I was up at 7am and started filtering water for the day. No animals
had gone after our food, which was stored double-bagged in the
bear canister. We left our tent, sleeping gear, cooking gear,
and most of the food at our site and started hiking up to Glacier
Meadows at about 9:30am.
It was another beautiful, clear, sunny day. Considering we were
in the rainiest place in North America (140 inches of rain a year),
I was a bit surprised to encounter such great weather.
The trail starts climbing immediately, and starts climbing out
of the rain forest. It starts to take on an E.T.-like quality.
It's peaceful, with lots of large trees and less and less moss
hanging from the trees. About 15 minutes from camp we encountered
a beautiful cascading waterfall. We'd find another, smaller one,
later in the day.
After climbing, the trail actually descends for a couple hundred
feet to the High Hoh Bridge. This sturdy bridge crosses the Hoh
River, perhaps a hundred feet above the river level in a narrow
canyon. It's an impressive sight. There were 4 climbers resting
here on their descent. They'd climbed Mt. Olympus and were making
the long trip back. They had ice axes, crampons, helmets, and
rope. Despite the fact that Mt. Olympus is "only" 7965 feet high,
it's glaciated and requires all that hardware to climb. It's only
about 5 steep miles from Glacier Meadows. These climbers had done
the round trip from Glacier Meadows in 8 hours.
View looking down from the High Hoh Bridge
On the other side of the bridge, the trail continues to climb
steeply up switchbacks. We passed one person who was apparently
camped at the 13.5 mile campground we were thinking of staying
at. It's probably a good thing we didn't, because it wasn't clear
if there was more than just the one site.
Martin Creek was rushing by at full blast, and we had to cross
it. At first, it looked like the only crossing was a huge tree
laying high across the water. Didn't look very safe, since the
top was rounded. I told Jean she'd be fine. She looked at me like
I was crazy, but she hadn't seen the foot bridge I had. It was
a smaller log, flattened on top for easy walking, right next to
the big log. It wasn't like walking on a sidewalk, but it was
fairly easy. The only interesting thing is that it was only attached
to the ground on one side. When we reached the opposite shore,
it started bouncing up and down because it was just hanging there,
a foot over the ground.
Footbridge over Martin Creek
As we climbed higher, the environment changed even more. By the
time we reached Elk Lake, elevation 2800 feet, the hanging mosses
were nowhere to be found. We stopped here for lunch next to the
emergency shelter. The lake wasn't very impressive -- small, and
partly covered with water lilies. And the bugs were out in force.
We packed up our stuff and started climbing again. At least we
wouldn't have to contend with horse shit anymore -- horses aren't
allowed past Elk Lake.
Elk Lake
The trees soon give way to bright green shoulder-high bushes and
shrubs. Rounding a corner, we encountered a long "waterfall".
It wasn't really a waterfall, but water crashing through at a
45 degree angle. The path of the water was lined with rocks --
a 20-foot wide path blasted out of the bushes on either side.
The thing most apparent about the area is that it's much cooler
than the surrounding trail. The reason is that the water is near
freezing -- freshly melted snow.
Now we were no longer in a rain forest, but in an alpine environment.
Wildflowers dotted the trailside -- columbine, cow parsnip, various
berries.
The bushes gave way to alpine trees. Mt. Olympus itself slowly
came into view. When the trees finally gave way, the views were
astounding. Green, snow-capped peaks lined the view to the south,
Mt. Olympus topping it off. After so many miles in the rain forest,
it was a completely disparate and memorable sight. We now had
high hopes for the views from Glacier Meadows itself.
Mount Olympus
We continued to enjoy great views, but had to cross some rather
precarious sections of the trail. Landslides had eaten into the
hillsides, leaving us to walk on a thin trail on a steep, sandy
slope. Good thing we didn't have to carry our full backpacks over
this stretch!
View looking southwest
Now we were crossing over some snow patches. And soon we were
standing next to the sign for Glacier Meadows, elevation 4300
feet. And, as Jean would say, "Glacier Meadows sucks!" There were
camp sites, a ranger station, snow patches, trees, and not much
else. No views whatsoever. After the views along the way, we were
severely disappointed.
There are two side trails which originate from Glacier Meadows
-- one going to the lower end of Blue Glacier, and the other going
to the upper end. Supposedly there's a nice view of Mt. Olympus
from the upper end, so we decided to try for it. The trail is
well-marked with orange flags, but was covered with snow patches.
Snow in general is fine, but this snow was steep, icy, and slippery.
Even with our trekking poles it was slow going. Snowshoes or crampons
would be a big help here, but I hadn't brought either. We went
for a few yards, hoping it would get better, but it didn't. We
turned around, disappointed.
We then thought we'd try to at least get a view of the lower end
of the glacier. But that, too, was covered in the same hazardous
snow. Sadly, we turned around and started hiking back to our camp.
Shortly after leaving Glacier Meadows we ran into a couple coming
up the trail. They'd been stopped on our way up, resting. They
asked how Glacier Meadows was and we gave them the honest truth.
I felt sorry for them, because they were actually lugging their
full packs all the way up. There seems to be no reason to reach
Glacier Meadows itself unless you are climbing Mt. Olympus, or
at least have crampons or snowshoes to reach the Blue Glacier.
Jean crossing the landslide area
U-shaped valley obviously carved by a glacier
At least we could enjoy the views on the way back. On the way
back, we stopped at the rocky river among the bushes. We decided
(against my better judgment) to rinse our hair with the water.
I screamed and screamed as Jean poured the freezing water over
my head again and again. Five minutes later, my hair was completely
dry.
Jean washing her hair in the freezing river
The problem with out-and-back hikes is that there's not much to
see for half the hike -- you've seen it already. But there aren't
any other trails in the area to use to create a loop hike. It
was a long, fairly uneventful hike back. We did see a rabbit --
the largest mammal sighting of our backpacking trip. It scampered
away as soon as I started reaching for my camera.
Some of the colorful berries along the trail
After seeing so many people the previous day, we only saw a handful
today. Mostly day hikers camped elsewhere along the trail, like
ourselves. After a long day of hiking, it was nice to reach camp
well before sunset and not have to worry about setting up.
Look -- no more moss!
Cascading waterfall near our camp
Another view
I filtered more water for us. Dinner consisted of instant mashed
potatoes and more tuna. After dinner, I filtered some more water
and we had hot chocolate before heading for our sleeping bags.
Moss-covered tree towering over our camp
Our humble home
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