Spectacular multi-night backpack to Enchanted Valley and the LaCrosse Basin. Staying at Pyrite's Creek both directions was the perfect distance, as was camping in one of two spots in White Creek Meadows, just .7 miles up the O'Neill Pass Trail from the junction with the E Fork Quinault River Trail. The main trail has a few minor blowdowns the few miles before and after Enchanted Valley, but nothing major. The O'Neill Pass Trail heading from White Creek Meadows towards O'Neill Pass is somewhat overgrown, but still not bad. To save time and distance we took the Hart Lake Way Trail up over the ridge top. There is a trail, but for those of you using Gaia, the app consistently shows the trail about 100 yards south (further towards O'Neill Pass) than the actual route. Look for two large cairns on the O'Neill Pass Trail to start you up the Hart Pass Way Trail. There is a boot track and actual trail, though as you get higher it's rather overgrown, and my arms have a few battle scars to prove it! It's very steep, gaining 900 feet in .4 miles, but did save almost five miles getting into the lakes basin. We had the entire basin to ourselves, and took a dip in both Hart Lake and Lake LaCrosse. Wildflowers were probably 1-2 weeks shy of prime. We did see a mama bear and a cub between those two lakes. A final word to the wise: Fisher's Notch is not an acceptable shortcut, is incredibly steep, and unmarked from the O'Neill Pass Trail. The Hart Lake Way Trail is the much better shortcut into the basin from the north side, but if you decide to take the O'Neill Pass Trail all the way around over the pass to Marmot Lake and then up be prepared for significant travel times and increased distance, which may add to your day.

4 day backpack to Lacrosse Basin from Staircase. Very challenging trip but AMAZING and totally worth the effort! Two stream fords that were more than a rock hop...9 stream and the 2nd Duckabush crossing. 9 stream is only about knee high and not difficult. Duckabush is about thigh high, and there is one area where the water is rushing pretty quickly but not too tough to navigate. There are a few trees down in places but navigable. Some areas in the meadows are pretty overgrown but the trail is still easy to follow. Just don't wear shorts. A lot of what is growing into the trail is prickly!

First day we camped at Two Bear. Lovely walk along the river for much of the day, and some amazing old growth forest. Two Bear is a nice campsite with very accessible water. The bear wire there is broken so either bring your own hanging materials or a bear can. Day 1 was pretty flat until the last few miles which was all uphill. 

Day 2 was up to First Divide which is super stunning, then down to the Home Sweet Home meadow, and then up again to Marmot Lake. Marmot Lake is breathtaking! No bugs to speak of, but I can see why there are reports of bad bugs. It looks like the area where the "official" camp sites are is kinda swampy. But, if you head up to the left on the ridge, there are a number of sites that are obviously used for camping frequently, with amazing views of Mt. Steele and Mt. Duckabush, and there's enough of a breeze to keep the bugs away. I have never camped in a more stunning location.

Day 3 we left most of our gear at Marmot Lake, and took light packs up to Lacrosse lake and Hart lake. Very amazingly beautiful views. I was glad we had stopped at Marmot however (the original plan was Lacrosse but we were too tired to continue on day 2). There was enough snow at both lakes that finding a snow free site would have been challenging. That said, on the trail itself, there are only a few snow patches and absolutely no need for microspikes. Then back to Marmot, packed up, and headed to Home Sweet Home. There were bugs there, but they weren't biting so no problem. And the flowers and mountain views...wow.

Day 4 was out from Home Sweet Home. Easy peasy in terms of elevation gain, only 1200 for the day, but the 14 miles was exhausting. The last couple miles through Staircase seemed like they would never end! Totally worth the long walk for the stay at Home Sweet Home though! 

All in all, this was one of the most amazing and memorable backpacking trips ever. Super challenging, but if you don't mind gaining and losing elevation and crossing lots of water, this is great trip!

AWe were lucky enough to have permits right after Olympic National Park reopened, July 2-5, and went up the North Forth Skokomish to the Duckabush and LaCrosse Basin plus O'Neill Pass. It was glorious!

July 2 - Staircase - Two Bear camp 11.8mi, 3200ft. One place before Camp Pleasant where a stream had taken out the trail. You have to cross it 3 times to get back to the trail. Gorgeous old-growth in there. Ford at Nine Stream wasn't bad, but a little spicy. Up to Two Bear was a slog with a heavy pack, but beautiful, with lush waterfalls, flowers, etc... We saw bear scat but no bears. The night at Two Bear was pleasant, but no privy. This place gets a bad rap for bugs, but there were no bugs and we had the whole place to ourselves.

July 3 - Two Bear to Marmot Lake 8.7mi, 3100ft (plus 2.4 and 500ft to O'Neill Pass for kicks). Two Bear to First Divide was up up up, through forest and meadow. First Divide was socked in, but we could see Home Sweet Home meadow and stopped there briefly on the way down to the Duckabush for the privy. Down to the Duckabush was almost 2000ft in 2.2mi and rocky. The Upper Duckabush crossing wasn't bad. There's a log that was dry and trusty. The camp there is huge and developed, except the privy has no door and looks rather sketch. To the main Duckabush is about 3mi of up and down - the most tedious part of the trip, except for the waterfalls and flowers. A few stream crossings, minor. Main Duckabush was a little spicy but no problem. Both crossings were knee-deep on me and I am 5'2". Up to Marmot Lake was spectacular old-growth and peek-a-boo views of Mt. Steele and others. We avoided the buggy, swampy camp sites for a camp above the ridge to hiker's left from the lake-head. There is a bear wire there, so we figured it was OK. We had amazing views of Steele, O'Neill Pass and the other mountains. There is a decent box privy near the group camp, hiker's right from the lake-head. I saw a big, fresh bear print in the mud on my way to the loo. We hiked to O'Neill after dinner; some snow, probably hollowed out underneath with water running by now. I'm light and walked over it, but my partner, who is 6'2" and 210lb, walked around it. 

July 4 - Morning trip to LaCrosse and Hart Lakes. 8.5mi, 2800ft. These will be great to camp at in a couple weeks, but right now still have snow. The lakes were breathtaking. A ranger spotted us hiking and asked for our permits. Around 1pm we retraced our steps, getting to Home Sweet Home camp around 5pm. Home Sweet Home is a lovely camp in a meadow with avalanche lilies and butter cups and mountains all around. The main camp area is a cluster of sites, but we found a durable surface just to hiker's right of the path to the privy and had it all to ourselves.

July 5 - Out. 14mi, up 900ft, down 4000. We had a ranger ask for our permits near Camp Pleasant as well. This is the first trip in the Olympics where I've been asked for my permit - not once, but twice. We got out and got Mexican food on the dock at Hoodsport. It was delicious.

(The track starting to the SW that begins to follow the trail on GAIA is the route we took up to Hart Pass. The track leaving Hart Lake going to the NW is the actual Hart Pass way trail. As you can see, the actual trail is nowhere near where it is represented on GAIA. Let me know if you have any questions about this trail; I'll gladly help you out!)

For us, Hart Lake and Lacrosse basin are the prettiest areas of the park. We've been there via the Skokomish a couple of times, so since my wife had never been to enchanted valley, I figured we'd go that way. Trip started great, but naturally the rain kicked in...We ain't punks though, so we kept going! Saw a beautiful elk herd of around 50 animals near Pyrites creek on day 2, but no bears in the valley. Thankfully the rain let up, and on day three we headed up the O'Neill pass trail with our sights on Hart Lake. Along O'Neill pass trail, there were portions of overgrown trail and a few large blowdowns to deal with; nothing too terrible. To save time and pounding of the feet, we decided to take Hart Pass way trail (this saves 6-7 miles or so, and probably 1000' feet of climbing). Right around White creek, we spoke with Ranger Patrick, and he informed us that Hart Pass way trail is wrong on the GAIA; the trail is further east of where it shows up on the GAIA. I cannot emphasize this enough: when you enter the meadow left from the main trail, stay to the left of the large stand of trees! (Keep looking left right after you pass the dried creek bed and you will see a boot path. If you went too far, you'll see two cairns. Turn left here). You will progress up a dried creek bed that shows up blue on the GAIA, and will pick up the trail just to the right of the dried creek. My wife and I put up some cairns to assist (the trail is obscured by saplings around this area). Unfortunately, we continued west, looking for the trail illustrated on GAIA, and wound up stuck climbing a NASTY draw, eventually ending up 200' above Hart Pass. This was easily the scariest climbing I've ever done, and I was very worried about us taking a serious fall. We had gotten to the point where it was too dangerous to descend, so we decided to keep progressing. Thankfully, neither of us got hurt. It was very foggy as well, complicating any hope of visualizing the route. We made it to Hart lake at 2100, exhausted, with bruised egos and a thankfulness that we survived (We contemplated activating our fast find for help on 2 occasions). There were a couple bears wandering around the lake that evening according to another camper; we saw one up on the slope near Hart Pass the next day on our way out. In order to compare routes and save time and figure our what had happened the day prior, we took Hart Pass way trail back to O'Neill pass. The trail was fairly easy to follow, though I lost it  briefly in the woods just after crossing the dry creek bed. Once you get through the woods portion after coming down from the pass and into the meadow, you basically follow the creek down into the meadow and continue to O'Neill pass trail. Hart pass way trail will save you some time, and it's really not that difficult, just be careful. Please don't make the mistake I did and try to follow the GAIA; it could get you hurt!

Teamwork. That's what it took to get the trail from Upper Duckabush camp to Marmot Lake (and beyond) in great shape again. I just led a weeklong all-volunteer WTA crew to tend to this neglected trail that had gotten into terrible shape over the years. With downed trees, overgrown brush and lots of tread problems, it was not pleasant to hike.

The start of the work was 16.2 miles in (that's how far it is to Upper Duck camp). Our plan was to have a chain saw, power brusher and all the related accessories plus gas and bar oil. That is not possible to carry in that far with a small crew. Here is how it happened: the ONP trails supervisor hired WCC crews who cleared the N. Fork of the Skokomish to Upper Duck camp, and even brushed it from Camp Pleasant to First Divide! Yay because it was awful brush in there! They were able to do their work because ONP packers and mules hauled their gear and tools in and out for both 8-day tours.

This allowed the fantastic and skilled ONP packers to get our gear and tools to Upper Duck camp. Mind you, it's easy going to 9-Stream camp (9.8 miles in) but in no way can it be deemed easy to get from 9-Stream, over the Divide and down to Upper Duck camp with loaded mules. These packers are admirable and their mules in such good shape and so well trained. I am extremely impressed and appreciative.

Another part of the teamwork is that Tom Mix with the Peninsula Chapter of Backcountry Horsemen loaned us his power brusher tool that comes apart, so it can be packed in.

We went in a few days after they packed in our tools and gear and got to work. We tended the 3.7 miles from Upper Duck camp to Marmot lake and even cleared the downed trees that were between Marmot and Hart Lake junction.

We worked our butts off. Brushing thick heavy brush, fixing tread, clearing out creek crossings and making them easier to cross, cutting out downed trees, and cutting down thousands of small trees that had encroached and taken over the trail, especially in the 3/4 mile right below Marmot Lake.

We took this trail from something that was overgrown and difficult to hike to something that is a joy to stroll along, gazing at the glorious views of the Upper Duckabush valley heading into Lacrosse Basin.

It was miserably hot and the flies were simply awful. Other than that, we fully enjoyed our time giving back to the trails we love so much. We only had a crew of six, but due to diligence, long hours and the help of power tools, I still can't believe what we got done in addition to all the hiking just to get to work. We even managed to squeeze in a day off to enjoy the beautiful Lacrosse Basin.

We had to get our own gear and tools all back to 9-Stream for pickup by the packers. That was not a whole lot of fun, but - again - teamwork. This time there was a troop of Boy Scouts staying at Upper Duck camp and they each took one thing back to 9-Stream for us! That saved us from making 2 trips to 9-Stream and, therefore, were able to exit Friday night before the rains of yesterday. Yay for Scouts!

The berries were in season and getting better by the day during our tour.