Olympic backpacking on the beach!

Another round of hiking out, driving, charging/repacking, plus a car shuttle this time, and we were back on the trail for our final couple of days in Olympic National Park.  This wasn't a normal backpack trip for us, but the added midday hassles were worth it.

We left the beach section until the end because none of us knew how it would go.  If it was to be a wet and miserable experience, at least we were heading for a hotel afterward!

It started out easy with a 2-mile trail through the woods.  Then a drop down to pop out -- on Shi Shi Beach!  Our permit allowed us to camp anywhere along the 2+ mile beach, so we trekked to the southern end to set up for morning low tide.

What a lovely evening and a beautiful long stretch of sand.  Thank you Robyn for this excellent photo:

Easy walking to finish the day:

We found a spot to set up tents, with plenty of driftwood around to use for seats and shelving.  It was odd having so much room for once.  I was wondering how much sand would get into everything, and it was certainly something to pay attention to (being careful getting in/out of the tent, wiping things off and shaking things out) but I don't remember it being too terrible.  The haiku notwithstanding.

Thank you John for this sunset photo:

Day 5:

It's time for a change

Beautiful Shi Shi Beach walk

Sand, sand, and more sand

This was the day when it was most important to get up early.  Tides wait for no man (or woman)!

OK, we still have time for a selfie:

Here's the map for our morning trek, starting with the Point of Arches and going up above the water a few times to avoid the "danger" parts:

I had the tide charts with me so we knew where we had to reach by what time, otherwise we might get wet feet - or get stuck and have to wait many hours for the ocean to recede again.  It put some "pep in our steps" that morning.

This was a fun way to start the day:

John's phone took some gorgeous pictures of sea stacks, shiny rocks, and beautiful lighting:

Our first overland venture of the day!  Including a rope assist up the little trail:

Another beautiful view, as we're starting to get some sunshine.  Wow, were we lucky to be there:

We're doing it!

We had read about dew-covered plants along these trails, so we wore rain pants and used pack covers.  It ended up being much drier than expected, so that was nice.

It could have been very soggy:

Sometimes it briefly opened up into wonderful woods:

Back to the beach!

While we were walking we heard some drumming and looked over to see John using his trekking poles on these large buoy-type things, so I had to try to take a picture.  The photo isn't great, but the memory is:

Climbing back uphill through ferns:

Another beautiful photo from John, also confirmation that the tide is still plenty low and we're doing well on time:

The final rope was quite a thing, feeling almost like a rappel except not quite as vertical:

I suggested John might help Robyn and Cathy by bringing down their packs, so John happily scrambled back to the top.  While he was there he took a picture of Robyn on her way down:

Not done with obstacles yet, though - plenty of big rocks to scramble over:

When we could look up from our feet, we enjoyed the ocean views:

Kelp!

John is... carrying a big drum?  I think he enjoyed checking out all the beachcomber items:

Trying to figure out what made these tracks (let me know if you have ideas):

Natural sand art:

MR Ducks (OSMR):

One of the safer - but sadder - ways to see a stingray:

A change of walking surface, as the tide might have come up enough to cover the sand (or maybe this is just a rocky beach):

John took a right turn at Albuquerque...

Back to smooth sand, and an invitation to take off our shoes:

Robyn is in!

That is quite a lineup of toes:

And they're gone:

The last mile of the day as we head toward the Ozette River:

Rainbow beach art:

An elaborate creation:

There were quite a few people on the north side of the river, including one rather-loud group.  We poked around and decided to set up the tents high on the sand (instead of in the one open spot in the woods, which was right next to the group).

We were hoping that the river water would taste better than what we'd been finding.  All the water running into the ocean was a bit brackish (slightly salty).  We filtered it of course, but couldn't get rid of the touch of salinity.  Ah well, it's a temporary problem.

Time for supper and one last night outside.

Day 6:

Early up and out

Crazy rope situation

We made it through, yay!

I woke up in the middle of the night listening to the ocean - and it sounded rather close.  I got up to check it out.  Yep, the waves were lapping not too far from our tents.  Hmm, let's see the tide chart.  Also, there's a full moon, oh that actually explains some things.

I'd focused on the low tide numbers for crossing the Ozette River the next morning (one of the lowest of the month), without considering the corresponding highest tide the night before.  I was looking at it now.  We'd placed the tents above the "high water marks" but was that high enough?

I monitored it for a while, hoping I wouldn't have to wake everyone to move the tents.  It wasn't a danger thing, just a "rather not get our stuff wet" thing.  That would have been a less-pleasant version of adventure.

In the end, all was fine, and I went back to sleep.

The view from our tent area the next morning at very-low tide, including the "river" that we would wade:

This had all been covered with water just a few hours prior, wow things can change fast out here:

A simple river crossing and then some wet rocks to traverse:

Back to a sandy beach, where we found a gaggle (slew? herd?) of crabs walking around:

A couple even dared us to fight them!

Continuing onward (after declining the crab invitations), and I really like this picture Cathy took:

Starfish sighting!

We had plenty of time to check out the numerous tide pools that morning, finding lots of fun shapes and starfish everywhere we looked:

It was a gray morning but the scenery was still beautiful:

This guy looks like he's trying to reach the summit - maybe in the next high tide:

Part of the Ozette Indian Reservation, no longer in use:

And that's it for the beach!  It was way more fun and interesting than we had expected.  I'm so glad we tried it.

Time to head into the woods for a 3-mile trek back to the car:

Day 7:

See anemones

Starfish, eagles, kelp, and crabs

Fantastic beach day

We forgot to get a group photo at the finish, so instead I'll put this one here:

Thank you for a super awesome week, backpack buddies!

Photo credits include John, Robyn, and Cathy

Olympic backpacking - Hoh River

When we finished the Sol Duc loop and returned to our cars, we had a quick turnaround to get back into the wilderness.  After designing these back-to-back (to back) adventures, I wasn't actually sure how it was going to go.  Especially when I started to understand the drive times involved.  At least we didn't try to fit in something on the other side of the peninsula.

So we got up early, made good time, and focused on efficiency.  The middle of the day went like this: Drive, charge Tug-E in Forks while repacking food and clothes, drive, wait to get into the park at the Hoh rainforest (I was most concerned about this piece but it ended up being not too long of a wait), saddle up, and start walking again!

My little camera wasn't focusing well in the dimmer light of the rainforest, but this seems like a good introduction to our next environment of giant trees:

And funky moss-covered shapes:

And slugs - this one appears to be having a face-off with John's shoe (I think the shoe gave up and moved off first):

We found a nice campsite next to the Hoh River.  Looking at the map, we were a tad south (and way downhill) from the High Divide where we just were.  I had originally tried to connect these two itineraries but the car shuttle would have been a challenge.  I found out later that the connector trail might be covered in blow-downs, so perhaps we dodged something there.

Anyway, time to cook supper and get ready for bed!

Day 3:

12 hour journey

Ends 2.6 miles away

Last huckleberries??

We woke up to a drizzly morning.  We had brought a small tarp (it helped that we were carrying food for only a couple days) and John set it up so we could be somewhat covered during breakfast.  Thank you John!

The plan for our day hike was to head uphill along the river and see how far we could get.  Maybe all the way to the glacier below Mount Olympus?  We had plenty of daylight, so even with a slow start we thought we might still make it.

On our way out of camp, checking out the bear wire (an alternative to carrying bear cans):

The rain tapered off, thankfully, and we started up the trail.  Looks like the river occasionally creates a change to the scenery:

Taking a break, still in full rain gear so it must have been a nice cool morning:

This bridge goes over a very deep gorge...

It's hard to get a picture to show you the perspective (so many trees!) but maybe this kind of gives you an idea:

I'm pleased to report that we found more huckleberries along the way!  Not so many that it slowed us down (too much) but enough to make us smile a few times.  That alone made the hike worth it.

Slug-shoe showdown #2:

Hiking alongside a big cliff and tall trees (so much greenery!)

Shoe finally won one:

Toward the upper end of the trail there's a tall ladder with big rungs, installed to allow access to the drainage where the trail tends to get washed out.  The park ranger (who issued our permits) showed me a photo of it, but it was more intimidating in person.  We coordinated with hikers going the other way and managed to get down without any issues:

A bit more uphill hiking and we made it to the view overlooking the Blue Glacier!  Except this is what it looked like:

A few minutes later the fog started to clear:

It was quite an amazing reveal!

Ta da!  We were fairly high above it, so the scale is about impossible to describe.  I don't even think we knew how much area we were looking at.  We just stood and stared (and took pictures):

And a few minutes later it all closed in again, which was good timing because we needed to get moving back downhill.  Thank you awesome glacier and fog clouds!

Before starting back, John took a picture of our viewing spot beside a large dark rock:

The funny thing about this picture is that John snapped it and then hustled over to follow me up the ladder; I was almost to the top when I heard him right behind me - was that fast?  I thought that was fast.

Another brief stop to admire the high bridge on the way back:

Trees growing out of dead tree trunks on either side of the trail:

I couldn't figure out why I'd taken this picture - then I saw the living creature camouflaged amid the leaves and moss:

Home again, for one more night before we move on to one last ONP adventure:

Day 4:

Slugs and tiny frogs

Stunning Olympus glacier

Rain did not dissuade!

Photo credits include John, Robyn, and Cathy