Trying to avoid the smoke from Cascade fires, my hiking partner and I returned to the Olympics for six days with the hope of exploring La Crosse Basin.  For all but the speediest hikers, La Crosse Basin is at least a two day journey from any of three trailheads, we chose the Dosewallips trailhead.  I made the permit arrangements by phone with the Olympic National Park Wilderness Information Center.  Shortly before the scheduled departure time, I received a very garbled phone message about a “goat closure”, possibly affecting our intended route.  The ranger who had given me the permit said nothing about a goat closure. There was no mention of a goat closure in any of the alerts on the Olympic National Park website.  I was unable to return the call because the phone number was incomprehensible.  My first guess ended up to a wrong number in Minnesota.  When I finally reached the Wilderness Information Center, it was less than 24 hours before departure.  When I pointed out it was the park’s fault that I had to change my plans at the last minute,  rather than apologizing, the ranger said in a menacing tone “Well, I’ll just cancel the permit, BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT GOING IN THERE!!”  The purpose of the goat closure was to kill as many mountain goats as possible from helicopters.  Goats are being scapegoated for problems that have other causes and better solutions.   Our tax dollars at work, costing $350,000 to $500,000 per year.   I told the unfriendly ranger that I had to talk to my partner to decide what to do next and that I would call back.  Well, after four calls to the Wilderness Information Center over the course of the day, no one returned my call.  At 4 pm, one hour before the office closed, I still had not talked to anyone.  I tried the garbled number one more time.  I did not get the correct person, but it was someone in the park who had an alternate number.  When the WIC answered, they wanted to know how I got the emergency number, but they agreed to change the permit.  Even with this phone call, the dates on the permit were still wrong, but I had done my duty and we left two days later than previously planned and avoided the goat closure.  Due to Covid, the center was not open and rangers were not tied up with people walking in the door, yet they still were unable to provide decent phone service. In addition to my complaints about customer service at the WIC,  I strongly recommend that anyone who plans to spend more than five nights in Olympic National Park in one year get a Wilderness Pass.  The pass is $45 and it will avoid the cost of the permits, which cost $8 per person per night.

Our trip started on the Dosewallips River Road, about five and half miles before the start of true trail.  Until this trip, I had always taken the switchbacked bypass up and down around the wash-out that closed the road, but my partner showed me that there is a short-cut next to the river.  It is a built trail, but will probably be washed out with the next flood.  I think that the Dosewallips is the best road hike around, with impressive cliffs and a couple of nice waterfalls.  We camped the first night at Big Timber camp, nice and open with big trees.  After dinner, I found a few late season thimbleberries for dessert.  On day two, we continued down the Dosewallips and veered left on the La Crosse Pass Trail.  Up to this point, conditions on the trail were very good to excellent, but there were some downed trees on the La Crosse.  Yet it was never as bad as expected, only 3 or 4 gave much trouble.  The grade is not too steep and it opens up to expansive grassy meadows well before the top.  This is where I saw my first bear, running downslope in front of me.  We arrived at the pass about four, later than hoped.  There is no trail-side water on this route, although apparently camps are possible, at least early season.  Although wildflower season is mostly coming to a close, it was obvious on the way down that the wildflowers had been more abundant on the far side, with old beargrass stalks, glacier lily capsules, lupine and others.  About 500 feet above the bottom, the trail gets pretty overgrown with brush and it switchbacks over and over again through the same mucky seep.  Our original hope was to reach Upper Duckabush Camp, but that would have meant setting up at dusk and having dinner in the dark, so we found a decent unnamed camp about a mile short of the Upper Duckabush.  The next day we headed for Hart Lake in La Crosse Basin.  We found some downed trees, but as before, it wasn’t as bad as we expected.  Hart Lake has five possible campsites, four within sight of the lake and one several hundred yards from the outlet with a good view of Mt. Duckabush and Mt. Steel.  There is a bear wire for hanging food, but no pulleys, so a bear cord is required to hang food bags. 

Sadly, the next day, the sky dawned with clouds on the surrounding peaks and by the time we left camp to explore the basin, the fog was thick and visibility was under 200 feet.  When we reached La Crosse Lake, I did not even notice the lake at first, although it was only a few dozen yards away.  We puttered around for a few hours, hoping the weather would clear for a scramble of the surrounding peaks.  There are some nice small tarns and late season wildflowers.  I found many species still in bloom, some that were long-finished elsewhere, including pink mountain heather, lava alumroot, pink and yellow monkeyflowers, magenta paintbrush, fringed grass-of-parnassus and lupines.  There were also the bright red capsules of leatherleaf saxifrage and western tofieldia.  Western tofieldia was in the news recently, because it is the first carnivorous plant discovered in the past twenty years.  It’s not an uncommon plant, but its carnivorous nature has only recently been documented.  The sticky hairs on the plant capture small bugs which the plant uses to supplement its nutrition.  Pictured below are the red capsules of the tofieldia, which has lance-shaped leaves, like an iris. (the leatherleaf saxifrage has basal, oval leaves)   Also pictured below is the lava alumroot with magenta paintbrush.  By early afternoon, we were pretty pessimistic about the weather clearing, although slowly the fog did lift, leaving more of a view under the clouds.  We spotted three bears on distant slopes and watched them move across the landscape.  By day’s end, we saw three more.  We got some gloomy pictures of a very beautiful lake and went back to camp to have dinner.  After dinner, we explored a trail that goes steeply up from the north side of the lake.  It reaches a couple of small tarns and pretty good views, although the sky was gray.  At the ridge top, it apparently goes steeply down to meet the O’Neill Pass Trail, but we did not pursue it. 

There was a little sunshine early the next day, but by the time we were ready to leave, it was gray again.  We were going to go over O’Neill Pass, down the O’Neill Pass trail and then over Anderson Pass to camp at La Crosse Camp.  We worried about downed logs, but as before, it was better than expected.  The real problem with this trail is it hasn’t been brushed in at least ten years and in places, the uphill side on steep slopes is so overgrown, the brush is pushing people off the trail.  Most Olympic National Park trails are well-maintained, but this one is slowly being ruined by neglect. 

Our final day on the trail retraced our route in back along the Dosewallips.  We saw more people while walking out than we had seen in the previous five days.  Perhaps the end of the goat closure caused a surge in visitors.

We saw nine bears in six days.  Most were at considerable distance, but the last one was in front of us on the trail a hundred feet away when we saw him.  There was no possibility of detouring around at this spot, so we patiently waited while he munched his way through the landscape.  He was too busy stuffing his face to take a look at us.  Seen one hiker, you’ve seen them  all was his attitude.  Berry season is at its peak and we stuffed ourselves as well.  Blueberries and huckleberries are very nutritious; especially high in antioxidants, vitamins C and K and manganese, but they are not high in calories.  As someone who may pick as many as fifteen quarts of blueberries in a season to put in my freezer , I’ve often wondered how bears can get fat on blueberries.  Here is the math:

The average wild blueberry weights 0.3 grams.  Under the best case scenario, in good years, bears can consume 30,000 berries a day, according to the research.  This works out to be 9 kilograms of berries a day or 15 quarts.  I can pick one quart of wild blueberries per hour, which means that bears, if they eat all day, are not more efficient than I am harvesting berries.  100 grams of blueberries contain 57 kcal, 9000 grams (9 kg) contain 5130 kcal.  Bears swallow their berries whole and anyone who has seen bear scat filled with blueberries knows that part of the nutritional content of the berries has passed through unabsorbed.  I have not been able to find a calculation of the caloric needs of an active bear, which necessarily depends on the weight of the bear, but I did find a claim that hibernating bears can burn up to 4000 kcal per day.  That represents a surplus of 1130 kcal per day.  It takes an excess of 3500 kcal to gain one pound of fat.  That would work out to a maximum weight gain of 2.25 pounds per week.  Berry season is short, so assuming three weeks of eating berries, that would mean a gain of no more than eight pounds.  But hibernating bears lose 15 to 30% of their weight over the winter and females with cubs up to 40%.  So, an average size 220 pound male bear would lose 33 to 66 pounds over the winter.  A 550 pound bear loses as much as 100 pounds in a season.  A 550 pound, six foot human mail requires 6000 calories per day to maintain that weight.  Assuming a similar caloric requirement for bears means that a 550 pound bear would be slowly losing weight consuming berries because 9 kilograms of berries contains only 5130 calories.  Mind you, 30,000 berries a day is a best case scenario, not an average quantity.  Bears obviously gain some nutritional benefit from eating berries, I just don’t see how they can get fat on berries.  Catching live salmon or eating dead salmon washed up on river banks after spawning would be a better option for weight gain.  Bears are scavengers, after all.

Not that bears don’t have some metabolic tricks up their sleeve.  Hibernating bears do not urinate.  Bears reuse urea that would normally be excreted in urine to make amino acids to support their metabolic needs and to build lean body mass.  A bear that awakes in the spring is not only thinner, but it has more muscle.   The perfect weight loss regime: eat everything in sight in the fall, sleep it off and wake up more physically fit in the spring.  Pregnant female bears not only have cubs in the den, but lactate and nurse their cubs without eating or drinking.   In fact, bears do not begin eating again for up to three weeks after leaving their dens.  Polar bears exhibit a similar behavior pattern, they do not eat or drink in summer when their preferred food, seals, cannot be hunted on the ice.  This metabolic feat of bears is of great interest to science for many reasons, not only for obesity, but also for many other conditions ranging from kidney disease to osteoporosis to muscle loss after prolonged bed rest.   For more detailed information see:  https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(12)62341-6/pdf

We did a 5-night backpack, starting at Staircase, ascending the North Fork Skokomish, crossing First Divide, ascending the Upper Duckabush to Lacrosse Basin, crossing O'Neil Pass and descending to the E. Fork Quinault, climbing Anderson Pass to Anderson Moraine, and then descending the E. Fork Quinault through Enchanted Valley to Graves Creek trailhead.  We hiked a total of about 57 miles, including 4 miles of wandering Lacrosse Basin.  All of the stream crossings were easy rock-hops.  We had excellent weather, saw more bears than bugs, ate loads of huckleberries, and saw some of Olympic NP's finest scenery.

Day 1:  Left Staircase trailhead at 10:30 a.m. and walked 11.2 miles to Two Bear Camp.  The trail was in good shape until a bit past Camp Pleasant, and then we encountered a number of blowdowns, some pretty big, but nothing too hard to get past.  Two Bear is a nondescript camp in the forest about 1000 ft below First Divide.  There's no privy or bear wire.  One other person was camped there.

Day 2:  Hiked about 8 miles from Two Bear to Hart Lake in Lacrosse Basin.  There were a few big blowdowns between First Divide and the Duckabush, and a few more from there up to Marmot Lake.  Again, nothing serious.  We reached Hart Lake around 3:30 and were the first to make camp there that day. We found a nice site at the south end of the lake. A few more parties arrived later.  There's a bear wire at the lake, but it's not functional.  There's no privy.  We spent the evening watching two bears work the steep mountain slope across the lake, snarfing up berries.

Day 3:  We remained camped at Hart Lake and spent the day exploring Lacrosse Basin, hiking to Lacrosse Lake and then north above the lake to Ranger Pass, from which there's a great view of Mt. Anderson to the north and Mt. Steel and Mt. Duckabush to the south.  Along the way, we saw many bears, all focused on the berries.  A few gave us the stink-eye if we seemed too close, but they were generally unperturbed by our presence.  We made like the bears and ate a lot of berries ourselves.  After we got back to camp and had dinner, we took an evening stroll on a rough boot path to the top of the ridge above the south end of Hart Lake, from which the views were dazzling.

Day 4:  This was the most demanding day.  We hiked 13 miles, from Hart Lake back down past Marmot Lake (where we saw a couple more bears) and over O'Neil Pass, then down the long O'Neil Pass Trail to the E. Fork Quinault Trail, up 1100 ft to Anderson Pass, then up another 700 ft to the Anderson Moraine.  Between O'Neil Pass and the White River, the trail was very brushy, with failing tread on some scree slopes, and was blocked by several big blowdowns and many smaller ones.  In terms of condition, it was the worst stretch of trail on the trip, but the views along it were fine.  We met a backcountry ranger who checked our permit.  The switchbacks up to Anderson Pass were mostly shadeless, and in the afternoon sun the climb felt tough.  The primitive trail from Anderson Pass to Anderson Moraine wasn't as bad as we'd expected, though.  It's pretty brushy in places, but there weren't many blowdowns and the grade wasn't too steep in most places.  We made camp around 6 p.m. at a shallow tarn just below the top of the moraine.  The views of Mt. Anderson from the moraine were spectacular, and made the day's hike well worth it.  At our camp, we took our drinking water from the tadpole-filled tarn, and took note of the many bear tracks and piles of fresh bear scat all around.

Day 5:  We had an easy half-day of hiking, only 5.2 miles, from Anderson Moraine down to Enchanted Valley.  There were a few blowdowns on the way.  We had planned on camping a few miles farther down the trail, at Pyrite's Creek, but decided that the Enchanted Valley was too nice to pass up.  It's a broad, flat area with many tent sites, and we found ours in a nice grove of cedars.  As the afternoon progressed, we saw a steady stream of backpackers arrive and make camp.  We didn't feel crowded though, because there was lots of room for people to spread out.  There are even two latrines.  The chalet remains standing, but the river channel is edging its way closer and the building's long-term prospects don't look good.

Day 6:  We hiked 13.5 miles down the E. Fork Quinault to Graves Creek Trailhead through some of the most beautiful rainforest you could ever hope to see:  giant Sitka spruce, Doug fir, and western redcedar, along with moss-draped bigleaf maple growing in open park-like groves.  But we weren't alone on the trail.  We probably passed more than 130 backpackers headed in to the valley for the Labor Day weekend.  We met another ranger who checked our permit.  The parking at the trailhead was jammed.  After a week of fine weather, it started raining just after we got in our car.

Spent 4 days/3 nights hiking out to Hart and LaCross lakes with an experienced hiker buddy.  The trail from First Divide to Hart Lake had lots of fallen tree obstacles, and bugs were prevalent at the lakes, but besides that the trip was FANTASTIC.
Day 1: Staircase to Home Sweet Home (~13 miles).  Easy hike until you pass Nine Stream, then the uphill kicks in.  Saw many grouse and even a bat, but the big Dougies stole the show.  A few minutes after you pass Big Log, and right before you cross the big bridge, you'll find three giant douglas firs to the right all in a row.  I thought these were much cooler than Big Log!  Plenty of streams along the way.  Home Sweet Home is a great campsite; use the bear wire, avoid the pit toilet.

Day 2: Home Sweet Home to Hart Lake (~6 miles).  Lots of shade from HSH to Upper Duckabush, and tasty blueberries above 3500 ft.  The uphill trudge from Upper Duck is long but worth it once you get to Hart Lake; lots of campsite space and gorgeous views within the Hart Lake basin.  No pit toilet at Hart Lake but we were avoiding them anyway.  The breeze across the lake provided welcome temporary relief from the bugs. We happily skipped Marmot Lake (looked too marshy).

Day 3: LaCross Lake adventures (~5 miles).  We kept camp at Hart but explored LaCross as a day hike, wandering up the North side of LaCross basin for a view of Mt Anderson, then up Hart Pass (over the western ridge between Hart and LaCross).  A short climb north of Hart Pass gave an amazing view of Enchanted Valley and, far to the southwest, Lake Quinault.  Saw many black bears from a distance; closest was 200 yards.  Bears ate and swam and paid no attention to us.  Be sure to stay alert and make noise on the trail so you don't surprise a bear!

Day 4: Hart Lake to Staircase (~18 miles).  A long day of hiking; left at 7:45am, arrived at the car around 5pm.  We had morning shade for the steep section from Upper Duckabush to First Divide, then took it easy on the long downhill.  Enjoy the in-season berries, the views, and the streams!

I backpacked the Quinault River - LaCrosse Basin Loop over four days this week, with camps at Pyrites Creek, Honeymoon Meadows, and Marmot Lake. The trail is in great condition for the most part. There are a few large logs to scramble over/under on the trail over LaCrosse Pass between the Dosewallips and Duckabush Rivers, and some more large logs between O'Neil Pass and the junction with the Quinault River Trail. There were two snow crossings between Marmot Lake and O'Neil Pass. One snow bridge looked like it was ready to collapse, so I hiked around that one. The second snow bridge I hiked over. I imagine that both snowfields will be gone in a few weeks. Besides a few brushy sections of trail and the bugs, it was a fantastic trip. I highly recommend side-trips to Anderson Glacier and Hart Lake.

Did a 4-day backpack of nearly 50 miles, up the Duckabush, camping at 10 Mile Camp, then continuing to Marmot Lake where I camped.  Hiked around Lacrosse Basin, then over O'Neil Pass and Anderson Pass and down the West Fork Dosewallips, camping at Big Timber, then hiking out the main Dosewallips trail and the Dosewallips Road.  Had perfect weather the whole trip, and there were just a few flies and mosquitoes.

10 Mile Camp was nice:  spacious with big trees, and just one other camper.  The Duckabush trail was in good shape as far as 5 Mile Camp.  Shortly past there, it became more brushy, and then many big blowdowns appeared.  I didn't count them, but there were dozens between 5 Mile and Upper Duckabush Camp.  Several required some scrambling to get past.  After Upper Duckabush Camp, the trail was in great shape thanks to the awesome BCRT crew that logged and brushed it in 2019 up to Marmot Lake.

There were lots of people camped at Marmot Lake.  Apparently, closure of the Staircase trailhead hadn't dampened the crowd.  I set up camp there, then dayhiked to the upper Lacrosse Basin, visiting Hart and Lacrosse Lakes.  Both were lovely, and I saw only one other hiker there.  These lakes are much more scenic than Marmot Lake, and they're just a short distance away.  I saw 3 bears in Lacrosse Basin: one that was close enough that we made eye contact before he bolted, and the other two grazing on berries farther away on high meadows.

Day 3 was my longest at 16 miles.  I hiked from Marmot Lake over O'Neil Pass, which was beautiful.  Great views from there across Lacrosse Basin to Mt. Anderson, and of Mt. Steel and Mt. Duckabush. Once over the pass, the views were great as well:  O'Neil Peak, then Mt. Anderson and Chimney Peak, and down the East Fork Quinault to Lake Quinault.  Saw two more bears there from a distance.  But the O'Neil Pass trail needs work.  It was really brushy in places, enough that it was hard to keep my feet on the tread along steep slopes.  And there were a number of blowdowns.  But roughly the bottom 2 miles of the trail had been cleared and brushed recently.  

The climb up to Anderson Pass was only 1100 feet, but it was mostly shadeless, and got pretty hot on a warm, clear day.  There's a pond at the top of the pass, which was a welcome place to replenish my water.  I had considered taking the side trip up to Anderson Glacier, but I'd already hiked far that day and still had far to go, so I decided to save that for another trip. The descent along the W. Fork Dosewallips wasn't bad:  brushy in places with a few blowdowns.  Reached Big Timber camp around 6:30 p.m.  It's a spacious site, and only one other hiker was camped there.

The hike out the last day was about 10.5 miles:  4 miles on good trail, then 6.5 miles on the closed Dosewallips Road.  There were a number of people camped at Dosewallips Campground, and I passed several other parties hiking in to camp there for Labor Day weekend.  Got to the trailhead at 1 p.m.