My daughter and I hiked the Upper Dungeness Trail the weekend of July 29-31, 2005. We hiked up to Boulder Shelter and camped. The shelter is in great shape with a bench and high table inside. We pitched our tents in the open to take advantage of the great views, but it got windy at night, and perhaps camping in a more wooded area near the shelter might have reduced the night time tent noise. There is a stream at the campsite with good water. We camped with one other person the first night, and had the campsite to ourselves the second night, although there was adequate space for many more tents. We left our heavy packs and tents and hiked up to Home Lake and Constance Pass. The trail crosses several rock slide areas, and sunscreen is essential. The Lake is great for swimming, not overly cold. The pass is on a ridge with panorama views over the Olympic Mountains, and I think possibly almost to Puget Sound! Again, no one was up there. At Home Lake there is a campsite and a box toilet. We saw a large deer, many chipmunks, and a cute, black rodent sort of thing that looked like a hamster. Occasionally one has to walk carefully through burrows of some animal (a marmot?) that make holes on and near the trails. Also saw what looked like cat scat – so probably some cougars in the area, but we didn’t see any. At Boulder Shelter there were many dead and blown over trees. From Boulder Shelter towards Home Lake there were many dead and what appeared to be dying trees. Getting closer to Home Lake there were fewer dead trees. Wonder what is causing that???? We highly recommend the trail, it is easy to follow, climbs a lot, and is not heavily traveled.

This is an unbelievable year. We arrived at road end of the Dosewalips at 7:00 am and immediately found the make-shift trail circumnavigating the washout. The trail is very steep on both ends, and was quite a challenge pushing mountain bikes up, then down (more so down!). The bike ride up the remainder of the road was a pleasure vrs. walking, though work nonetheless. There are several small trees down across the road that are easily ""hopped"", but a couple that require dismounting to get over. There are a couple of slides across the road in its upper stretches. The steep grade near the end is full of rockfall and requires considerable care on the return trip. Only one patch of snow exists that requires dismounting. The campground at road end is FRIGID! You can feel the temperature drop as soon as you descend into it! For campers, I would recommend continueing the short distance up trail to Dose Forks Camp, which is much warmer. We reached the Dosewalips TH one hour and fifteen minutes from our departure, and chained our bikes up to the hitching post. Yes, there was much humor in doing so. The trail up the Dosewalips is in excellent condition to the junction with the Constance Pass trail, with only a couple of blowdowns that must be negotiated. The Constance Pass trail is free of blowdowns and easily followed all the way to Constance Pass. Patchy snow begins at about 4,300', just below Sunnybrook Meadows. Sunnybrook Meadows (a basin) is covered in fairly solid snow. Then the snow disapears enroute to the pass. Conditions on the upper slopes of Del Monte Ridge resembled those of late May. I was astonished at the dry conditions. I have included a couple of pics taken from Sunnybrook Meadows, looking up at Del Monte Ridge. Incredible, isn't it? The return was greatly aided by the mountain bikes, taking us an entire 20 minutes to reach the washout point of the road - and man was it a fun ride! Don Geyer

I arrived at the Dosewallips river road washout on Friday evening ~10pm & slept in the car. Early Saturday morning, got on the mountain bike and pedaled up to just past the Constance Creek trailhead and stashed my bike. (Note, this is just where the road begins a downhill bit - this assures a 95% downhill ride on the way back!). I then walked the last ~mile to the trailhead. The clouds started filling up the sky as I continued up the Dosewallips River Trail - nice trail & in good shape. Hit the Constance Pass trail rather quickly, and began the slow climb up ~4400 vertical ft, taking many breaks to photograph grouse chicks, eat lunch, watch some deer, and gape at the largest cluster of candystick I've ever seen. By the time I reached Sunnybrook meadows (many neat flowers - elephant head, red columbine, etc etc etc), it was starting to drizzle on/off. I got to the ridge soon afterwards in a foggy soup. I had originally planned to head NW and climb Mt. Mystery if the weather cooperated... it didn't. A little way down the ridge the rain became thick, steady and sideways - even had a period of slushy snowflakes! I retreated back to little stone shelter somebody had assembled near the ridge crest. I set up my tarp and waited for 3+ hours for things to clear up. (took a nap, etc). It cleared a little bit in the evening, and was clear and cold at night. I awoke to a coating of frost and clear skies, but 20 minutes after sunrise, I was back in the soup. As I packed my stuff together, the clouds broke up a little bit, and I decided to at least hike toward Mt. Mystery, even though a climb was looking to be unrealistic. I headed up the ridge, then down snowy/icy NE slopes to avoid a broken ridge near ""twin"" (see USGS map). Got back up to the ridge and explored a bit, then headed x-ctry down steeeep slopes to Sunnybrook meadows. It was negotiable, but requried a bit of caution. After hitting the trail I hiked out. The trail is generally in great shape, a couple really minor blowdowns and no snow to note. Flowers were excellent up high, of course. I'd like to do this trip earlier in the year sometime to see the big rhododendrons along the middle part of the trail bloom. Didn't see another person until getting back to the trailhead. -Jonathan jonthan@phlumf.com www.phlumf.com <- will post some photos here soon!... I don't have them edited yet, or I'd add them to the report.

We drove up the Dosewallips River Road to the washout late Friday afternoon and started walking. Saw a few cars parked, but only one other person on the road. The road is an easy 2 1/2 hour hike. Arrived at Dosewallips campground around 8pm. There was one other tent, other than that it was deserted except for the deer. Slept in and took our time in the morning, then headed up the Main Fork Dosewallips trail about 11am. The first 2.5 miles was relatively clear and easy hiking, a few down trees but no big deal. At 2.5 miles we turned right onto the Constance Pass trail and started climbing. Up, up, up! 3400 vertical feet to Sunnybrook Meadows. Several down trees, a couple of which were a little tricky to navigate. Approaching Sunnybrook Meadows the creek has sort of taken over the trail, there are a few crossings and at least one section of 100-200 feet where part of the creek runs right down the trail. Other than that, the trail was mostly clear and in fairly good shape for one that is not regularly maintained. Patchy snow at Sunnybrook Meadows. The little pond there is still mostly covered. A couple of clear tent sites though. Beautiful views and not a soul in sight. We saw no other hikers until we returned to Dosewallips campground on Sunday.

A great weather forecast prompted a trip to Constance Pass and the high country near Mount Mystery. I got started by 5:20 AM and proceeded up the Dosewallips trail 2.5 miles to the Constance Pass junction, then turned right for the start of the 4300 foot vertical climb ahead. The ascent to Sunny Brook Meadows was pleasant in the cool morning shadows accented by rhododendron blooms. The trail was in great shape, and just about all of the snow is melted at the meadows. Two short but steep snow slopes without run-out were encountered on the way to the ridge top. The snow was quite icy and would be dangerous to cross without an ice axe. The view was awesome at the ridge top, with Mt Constance, Warrier, Little Mystery, and Mt Mystery dominating the vista. Rather than proceeding east (and down) to Constance Pass, I walked the snow-free open ridge west to the cliffs of Peak 6666. It looked possible to descend north to upper Heather Creek, so I dropped about 1000 vertical feet to a beautiful basin, then contoured west and ascended snow slopes back to the ridge top west of Peak 6666. Travel west was then easy on the partially snow covered ridge for about 1/2 mile until cliffs block the way. Gunsight Pass between Mt Mystery and Little Mystery is clearly visible from this vantagepoint, so I made a contouring descent along steep talus and shale to the basin below the pass. An ice axe is necessary on this traverse due to snow filled gullies. The 500 foot ascent to the pass was easy on snow and shale. The feeling here is definitely claustrophobic, as if you could touch the walls of Mt Mystery and Little Mystery with both hands. The view northwest through the “gunsight” is dominated by the gray cliffs of Mt Deception. I looked down into the brush filled depths of Deception Creek with some trepidation. But it was all down hill from here on I thought. The initial descent was easy on snow and avalanche scoured meadow until I was forced into the woods by a massive slide alder patch. Travel was a little more difficult to Deception Creek where I crossed to the north side. Some flagging was encountered following the creek out, but I never found any sort of climber’s path. The best strategy was to stay a couple hundred feet above the creek and contour west to the slopes of the Dosewallips valley, then descend to the Dose trail. There were lots of downed trees and steep side drainages to negotiate. After 1-1/2 hours of Deception Creek I was ready for the bliss of the 8 mile hike out the Dose to my car. Outstanding weather and scenery made for a very enjoyable but tiring trip.