Duckabush River — Saturday, Sep. 15, 2001

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

Our group of four left Staircase on the 16th and hit Camp Pleasant for the night. No bugs! The next morning we humped it over First Divide and made Home Sweet Home in the afternoon- hoped to get to Hart Lake that day, but one person in our group had some nasty blisters and needed some rest. We limped to Hart Lake the next day and enjoyed perfect weather, views and berry-eating-bears for two days. We ended up moving camp for two more days to Lake Lacrosse because it was rutting season for the Elk and a large herd was bugling and fighting. There are plenty of great day hikes around the area. Check out: Buck Lake, Oneil Pass and Anderson Glacier (if you can find the Hart Lake shortcut into the Enchanted Valley). There were even more bears on the steep hillsides around Lacrosse lake. Full respect was employed and they regularly came within 100 feet of our camp. However, we were never threatened by them as their interest stayed on eating the huge, ripe berries that appeared to be growing everywhere. In fact, our bear canisters weren't even touched by the bears for the duration of our trip.