If you eat Rainbow Bunny Droppings, you are the devil. (When you leave your litter on the trail.)
The road in was rough, not as bad as a month ago, but still pretty bad. Take it slow.
I got started early, and I'm glad I did. At 7:30 a.m., the lower lot was already full. I've never seen that before...although one guy was taking 2 spaces. I saw as I walked by he was struggling to get his truck into one space after talking to a ranger. At the signpost for the trail, there was a notice to keep an eye open for a couple of missing hikers. There was a search effort going on, and I hope the 2 women are OK. It's too bad that this site and the Olympic National Park site are not more nimble with postings like the details of these missing hikers. I usually check both sites before heading out, surely other people do the same.
On the first leg of the trip, the east side of the Staircase Rapids Loop, I only met a couple of hikers. While I appreciate the rescue crews, they need some training on politeness. One crew member wanted to interrogate me, when he was not properly sharing information. He should have told me as much as he could about the missing hikers quickly, like where they were supposed to be hiking, when they were last seen, and when they were due. Instead, he barked questions at me. I looked for a sidearm, because he gave me the feeling he is used to packing a pistol when talking to JQPublic. It was a very short conversation.
Because of the missing hikers, I decided to move fast and not stop for many pictures. My thinking was that I had twice met hikers who had turned the wrong way on the Rapids Loop and instead headed up the river, so not too lost as both times I redirected them. (The park needs some better signage at the turn.) I was also thinking that someone could easily slip down the hill while taking pictures of the river, so I kept my eyes on the down slope. I marched to the 3.6 mile mark, pausing at the best photo spots to look around. I saw zero other hikers on this leg, which has never happened to me before, and I saw no sign of the missing hikers.
At the fork off to Flapjack Lake, I met some friendly campers who told me a couple of search groups had already come through, so I called off the marching. I went about another mile up the trail. At the 4.5 mile mark, I turned around and headed back to the trailhead. On this return leg I passed over 60 hikers. That's 4x the norm. I guess the warnings that lots of people would be out for Memorial Day were correct! Wow! It's great to be part of the great unmasking; it is so nice to say hi and smile as people go by. Of the 70 or so hikers, I only saw 2 masks and only one pair of hikers did not return my greeting.
I stopped for lunch at 3-mile log, which is really 3.25 miles up from the trailhead. It's a nice spot as the top of the log is flat. To stay dry, I sit on the garbage bag I always pack. I picked up 3 pieces of litter, including the incredibly annoying Rainbow Bunny Droppings packaging; c'mon man.
On the last leg of the trip, the west side of Staircase Rapids, I only saw 4 other hikers. I only walked the west side because I was thinking that the east side would have a jam if there were 70 people on the river trail. The east side is 1000x better than the west side. It's a lot nicer to walk up and back on the east side while avoiding the west side entirely.
Back at the parking lot, it was JAMMED! It was the most full I have ever seen the lot, with every space taken and cars parked where they really should not have been. On the drive out there were many cars still approaching, MANY! People like to go to parks on Memorial Day Weekend.
I walked 9 miles in 4 hours. Great weather, nice day, many smiles!
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