Support Washington Trails Association. #Hikeathon.
Finished off August and Hikeathon with a very long day hike to High Divide & 7 Lakes Basin Loop.
Arrived at the parking around 7:30 am and there were plenty of spots. The bathrooms were well stocked - shout out to the National Park workers for all that you do!
We first checked out Sol Duc Falls for a quick stop before heading around the loop counter clockwise. The trail is mostly uphill but not too steep. You do pass over many rocks and roots, but I didn't notice on the way up, as we quickly made our way past Deer lake, and the Potholes on our way toward Lunch Lake.
We decided to drop down to Lunch Lake and have a look around and a snack before heading back up to the ridge to summit Mt. Bogachiel. We agreed later that we should have skipped the summit and taken the unmaintained trail past the lakes to reconnect to High Divide. Mt. Bogachiel didn't provide any different views than High Divide and it took some effort as it was a hot day.
From Mt. Bogachiel we continued along High Divide taking in views of the seven lakes and glacial peaks. We stopped at a camp site along the ridge for a quick lunch before heading to Big Heart Lake for a bathroom break before heading back towards Sol Duc. The trail from Heart Lake was a bit of a slog and reconnecting with the very busy holiday traffic at So Duc was a bit of a shock after the general solitude we had for 95% of the trail, so we blasted from there back to the car.
This is a great trail and should definitely be on any hiker's bucket list.
Stats: 20.27 miles; 5,312 ft elevation gain; 8 hours 40 mins; 3.0 average moving speed.
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