Hiking Dude Blog

I walked 43150 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 16 miles today.
9/9/17 We woke to our first view of the Olympic mountains. It was cold but there was a beautiful sunrise shining on the mountains between high clouds and fog in the valleys. We had high hopes for a great day but it didn't go as planned.

The clouds and fog refused to burn off as we dropped from our Sunnybrook Meadows campsite down into a valley for many miles. The 100% humidity continued and the temperature fell as we climbed over Lost Pass in wind and driving mist. As we continued on to Cameron Pass, the wind picked up and so did the rain. High above treeline with no cover at all, we were buffeted relentlessly. We crested the pass and descended to sparce tree cover where we found a camp spot and set up. This was about 3pm, cutting our day and miles short. It took about 6 hours of rest in our smog, warm tent until my feet and hands felt warm again.
Our permit itinerary had us climbing over one more passand staying at a different campsite. With the extreme weather, that would have been very dangerous to attempt. Lucky for us, the ranger that stopped by around 5pm agreed with us.
We hit the southern most point of our trip today. Now we just need the western most at the very end. And, we had a couple pesky deer entertain us while we rested on our tent. Also, as night fell, the clouds blew out and the moon and stars were bright so there are high hopes again for tomorrow.

I walked 48760 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 21 miles today.
9/8/17 Our night was a soggy one with quite a bit of rain and even a couple flashes of lightning, but we were gone in our tent. We woke to drizzle that remained all morning and was replaced by fog and clouds the rest of the day.
We ran into a few groups of backpackers and saw occasional glimpses of views but mostly many miles of fog.
Buckhorn, Marmot, and Constance passes gave us a lot of exercise, climbing over 6000 feet up.  Our camp tonight is up at 5500 feet.

I walked 51790 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 23 miles today.
9/7/17 Today was much like the day we spent climbing up to the Pasayten Wilderness.  We climbed over a mile in total, leaving houses and roads behind, but didn't really get to anything nice yet. 
We had a challenge finding the right old road to start on, and wound up facing off against two pit bulls and talking to a very nice lady who wondered why so many hikers kept walking up the dead end road to her yard this summer.  We were two of them!  We told her about the PNT and that the maps make it look like the road to her house is the trail to take - and that we would let the PNT folks know.
Josh was successful in getting our permit to backpack through the Olympic National Park, and reservations at the six campsites we'll use.  Tonight, we are just camped right on the trail since we're out in the middle of nowhere and there are no established sites.
At one rest break we took at a trailhead, three cyclists stopped by and asked for help in finding their destination.  Fortunately, it was on our app and just down the road a few miles shoo we could help out.  Other than that, we saw no one and just hiked and sweated in the higher humidity here on the peninsula.  It did sprinkle a bit this evening and we're expecting real rain tomorrow and Saturday. >br> So, here's our camp for the night - no other pictures today because we just walked through forest.

I finished hiking for today. You can check out my current location on the map and I'll post about my day when I am in coverage.

I finished hiking for today. You can check out my current location on the map and I'll post about my day when I am in coverage.

I finished hiking for today. You can check out my current location on the map and I'll post about my day when I am in coverage.

I walked 48668 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 24 miles today.
9/6/17 We're still on our way out of civilization. Today was a long day of roadwalks with a little beach hiking thrown in. We left the Happy House and walked the rocky beach at high tide so there wasn't much room but it was nice watching the birds and big boats go by.
We reached the ferry landing and took it across the sound to Port Townsend for our easiest miles of the trip. In PT, we had lunch at McDonald's and then resupplied at Safeway for our week through the mountains to Forks.
The us20 roadwalk before Discovery Bay was very thin and dangerous - I'm so glad that is over! As a reward, we ate dinner at Fat Smitty's - a very cool place inside.
We found our way to the last trail angels on the PNT, the Resecks, and set up our tent in their yard. Tomorrow, we're off for the mountains and probably no posting for a week.

I walked 51840 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 25 miles today.
9/5/17 When you leave most of your gear at a base camp, get a ride to your starting point, and hike all day with just the bare essentials back to your base camp, that is called slackpacking.  Rebecca dropped us on the trail where we ended yesterday on her way to work and we started our daily walk.
A short roadwalk brought us to a nice trail that we followed over holla for a few miles.  Before w knees or, we were at Deception Pass which was the highlight of the day.  Walking over the bridge high above the outgoing tide was very cool.  We then followed the western alternate so we could walk on the beach of Rosario Strait which looked and smelled like ocean.
More roadwalk to get around NAS Whidbey and all its very loud jet fighters brought us into Oak Harbor for a quick lunch at McDonald's.
More roadwalk over to the beach but high tide convinced us to stay on the road to our endpoint rather than spend lots of time scrambling over rocks between the sea and cliff.
My leg did well with only sporadic pain and a little swelling.  Encouraging!  Being able to rest here at the Happy House two nights has been a great help.  Rebecca and John are wonderful supporters of the PNT.

I finished hiking for today. You can check out my current location on the map and I'll post about my day when I am in coverage.

I walked 36288 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 18 miles today.
9/4/17 Kelly dropped us off a bit after noon where we had left the trail and we started walking west on us20 while she headed to the airport for her journey back home. Thousands of cars flew past as we hiked but a wide shoulder made the walk bearable if not enjoyable. We did meet a police officer who stopped to check on a disabled RV as we walked by. And we got our first real smell of sea water on the breeze.
Pounce picked us up and delivered us to the Happy House, home of Rebecca and John. The five of us had a very nice dinner and then it was time for bed since the walking resumes early in the morning.