I wanted to stay in bed but I decided that I needed to hike to stay in shape since I was too ill to hike last week. I should have known better, when I am not totally gung ho to go hiking it means I am sick. I felt groggy as I drove to the Dosewallips washout but I figured that hiking would wake me up.
Snow on the road started about 2 miles before the tunnel creek trail but I was in my Jeep with its new snow tires so the snow was no problem. At that point snow was not my problem, my problem was my intestines. I had to stop near tunnel creek and run into the woods. I won't go into the details other then to say that it was a gruesome experience. I was glad to get that out of my system and hoped it would make me feel better.
The washout before the washout has been repaired so I was able to drive to the main washout. I've never been able to hike any of the trails in the Dosewallips Basin. It is 11 miles round trip just to walk to the trail heads. I like to backpack but my youngest is still too young to take backpacking. Well actually she's too old to take. I took her when she was a newborn but now she is too little to walk and too heavy to carry. I am limited to day hiking. Maybe someday I will be able to hike the trails beyond the washout.
I saw two bald Eagles at the washout one was mature and one was immature. The washout has grown a little bit and it is not all underwater anymore. It would have been easy enough to walk in the washout and thus avoid the bypass trail if not for the steep bank climbing back up to the road. There was a lot of snow on the road and I had to walk in snowshoe tracks. After about 1.25 miles I realized that I was just not having fun, I was too ill and there was no chance of me being able to hike 11 miles in the ever deepening snow while ill. I also knew that I would have to turn around where ever the snowshoe tracks ended because the snow was too deep to walk in outside of the snowshoe trail.
I turned around and went back to have my tea at Elkhorn Campground. There was more snow at Elkhorn then I normally see in the National Park campground 4.9 miles down the road. I'm sure that there is an impressive amount of snow at Dose falls today.
On the way home I stopped to grab a geocache at Dosewallips Park. As I was leaving the park I got a real treat, the local elk herd was in the picnic area on the water side of 101. I stopped and got out and took pictures until some moron parked her huge white pick up truck in front of where I was standing. A bald eagle flew over head grasping a fish in its talons. I counted up to 50 elk in the heard. It is nice to live near the Olympic Peninsula!
I'm home now and feeling sicker by the minute, I hope I am well enough to go to class in the morning.
RT Mileage 3
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