Please only go on this hike if you LOVE hornets and horseflies. We were accosted relentlessly the entire way to boulder shelter and back, even to the car. They kept stealing my girlfriend’s salt and attacked my dog’s face. When the hornets and horseflies went to bed the mosquitos would take over the night shift. It took us three and a half hours to get to boulder shelter, which was fast for us, because we had relentless personal trainers swarming us the entire time. Bug spray worked for the mosquitos but the hornets and horseflies were unfazed. We were supposed to camp for three nights and had to leave after one night to avoid a crash out. Boulder camp is gorgeous and likely worth the hike without bugs. Great water access and many open campsites.

There were 2 logs across the trail and drainage work by mystic camp. By Shelter rock campground there is a 3' and 2' log across the trail. At 1.5 miles from trail head there was a 2' log,  4" log, 6' log over the trail. At 1 mile from trailheadthere was a 3' log.

#hikeathon

I backpacked up to Boulder Shelter and made that base camp for one night. There is plenty of space here and it’s a gorgeous view! I attempted to head up to Marmot Pass in the evening but encountered snow at about 5’800 feet. There may be room to go around it off trail or use traction across, however I was alone and did not feel brave enough to attempt it.

The next day I day hiked towards Home Lake and Charlia Lakes. This day felt like a massive win considering the weather reports had predicted rain and it was as sunny as ever! I made it nearly to Home Lake but encountered a snow field. Again, solo and without traction I decided to turn around. I made my way up to Charlia Lakes from there. It was a steep trail that was very worth it. I climbed up to about 6’400 feet and decided not to descend to the upper lake; it was entirely clouded in and I knew I still needed some energy to get back to the trailhead.

Overall, many opportunities for exploring! Maybe one to two more weeks before it’s completely snow free in the area for even more trails to connect.

It was time to get out and check out the snow levels and make sure all my equipment was in working order.

Road:  The Upper Dungeness River Road is bad this year - take it slow to save your suspension

Trail:  The trail to Camp Handy and Boulder Shelter Camp is in great shape.  It had been recently logged out (thank you) so no trees to climb over/under.  Side streams are running full but I was able to rock hop across without getting my boots wet.  No snow on the trail until you reach Boulder Shelter.  Heading toward Marmot Pass there are normal steep snow field sections across the trail so it may be scary for some folks.  Lots of snow heading toward Home Lake due to the slope direction.

Camping:  Boulder Shelter Camp is mostly melted out, but there is snow around the actual shelter which may interfere with setting up your tent next to the shelter.

I saw a few lowland rhododendrons in bloom but the peak is still weeks away.

And one other interesting thing to look for is there is a huge avalanche / debris field on the slopes of Mt Mystery (I think), across the upper valley.  It makes it look like a glacier coming down the mountain.  It must have made a lot of noise coming down.

We were unable to get to Boulder Shelter. There are 12 inches and more of soft snow on the trail about 0.7 miles north of Boulder shelter at 4500 ft. Before that there was one drainage with a snow bridge which is becoming thin. What is more concerning are 2 large and 2-3 smaller slide areas. The trial is just barely hanging on to the edge in one of the areas. We saw some cut and barked logs stacked near one of the slides. I hope some shoring up is possible. If the current route is lost, the effort/money/time to re-route is difficult to imagine. The slides start about half way between Handy and Boulder.

I must add that except for the snow and slide areas, the rest of the trail is gorgeous! Mature forest with little underbrush, beautifully graded trail, very few trees down, two attractive and sturdy log bridges over the river, and easy creek crossings.

The mature trees and the moss covered forest floor never got old. The Dungeness river is blue in the sunlight. There are an impressive number of rhododendrons between Camp Handy and 4000ft. Some had plump flower buds, but still a month from bloom.

We camped at Camp Handy. The only disturbance was a large helicopter flying very low up the valley at dusk.