Even with a fairly late start this sunny morning, and 6 cars at the trailhead at 11:30 a.m., we managed to enjoy plenty of solitude today.

As others have recently reported, the trail was in excellent condition. A little wet and mucky in spots, but easy to step across the stones to keep the boots dry. And only a few blowdowns as we approached Big Hump, easy to negotiate under or over.

A spectacular day along the river, and we we out in time to hit the low tide on the Canal for oysters...

Hello and Greetings to All,

My family and some friends went to the Duckabush River Trail #803 in Olympic National Forest, Washington. It was a great day, with temperatures in the upper 40's, fog in the morning and overcast skies in the afternoon.

The trail head starts out at about 120m elev. and heads uphill instantly. The grade is not bad (I took my 5 year old) and it's uphill for about the first half to three quarters of a mile. There are a few little areas where you have to cross a small stream, which washed out the trail, but they are not so bad as to get you shoes wet. The vegetation on the first uphill climb is fairly dense with moss covered trees and sword ferns covering the forest floor. The moss grows everywhere, trees, ground, boulders, it has practically taken over the forest out there.

At the top of that portion of the trail, it instantly starts going back downhill. There is a wooden sign at the top to stop and take a break for some pictures. The trail down is a little steeper with switchbacks in places. The water doesn't move across the trail so much as run down the middle of it. It is a little rocky and some parts are pretty lose due to the streams. The footing isn't so bad that you need to worry, it's just watching your step (like I said, a 5 year old can do it). The forest on the way down opens up a bit to let the sun shine down in. The moss is not as prevalent but the floor is still covered by ferns.

At the bottom the trail flattens out for a good mile, maybe a little more, until you reach the Duckabush River. The river is very nice, about 50 feet across, extremely fast, and looks like it's as cold as ice. The water is in fact very cold, it almost looks like glacier rivers I've seen on Mt. Rainier. The temperature drops about 10 degrees down at the river and we ate our lunches quickly so we could get back to hiking.

On the way back my friend and I split off from our wives and continued on to the base of Big Hump. The trail continues to follow the river for about half a mile and comes to a dry riverbed filled with good sized rocks. This is where it's easily identifiable that you've started the trip up the Big Hump since you can see the switchbacks coming up. Big Hump is a climb of about 1500ft in elevation with many switchbacks.

At the base of Big Hump we realized that our wives continued back to the trail head with no water so we reluctantly turned around to catch up with them. All in all it was a great hike and I will be doing it again to hike the entire trail.

We hiked the 3.5 miles to Big Hump. There were 2 blow downs in the first mile to Little Hump--one easily gone under unless you had a full pack and one easily stepped over. After descending the 200 feet to the flat trail along the river, a beautiful bull elk ran across the trail in front of us in the maple grove shortly before the river actually comes into view. There were areas of water on the trail and several wet creek crossings, but no major blow downs from Little Hump to Big Hump, only a few small ones easily stepped over. There was no rain and we saw only 4 other people on the trail. This is a very enjoyable winter hike.

The TUUC Intrepids rove again! Duckabush River is great hike even in the rain! Once we found the righthand, uphill unmarked short side road to trailhead, and donned our raingear, we enjoyed the freshness of a rainy forest...sparkling rain gems on ferns, many busy little creeks and mini waterfalls...with help of fellow intrepids we crossed one busy creek that lacked a bridge. Occasionally sun shot through the clouds and mist, highlighting shrubs and trees. The maples are covered with intriguing drapes of moss, many fungi, great picnic spot by the side of the river. Intrepids forever!