Olympic National Park 2013

River in the Olympic National Park

 Thanks to Rob, this year we found a very low travelled hike in the southwest corner of the Olympic National park and tried on packrafting for the first time.  Packrafts are mini-rafts that weigh about 5 lbs and fit on, you guessed it, your pack!!  They are awesome, and packrafting will definitely be on the menu for future trips.  The trail is not well hiked because right at the beginning you have to either ford the river or float across.  Fording the river is nearly impossible until very late in the season when the water level lowers to a manageable flow rate.

This years group left to right James, Gary, Jared, Rob, Zachariah, Jeff, Mike, and Chris

Randy was the final group member, manning the camera for the above log shot

We started out with having to blow up and "test" our rafts right from the get go.  Money was on Gary washing out to sea or popping his raft in a snag before we had hiked anywhere, there was a moment of excitement but he made it, just barely.

Prepping the rafts for the first float

James making the initial crossing

After the initial crossing we wrapped up the rafts for the two day hike up the river.  The hike up river was about 17 miles on sometimes nonexistent trail.

Looking for any sign of the trail

No real elevation gains, but sometimes the "trail" was nearly impassable

James and Gary climbing over fallen logs

Silver back gorilla

Old ranger shack at the end of the trail, not much of a shelter

The first night we had to cross the river to a nice sandbar that was perfect for camp.  Since it was in the middle of the river there was a nice, constant breeze that kept the bugs away.  The sandbar was also at a point where another stream joined the river and made for a good fishing hole.  The Smith brothers have been dreaming of catching a real fish in the wild ever since they were wee lads.  They were cheated out of every good chance in Alaska two years back, so this year was going to be their chance to realize their dream.  Once we landed the sandbar they broke out their gear and went searching for the perfect spot.

Packrafts lined up on the sandbar

At the "fishing hole", we used a couple of sets of goggles to find the elusive fish

 Within a few minutes of fishing up the creek above the sandbar both Smith brothers hand some solid hits.  It wasn't until the next morning that they actually reeled one in, but the Smith's got their fish.  The first night while fishing nobody was watching the boats and a big gust of wind came and blew a couple into the river.  Luckily people were close by and heard the boats go, so we were able to save them from floating downstream.

Oooh, fire

The second day we hiked the rest of the way.  The trail became increasingly difficult to find until it completely disappeared altogether.  Luckily a ranger had been up there and had hung pink ribbons every so often to help the occasional backpacker stay on track.

Lost in a meadow

While eating dinner and starting the fire on the second night we spotted two big black bears in the meadow on the opposite side of the river.  Both lumbered through the clearing without noticing us and ate berries as they worked there way across and back into the trees.

Black bear #1 eating berries

The morning of the third day we blew up our packrafts and set out to make the 17-20 mile rafting trip back to the beginning.  The river took a somewhat winding route so we didn't have a perfect measurement for actual distance.  Total rafting time from our second camp to the take out point was about 8.5 - 9 hours.  Gary almost ended early about 5 minutes into the float.  There were a lot of dead snags and old growth trees laying across the river at some points.  Right after we put in there was a set of rough rapids and an old growth tree sticking out over the water about 3 feet above the water. Unfortunately for Gary there was also some white water peaking right under the log and he couldn't get to the left fast enough.  When Gary's raft popped up he leaned way back to not hit his head and the raft gave, dipping his head in the water and throwing his feet straight up.  His legs hit the log and as he came the down the other side of the wave he miraculously popped back into the raft.  Everybody thought he was going over, but his desperate, adrenaline fueled clinging to the boat pulled him through.

Blowing up the packrafts

Jared ready to go

Left to right, Rob, Zachariah, and Jared

Coming through some rapids

Amazingly they sell a "Sasquatch" size packraft that fit Rob

At some points we had to portage around dead fallen trees that blocked the river enough to make it impassible.  There were only a few spots, but there were enough to make you really appreciate how nice it was to just be able to ride the rapids in the rafts.  While floating we saw loads of huge elk along the riverbanks, culminating with a huge herd crossing the river right in front of us.

James pushed up against a nasty snag

Elk in the river

Portaging down a shallow tributary around a huge deadfall in the middle of the river

Gary pulling out to portage

Monster elk herd crossing the river in front of us

Below are two movies made from footage taken during the trip:

2013 Queets River from Fiona Rollins on Vimeo.

Queets 2013 from Rob Smith on Vimeo.

Summer 2012

With email votes added into the survey responses, The Enchantments hike won out over all others by two votes. I will be preparing to submit a permit bid when the window opens in Feb or March. I also solidified my schedule this week and it looks like I will be able to do the hike on 23-26 or 27 of June... we can plan a sacrament meeting for Sunday similar to last summer if that works for everybody. Additionally, for those interested, I am tentatively planning on climbing Rainier on 3-5 August, 3-4 August with 5 August being an extra day in case of extreme weather etc. So with the above dates in mind please leave a comment as to your availability to come so I can start the logistical planning.

**If we don't get an Enchantments permit in the lottery, I'm thinking we could just as easily shift to the Foss lakes hike also in the Alpine Wilderness area or do the complete Olympic Peninsula coast hike. Both are great.

Trek 2012

Short and simple, here are my idea's for next summer. Take a gander, and vote on the side for what interests you most. If you want to float another idea add a comment to this post and we'll float it to everybody:

#1: 3-4 day kayak trip in the San Juan islands, camp in national and/or state parks on uninhabited islands and look for Orca's. Cost should be pretty minimal, just kayak rentals and whatever it costs for each person to get to the area. We would drive up to San Juans (taking a ferry over to the islands).

#2: 6-8 day canoe trip on the Bowron lakes (click link for more info) in northern British Columbia. This is an awesome canoe trip through some really rugged territory. Full of bears, moose, and everything else. The trip is about 70 miles and the lakes make a natural square so we would start and end at almost the same point. There are some small portages between lakes and the lakes have good fishing. Cost would be for rental of canoes and getting to the area. Probably all meet in Seattle and drive up, it's about a 12 hour drive to the lakes from Seattle.

#3: 4-5 day rafting down the Rogue River. Jeff can give us more information on specifics, but basically lots of good rafting, hot weather, and lots of swimming. The area is beautiful, and fishing is usually decent. Cost would be for raft rentals, Jeff can guide? and we would have to get to Rogue River, Oregon.

#4: 3-5 day hike through the Enchantments near Leavenworth, Washington. This is a protected alpine wilderness area that only a small number of people each year are given permits to enter. We could expand or contract the time depending on peoples schedules and cost would basically just be travel to the area.

If anybody has any other suggestions let me know and we'll add them to the list. The info here is obviously not exhaustive but any of the above trips would be a lot of fun. Please mark the poll on the side for where you want to go, and please leave a comment with times that would work for you in the summer and we'll try and pick a timeframe that works with the most people's schedules.

Also, if anybody is up for a climb of Rainier in addition to the usual trek let me know. I'm going to be kicking around in the States a long time next summer and right now I think I would really like to do a 2-3 day climb of Rainier if some others want to give it a go.

Alaska

The Wood River at Kansas Creek

Alaska was a great success. We all landed in Fairbanks on 24 June ready to fly out on the morning of 25 June. Fairbanks was hot, high 80's low 90's, and everybody was immediately tempted to drop cold weather gear since the forecast even looked promising for the upcoming week.

Our group this year from left to right: Mike, Doug, Jared, Rob, Jeff, Chris, Zachariah, Randy, and Seth

Last minute preparations at the Seven Gables Inn (Jeff, Randy, Chris)

We mostly stayed together at the Seven Gables Inn, the all night light affected us right away. It was hard to reconcile how late it actually was because how light it stays all night. The sun was setting at about 0050 and coming back up at around 0250. Even after it set night never got very dark.

The Smith brothers take up most of the space

The next morning we headed to Wright Air and checked in for our flight. We had to fly in three separate planes, 3 of us to a plane. Rob, Jared, and I had rented the cars so we dropped everybody and they flew out on the first wave and then after we dropped the cars off we flew out on a Helio Courier. The flight took about 45 minutes.

Entering the Alaska Range

Lining up to land the Kansas Creek Strip

The Wood River

Left to Right: Jared, Zachariah, Mike, Doug, Rob

First signs of life not 3 minutes from the airstrip, huge Grizzly tracks

Virginia Creek bed (our trail in the land of no trails)

There are no trails in the wilderness area around Kansas Creek airstrip and so we had to find the easiest way possible. Mostly that meant we hiked in creek beds a lot or right on the edge of the creek. Under 3200 feet the Alder scrub was so thick it was almost unpassable. Eventually we decided to break through and hike along the slopes above the creek and Alder scrub but that proved even more difficult. We originally planned on hiking up to a set of Alpine lakes about 9 miles from the airstrip. But about 7pm we called it quites about 2.5 miles before the lakes.

Hiking along Virginia creek

Alder Scrub

Climbing up above the creek and hopefully to easier terrain

In the tundra looking back towards the Wood river (Doug)

In the tundra (Zachariah)

After a big rain, everybody spread out trying to navigate the slippery rocks in the tundra

A herd of Dall sheep grazing near the peak

Looking down on camp from the peak

After dinner Jeff and I climbed up the peak above our camp to try and get closer to the Dall sheep. By the time we got up there the sheep had moved up higher and around the rocky top. It was really slippery on the rocks since they were still wet so we decided not to go any further. Around the north side we could see into the valley behind the peak and there were Dall sheep all over the rock cliffs. It's amazing the places those things can go.

Camp in the morning, it rained all night

Caribou mother and calf

Hiking up to the lakes

We finished our hike up to the alpine lakes on the second day. We still followed the creak for a while and at one point had to climb over an ice run. The tundra became much easier to navigate and we were able to make it up to the lakes in under 3 hours.

Ice run on the way to the alpine lakes

Looking back towards the creek from the final push up to the lakes

The bigger lake, water was 42 degrees with ice floating on one side

Virginia Creek valley

Zachariah, Jared, and Rob climbing down past the little lake

The Smith brothers came to Alaska with great dreams of all the fish they would catch and eat along the way. Unfortunately we weren't able to find any fish in the waters we saw. They made a last effort on the return trip as they drove from Fairbanks to Anchorage to catch their flights home. Not sure if they were successful then either.

Dall sheep mother and calf

Fording the creek

Chris jumping across

We had to ford the creek multiple times. As everybody got tired of taking their boots on and off we started looking for spots we could throw rocks into the water and build up enough to walk across.

Hiking back down towards a lake on the Wood river on day 3

Climbing back up into the tundra above the creek bed

The Smith brothers trying to avoid the tundra

At one point we decided it would be easier to climb up over a low hill to get to the lake, it saved some time and we got an amazing view of the valley

More signs of life, Moose bones chewed on by something big

Unnamed lake near the Wood river (Jeff)

Finally arrived at camp on the Wood river (Zachariah)

Wolf prints

We found a lot of wolf, bear, moose, and even lynx prints but didn't get to see any of them. While hiking up Kansas creek on 4 we found a huge pile of fur spread around a few bones and wolf and bear tracks all around. The locals had a good meal.

Trying to start a huge bonfire, it didn't go as planned

Makeshift raft, Jeff, Chris, Mike, and Zachariah tried to float down the Wood river but the raft quickly sank. Probably for the better, the water was really cold.

After the raft sunk

Trying to start the bonfire

Arriving at the landing strip, day 5

The first plane circling to see if we made it back

Left to right: Seth, Rob, Chris, Randy, Jared, Doug, Jeff, Mike, and Zachariah

Bear spray had to ride outside in case it burst in flight

Alaska was amazing! It was really cool to imagine that we were in places that few people had been and for 4 days we saw no signs of other people at all. No trails, no footprints, no garbage, no help. Can't wait to go back!