Dosewallips Backpack

Happy to have made it out on one local overnighter before the snow.  I had to leave my kid home alone to do this and that was a little worrisome, especially after having my house burglarized while he was home.

I opted to take my bike on this somewhat boring road.  I used to dayhike to the ranger station all the time, but now that the road has been closed even further back it feels out of reach for me.  I don't like to do more then about 12 miles on a day hike.  After 12 miles I hurt and I'm not having fun anymore. I also think that it is too hard on my dog and not really fair to her.

So  I won't be going to the Ranger station on foot anymore, I'll bring my bike and use it to reach the real trails behind the old ranger station.  I sometimes wish the Dosewallips road was open, but the I remember how badly I was treated by Ranger Ken Davis and I'm glad that is is all closed.  Who needs to be harassed while legally and respectfully enjoying the National Park?

   I'll never forgive that jerk for ruining my child's dreams of being a  Ranger.  Who wants to grow up to be a jackass mushroom stomper?  Not my kiddo.  Then the way he upset my terminally ill spouse the next day when we went back to look for a toy that my child lost in the confusion of being harassed by Ranger Davis the day before.

It was a very special toy, a souvenir from the Museum of Natural History in Shanghai.  That can never be replaced and Ranger Davis and the chaos he caused is probably why it got lost that day.  Now that my husband is dead that toy means even more, a gift from my child's deceased father from a very special place that is now probably closed.

So yeah I'm kind of happy that I can go to Dosewallips and not have to deal with that level of B.S.   I did see Ranger Davis out there once, but he was more worried about how he was going to stay dry on the hike back than he was about mushrooms.  Also he was probably out of radio contact and all alone 5.5 miles from his car.  I think that took a bit of the swagger out of his walk.

On day one I pushed my bike over the washout trail and wow was that a work out!  I could barely do it.  I was with my oldest daughter and she is afraid of "big bicycles' so she opted to walk and carry her pack the entire way.   We leapfrogged most of the way to the old ranger station.  I would go fast for a bit on the down hills and then stop to take photos or have a coffee while my daughter caught up.  I also had to push my bike up most of the hills.

We reached camp and had our tents pitched just one hour before dark and  at 7:30 we settled in for a long fall nap.  I did not sleep well, I never do when backpacking but at least I was very toasty warm for most of the night.  I have finally figured out how to stay warm!

I could not resist pitching my yellow tent in the middle of  a sea of  fallen yellow cottonwood leaves.  It made for good photos but I was startled a few times when leaves hit my tent in the night.  But with my adult daughter in the campground with me I was much calmer than I could have been.

I really like my MLD Duomid it is so fast and easy to pitch and it looks so pretty.  Also I went the entire night without knocking down the pole.  The main thing I don't like about the duomid is having a pole in the middle of my living space.  Also, the duomid is kind of heavy for a single wall shelter.

My kiddo slept in my Bowfin 2 tarptent that I have only used one time.  It went up faster than expected but it's ugly and takes more time to pitch and to put in its bag and the built in floor makes me feel a little bit less close to the great outdoors. Still it is a great option when there are bugs and when weight is the priority and it is free standing only requiring two stakes and the pole that comes with it.

I'm tired of messing around with fussy tarptents, so I got a nearly free standing one.  If I want to mess around I'll just take my flat tarp that only weighs 4.5 ounces with lines.

I used my market baskets to carry my backpack on my bike.  I don't trust those baskets since they have plastic latches, but so far they have not broken, well at least the latches have not broken.  I need to get a milk crate really.

The next day we left our tents and I locked up my bike and we explored the trails beyond the Ranger station for a bit before we packed up and headed back home.  The trip back to the car was so fast on a bike.  I'm not sure I ever want to hike this road again.  My kiddo ran out of steam on the walk back once she hit the newly closed area past the washout.  The last horrible flat stretch of road is just no fun.  When you are tired it is no good to be able to see that far ahead and walking on a long flat stretch uses the same leg muscles over and over where going up and down a bit gives some muscles a break.

I'm only counting 8 miles of this as hiking.

MLD Duomid and Tarp Tent Bowfin 2  Bowfin 2 set up instructions at the bottom
of this blog post

Bowfin 2 Setup from Tarptent on Vimeo.

Grief on the Dosewallips

This was the hike I was packed to do the night my spouse died.  I finally made nearly two months later on my spouse's birthday.  Ouch.  I needed to do something for his birthday.  Every year for the last 15 years I've celebrated his birthday and now that he's gone there is big void to fill on February 7th.

The hike to the Ranger station is now 13 miles round trip and I was not up for that. Sage was probably not up for that either.  We walked to the waterfalls and turned around there.  I always grieved for my spouse on this hike even before he died.  He was never well enough to hike to the falls, so I never got to take him there.  I thought of him every time I was there though.

At the falls I passed a wilderness youth outreach type group going in to spend the night at the ranger station.  I asked if they had snowshoes since the forecast called for very heavy snow the next day.  Not only did they not have snowshoes, but they were unaware of the forecast.

Here is a video, but it is not very good.  You tube took away the stabilization feature.  I'll have to change how I record video clips with that nice feature gone.  I will have to make sure I am standing still and not hiking.

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I hope that group is okay up there in all that snow.  They were moving really slow, so I wonder what kind of hiking condition some of the kids were in.  I hope they were not intending to try to go up to Lake Constance next.  They did not have a car at the trail head, so I was really surprised to run into them out there.  I really thought I had the place all to myself.

This is the same outfit that I ran into the the Lower Skok a week or two ago.  I was surprised to see a group camping out there on a weekday.  It seems they also go to another place that I really like on the weekdays.  I might not get any solitude this winter.

From now on when I do this hike the falls will probably be my turn around point.  I really don't enjoy doing a day hike that is longer than 12 miles.  It is a shame that they shut the road even farther back.  I will miss having my lunch in that campground.

On this hike I had my lunch at Elkhorn camp on the way back.

11.5 miles with 1000 feet elevation gain

Dosewallips Road Walk

Sadly it is now a 13 mile round trip hike to get to Dosewallips Ranger station.  I did not want to subject Sage to such a long hike so I wandered around on old road grades instead.

Beautiful old road left to nature, not savagely decommissioned

So many oyster mushrooms everywhere this year!

Spied and old road grade going down from the main road.  Followed the old grade for a bit and realized it was taking right back to camp Elkhorn!  So there were two ways to drive into Elkhorn once upon a time.

Dosewallips

Snail on digitalis, not eating it.

This turned out to be my very last hike in the Olympics with Patches. She had one trip to the beach after this and a bunch of in town dog walks and one camping trip.


I started my hike at about ten.  Rain was in the forecast so I packed all of my rain gear.  My hike last week left me nearly incapacitated.  I had a very strange inflammatory reaction that left me with severe hip pain in my lower back.  I’ve never had that happen before.  This was well beyond normal post hike soreness.  It took several days of bed rest before I could even walk around town again.

I am training for a hike up Mount Adams so I have been increasing my hike difficulty each week.  After last week’s problems though, I decided to take it easy this week.  I gentle walk down an old road with very little elevation gain seems just the ticket.  This is a good hike for Patches too.  She’s not too likely to find something to impale herself on and she’s less likely to lose me and get lost on this old road.

I've decided that Patches is too old and blind to take off trail anymore and I even worry about her on trails the way she tends to lose me and run back to the car.  One time she even tried to cross a huge dangerous river because she thought I had crossed it.  She’s too blind to know where I am half the time it seems.

The drive to the trail head was a little bit sketchy for my car.  The route over the perpetual washout before the washout was quite rough and I had to get out and move some rocks that would have hit my oil pan.

This hike want well.  No hip pain and a nice lunch break at the end.  Only one other person was on the trail with me.  No sign of creepy stalker guy on a fat bike.  There were no bike tracks at all.   I normally see his fat bike tracks on the route.  Maybe he has moved away?  I can only hope.

Rain was in the forecast but it really only sprinkled.  We finished our hike around 5pm.  I stopped a couple of times on the drive home and got out to stretch so I would not be so sore by the time I got home.  That worked out well.

There were so many berries on the trail.  I think our soggy start to summer is good for the berries.

I stopped for overpriced Hoodsport Coffee on the way home.  They don't have a public restroom inside anymore, instead they have an outhouse in the back somewhere.   No thanks, I held it until I got home.  Also the coffee was not hot.  I asked if I was getting the dregs, I was told I was not, but clearly I did get the dregs.  16 ounces of cold dregs and a stinky outhouse for $2.00, what a killer deal.  I only stopped because I was afraid that I would fall asleep on the drive home without coffee.

They generally do have the best coffee there, but the snobby attitude that I sometimes get there and the crazy prices really turn me off.  Now add a stinky outhouse to the equation. I don't know if it was stinky, I did not care to walk all the way out back to find out.  The woman there says it gets cleaned twice a day.  I hope they can get their bathrooms up to code without going broke, I kind of doubt it though.

Poor slugs left in a crumpled up heap after mating

 I could go to  IGA for coffee from now on, but I hate  their nasty styrofoam cups and gross powered creamer, at least they have nice bathrooms.  Just can't win getting coffee in most places these days.  I hate paying over $2.00 for a cup of drip.  Mcdonalds seems the best deal, just need 3 sugar and 3 cream to drown the burnt tastes.

11 miles with 1,100 feet elevation gain

Patches

Rhytidiadelphus loreus moss

Thimble berry

black cap

blackberry

strawberry

black caps

super sour currants

They really hate dogs at ONP, but Patches is not a pet.