We made a 2-night backpacking trip into the Olympics by hiking up the old Dosewallips River Road and the West Fork Dosewallips Trail. The road and trail are in good condition. A trail crew is working on brushing out the trail and other maintenance above Diamond Meadows. On a Monday and Tuesday night we had Big Timber camp to ourselves, 10 miles from the trailhead. The riverside campsite lives up to its name with it's impressively tall trees. While the valley campsite does not offer alpine mountain views, it was blessedly bug-free and had many good tent sites near the river. Although the long walk up the river valley feels like a slog at times, the forest and geology are quite varied and there are many interesting sights, including Dosewallips Falls along the road and an impressive high bridge over a narrow gorge higher on the trail. How did that bridge get there?!?
On the second day we took a 15 mile round-trip day hike up to Anderson Lake. Flies and mosquitoes were a serious annoyance at the higher elevations, from Honeymoon Meadows all the way to Anderson Pass. The side trail from Anderson Pass to Anderson Lake is less maintained than the main trail, but it was easy to follow to a ridge above Anderson Lake. It was steep, but we took our time and enjoyed just-ripe huckleberries on the way up. From the ridge we scrambled down to the partially ice-covered lake. Our refreshing dips in the water were very brief.
We donated a couple of Benadryl to a woman who got stung by two bees on the way up to Anderson Lake and had left her first aid kit at Camp Siberia. Then I got stung by a bee on the way down, so beware. It was a good reminder to take all the 10 essentials on even a short day hike.
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