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- May 6, 2012
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A couple of weeks ago I took a short hike down the Dungeness River here in Washington State in the Olympic National Park. On my first trip I didn't have a lot of time to explore and I was very surprised at how close this hike was to my house (about and hour drive). Yesterday I decided to hop in my car and return this time to hike up the river to a backpacking/camp shelter called Camp Handy. The weather is changing around here pretty quickly and the trailhead is at about 3,000ft (snow lvl) so this trail/access road will not be clear much longer and easily accessible unless you have a snowmobile or cross-country skis. There was a fresh dusting of snow on all the other cars parked overnight on the trailhead and it was a chilly 24 degrees when I started the hike at about 10am.
Could see fresh snow on the peaks and trees above 3,500 feet driving up there. Lucked out with a nice clear day. First one in here in the PNW in about a week.
Hiking along the river:
I took along my new BK4 to break it in (more on that later)....
The sun in the old growth tract of Douglas Fir trees was welcome occurrence.
Some of these trees were MASSIVE. My pictures don't really illustrate very well how big they were in person. Like walking among giants. With the violent roar of the river in the background.
In some places I had this urge to just lay down on the moss and make myself a bed. You could walk the forest floor comfortably barefoot in some spots if it wasn't so cold. Amazing place.
A couple miles in I found this amazing campsite right by the river. You can bet I'll be returning here for an overnight or two next spring:
Standing in the campsite looking down the river. The moss was just stunning here.
You can see the light dusting of snow on this log that fell across a creek feeding into the river. The forest floor didn't get much accumulation due to the shelter provided by the trees.
The (somewhat shady) bridge crossing royal creek:
SWIMMING HOLE!!
When we stopped for lunch it was pretty cold so I made a fire. One of the BK&T hats Moose gave me came in very handy. Thanks moose
This is the old shelter we stopped at for lunch that was at about 4 miles in . A lot more snow at this point as we had climbed about 800ft in elevation.
This is the view looking out of the shelter. Absolutely stunning scenery. My dad is walking back from the river in the distance. He was my hiking partner for the day. He hiked this trail in the 1960s with my grandfather and my grandfather had hiked this area since the 1930s. A lot of family history on this trail and I had no idea until the drive back. My dad is kinda a quite guy
There I am in the distance trying to get my fire lit:
Down by the river:
I also brought along my BK17 and one of the new BK&T hats that Moose sent me.
I think I'm going to strip this knife soon. The coating is starting to wear from use:
Looking to the left:
I kept having this urge to jump in. Soooo cold.
Bridge had dried out on our way back:
Some BK4 glamour shots to close:
Could see fresh snow on the peaks and trees above 3,500 feet driving up there. Lucked out with a nice clear day. First one in here in the PNW in about a week.
Hiking along the river:
I took along my new BK4 to break it in (more on that later)....
The sun in the old growth tract of Douglas Fir trees was welcome occurrence.
Some of these trees were MASSIVE. My pictures don't really illustrate very well how big they were in person. Like walking among giants. With the violent roar of the river in the background.
In some places I had this urge to just lay down on the moss and make myself a bed. You could walk the forest floor comfortably barefoot in some spots if it wasn't so cold. Amazing place.
A couple miles in I found this amazing campsite right by the river. You can bet I'll be returning here for an overnight or two next spring:
Standing in the campsite looking down the river. The moss was just stunning here.
You can see the light dusting of snow on this log that fell across a creek feeding into the river. The forest floor didn't get much accumulation due to the shelter provided by the trees.
The (somewhat shady) bridge crossing royal creek:
SWIMMING HOLE!!
When we stopped for lunch it was pretty cold so I made a fire. One of the BK&T hats Moose gave me came in very handy. Thanks moose
This is the old shelter we stopped at for lunch that was at about 4 miles in . A lot more snow at this point as we had climbed about 800ft in elevation.
This is the view looking out of the shelter. Absolutely stunning scenery. My dad is walking back from the river in the distance. He was my hiking partner for the day. He hiked this trail in the 1960s with my grandfather and my grandfather had hiked this area since the 1930s. A lot of family history on this trail and I had no idea until the drive back. My dad is kinda a quite guy
There I am in the distance trying to get my fire lit:
Down by the river:
I also brought along my BK17 and one of the new BK&T hats that Moose sent me.
I think I'm going to strip this knife soon. The coating is starting to wear from use:
Looking to the left:
I kept having this urge to jump in. Soooo cold.
Bridge had dried out on our way back:
Some BK4 glamour shots to close:
