Duckabush River — Saturday, Apr. 22, 2000

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

The weather this day was wet. Lots of rain, even though it did slow at times. There were 5 of us this day and we started at the trailhead at 9:45am. The trail is beautiful, lots of undergrowth, moss growing on various things, lots of older growth dating back to the 1920/30's. The trail travels right next to the Duckabush River for a time which was gushing with run-off this day. Big Hump (the second of two steeper sections of the hike) was challenging because the elevation gain was quite sudden for probably 3/4 of a mile. We stopped to have lunch at 5 minutes to 12 at a lookout just about 4 miles in. At that point, you can look up at a peak accross the way where it was snowing (I believe the freezing level was around 3000 feet that day). We saw no other snow other than that snow off in the distance and up another 1000 feet or so. The trail was wet, and there were signifigant amounts of water and mud, however the trail was very well maintained. Although, Tennis shoes would not have worked this day (we were all well equipped), and we all had a chance to use the gear we always pack around, knew there had to be a reason for that, hehe). We returned back to the trailhead after stopping for ~45 minutes for lunch at ~2:15pm (9:45am-->2:15pm total time). Overall, a fairly easy hike with some nice surroundings. (douvoodoo@hotmail.com, Redmond, Washington)