Tunnel Creek — Thursday, Sep. 7, 2017

Decided to go to the Olympics today hoping for clearer skies, but it was pretty smoky.  I have been to Tunnel Creek before but it was many years ago and I had forgotten how steep it was past Harrison Lake.  There was only one car in the parking lot when I arrived, and I passed him coming down the trail at 10:30 so I was the only one on the trail with my dog.  I could smell smoke when I got up higher but in the woods it wasn't too bad, The river was beautiful at the beginning of the trail.  Harrison Lake is small and somewhat muddy around the edges but really no bugs to bother so that was nice.  The sun every now and then would sort of shine through but it mostly felt like a cloudy day.  I hiked up to the views of Mt Constance and past the trail that goes down to the Duckabush side.  I was almost to the very very top (over 5,000 ft ) but the trail is quite rocky  and the smoke was so thick I couldn't see anything anymore so decided to head back.  Kind of a strange day with all the smoke and no one around.  It was quite warm and still does not seem like September.