Hoh River #15,Hoh Lake #18
May 26, 2007
- Type of Outing
- Day hike
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Hoh River-Five Mile Island
- Region: Olympics -- West
- Agency: Olympic National Park
- Trails: Hoh River (#15)
- Avg Rating: 3.31
- Be Aware Of
- Blowdowns
- Bridge out
- Washouts
- Overgrown
Started out on the Hoh River trail Saturday morning in spite of reports of bad conditions due to winter storms. Indeed, the blowdown resulting from winter storms was quite astonishing, and it's amazing seeing 200-year old trees strewn about like pick-up sticks all over the trail. That being said, the park service has already done a lot of maintenance and largely cleared all the debris up to the sandbar camp at mile 7.8, making the trail very passable up to that point. If you plan to stay at that camp, there is a creek ford just before which will probably require you to remove shoes and socks to walk across, but the water is shallow and no current to speak of at that point, so crossing is relatively easy. After mile 7.8, trail maintenance has not yet been done this year and the effects of the winter flooding and wind storms are really seen in full force. For the next 1.3 miles to the Olympus guard station (where we camped) at mile 9.1, expect several areas of bushwacking, trail washouts, crawling on hands and knees under limbs of various sizes, and climbing over very large tree trunks in your path. Do not expect to make good time over this last 1.3 miles. I imagine however that some maintenance will be done on this last 1.3 miles within the next few weeks.
Day 2 we took the Hoh Lake trail, past the Olympus guard station and left at the junction and up the ridge. More of the same difficult travel experienced between 7.8 camp and the guard station as described above. Lots of debris all along this trail, and I suspect it may be significantly longer before they're able to clear this one up. Didn't make it all the way to Hoh Lake as we decided to turn around high on the ridge with about a mile to go due to time constraints.
Camped night 2 at the guard station again and hiked back out on day 3. All in all, conditions were better than I expected, and in spite of some challenging traverses, the hike was well worth it. The valley and Hoh River are stunning and teeming with wildlife (we saw Elk, Sage Grouse, snakes (harmless, not rattlers), and hummingbirds), and gained an appreciation for the circle of life in the rainforest, seeing how even a ""hundred-year storm"" as we had this last winter plays a part in developing new nurse logs that will eventually be teeming with new flora. I highly recommend this trail.
Clay
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One of the worst sections of fallen trees over the trail, high on the Hoh Lake trail
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