Staircase Rapids — Saturday, Jan. 11, 2003

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

What was I thinking? Planning a winter Mountaineer hike in the rain forest! I just wanted people to get off the couches and hike. And boy was I glad. Although it rained our entire drive to the trailhead, the weather was dry with sunbreaks the entire hike. We started our hike at the Staircase area and were planning on hiking along the North Fork Skokomish to the Flapjack Trailhead. Can I repeat that it was a nice dry hike in the rain forest? The moss-covered trees were so different from our views in the cascades. We started our hike at 10:40 and by 12:00 ran into a water crossing that gave us two choices of getting across. One was to ford the water and definately have wet boots. The water was running fast and the stability of the rocks were uncomfortable for some. The second choice was to walk across a downed tree which hung about 10 to 15 feet above the creek. That was uncomfortable for some, but most importantly, uncomfortable for me the leader. So we lunched at the creek making the decision to stop short of our planned destination. But wait...that doesn't mean our hiking has to end. We ate our lunch and hiked back out with the intention of hiking the other side of the river to Staircase Rapids. And that's what we did. This side is so much more beautiful than the other, and it is a very short hike. We made it back to our vehicles around 3 p.m. and after 8 miles of easy hiking. We ended the day at a restaurant and almost got food poisoning. But that's another story for my Mountaineer friends to talk about on another Mountaineer hike.