The Elwha River June 16th to 17th 2010 Olympic National Park

Apparently my annual hiking season kickoff is the Elwha River trail (3rd year in a row) Which was a success! After a long battle with several trip cancellations since April due to school... I finally made it out onto the trail with some of the hikers from the local "Posse." This trip was so overdue it's not even funny... 2 sets of finals, and some serious life stressors... Depending on what map or sign you look at the mileage varies from 23.9 miles to 26 miles for the route we took. Beings that the Custom Correct maps are only made for the Olympic National Park and are supposed to be the most accurate on the ground measurements... Their map says we traveled ~25.5 miles along the route we took.

The maps are in sequential order from the parking lot to the destination beyond our camp at Elkhorn.


Elevation profiles are about as good as I can draw the above red line along the trail in TOPO. Which other than the actual on the ground distance being off as usual...

We started out around 10:30am at the Whiskey Bend TH, to access the Elwha River Trail with nearly cloudless blue skies! From the start the "everyone hike's their own hike mentality" kicked in... I tried to keep my speed in check and not get too far ahead (I of course made sure Steve and Richard were behind me), but the hours ahead were some of the most needed one foot in front of the other therapy and meditation that I've ever needed. Since I started hiking this type of meditation has never been able to be matched by any other sport or activity. You are essentially carrying your life, house, and survival on your back, while leaving any instant help or distractions far from the city.

Richard and Steve at the Trail-head.
Me at the trail-head.
Micheal's Cabin
Steve and Richard trekking along.
One of the first views of the towering Olympic mountains.


We made a quick stop at Micheal's Cabin along the way and then we pressed on towards Lilian River Camp for lunch. At about 4 miles in and roughly 12:30pm we took a lunch break at Lilian River's camp. I was lazy and packed a Subway sandwich for the first day's lunch... After lunch, the fun part of the trip begun... The undulating trail kicks uphill and stays at a consistent angle for a little over a mile. I took off ahead of the group to keep my consistent and grueling pace to Lilian's Pass. After I reached the pass I was welcomed with a 15 or so minute stretch break and a nice breeze to cool me off after the climb.

My pack laying on the Lilian River bridge.

Steve laughing at something with Richard on the Lilian River Bridge.

After the group hit the top we meandered down the next few miles to Mary Fall's camp where I topped off my platy with some river water before we pressed on. Just before Mary Fall's camp (7.5 miles or so along) is where the trail starts actually following along the river and finally starts to open up. We trekked on towards Canyon camp, where we found 4 or so weary hikers with over stuffed packs and carrying what appeared to be everything but their kitchen sink... These guys had only traveled a mile from their last camp and looked like they were going to die...

My gear laying at the high point of the trail.
Looking down the trail...

Steve crossing a bridge before Mary Falls.
One of the first real views of the Elwha.
After we passed the weary hikers we pushed the last mile to Elkhorn, where we found an empty meadow with all the pristine camp sites empty! So we took one of the sites near a makeshift fire pit and preceded to pitch camp. Steve and I passed around the idea of leaving the tarps in the packs and just cowboy camping, but some building dark clouds near the peaks above persuaded us to set the tarps up. We knew the weather report called for clearing through the night with nary a chance or showers... I threw down my pack, and started to attempt to stake down the tarp (super rocky ground) when a mouse ran out from under or near my pack... So began the jokes of how I picked the site over the mouse's home, and how I was going to have a nighttime visitor crawling all over me... The mouse came back several more times until I finally decided to hang my pack with my food so that I would hopefully deter my new found friend from visiting me in the middle of the night. Come to find out instead of packing my bug bivy I packed the actual bivy sack... So... Thankfully the bugs were almost non-existent, because there was no way in hell I was closing up inside a bivy sack on such a warm night with a 20 degree quilt...

The mystic forest wonderland ahead of us.
A small cascade right before Elkhorn meadows.
Crossing into the Elkhorn Meadows.
Camp from across the meadow.
The backcountry ranger station, that is manned during the summer months.
Camp looking towards the river.
My homemade tarp and bivy, along with my Golite quilt.
Tarp shot with a mountain view.


After setting up camp we hiked up the trail a ways to the horse camp and then back to camp. For the most part we only had one group of a Father, daughter and her boyfriend come by. They seemed to not be too thrilled about the meadow camp being taken and moved on after talking to Richard for a minute... Out of the blue, Steve looked over towards the backcountry ranger station and there was a bunch of half naked people stripping and doing pushups... What the hell... and then one ran across the meadow trying to wrap a towel around themselves as they ran... I understand taking a shower, but... yeah... Some people's children... 5 deer grazed through camp while we were prepping dinner. Some Margaritas were made and a little while later after some jokes everyone parted ways and headed to bed. I awoke several times to clear skies and stars so bright that I wish I would have forgone the tarp and just slept out in the sub alpine meadow. At least with the tarp I can just poke my head out and see whatever the heck I want.

Just north of the Meadows, looking towards the headwaters of the Elwha.

3 different cooking systems at work. Steve has the Caldera Cone, Richard has a canister stove and I was using a 0.5oz esbit stove.
The new cookpot/mug, with a Jared's deviated version of one of Sarah's recipes, which I left out several key ingredients during my last minute packing... The meal is usually so scrumptious and to die for after a long day of hiking, unless you don't have all the ingredients prepped and forget the rest home... At least I remembered the Parmesan Cheese!

One of the spikes that were grazing through camp.

The morning camp view.
One of the stream crossings on the way back after Mary Falls.

After the morning breakfast and coffee, we headed out down the trail that we came in on. Lunch was again taken at Lilian River, and we preceded to Micheal's Cabin where we took a sharp left and headed down to Humes Ranch. Here we ran into an infant fawn with it's mother. I've never seen such a small fawn in my life, it looked like the size of a little dog next to it's mother.

The doe and her fawn with Humes Ranch in the background.
After Humes Ranch we followed a bunch of trail re-routes since the river wiped the trail out in sections, until we reached the Goblin's Gate. Just before the Goblin's Gate we ran into some folks staring into the meadow on the other side of the river, come to find out it was a lone bear grazing. Finally my curse of never seeing a bear along the trail had ended! Hopefully I'll see more this summer.

Along the Elwha before the Goblin's Gate.
Wow, wow and wow... The whole entire river gets narrow-necked into a 10' to 15' wide slot canyon at the Goblin's Gate. Steve informed me that if I came back during the winter the water would be another 5 to 10 feet higher and splashing even higher against the cliffs... The shear force of the water was evident in the depressions and ripping currents in the canyon and the large back eddy of water trying to force it's way through the bottle-neck. After seeing the Goblin's Gate we headed up the unrelenting climb from the valley floor back up to the Elwha River trail, 500' of elevation gain in under 0.5 miles... After we reached the trail we headed back the last mile or so to the trail-head.

Above the Goblin's Gate.


A view from the back of how small the Goblin's Gate really is. That is a lot of water being forced into this slot canyon.



A few gear highlights, the new for 2010 Vasque Mindbender trail runners worked flawlessly. The new for this year 700mL backcountry.com Ti mug is the perfect size and will permanently replace my 475mL mug. I need to pick up a set of Dry-Ducks for a 6oz lighter rain jacket and I'll be bringing back a separate dry bag for my warming layers. That way I can keep them in a more convenient location in my pack. Otherwise it was an awesome trip and it was great to finally be back into the backcountry! I'm sure I missed a few things and when Steve finishes his trip report I will link it at the top of this blog post. One day down the road after I get done with school I want to get an Alpacka raft and hike it up 20 miles to packraft down this river and pull out just before the Goblin's Gate.