Constance Pass — Friday, Sep. 15, 2000

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

Great trail, great views, beautiful weather. All these things add up to a wonderful trip. We hiked Up and up and up the Constance pass trail to Sunnybrook Meadows in the clouds (I thanked them the whole way up). Woke up at 1:00 am with the Moon blasting into my tent, the clouds were gone up here the valley was filled to the brim. In the morning we hiked up to the ridge to see what could be seen. The Puget sound basin was full of fog (Rainier stuck its bulk above it all) Both forks of the Dosewallips were full of fog, it was a good 2000 feet below us. As the day went on the fog began to rise, by sunset we were at eye level with the clouds- an amazing sunset ensued as the cloud level stayed at just below us, it was like looking out the airplane window. By midnight all the fog was gone and the lights of the Puget mega-tropalis could be seen. The hike down down down caused my knees to curse but the trail is in excellent condition and the views from the top of Del Monte ridge are spectacular.