An Olympic Adventure

Our four days in Olympic National Park turned out to be a wonderful backpacking trip, and the five of us covered 43 miles in four days. We started out from the Staircase Ranger Station at Lake Cushman (Saturday, September 11, 2021) and followed the trail along the North Fork of the Skokomish River and stayed at the Two Bear Camp the first night. On the second day, we ascended to the First Divide and from there descended to the Duckabush River. We encountered a young bear along the way, and he scurried up a tree which he later abandoned. From the river we ascended to Marmot Lake and camped there the second night. On the third day, we continued our ascent and reached the O’Neil Pass (4,950 ft.) by mid morning. We enjoyed ripe blueberries and huckleberries as we hiked to the pass, and we briefly spotted an adult bear in the distance.

From the O’Neil Pass we spent the rest of the day on the trail that descends into the Quinault Valley. Although the trail was in poor condition in some places, beautiful photos, ripe blueberries and another bear sighting more than made up for some difficult sections of trail. The third night was spent at the Enchanted Valley Camp, and on the fourth day we trekked the up and down trail through the Quinault Valley to the Graves Creek Trailhead.

Other than a light rain during the first night on the trail, we had good weather during our hike. It was a very memorable journey with beautiful subalpine vistas mixed with travels through moss-covered forests. The camaraderie of the five backpackers (Lucas Black, Parisa Kianmajd, Josh LeFevre, Pamela Mueller and Chris Seubert) was very high and each of them had a very good backpacking experience.

The backpackers want to extend a special thanks to Pam and Andreas Muellar for their help in shuttling vehicles to the Graves Creek Trailhead.

Chris Seubert

photo by Parisa Kianmajd