Olympic Traverse and Packrafting

Overview

Location: Olympic National Park

Dates: 7/28/19 – 8/2/19 (3.5 days hiking, 1 day rafting, 1.5 days hiking)

Route: Hike Storm King Ranger Station to Hoh River Trailhead, raft the Hoh River down to Oil City, hike Oil City Trailhead to Third Beach Trailhead (optional add in for future: bike back to Storm King Ranger Station)

Distance: 45 miles hiking, 30(ish) miles rafting, 12.9 miles hiking (46.8 miles biking)

In the beautiful pre-COVID year of 2019 (such innocent times), our intrepid group, me, Danny, Sean, and Alex, set out to see the diverse glory of Olympic National Park. This trip was our first time packrafting and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. With quite an ambitious itinerary, the shocking thing is everything, other than one terrible flurry of rain, ended up working out perfectly, and it turned out to be the by land, and by sea adventure the wannabe boy scout in me had always dreamed of. From hikes through pine filled forests, isolated alpine lakes, flower meadows, mountain vistas, and lush green ancient rainforests, to a row down the river, a day capped with campfire smoke and failed fishings, and finally to a walk through dramatic beaches with rocks the size of islands dominating our field of vision, in just 6 days, we had the nature experience of a lifetime.

Note that I added some details about an optional bike leg of this trip. That would make this Olympic loop fully self propelled instead of us having hitchhike back to the start.

The Trip

This trip happened three years ago so much of memory of it has been lost due to the ravages of time. I will attempt to describe all I can remember.

Day 1: Storm King Ranger Station to Boulder Lake

This was a day of mostly hiking in a tunnel of trees. Many parts of the trail here were either super overgrown or we had to navigate over blowdowns, but at the least, it was always very clear what the trail was. It was apparently buggy enough (it definitely wasn’t) that I wore my full head to toe bugsuit when we took breaks and at camp. Looking back, that was a stupid thing I brought along on the trip, seeing as there were unfortunately no opportunities to beekeep on trail. The obnoxious ultralighter in me now would shake his head at young Siyang’s silliness. Young Siyang would be embarassed at current Siyang’s gram counting thriftiness. Both are correct.

The highlight of this day was the campsite by Boulder Lake that we pretty much had to ourselves. We finished the day early enough, and it was warm enough for me and Alex to take a dip in the lake. After miles of hiking, having a beautiful isolated lake to sooth our weary bodies was a godsend.

Day 2: Boulder Lake to Sol Duc Crossing

This day was much like the first day. Some elevation change climbing up and down, but never really peeking above treeline to see anything interesting.

We did get a nice campsite at the end of the day in an area where we were allowed to make fires, so naturally we made a bonfire, and proceeded to burn holes in our socks. I also roasted a Slim Jim over the fire, which made it five times tastier and probably ten times more carcinogenic, so like the cancer of 1000 cigarettes.

Day 3: Sol Duc Crossing to Olympus Guard Station

Finally some views! This was the day we’d hike the High Divide through the Seven Lakes Basin replete with excellent views of Mt. Olympus. Before we made it up there, there was a lot of elevation to tackle. I mean there’s literally “high” in the name.

We bumped into a park ranger at Heart Lake, and we were pretty much above treeline from there on out.

I remember talking to a guy who was in this area and this was his first day out, so we really could’ve skipped our first two days entirely. Maybe that’s not a terrible idea, but the first two days did make the magnificent views of this day feel like we earned it. Anyways here’s a bunch of pictures, since if I was to use words to describe the day it’d mostly be “I’m tired, that’s beautiful, I’m tired, that’s beautiful, I’m tired, that’s beautiful, I’m tired, that’s beautiful…”

Day 4 Part 1: Olympus Guard Station to Hoh River Trailhead

Rainforest, rainforest, rainforest. We made our way out through the Hoh Rainforest, the largest temperate rainforest in the United States. Giant, ancient, moss laden, Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock dominated our field of vision. Even the dead trees were full of life, with mini ecosystems within the trunks and new trees growing off the fallen. Having spent the previous day with alpine lakes and glacier views, hiking in a rainforest was a fascinating change of pace. The variation of different ecosystems in Olympic is just stunning.

Much of the trail wound its way next to the Hoh River, the river we’d be rafting on later in the day. Alex and I decided to dip our feet in the river to cool us down, and also to see how cold it’d be rafting on it. It was worryingly cold. Alex would not be rafting with us, and would be leaving us once we reached the Hoh River Trailhead later in the day. He already thought we were crazy enough with this plan in our itinerary, and based on his brief dip in the river, I’m sure that feeling increased.

Alex not rafting with us did make things a bit easier for the rest of us. We were able to leave the rafts in his car, and after grabbing some lunch that wasn’t granola or freeze dried food, he drove us down to a nice put in spot a few miles downriver from Hoh River Trailhead. If he wasn’t with us, we probably could’ve just hidden our rafts somewhere next to the river, which is what we ended up doing next year in Glacier.

In his car, and throughout lunch, being the guy who came up with this plan, all I was thinking was “Is this river raftable? Is this plan idiotic? Are we going to die?” Though as if reading my mind, when Alex dropped us off, he reassured us to call him if anything went awry. Also, being from the midwest, where river floats are paired with excessive alcohol consumption, we tried in vain to score any form of alcohol…no beer, no wine, not even a jug with three X’s on it.

Day 4 Part 2: Hoh River Trailhead to 47°47’33.3″N 124°15’09.7″W (On Raft)

And now the fun part begins! Legs are for suckers, floating down a river is the only way to travel. Though that’s not how we felt at first. At first we were more like “Are we going to die? Oh my god this water is so choppy, we’re definitely going to flip over and get all our things wet on these glorified pool toys. Siyang, how did you talk us into this?! I should’ve left to go have a burger and huckleberry milkshake at Frugal’s with Alex.” Later on, in equivalently choppy water, we’d be like “man, the water is so boring and calm…I could still use a burger and huckleberry milkshake.”

Thankfully, where we put in, just ten miles down the river from where Alex and I froze our feet, the water had significantly warmed up to the perfect temperature. Even better, we had clear sunny skies for the rest of the day. Once we settled into the rhythm of the river, the flow of water, relying on the strokes of our paddle, the optimist in me was finding rafting to be way more fun and enjoyable than even I could’ve expected.

There were a few annoyingly shallow sections where only fatass me had my raft dragging on the bottom, scraping rock. Sean and Danny were light enough that could float on over without bottoming out. It was easy enough just getting out of the raft, and pushing it with my paddle. Other than that, it was mostly smooth river current and mild Class 1-2 whitewater, which was stressful and exciting for the noobs we were. That being said, everything was easily doable, and we never felt at risk. We didn’t flip or end up out of our rafts a single time. We ended our day setting up camp by the river (the GPS coordinates I noted) and built a campfire with the most beautifully flammable bone dry driftwood. Drying off and settling in next to a fire, river gently flowing next to us, after a day hiking and rafting, with a new experience initially feared and later conquered, made this about as perfect of a day one could ask for. The only thing more I could’ve used was a cold beer and some meat to cook over the fire. I attempted to get the latter, thinking that if I could see a fish floating in the crystal clear water, I’d be able to slap it out by hand. I mean I had a fishing pole, but I wanted to try an old fashioned, bearlike methodology. After waiting out there for a while, I saw no prey and gave up.

Day 5 Part 1: 47°47’33.3″N 124°15’09.7″W to Oil City (On Raft)

Early into this day, we realized that much of the fun rafting was behind us. As the river makes it way closer and closer to the ocean, there were no more rapids and the river flow slowed down significantly. We had to rely more on our muscles until we reached the ocean. Even more worryingly, the sky was looking dark and cloudy and we were worried about rain. The highlight of the day was seeing a bald eagle flying overhead of us and then perching proudly on a tree branch overhanging the river.

When you’re hiking, you frequently deal with false summits. Thinking you completed the climb, then you look up realizing you have a lot more to go. Rafting to the ocean, I dealt with “false oceans” like a dozen times. It looked like on the horizon, that we were about to reach the shore, only to realize we had a lot more river to go. I jokingly would shout “Woah, the ocean” a dozen times. When we eventually made it, we were expecting a welcome party and a standing ovation for completing our harrowing journey down the Hoh River. We were greeted by nothing of the sort, though one guy did hike down to ask us about our rafts, and seemed pretty impressed.

Day 5 Part 2: Oil City to Mosquito Creek

Time to be landlubbers again. The sun peaked out from the clouds once we reached our next trailhead, so we took this chance to have lunch and dry all our equipment before we’d hike to our campground. The Oil City trailhead area was pretty cool, and visitors had done a lot of building with all the driftwood strewn about. The ocean and beach looked magnificent, and we were excited to get walking again.

The hike wasn’t 100% what we expected. This section of trail would go from walking on the sandy beach to headland cliffs. To get up to those cliffs, you have to pull yourself up by rope they provide. This was surprisingly difficult especially with our heavy packs and the ropes were a bit wet. And once up there, the trails aren’t super well maintained and the entire area is buggy and muddy. Good thing we use water filters too because the water looked pretty dirty.

A few miles from our campsite for the night, we were hit with what would be the most miserable part of the entire trip. Remember those clouds I mentioned earlier?…well they finally burst, and we got poured on. We wanted to get to our campground as soon as possible at this point. In our rush, I slipped, fell down, and almost rolled down a steep bank, but due to my cat like reflexes, caught myself on a root with my hands.

We eventually made it to our campsite, our rain jackets already completely soaked through. We put our tents up, rainfly first, dried off and miseried a cold dinner in our tents.

Day 6: Mosquito Creek to Third Beach Trailhead

We slept in…well Sean and Danny slept in. I woke up early and waited. It was a beautiful day, and yesterday’s rain was a nightmare of the past. Mosquito Creek was actually a pretty cool location that was situated on a cliff with a beautiful view of the beach.

There weren’t as many cliff sections so we mostly walked on the beach today. We noticed a lot of people who were there just to relax and camp on the beach. It would’ve been a nice last night if we got to relax on the beach for a day and camp close by, but our itinerary made this the last day of our trip…normal life awaits!

As we hiked back up to the Third Beach parking lot, I’d like to say we were reflecting on the journey and it’s completion, but speaking for myself, I was mainly worried about our plan to get back to our car parked at the Storm King Ranger Station. Apparently there’s a bus that should go there…there wasn’t and our service was nonexistent. We luckily managed to hitch a ride there by a nice Native American lady.

Writing for a trip that happened three years ago, you realize the vagueness of memory, the way experiences fade into some lost, inaccessible portion of the mind, yet it allows the memories you can recall to glow to cheer you up in dark times, and this trip, perhaps more than many I’ve taken, remind me why I go outdoors to enjoy nature and to remember how lovely it is when a plan comes together.

Closing Thoughts

We literally used the cheapest packraft set up possible. You see a lot of expensive rafts and paddles and wetsuits and whatnot. For this trip, the Klymit LWD, Advanced Elements Aluminum 4-piece paddle, and normal clothes worked fine for the mild class 1.5 rapids you’d see. Second benefit, it’s probably the lightest set up possible.

You might be able to put together a more scenic loop. Like I iterated above, the first two days were a bit uninteresting. The High Divide, the rainforest, rafting the Hoh River, and the shore hike I’d highly recommend.

I think based on the time of year we had no issues with the tide. I think maybe another time of the year, you’d have to study tide charts to make sure you’re not in a certain section of the hike during high tide. [Note from Danny: The park ranger was *pumped* to hear about our trip when I picked up our wilderness permit. He had a great time showing me the tide charts and photos of what the shore looks like at high and low tide. There’s no better way to impress a park ranger than by planning a packrafting trip.]

After our hike and bike in the Wind River Range, I wish this trip had a bike leg at the end. Olympic isn’t a very hilly park getting around, so it wouldn’t have been too hard, and would’ve only taken half a day.

Bonus! Train Lyfe!

To get from Seattle back to Chicago, Danny and I chose to take a train back, more specifically, the Empire Builder! I love trains, and the ride is pretty scenic until after it reaches Glacier, We got a sleeper car, which on top of actually getting to comfortably sleep during the night, also includes free meals (this felt like a five star hotel with room service after five days camping).