Tubal CainRecent Trip Reports
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Tubal Cain, Upper Dungeness River, Marmot Pass - Upper Big Quilcene
— Aug 13, 2011
— Aussie hiker
Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Snow on trail
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Just finished a gorgeous 3 day hike. Parked at Dungeness Trailhead, and hiked up the Upper Dungeness Trail. Camped first...
Just finished a gorgeous 3 day hike. Parked at Dungeness Trailhead, and hiked up the Upper Dungeness Trail. Camped first night at Boulder Shelter. Second day we hiked up to Marmot Pass, then onto Buckhorn Pass, and camped at Tubal Cain Mine. Third day we hiked out to the Tubal Cain trailhead, and walked the 4 miles down the road back to the Upper Dungeness trailhead.
Most of the trails were in great shape, with easy river crossings. My main reason for posting this is to warn of some tricky snowbank crossings. Three large snowbanks were between Boulder Shelter and Marmot Pass, and one was between Marmot Pass and Buckhorn Pass. Ideally you'd have an ice axe to cross these snowbanks. While we (two women in our 30s) managed to cross them just with a hiking pole each, we saw one family with a teenage girl turn back because they didn't want to risk it. Luckily we crossed the snowbanks at the same time as another group with a man experienced in snow hiking, and he cut the trail ahead of us. The walking itself wasn't that tricky, but the snowbanks were long and fairly steep, so if you slipped it would be quite a long slide down. On one of them we hiked down the mountain off the trail a ways, and crossed the snowbank at a narrower part, then hiked back up. But it was still a little slippery and dicey where we crossed. I wouldn't recommend trying to cross the snowbanks if there's been a freeze and you were unable to kick into the snow with your boots, unless you had crampons. There were also some more snowbanks between Buckhorn Pass and Buckhorn Lake, but these were easier to cross and didn't pose any real risks. All that said, we absolutely loved the hike, especially the wildflowers, which were just spectacular. Hit a few bugs at Boulder Shelter, but they didn't bother us much. We were a little disappointed with the mining junk around the Tubal Cain campground, especially the long metal strips in the creek that resonate in the river like a techno party. But we thoroughly recommend the hike, especially in this year with so many trails completely under snow. Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
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Tuesday 8/2 my wife & I started a 5 day pack trip in the Olympics with one of our granddaughters....
Tuesday 8/2 my wife & I started a 5 day pack trip in the Olympics with one of our granddaughters. We started from the Tubal Cain trailhead. I was a little surprised to see the parking lot almost full on a Tuesday. We took 6 of our packgoats to carry the gear for us. The initial plan was to go up to Buckhorn pass, then Marmot pass, then Boulder shelter, and perhaps Charlia lakes; returning the same way.
A short distance from the TH is the crossing of Silver creek on a nice log bridge with sturdy handrail. The posts for the handrail posed a problem for the goats…they are too wide to get past the posts with their packs on. One tried and was promptly stopped when his pack hit the handrail post. So, it was time to either unload all the goats; or ford the stream leading a goat at a time across. It looked like I could rock hop the stream, so I chose leading the goats across. After I’d led a couple across, the others forded the stream on their own. During the crossing, I slipped once on a tipsy rock and got a little water in one boot. The first couple of miles are through rhododendrons. Rhododendrons are toxic to goats. Our older goats seem to have learned not to eat it, but I caught a couple of the younger ones taking a bit once or twice. When I saw it happen, I gave the goat a sharp “NO” and a rap on the nose, so hopefully they will learn not to eat rhodies. The rhodies are past blooming, but it’s still a pretty hike. Lunch stop was at the Tubal Cain mine area / crossing of Copper Creek. This was past the area where the rhodies grew, so we did not have to keep as close an eye on the goats. After crossing the creek the trail switchbacks up the hillside. After the first couple of switchbacks it opens up into beautiful flower meadows. About ½ mile past the Buckhorn Lake trail junction there was a small snow melt stream where we got water (it was dry in the morning when we came back on Saturday). We found a nice spot to camp along the ridge, a little before Buckhorn pass. Wednesday we headed out on the trail for Marmot pass. When we got further up the ridge we could see that where the trail should be there was a large steep snow drift on the north side of the ridge coming down west from Buckhorn mountain. Where the official trail started to contour south we continued on the boot path up through the meadows to the west ridge of Buckhorn, and then took the climbers path down to Marmot pass. From the Buckhorn ridge we could see that there was at least one good sized snow drift over the trail to Boulder shelter. It looked like people had been crossing it. We found a nice place to camp on a flat spot a few hundred yards south of Marmot pass. Instead of going further we spent a pleasant couple of days there. In the afternoon there were small snow melt puddles nearby for water…they were dry in the morning. Thursday morning we had a mountain goat appear on the ridge just above camp. He then came down the slope directly toward our camp. When he got within about 150 ft I made some noise & moved, that was enough for him to turnaround and head promptly back up over the ridge. Our goats just stood there with a careful eye on the mountain goat. Friday we went back over the ridge of Buckhorn and found a spot to camp near our first night’s camp…water was from a small snow melt trickle. Saturday we headed back down the trail to the Tubal Cain TH. We had a little adventure crossing Copper creek. Where we crossed was a hop to a little ‘island’ then another rock hop to the east bank. The ‘island’ had a couple trees fairly close together. Somehow Gobi got his pack knocked off so it was hanging more or less under him. While I tried to get his pack back on him, he decided he wanted to get the rest of the way across the stream. I ended up hold the pack up so it would not end up in the water as he went on across. It all turned out fine, but was a little exciting for a moment. When we got back down to Silver creek, I again led the goats one at a time across the ford…managed to keep my feet dry this time. Gobi was a challenge here. He seemed quite determined to go across the log and keep his feet dry, but I knew he would run into the handrail posts and might either get stuck or accidentally knock himself off. It took a bit of tugging to get him to ford the stream. Thursday and Friday it was clear in the morning with clouds rolling in during the afternoon…often becoming foggy. There were a few bugs…mosquitoes & biting flies but most of the time they were not a problem. Great hike, lots of wildflowers!
Tubal Cain
— Jul 10, 2011
— Stef
Day hike
Issues:
Blowdowns | Water on trail
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Hit the trail just before 11am. Party of 6 people and 2 dogs. Hiked up to the old plane wreck,...
Hit the trail just before 11am. Party of 6 people and 2 dogs. Hiked up to the old plane wreck, very neat. Saw quite a few other hiking parties up and down. This trail was for the dogs today, almost every hiking party we crossed had at least 1 dog with them. Easy grade and somewhat flat the whole way until you get to the junction where it goes up to the plane wreck. There is a little mine right at the beginning of that trail, bring a flash light and duck...one of our guys hit their head on the rock ceiling. Main trail is in great condition, the trail going up to the wreck there were bigger streams to cross, got a little wet, and downed trees to climb over. Some snow off the trail towards the top, but just a tiny bit. Saw a few deer up around the wreckage site.
Tubal Cain
— Jun 26, 2011
— BryBry
Day hike
Issues:
Water on trail
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Started out after noon and turned around about 4.5 miles in at 4700 ft. Trail is snow free to there...
Started out after noon and turned around about 4.5 miles in at 4700 ft. Trail is snow free to there and beyond, lots of snow on Buckhorn. Rhodys not quite blooming yet. Waterproof shoes are handy but not essential for the many small stream crossings. Trail surface is in great shape, just some mushy spots here and there.
Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Snow on trail
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Drove out of the cloudy gloom into bright sun and warmth at trailhead. Several cars already in lot. ...
Drove out of the cloudy gloom into bright sun and warmth at trailhead. Several cars already in lot. Started up trail at 09:30 aiming to hike as far toward Marmot Pass as we could. We had a special hiker with us: one of our veteran hiker's son on leave from the Army and soon to deploy to the Middle East (he "ran" up Tull Canyon to view the B-17 as a side trip). We crossed Copper Creek on a log bridge and headed toward Marmot Pass. Temp was 60 deg plus, flowers had a good start toward their summer display, peaks still completely cover with snow. We met a group of hikers coming down that had turned around at the snow. We reached the snow patches on trail, crossed several, but at 5200 feet the snow was too deep and slippery to continue without risk. Had lunch, turned back down trail. We thoroughly enjoyed the hike, and the company of our young companion who inspired us to climb higher than we would have normally.
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