Mount Ellinor Chute Flats from Big Creek

Mount Ellinor Chute Flats from Big Creek
Campground Upper Loop completing the loop on the way back. Also looped through the upper Ellinor trail head on the way down.

Too tired to write about it! 12 miles 3520 feet gain. That's a "24" on the "Hike Difficulty Calculator"

My husband after reading the Forest Service PDF file on Mount Ellinor insisted that I take my ice axe with me. I told him I was not going to go anywhere near the areas that would require an ice axe. Just to make him happy I carried the damn thing.. :) Oh well at least it looks kewl to pack around an ice axe, not that anyone else saw me. I also carried my damn cell phone to make my husband happy. I was able to call him from the connecter trail and I talked to him for about 1/4 of a mile.

He was worried about me going up Ellinor because a guy named Bill got lost on the Ellinor trail months ago and had to have search and rescue come get him. We listened to the Search and Rescue operations on my scanner. It took a VERY LONG TIME for Olympic Mountain Rescue to reach him and just as long for them to get him down from the mountain. The call first came in to the local police at about 1pm and they did not have him off the mountain until after we woke up the next morning around 9 am.

Bill got lost in 1/4 inch of snow and hiked down the wrong side of the mountain. From what I could tell listening along and looking at my map he was on the other side of Mount Rose when they found him!

Not long ago, we had a mission to Mt Ellinor to find
a lost hiker. The man had gone to the top while
ignoring the weather signs of the incoming clouds.
Long story short, he made it to the top, but then the
weather socked in and started to rain and snow. On
the way down he lost his way. We were out in the
thick of it. I do not think that any of us were
completely dry after spending the night out there.

All these mushrooms are frozen solid. From Top to Bottom, Frozen Chanterelle (C. formosus), Frozen Fall "oyster" mushrooms (Panellus serotinus), Frozen Witches Butter (Tremella mesenterica)