Hoh River Trail to Blue Glacier, Mount Olympus — Monday, Jul. 10, 2023

Trip dates: July 6-9, two nights at Glacier Meadows, 1 night at OGS. 5 out of 7 in our group had a successful summit of Mt. Olympus on 7/8, with 2 hiking out that day instead. 

Our group drove in from Seattle on 7/5, and stayed at the Hard Rain Café campsites. There's a few tent only sites which are $29 each and are for up to 4 people and 2 cars. They had bathrooms, showers, and cell service, so it was well worth the price, even just to be able to communicate with each other. Unfortunately we all arrived too late to try the food in the café, but it looked good! 

We headed out the next morning and into the park, hitting the trail sometime after 7:30a, but before 8a. Our group made great time to start out, as expected on a flat trail, and made it to OGS just before noon. Had lunch there and rested for about an hour. The walk through the forest was really lovely, although humid with minimal breezes when away from the river, but we didn't linger long to take photos since it was going to be a long day. The two river crossings were easy, though there were no logs to cross at the first one. They're only about 1/4mi. apart, so most of us either just stayed barefoot in between, or wore sandals. 

Once we crossed the big bridge looking over the massive canyon, I crashed HARD. Great timing since the trail only goes up from there. Legs felt like bricks, and every step was a battle. The great time we made up until this point was ruined by how long it took me to move the rest of the way. There's a dusty washout section that was miserable. I ended up taking off my pack for it, as everything I was trying to hold onto was loose, and I wasn't sure in my footing (for as much as I love climbing, I am terrified of downclimbing). And while everyone mentions the rope ladder being the big crux, I thought it was the easiest part of all the challenging sections. The short section before it that was an avalanche chute of rocks was by far the hardest part. It's super short, maybe 5 steps total, but completely unsecure. The first 2/3 steps on the way up to camp are 'ok' and somewhat solid, but the last 2 steps start sliding the second you put pressure on them. As someone with a short stride who had to do that in 2 steps and not 1, it was a hail mary to get across and not go sliding down the whole way. 

As for the ladder, it was totally fine. The handline to get onto it was in good condition, and the hardest part was actually getting on it - the steps don't touch the ground on the top, so when you go to step on, it can move quite a bit. Just make sure you have your pack strapped down tight and everything is secure - we all noticed everything wanted to tilt to the left. With my slow pace we didn't make it to camp until 9pm, making for an exceptionally long day. We had planned to go for the summit the following day, but decided to take a rest day instead and try for it on the 8th. 

The campsites were all fairly spread out, and I found them to be pleasant. No, they aren't in a vast meadow, but there's plenty of trees for shade, the toilets were in decent condition, tent sites were all flat (a nice surprise!), bugs were minimal/nonexistent (we did have a thermacell so this may have helped), and our group site backed up to the creek for easy water access. 

The next day after a lovely nights sleep, the 'rest day' turned into a scouting day to check out the moraine and maybe do a bit of glacier travel practice on rope teams, as myself and another friend had snow experience, but no glacier experience. We didn't start up from camp until 12:30pm, so it was hot and the sun was blasting down on us on the way up. I was still not feeling great and got overheated almost immediately, so I meandered my way up as fast as I could while enjoying any breeze. The wildflowers here were really starting to put on a show, and it was beautiful. Lots of monkeyflower, mountain bluebells, pasque flowers, red columbine, yarrow, indian paintbrush, the list goes on. Also a TON of Swallowtail and Checkerspot butterflies! 

The breeze got better and colder the higher up we got, and once at the lateral moraine it was sunny, but incredibly pleasant. And the view. WOW. It really puts the size into perspective. It also made me question my decision to go with the group for the summit, and I now know why people say they are glad they went down the moraine in the dark and couldn't see it in the light - it's... well, it's something. We walked along the narrow ridge, and my boot got caught on a low shrub that knocked me forward. I was able to catch myself so I didn't take the easy and painful way down the moraine, but after that I was not feeling it. There are some steep dusty switchbacks after this that everyone thought was the crux. I got about 10 steps down and at that point decided I'd be happier just hanging out and looking at the mountain from where I was. I don't care about summits, and when I had pitched the trip to my group, I had only brought up camping and hiking up to the terminus. I don't like scrambling, and the rest of the way down looked even worse, so I backed out, and just enjoyed the rest of my day. Some of us went back to camp and sat in the creek for a bit, while a few others found their way down onto the glacier, where another in the group also decided they weren't comfortable enough and also backed out. 

On the 8th, the group of 5 left at 2am, and myself and other partner packed up for the long hike down at 8am. I thought the ladder was a little harder going up as my pack was pushing me into it this time and prevented me from looking up, but otherwise it was fine. The rock chute was still the worst part, and the other washout where I had taken my pack off on the way down wasn't an issue going back up. What really made me realize my decision to back out was the right one was my knee bursitis that came roaring back the day before (most likely when I fell since I hit it pretty good, and I've had no issues with it on other steep hikes lately). Have you ever had to walk down steep inclines and rocks keeping one leg as straight as possible? Let me tell you, it's not the best time you can have, and I had to do it on every single decline/step down, no matter how small. Bending it was super painful, and keeping it straight was the only way to keep the searing pain away. So all the time I thought we'd shave off being able to go fast downhill was out the window (typical). Still made up time on the flat sections when we finally got to them, and only took a couple 10 minute breaks, mostly to filter water and have a snack. 

The last 3 miles though? Ok, so the switchbacks down from Snow Lakes in the Enchantments when you can finally see the parking lot is rough. But this was like next level. You couldn't see the parking lot, but 3 miles felt like a lifetime, and I was starting to wonder if I was in some alternate dimension and I was just walking in a loop that was never going to end. The giant trees and moss and ferns were obviously amazing and beautiful to look at, and I I'd like to live in a forest of ferns, but by then even I was over it and wanted to get my pack and shoes off. Finally reached the end and got to the cars just after 6:30p. Heard from our friends that they made the summit at 3:30p and were stuck behind some very slow moving guided groups and had a big wait to rappel off the summit (they made it back to camp at 7:30, and only made it as far as Martin Creek campsites before setting up tents). 

I'd absolutely come back and camp at Glacier Meadows again, this time without all the mountaineering gear that added some serious weight to my pack. The Hoh had it's usual intoxicatingly sweet and amazing smell, and the trees never cease to amaze me with their size. With a lighter pack and more time to stop and enjoy it all would be even better.