Note: Back in Seattle and with some internet access means I can get some updates going again. You'll want to read this story through to the end. This was a crazy day!
---
"Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery." - John Ruskin
On Wednesday, the four of us slept in a bit and took our time packing up our camp at Lake Cushman. We ate some breakfast and took a walk to and along the lake before packing up the vehicle for our next stop in the northern section of Olympic National Park.
The agenda for today was to drive up to and then hike Hurrican Ridge Trail, a beautiful and scenic path along the ridge of some mountains.
Our drive took us into Port Angeles East and then to the Olympic National Park Visitor Center at the bottom of Hurrican Ridge. When we got there, we got some bad news. The Hurrican Ridge Trail was closed, starting that day, for trail maintenance. It wouldn't be open to the public for another three or four days.
Needless to say, that bummed us all out, and we felt like we hit our first snag in this park. We didn't have a backup plan, so we frantically began looking up different hikes that we could do. Some we thought of looked good until we saw the difficulty level. Eventually, it was off to one of the park rangers to get some advice on what we could do.
We did want to drive up Hurrican Ridge somewhat, and the ranger recommended the Switchback Trail. The trail isn't heavily trafficked and would offer up views just as stunning as those on Hurrican Ridge Trail. That said, before we ventured off, the ranger did warn us of the non-native mountain goats. They like to follow people (to lick the salt of their skin) and will get aggressive if humans get too close to them. The ranger said the best advice is to pick up some rocks and throw them toward the goats if they get to close. Although we laughed a bit about that, we figured we'd do it if the time came.
Ascending Hurrican Ridge Road, we soon found the trailhead for Switchback Trail and saw the warning signs about the goats.
The trail is aptly named because of the insane amount of switchbacks. Although I planned to count how many there were, I never got around to it. The hike was somewhere between two-and-a-half and three miles long with an elevation gain of 2,000 to 3,000 in that short distance. This was a difficult hike for sure.
Steep inclines mix with a narrow trail as you make your way up the trail. The trail starts in a dense woodsy area with small waterfalls trickling around and through the path.
It wasn't long into our hike when some hikers descending the mountain told us of a mama goat and a baby goat hanging out at the summit and along the ridge. We decided to keep our rock-tossing advice in the back of our mind as we took difficult step after difficult step.
Soon, the trail opens up into a beautiful albeit steep meadow with wildflowers all around.
You could smell the wildflowers with every inch and the rocky mountains in the background made it seem like a scene straight from The Sound of Music.
There was certainly a major "wow" factor involved in this hike. Despite the steep terrain and narrow path, we couldn't help ourselves from stopping to soak in the serene atmosphere.
As we got closer to the Klahhane Ridge, we could hear what sounded like a unique bird with infrequent and a varying beeping sound. It, in a way, sounded like a tracking collar, but the time between beeps was too infrequent that we didn't know exactly what we heard.
That's Cara and I a couple hundred feet from the ridgeline. I'll tell you what, that girl is a trooper doing what she did this trip 20 weeks pregnant.
When the ridge opens up, you can see Hurrican Ridge to your right and Port Angeles (pictured above) to your left. The temperature dropped and the winds picked up once on the ridge as well. What was a sweaty and brutal hike quickly became refreshing.
Just before the summit - or at least where we decided to take a break before turning around - there were still some snow patches holding on for dear life in the summer sun.
At the top, we decided to get some lunch in us before making our hike back down and get on our way to the Sol Duc region of Olympic National Park.
On our descent, we were all scattered along as some were taking photos, others were smelling the wildflowers, and others just needed to take it easy. Suddenly, somebody screamed, "Goat!"
And sure enough, there was mama goat and baby goat, perched on some shady rocks catching a break. These rocks were less than 30 feet from the trail. After the initial shock of seeing some mountain goats, I got out the bear spray (just in case) and the rest of us picked up rocks to scare mama goat away if necessary.
As we approached with emotions mixed between shock and awe, we were surprised to find that mama goat was going to let us pass without issue.
That is until we must have lingered or walked too slowly.
Mama goat got up along with the sleepy baby goat. The two of them began their slow path to follow us.
The bear spray and rocks were still in hand when we crossed over the ridge and behind a rock. By that point, we thought everything was fine and that mama goat would feel proud to have scared away four dangerous humans.
But just as we let that relief fall upon us, we turned around to see mama goat and baby goat still in hot pursuit.
That was when we decided to book it down a few switchbacks as quickly as possible. After making it two or three switchbacks down in a very short distance, we didn't see the goats anymore.
For the second time in about 10 minutes, the emotions of seeing a goat that close in the wild set over us. We couldn't stop talking about how absolutely unreal that was.
Along our descent, we ran into a solo hiker and gave him the heads up about the goats up above.
When we finally got to our vehicle at the trailhead, we got a few more snacks in us and refilled on water. Quickly, we hopped in the van and made our way toward Sol Duc.
We took a few back roads to avoid construction and downtown Port Angeles.
As we approached Lake Crescent and the Sol Duc section, we ran into a little bit more traffic.
All in all, it took us just over an hour to get from Switchback Trail to our campsite near the Sol Duc Falls, which is the trail we would do the following day.
We set up camp and then hammock fort and settled in for the night. We were all pretty exhausted after a long, hot, and eventful day in the park. There was no need to breakdown camp the next morning, so we decided to sleep in a bit and do a little hike to and from the Sol Duc Falls on Thursday.
But that's a story for another blog post.
No comments:
Post a Comment