Trekks and Travels: June 2015

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Silver Star (Ed's Trail) to Bluff Mtn TH Key Exchange 22 June 2015

A group of 16 ladies from Trail Mix split up and half started at Bluff Mtn TH and half started at Ed's Trail to hike a U between Ed's trail and Bluff Mtn trailhead. I was in the latter group. The area has been recently logged so the road to Ed's trail is obvious. It wasn't that bad, going slowly. We were early enough that we didn't meet anyone coming down!

We started off up a wildflower covered hillside at 10a. It was hard to go one foot without stopping for a picture. The trail gains steadily and is always pretty exposed, and wildflower saturated. Views of St Helens, Adams, Rainier, and Hood. We had clouds so the views were a bit obstructed. We ate lunch perched on the edge of the second summit with 360 views and views of our trail both the way we had come and the way we were going. It took us 6 hours to go 10 mi with 2200 ft gain. But it was hard to go faster because of the breath-taking views around every corner. A must see in the spring! I imagine fall would be pretty too.

map

only a couple sections of woods

a natural rock arch

some hiking was on old roads

view from the summit

lunch spot

Friday, June 19, 2015

Olympic National Park 15-18 June 2015

Cheryl and I enjoyed 4 lovely days in the Olympic National Park. We stayed at the peaceful Quinault River Inn, a quiet small inn on the Quinault River. We took meals at the inn for the most part (refrigerators in the room and a community microwave available) and ate out twice at the Kalaloch Lodge and Salmon House on Lake Quinault. We had beautiful weather, though the sun made the "rain forest" awfully dry and it didn't have that typical lush look you associate with rain forest. The beaches were beautiful - wild and windy in the afternoons but very still and calm in the mornings. We were even treated to a minus tide on Wed morning. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and hiking a beautiful piece of God's creation together.
Our hikes: (I forgot to turn off the Tracks before driving on some of these!)
Quinault Lake loop near Ranger Station: 2.0 miles QL map
Kalaloch Beach : 5.6 mi K map
Hoh River 6.8 mi 1200 ft gain HR map
Ruby Beach tide pools at low tide
Rialto Beach 3.7 mi R beach map
Second beach 3.7 mi S beach map

Kalaloch Beach