^^For a different version of the story visit: http://www.youtube.com/TheMicahValentine
“Let’s do it,” Tia said. “Let’s just go and have a memorable trip.” Tia and I are always looking for an adventure and even if all our friends cancel on us we were going on the High Divide trail anyway. It’s not the normal route; it’s what I call the extended version. High Divide 2.0. Instead of heading down past Heart Lake with everyone else we would continue towards the Cat Walk, past Swimming Bear Lake, and over to Appleton Pass. It’s a fun and scenic area with no people! The maps don’t recognize this route as it fades to dotted lines. Best guess? 35+ Miles.
After a brief brush with the law Tia and I packed up and headed out. Of course we always have to talk some poor bystander into taking our before picture. That way we can compare how we look with the exit picture. If we look fresh 4 days later we didn’t work hard enough, I guess.
Funny that we didn’t even take a picture of Sol Duc Falls, it’s only one of the most photographed areas in the Olympics. It guess if it’s Googleable it’s not for this site. After the falls and cabin we ventured up through the woods past Deer Lake to the pot holes. (See www.youtube.com/themicahvalentine) If only we knew the full history of these mountains. Why would these trees do this? There are actually a couple places with similar stories, well at least stories which produced the same type of tree formations.
The most fun is the anticipation of leaving the trees behind. Most hikes require several hours of work just to get above the trees. It’s fun climbing up and up. Before too long the blue sky is all one can see past the trees. This is in contrast to seeing layers of trees, trees and more trees. Next thing you know, you’re out and the view really begins. Tia is looking at a black bear here.
Round Lake in the 7 Lakes Basin was our stop on the first night. We ate (Mountain House), Drank (Mountain Water), and were merry (In Mountain Air). One neat thing: No moisture so no rainfly. It’s called star gazing. Don’t worry about it!
One thing for sure, however was the bugs. Those bichos weren’t messing around. Tia’s forehead was like the mima mounds! If you don’t know what the mounds are just ask the dude who knows all about that kind of stuff, Google.
This is a really neat area. You walk along a small ridgeline. To the South lies the Hoh River Valley and then the coolest mountain in the entire world, Mt Olympus. To the North is a large valley-type area with 7 Lakes in it. Actually there are more lakes than that. If you count the little tarns there are probably 100! All these are part of the Sol Duc river drainage.
After sharing the trail with a mountain goat we continued along the ridge until we reached a prominent lake called Heart Lake. For the life of my I can’t understand why it’s called that.
Now it was at least 500 degrees outside and that glacier water was at least 33.9 degrees so a swim sounded perfect. Tia and I jumped in and then we pretty much jumped right back out! Yep, that’s fat fat.
It takes Tia just a bit longer, but she always gets into the act as well.
SIDE NOTE: We met a guy there named Matt Stark, no relation to Iron Man, and he was hiking solo. He was dying for solitude, but just didn’t know where to go. You see the first part of the hike (the part with a marked trail) is pretty heavily populated. Matt just wanted to get away. He was about to head home when Tia and I invited him to tag along. We promised him a hike he wouldn’t soon forget. Our group of 2 grew to 3 that day.
Our next stop was Bruce’s Roost. I’ve always passed the area and thought to myself, who the heck would ever stay there. What novices! Well, that was me this time. All the other places were taken and the shaft was ours. Here’s the thing… It was actually super cool. The view was spectacular, I mean come on! Mt Olympus was staring me down all night. Okay, the goats in out camp were the ones really staring us down all night. We had about 8 of them in our camp.
I found our bud Matt a sweat spot overlooking the basin just below Heart Lake. There was a huge black bear below his camp, and him and I watched the bear for a good ½ hour. We ate dinner together, but it must be said that Matt didn’t bring much to the table. All he has was raw olives, nuts, and some healthy crackers. After dinner Matt returned to his tent across the way and it was lights out.
If this were a gear review I would explain how awesome Sierra Designs equipment is. Their tents are legendary and the sleeping bags truly are the most comfortable bags in the universe. One neat feature is the male and female bags zip together. Lots of other bags are starting to do this, but I believe Sierra Designs were the first.
Day 3 was probably the most difficult for Tia. In fact, she threatened me several times. It started a bid rough because we decided to look for an old abandoned cabin. I’ve been there before, but this time we couldn’t find it. A man names Christler lived there years before and there is an old stove left by him in the cabin remains which he carried up cat creek. Either way, it’s crazy brutal dropping down into cat basin off trail. I don’t know why I keep doing that because on the way up we take the trail and tell ourselves how much easier we could have done it. We did see another black bear which we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Silver lining right?
Finally we reached the area I was most excited about, Swimming Bear Lake. The crazy thing? While we were swimming in the lake there was a bear just above the lake watching us.
Rumor has it; the bears like to swim there as well. I guess I can see (feel) why. It’s ridiculously frigid! It felt like the ice bathes I used to take in college. I don’t know why I ever did that.
I spent a couple good hours memorizing the route up the Hoh to Elk Lake and up the Blue Glacier to the West Peak. “Next summer”, I must have said that a billion times. I’m sure Matt was tired of hearing about it.
There is just a bunch of this kind of terrain. I can’t express how much l love this kind of stuff. Most of the time the trail is real visible, but there are also a bunch of times where route finding is necessary. I just know where the mountains are, where North is and go.
I mentioned the Mima Mounds, well this is literally the Olympic version. Somehow the snow must have melted to form these funny little formations. I’d bet it’s this way for only a brief time of year so it’s pretty cool we were there just then. Appleton pass would have been the stop, but my brother has a special spot just before the pass and just before Oyster Lake where he frequently stays. He calls this area Stomping Hoof, but we might call it Mini Mima for now on.
This is why Connor loves this place. Hard to argue right?
Why is it called Stomping Hoof? Well apparently HUGE deer roam into camp every night in search of salt. Legend has it Connor Valentine and Dave Mathews lost my hiking pole one day. They say a deer ran off with it because there was sweat on the handle. Fact or Fiction? The world will never know for sure, but here is a solid clue. A HUGE DEER!
Well, here we are on the way out. How do we look? Pretty fine if I don’t say so myself. We entered with 2 and came out with 3. Along the way we saw: 8 Bear, 1 Marmot, 15+ Goats, 3 Grouse, 2 snakes, several fish, 6 deer. I know I’m forgetting something. Does Matt count as an animal?
