Just back from my first successful bus-to-backpack trip--and what a trip! The goal: spur-of-the-moment solo hiking sans car (since I don't have one). No need to think ahead for a ride, just wake up to a gorgeous day and go.

BUS TO TRAIL: Buses from Port Townsend to Sequim to Port Angeles to Herrick Road just past the Elwha turnoff, dropped off at 8 a.m. (The bus from Sequim to Port Angeles was standing room only, and there were 6 bikes on it--3 inside!)

DAY 1 HIKE: (~10 miles) About 1-1/2 miles of Herrick Road, lovely and shaded, little traveled, about as nice as walking blacktop can be.

At road's end, picked up the West Elwha Trail, which goes 3+ miles to the Altaire Campground. The trail was nothing spectacular, but ferns and forest and seeps and creeks--all in all better than walking the looooong Elwha road to the trailhead, which is why I opted for this route. I've found I always prefer walking a trail to a road, no matter the trail.

And lucky me, just out of Altaire I stuck my thumb out to the first passing car and saved myself 5 miles of road walking. Hello Olympic Hot Springs trailhead.

Some folks will think it sacrilege, but I bypassed the springs completely--didn't even go take a look. Just walked the 2+ miles of closed road (I take it back: this is the nicest blacktop I've ever walked). Most of the people I would see were along this stretch, no surprise.

Onward to Boulder Lake for ~3-1/2 miles, happy to be in the shade as the day progressed, overflown by a search helicopter making a racket--I hope they found the person they were looking for. The trail was clear to the Appleton turnoff, thereafter a handful of blowdowns, but nothing insurmountable. Like the 6/21 park report said, snow covered the trail about a 1/2 mile below the lake starting around 4000 ft. I took a wrong turn or two up a couple draws, but came to the lake with little problem--to be greeted by snow snow snow! And blue sky and only one other person, a day hiker.

The lake was still 90 percent snow covered, but laced with meltwater on top. Snow covered the shoreline to a depth of 1-4 feet. From what I saw, four campsites were melted out. I picked one lakeside, on a knob sticking out into the lake. Spent the late afternoon roaming the basin, scouting the next day's trail, and soaking my feet in the icy water.

DAY 2 HIKE: (~11-12 miles) I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to find the connecting trail to Happy Lake Ridge, but basic map-and-terrain routefinding did the trick. The trail clears as you rise to the ridge, then is covered for ~1/2 a mile around Crystal Ridge--or I think it was about that. I did a lot of trudging up and down snow and through trees, but was quite pleased to land myself squarely on trail (note to self: $%&! always bring your altimeter). Not too hard to do, as you're contouring just below the ridge the whole time.

Happy Lake Ridge is a stunner, with views to Appleton and Olympus beyond. Some flowers, but mostly just the early avalanche lilies. I can imagine the carpet that'll come later. Snow came and went along the trail, but nothing like around Crystal Ridge.

Next up, the signed intersection with the Aurora Divide Trail after 2-1/2 miles and couple handful of blowdowns (more than on the way to the lake). Opposite was the way to Happy Lake. I turned left and after a few hundred feet, found myself on little more than a way trail, with more solid tread here and there on this nearly 2-mile stretch. Lonely country. Nice.

Good thing it wasn't too lonely: that is, there's still a trail sign pointing the way down off the ridge to Lake Crescent. Because ~1/4 mile before the junction I hit another large snow pocket. Funny how all marks of human passage disappear completely under 4 feet of snow. And I was headed for a north-facing slope--this was going to be fun.

Once again, some basic map-and-terrain routefinding came in handy, and as I descended, so did the telltale sawed-off blowdowns and a couple random blazes. I did lose the trail completely for a bit, so I just kept the stream noise on my right and headed straight down, climbing up on downed logs to peer straight downhill, looking for sign of trail.

Which I eventually found (doesn't look like many people hike this upper trail), and after around 4000-ft elevation the snow faded pretty quickly. Wish I could say as much for the descent--all told from my 5000-ft high point, I went down 4400 ft. Ouch! Oh, and another handful of blowdowns til the Barnes Creek trail junction (~3-1/2 miles from the ridge).

The lower Barnes Creek trail was lush and cool, and I didn't see another soul til just above Marymere Falls (in another 3+ miles). Never having been to the falls, I took the hiker highway around the short loop and found many people having a grand time--a great place for a family outing. One gal was even making her way up to the falls on crutches. Way to go!

A 1/2 mile from 101, still with time before my bus, I rinsed off in the creek and made my way to Lake Crescent Lodge for a soda (there's a full bar at the lodge and tasty looking food, but I didn't have that much time). It was fun to sit overlooking Lake Crescent, playing the sightseeing tourist at the end of a day hiking--I can see why people from around the world visit this lake.

BUS HOME: I wandered back out to 101, where there's an honest to god bus stop seemingly in the middle of nowhere--if you're driving, that is. But if you're walking, the stop is trailside on the way from the falls to the lodge, very foot friendly. Caught the bus with five other people--another backpacker and the rest from Olympic Park Institute I think. This run gets some use (the story all around as I've been riding buses throughout the rural Northwest in the last year, just like ridership is up in metro areas).

Home by 8 p.m. to dinner and a bath. A perfect trip. I'm poring over trail and bus maps to figure out what's next.

Took a Clallam Transit bus from Port Angeles to Lake Crescent Saturday AM in the mist and set out from Storm King RS at Barnes Point on Lake Crescent up the trail to Marymere Falls, a spectacular high cascade with viewing platforms that must be absolutely awe inspiring in April, then back to the junction with the Barnes Creek trail for the worst mile of ups and downs of the whole trip, to the ford, which was not any real problem. Barnes Creek trail offers solitude without much effort other than the ford until the junction with the Aurora Divide trail, which I expected to be a killer just because of the steepness of Auora Ridge, but it is so well graded that getting there is a real pleasure, past a big camp at Dimal Draw, then views out over Barnes creek and another nice camp along the trail below some tarns before the crest of the ridge. By the time I reached the crest the fog was impenetrable, making for spooky hiking, particularly when the blueberries and huckleberries began apearing at the same time as the bear scat. After a quick peak a little way down the Aurora Ridge trail, I pushed through eerie cloud shrouded silver forests another mile or so to a likely spot trailside in some woods on Lizard Head Peak near a potential viewpoint in case the fog lifted.

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear with barely a cloud, and I got a look at the viewpoint I'd camped near-- North Fork Soleduck valley west, Barnes Creek drainage east and north. I pushed down the trail a mile to a fork-- Happy Lake, where may Sunday camping permit was for left, Boulder Lake right. I set off right, and was rewarded by the last of the solitude and beautiful wild meadows, gigantic and beautiful mushrooms, lonesome half wooded vistas of Mt. Appleton, Mt. Carrie, and Mt. Olympus, before the drop into well inhabited Boulder Lake, where I hauled my big pack up a bear wire and set off with my day pack toward the summit, where I never got, but I did make it to the ridge and views down into Three Horse Lakes basin and a handsome view of the backside of Mt. Appleton.

With my big pack back on my back where it belongs I climbed back up to the trail junction and set off for Happy Lake, along the up and down Hapy Lake Ridge trail, passing a horde of screaming kids who'd climbed up the steep east end the day before. With surprisingly few views for a ridge trail I eventually arrived at Happy Lake, and seeing that it was on the north (non-scenic) side of the ridge, almost bailed out in favor of a spot up high, but instead dropped, and dropped, the half mile to the lake, which lies beneath a handsome mountain, but was at low water and surrounded by six feet of mire most of the way around. The basin looks wild enough, but I saw no wildlife. The return trip after a surprisingly frosty night's sleep was the best part of the trip, first going through some wild and gorgeous meadows with views back over the spit at port Angeles and out to Mt. Baker, then a great viewpoint into the interior, with a flat wooded area nearby making it a suitable spot for catching sunrise and sunset action over the Olympics, with water from Happy Lake to drink. Thanks to the two guys who bushwhacked from Bouldr Lake to Appleton Pass via Three horse Basin for the ride back to ""civilization"", and to the good people at Thortown hostel for their kindness.