Visited Duckabush river for a dayhike last Saturday. Funny, it may have been only major river in Olympics I had not visited. Caught 5:50am Kingston ferry, arrived at trailhead 7:30am. Incoming road has some mean potholes. Weather was cool and cloudy so limited views from Big Hump. Rhodos are out, what a treat. Reached park border around 10am. Forest looks much older after park border: enormous trees, moss carpets. Around 1 mile past border, trail has nearly fallen into river at a bluffy section, clearly unsafe. Trail from park border to Ten Mile was my favorite. River was full and fast, passing through gorges or under vine maple canopy. Trail visits river bank occasionally affording nice rest stops or camps. At points the trail is far from river through ancient forest. There are just a few awkward blowdowns to pass, the largest I recall about a mile from Ten Mile. Very brushy sections to point where hemlocks entirely obscure trail. Also a few quite swampy areas inside park. Reached the expansive Ten Mile camp 11:40am and poked around a bit. Explored trail a bit past Ten Mile but headed back around 12:30pm. Trotted most of the way to park boundary, then ambled the rest of the way back to arrive at car 4:10pm. Made the 5:50pm ferry. What a nice trip and surprisingly not so far from Seattle area.
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