Sol Duc River, High Divide - Seven Lakes Basin Loop, Bailey Range Traverse, Happy Hollow, Whiskey Bend to Low Divide & North Fork Quinault River and Halfway House — Monday, Jul. 25, 2016

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

Hello WTA and all interested readers. If you have any questions about my trip, or my report in general. Do not hesitate to comment below or send me an e-mail @ brleinin@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!! This is my descriptive, and somewhat lengthy trip report documenting and describing my solo traverse of the Bailey Range, straight through the Olympic National Park from North to South. The trip was completed in five days, between July 25th and July 29th, with chosen route of entrance to the range from the Catwalk via the Sol Duc River TH, and exit of the range by way of the North Fork Quinault River Trail via the dreaded Elwha Snow Finger out of Dodwell-Rixon Pass. Very quickly, before I write my report, I would like to echo some of the many trip reports on the WTA in regard to the Bailey Range over the years and talk about what people ought to be prepared for when considering the route. Remember, whatever plan you have, particularly on the southern slopes of Stephen Peak, and, if you are like me and you consider descending the Elwha Snow Finger, you will consistently take more time to complete these miles than during other trips. There are trails and obvious way trails along much of the trip, however the terrain is usually not reliable, and I VERY strongly encourage those considering this trip to be skilled with an ice axe. Bring your strongest wits and be skilled with a compass. Have back country navigational skills. You will use all of your knowledge to solve constant and relentless problems along the way. There was not a day out there that I did not have to use my compass - particularly because I chose not to bring a GPS system of any kind. Don't rely on your GPS if you do bring it. Also, the scenery and remoteness of the area is exceptional. Do not put yourself in a position like mine was on this trip where I had to fight the clock in order to make schedule. Plan an extra rest day into the route so that if you don't make your campsite, encounter problems, need to change route, or simply aren't going as fast as you wish, you do not have to make up for all of that lost time. If I could turn back time and do it again, I would have planned an extra sixth day so that each day was a bit more realistic and had a relaxed feel to it - and I could comfortably take time to do little day trips or side excursions such as grabbing an extra peak off the beaten path. Finally, I would also like to tack on the serious sentiment that doing the trip alone like I did was a mistake. This is hard for me to admit, as I did in fact complete the route successfully with very little issues, but if I had become hurt along the way, I absolutely would not be here to talk about what I had seen and experienced. Bring a friend. Better yet, bring somebody with mountaineering experience. Bring somebody who knows how to self arrest and has superior navigational experience. Trust me, if I had fallen at any single point, I would not be here writing this. With the scary stuff out of the way, I will move on to the day by day trip report: Essentials I brought/did not bring: I brought ice axe, helmet, rope, 3 USGS topographic maps, and a green trails map of the areas I expected to cover. Weather: Weather was partly cloudly on Day 1, and the entire trip for the remainder of the time was cloudless. Beautiful, beautiful sunshine every day. Never used rain gear. Day 1: Having had a ride previously arranged to and from Olympic National Park, my friend "V" and I left Seattle on a ferry for Bainbridge @ 06:00. We were trying to get me to Port Angeles as early as possible to try and get an early start, but more importantly to snatch up a reservation permit for Heart Lake at the last minute. This wasn't successful when we got to the visitor's center, and the ranger gave me the option for Boston-Charley's camp past the maintained trail. I took this option, and my permits read for four nights: Day 1 @ Boston-Charley's camp, Day 2 @ Cream Lake, Day 3 @ Dodwell-Rixon Pass, and Day 4 @ Sixteen Mile Camp. I took the ranger's generous offer to use a larger bear canister that they provided, and after breakfast at First Street Haven in PA, V and I were on our way to the Sol Duc River TH. By 12:00 we were walking in toward the Sol Duc Falls! V Took me as far as the Appleton Pass trail junction, at which point we parted ways, with her heading back to the car, and me beginning my journey farther into the trail toward Heart Lake and the High Divide. @ 17:00, I achieved Heart Lake. As I was grabbing my first round of water, I met two climbers from FL who were vacationing in Washington, I'll call them E and B. They had some good experience, and were telling me that they wanted to summit Mount Carrie the next morning. After I explained the location of my campsite, and proximity to Carrie, we all agreed it would be fun for me to join them, and we summit together. I continued on to the High Divide having made good plans with E and B, and as evening approached and I left the maintained trail behind, the route began to wind on steep side slopes to a cairn leading up a slope to the Catwalk, a highly exposed subalpine ridge. It was getting dark, so I chose to camp above the ridge just before the Catwalk instead of complete it right then on Day 1. Day 2: 8:00 came fast, and in no time I had my new Floridian friends poking my tent waking me up! After a quick bite to eat and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes it was time to get going across the Catwalk. I left my campsite still assembled on top of the ridge and converted my 70 liter REI backpack into a more appropriate day pack for Mount Carrie. Above the Catwalk we found a way trail up the ridge just before a false summit, which turns into the standard climbing route to Carrie. B's wife E got a little sketched out at this point with the scree, which I am actually quite comfortable on. B and I traveled across the scree slope to a loose rock outcropping just above Carrie's major southern snowfield, and grabbed the summit. The views are outstanding. Some of the best just outside of Olympus. We went back to where E was sitting down and, proud of our success, headed back to the Catwalk. E and B, as previously mentioned, were camping at Heart Lake. But I had some logistical problems now, as I had killed 7 hours of my day climbing Carrie rather than descending to Cream Lake along my route to the Bailey Range. We met an experienced older gentleman and his nephew who had been mucking around in the Bailey's for 6 days already and exclaimed to me that they felt I was already running behind schedule. I agreed reluctantly, but was obviously determined to press on. We went across the Catwalk and stopped at my camp, all five of us together, and I got an ear full of amazing advice from all of my new friends. I crossed back over the Catwalk for the third time leaving my pals behind & got my day truly started alone to Cream Lake at 15:00. Feeling greedy from taking a side trip up Carrie earlier, I knew the next couple of days would be tough, but I really had no idea just how difficult it'd be. I passed by Eleven Bull Basin @ 17:00, attempting to gain as much ground as I could, but the going was so slow on the side slopes, and I was forced to settle for a buggy little camp site at a small lake SW of Stephen Peak. Day 3: I almost slept too late, getting going @ 9:00. It was going to be a day of reckoning. Tentatively, I might have to consider turning around. As afternoon swung in and Cream Lake came into sight, I began to wonder how I was going to get down from the honestly horrible side-hill trail I had been on for the last 24 hours. I knew a gully or meadow was going to be a better bet for me, because each trail that was taking me into the forest was getting lost in translation. I was constantly being mislead if not by anyone other than myself. Word to the wise here: If you miss a turn off in this area you will become lost in the slide alder!!! My solution for this problem came from continuing to stay high in the meadows, even passing NE of Cream Lake. Just as my frustration had hit an all time high, and I felt like I had completely failed to find my way down to the lake, I found a miracle gully which to my good fortune sloped right out into wild meadows east of Cream Lake. I never actually found Cream Lake on Day 3, and finally realized that I didn't even care to, but by 17:00 I did finally, for the first time in what felt like a long time, accurately triangulate my position at a small lake just east of peak 4933T, SE of Cream Lake. I was satisfied with this progress after what had been an awfully grueling time up in the slopes. This place was beautiful! I began scheming my route up to Lone Tree Pass where I was hoping to camp for the night. Exhausted and at the same time enamored with my trip so far, I dropped anchor near the saddle between Mount Ferry and Mount Pulitzer, in Pulitzer basin at an alpine lake (former glacier). I enjoyed this supreme solitude for the night. Day 4: This was the most strenuous day of the trip. I was on my feet for 14 hours. @ 7:00 I broke camp and began hitting the saddle round back of Pulitzer on a little goat path that I'm sure has seen many happy people over the years. In no time at all I blasted through Lone Tree Pass and was cruising along ridge lines and taking in the godly sensation of being on top of the Bailey Range. I have never enjoyed myself so much outside, and the ecstasy of walking along these high ridges and deserted snow & rock-scapes was the most rewarding part of my trip. I remember thinking in the future I'd like to spend more of my time right. there. At 12:00 I rolled over the top of Bear Pass and it was all over. I said goodbye to Olympus, which had been in sight since back when I first hit the High Divide. My previous arrangements to wind up at Wild Rose Creek by tomorrow meant I had lost time to make up fast. At 13:00 I threw myself down the Elwha Snow Finger and began my descent. Everything started off right initially, until around 15:00 I smacked into a dead end at the ancient remains of the Snow Finger. This glacier spanning the entire river, an enormous 10 story high 2 city block-wide sheet of ice, meant climbing out of the river gorge by scrambling north up dirt and scree to a small meadow. I was lucky that this meadow didn't bluff out, and it casually sloped back down into a creek bed that led me back to the Elwha where I continued to play jump-stone down the valley. As evening approached, I knew I was getting close to Elwha basin, and the beginning of maintained trail, so I began to question whether I should still be walking in the Elwha or not. I was starting to have to ford the river in a couple of places through tight canyons, and a quick decision sent me up more dirt, grabbing tightly onto vegetation to pull me up into the forests north of the river where I might hope to catch the official Happy Hollow trail. Following bear scat, broken dead trees, and soft pine beds, I followed a compass bearing, listening closely to the river, and watching as best I could through the trees for the appearance of the Elwha basin valley over the river. This was a fine art of finding path of least resistance, where trails often stopped short with a blowdown and began again some few feet down the slope, only to continue to trend by stopping again. Eventually I found my way back down the slope to the river again, which was much more open and inviting now and I was able to track a trail down which started to show more signs of human activity. Cut logs and open boot path were now at my disposal again, which washed a wave of relief over me. By this time I was absolutely obliterated, and I knew before I had even made it to Chicago Camp @ 20:30 that I was going to be staying there for my last night. As I built a little camp fire, I counted my blessings and thanked whatever God is out there that I had made it this far on my own with no seriously sustained injuries, in such great time, and having only lost a gaiter the entire trip. It was difficult for me to imagine that 15 hours earlier I had started my day north of Mount Pulitzer. Day 5: On my final day I woke up with 19 miles left to hike. Our previously made arrangement called for my friends M and L to rendezvous with me at Wild Rose Creek on the North Fork Quinault River trail between 15:00 and 17:00 and escort me to their car where we'd ride back to Seattle. To make it to the creek by that time, I took liberty to get started at 6:00, and I sprinted with a full pack down the trail wherever I could and had energy to do so. In an hour out of Chicago camp I was at Low Divide, careening around Mary and Margaret lakes toward the North Fork. At 8:00, just after passing by the Skyline trail turn off, I found three very experienced mountain women, the first people I had encountered in over two days. But sadly, one of them was seriously injured - broken ankle and serious internal bone trauma in both feet. She was not going to walk out of here, so I offered what medical help I could, but they insisted that they were all ok and in good spirits. I was encouraged to continue moving as they had sent out help the previous day. NPS was about a mile away from them as I continued down the trail. One of the service people in the party was a guy I had met on Day 1, haha! I screamed on down the North Fork, fording the river at Sixteen Mile @ 10:00 and hitting halfway house by 13:30. My trip was effectively coming to an end. I bathed in the Wild Rose Creek and prepared a feast out of my remaining food. By 15:00 my friends L and M were clammoring over the creek to find me!! Salvation! A shared sigh of relief was celebrated by all of us that I had made it - that we had made it. The last five miles of the North Fork trail were a victory lap for me, as my friends made fun of how awful I looked. We jumped in the car at 18:00 and I returned my bear can at the South Shore Ranger Station. Dinner in Aberdeen was mandatory, and sitting around the table we joked about the symbolism of the Elwha Snow (Middle) Finger as I told stories from the traverse. Amazing trip! Just to end this off right, because this was such a meaningful trip to me, here's a bit about why I chose the Bailey Range, as well as a quick thank you note. Thank you to everyone for reading this far: At the time I completed this trip I was a 26 year old male who was looking to hike across Olympic National Park. I wanted to do the Bailey Range because it looked remote, and I thought doing it alone would be best because it didn't seem I could arrange the trip very easily with others. Most of my friends aren't skilled in the wilderness, and don't have the time to spare for this kind of pursuit or even the desire, so I was on my own. I also thought the route would challenge me both mentally and physically, and encourage me to continue practicing my scrambling skills. In the spring of 2016, I joined The Mountaineers (non-profit organization), and enrolled in the Alpine Scramble Course. Without having completed this course, learning about what scrambling is really all about, and gaining some more experience and fitness building through out the early parts of Summer, I'd have been dead in the water and never have been able to do this trip. They taught me navigation, first aid, and of course, I picked up on a lot of the subtle as well as straight forward know-how needed to ascend alpine rock and snow with long approaches, nasty scree, relentless snow fields, and high exposure. If my scramble instructors and teammates are reading this report from the Seattle branch, you know who you are. Thank you!! Thank you to my friends V as well as to M and L for their services in transporting me to and from the park. Without you three, I would not have logistically been able to complete the trip in five days, or with any ounce of sanity leftover. Thank you for reading!!! In the coming weeks I'll hopefully be able to post additional links for more pictures and videos.