Nat’s birthday trips always seem to be an adventure. Mid September is usually when the rain comes back in the fall (just kidding, it always rains, don’t move here) which means inclement weather, especially higher in the mountains, which is typically where Nat likes to spend his birthday.
We were going to do a point to point hike. Up the Dungeness drainage, over a pass near Deception mountain, to the Dosewallips drainage, up over another pass and out the Duckabush drainage. It was supposed to take about 5 days, and we were only going to do about 3 miles of off trail bushwacking: or something like that. We knew some weather was coming and we were trying to stay below the treeline for the worst of it. I was going to close on a house during the trip (gave my realtor my inReach number), and also was just realizing I might have giardia.
The first day was a perfect day for hiking. Slightly overcasts so it stayed cool and there was enough visibility to see the Cascades, once we reached the first pass. We ran down the tailings debris on the other side of the pass and found a place to make camp. Not another soul in sight we made our dinners and enjoyed the rest of the night.
We had discussed trying to rise early to beat the weather. The pitter-padder of rain on our tent told us we had missed that window as we were getting up the next morning. The beautiful Deception basin had given us 360 degree views of the mountains that surrounded us, the night before. The low hanging clouds in the aptly named basin, obstructed most of the view as we set off on our 3 ish mile off trail bushwack.
The rain eventually soaked through all of our rain gear. I can’t remember exactly how many times, but definitely more than once, we heard the rock fall of large boulders coming down overhead as we were hopping from where their predecessors had come to rest. It was so socked it, we never saw the powerful rocks that made the terrifying crashes around us.
Due to the titous boulder hopping and slipping on the underbrush, it took us 7 hours to go those 3 ish miles. Once we got back on a trail we made quick work of getting to a camp and setting up. Starting a fire in the Olympics is an art form, and thankfully we had some artists in our group. We set-up a tarp and tried to dry out some of our gear, and said we would discuss any change of plans in the morning, after a good night’s sleep.
The rain was subsiding by the next morning, but the tarp over our drying items had fallen and had made any dehydration we had accomplished overnight, obsolet. Nat and Diana woke up to a couple of inches of rain in their tent. We decided to make it out that day (day 3), and thanks to Kurt’s friend Hank, we got a late night ride to our cars (with freshly brewed coffee!).
Please note: I did close on a house via inReach, and I did have giardia.
for my friends who are moms 