Hoh River Trail to Five Mile Island, Hoh Lake — Thursday, Jun. 23, 2011

Spent 3 days in the Hoh Valley with 2 good friends (Seth and Mikey) this past weekend. We were hoping to do a trail with some elevation for some views, but with the snow level still fairly low, we decided to hike the Hoh River Trail. Overall the trail is pretty flat and we were able to maintain a fairly blistering pace of 2.5 MPH (including some breaks) which is much faster than I am used to hiking. At the Visitor’s Center, the ranger quizzed us on bear etiquette and guaranteed us that we would see 3 to 5 bears if we made it out to the Olympus Guard Station. This was pretty exciting so we got our permit and hit the trail.

Visitor’s Center -> Olympus Guard Station
The skies were clear when we left the Visitor’s Center around 11:00 AM and the trail was muddy in certain places, but not too bad. I was more concerned with dodging all the dung from pack animals that was on the trail than the mud. We stopped and used Seth’s Steripen for the first time at Mt. Tom Creek to get some water, but didn’t see the campground that is supposedly there. We had lunch at Five Mile Island and there were a couple campsites there next to the river which looked really nice, although I didn’t see too many large trees to hide out under if the rain would have been coming down. After lunch we hit the trail, going past Happy 4 (saw the group shelter, but didn’t check out the campsites) and rolled into the Olympus Guard station campground around 3:20. Other than pack animal dung and mud, the only other concern on the trail is that some of the stream crossings go over very small logs without handrails or are just rock hops. Not a big deal for someone steady on their feet, but I am not sure I would have been comfortable with my 5 year old daughter attempting them. Olympus Guard Station Campground When you get to the Guard Station, there is a sign that shows the location of the campsites and bear wires in the area, it is a little misleading though as we were confused on how the map was laid out. In any case, most of the sites are in the meadow or by the river. Seth and Mike went to scout out sites while I stayed at the station with our packs and immediately ran into deer. They were there all three days and we saw a couple young bucks, some doe and 2 very small fawns that hopped and played in the meadow throughout the day. The guys selected a site that was close to the river and had a small creek between the site in the river which we could easily get water from. Once we got the tents up, it started raining and we immediately realized we made a mistake in selecting our site as there were no big trees close by to hide under. TIP: If you have a choice and there is a chance for rain, try to pick a site in the meadow with a big tree or go to the site that is furthest from the Guard Station close to the gravel bar which also has a big tree to hide under. People slowly rolled into camp (the latest around 9:00PM) and all the sites were eventually taken. You can have campfires at all of the sites (something new to my backpacking experience) and all the sites have decent access to water either via the stream between the meadow and the river or the stream behind the Guard Station, so you don’t have to drink the water from the river which is full of silt. There were no bugs at the camp the whole time we were there nor on any of the other trails during our trip, not sure if it just wasn’t warm enough or if the rain kept them away. Hoh Lake: The next day, we decided to leave our camp where it was and try to day hike up to Hoh Lake. We were told that we wouldn’t get too far after getting to the top of the ridge due to snow, but we really wanted to see if we could get high for some views. Shortly after leaving camp, it began raining and it did everything between drizzling and pouring during the entire day hike. It appeared that we were one of the first groups to use the trail recently as we passed no one and didn’t see any footprints in the mud/snow. Along the way, we had to navigate around 5 -6 large downed trees. Unfortunately, since it was so cloudy, we only got small views of the valley below and the other mountains surrounding us. We did see a section where a bear had ripped the bark off of 3 different trees, so they are definitely out there. I was worried about my bad knee and was having trouble keeping up with Seth and Mike, so I turned around probably 2/3rds of the way up. They kept going and as expected ran into snow shortly after crossing the ridge onto the North side. They decided to turn around when Mike took a unintended glissade 10 feet down the mountain. I got back to the Guard Station about an hour and a half before they came back and hung out under a large tree to eat my lunch without getting rained on. When they got back, we hung out on the porch of the Guard Station to avoid the rain and eventually talked to a National Park employee who was doing trail work. We told him about the blowdowns and he proceded to tell us that at 63 years old, he was getting ready to retire and he wouldlet the young bucks take care of that. It was cool talking to him for a while and staying out of the rain. That afternoon, Mike hiked a little further down the tail (he wanted to hit 30 miles for the trip) and went to Lewis Meadows, but didn’t have anything special to note about the trip.

Olympus Guard Station -> Visitor Center
We actually made it back to the visitor center even faster than the trip out, guessing we were motivated by the cheeseburgers awaiting us in Forks! The only things that were different than on the way in was that the mud was much worse (at least 50% of the trail was thick mud or standing water) and we saw a lot more hikers on the trail since it was a Saturday. Summary Overall a great trip with easy terrain and many options for camping and side hikes. Only thing missing was that we didn’t see any bear or even an elk the whole time we were there.