Big Log Camp after the rain and windstorm

 

14, Jan, 2021

10.5 miles 730 feet elevation gain

Also 4 miles on a logging roads the same week.

Big Log Camp, my lunch spot today

I finally made it back out to Olympic National Park.  The days are just barely long enough for me to get in and out before dark.

I woke up at 9am and I did not want to go hiking.  I tried to think of reasons to stay in bed and sleep in a bit.  But my need to lose weight and to be able to sleep at night, won in the end and I got up.  I had taken a pill to help me sleep the night before and that made getting up extra difficult.

As usual I packed everything up the night before, so all I had to do to get out the door was make a cup of coffee for the road.  I did not check my email or my phone I just put my coffee in the car at went.

The road to Staircase was rough, it was supposed to be paved this summer but COVID-19 changed those plans?  The road gets really awful every winter now while various agencies fight over who is responsible.

I arrived at the trail head at 10 am, not as early as I would have liked but still early enough to get in a decent hike.  I put my pass on my dash (won’t need a pass to enter parks in New Zealand) used the outhouse (called a “long drop” in New Zealand) and started my hike.

There were a few people milling around the parking area, they looked like they were all going on short hikes and it looked like I might have the trail to myself. 

There were several cars parked at the Mount Rose Trail head when I passed it on the way to Staircase.  I’ve not been up Mount Rose in about 7 years now.  It is too crowded up there for me.   Mount Rose has a tiny summit, it is not big enough to comfortably share.  Also I like to be alone on the summit when I can.  Being alone on a summit can be a spiritual experience.  Being with a group of strangers, who are either showing off or yakking about work, is not.

 

 I think that starting a hike before sunrise might be a good way to avoid crowds up there, but I’m not a big fan of going up in the snow.  So maybe I will never go up Mount Rose again.

Today, I wanted to visit the old hollow cedar tree at Big Log camp.  I used to hike to Big Log camp fairly often before I got a dog. 

Now I am without a dog again.  Sage is alive but her heart is bad and she can’t go on hikes anymore.

I had to struggle to get across a good sized tributary just before Spike Camp and there was water flowing over the bridge at Donahue Creek.  All in all though, conditions were much better than I expected after the big wind and rain storm two days before.

Before I knew it, I was at Big Log camp.  I touched the old cedar tree and listened to it to see if it had any wisdom to share with me.

 

I thought about all the other times I had been there and how much I had changed or not change over the years.

I raised up my kids nearly all the way, my husband died, I finished college, I became a professional photographer, I started to really hate seeing people on the trail and I became much more anxious in that time.

There have been a lot of changes, some good, and some bad.  I am for sure a different person then I was when I first moved to the Olympic peninsula.

I had a pot of noodles at Big Log and then I went to the waterfall and got some photos.

I had also wanted to go to the other side of the bridge and check out the campground over there but time was running short.  I had 3.5 hours left to eat lunch and hike out 5 miles before sunset.

I opted to hike in and out on the same loop, the one that comes out at the big car bridge over the river.  Normally I do both sides of the loop on this hike, but I was afraid the other side of the loop would be really wet.

Just as a reached the bridge I saw one person’s back but they did not see me. I also saw a couple hiking out right at the start of my hike. 

I basically went from 10am to 4pm without seeing anyone else.  I was happy with the solitude.

Just after sunset I stopped and had a cup of coffee, I was exhausted, this was the longest hike I had done in awhile and I had mildly sprained my bad ankle jumping across a stream.

Every hike I do now feels a bit like a goodbye hike.  I’m leaving in March and I don’t know when or if I will be back to visit.

 

All in all a great day!