a trip summary copied (with some editing) from my journal entries!

Mount St. Helens

Mt. St. Helens photos

8/25/2009

The evening before our climb, a large man with a sweat-stained shirt and an extremely large external frame backpack emerged from the trailhead, loudly stating "That was bullshit, I'm never doing that again!" We all started laughing. I slept outside that night, despite having set the tent up, and I woke up in the middle of the night to a good view of the night sky (clear, lots of stars).

Left for the climb at 7 a.m. and finished at 1! Six hours is actually really good time for a hike to the crater and back, especially considering that my knees were really starting to crap out. Worse than they ever have before, actually. It was a combination of joint, tendon, and muscle pain which main moving my leg to take a step awkward and painful no matter how I altered my stride. I'm hoping that they strengthen up as I continue hiking more. Note: A couple of days before, on my last day of work, I had slipped while walking in Canyon Creek and landed hard on (just) my right knee on a large boulder. This injury wouldn't have normally been all that bad, but it was very inconvenient considering that I was going to be hiking with a heavy pack for the next month or so. In the case of Mt. St. Helens and later in Olympic NP, I favored my left leg while hiking to help the right knee heal, with the result that my left leg soon became strained. So for about a week I had 2 bad legs, especially for the downhill hiking.

The first 2/3 of the summit hike was great. Started out in fir forest with Vaccinium understory, then after timberline there were various rocky specialist herbacious plants that I was not familiar with (though I did notice Fireweed and elderberry, as well as one willow fairly high up). Then the hike become rockier (with large boulders being the dominant feature), and it was officially a scramble. After the large boulders the substrate was mostly ashy, and it got cold and VERY windy. By this point, we'd pretty much gone into a cloud. The crater was anti-climactic, as visibility was only about 30 feet so we couldn't see down into it. Oh well. Currently at a free campsite along the Hoh River Road in Olympic National Park.

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park photos

8/27/2009

• Woke up to the sound of Roosevelt Elk crossing the Hoh River. Camped at bank (5 mile island). Occurred about 45 min to an hour before sunrise.
• Went to get water shortly after, encountered the herd near the trail. They ran toward the open gravel bar before I saw them, and we watched each other from about 75 ft away. I cautiously passed. Several bulls. About 25-30 individuals.
• Back at camp I watched crossbills for about 20 minutes. I'd never seen them before.

8/29/2009

• Hike on 27th was brutal. 10ish miles to Elk Lake, the last half steep upill. Put moleskin on defective toe without noticing that blister had already formed. Hurt like bitch!
• Elk Lake productive (aka mosquito infested). Constructed "armor" out of clothing and referred to myself as a Bedoin woman (all but eyes covered).
• Yesterday hiked 2 miles (with ~1500 ft elevation gain) to Glacier Meadows. Resident doe and 2 point buck were very acclimated to humans. Saw small owl (Western Screech?) at dusk.
• Day hiked to terminal moraine of Blue Glacier. Beautiful views! Then hiked to lateral moraine, down the inner scree slope (there was a "trail"), and then stood on the glacier! Drank refreshing glacier water. Julie did this all in flip flops.
• Today hiked downhill to Olympus Ranger station. Park-like campsite with alders along Hoh river. Lots of bees and hornets.

8/30/2009

• Hiked 9 miles out from Olympus Ranger Station to VC (visitor center). Very fast pace (est. 3 mph average)
• Drove through Forks, not realizing that it was the center of Twilight madness. Showered at small motel that "smelled and looked like old lady." Then ate pizza and drank beer at small diner-like restaurant.
• Drove to Lake Ozette, found $12/night campsite. About to go to bed before sunset.

To be continued in later post, probably later today.