Marmot Pass, Constance Pass, Main Fork Dosewallips River, Hayden Pass, Elwha - Olympic Hot Springs Road, Appleton Pass, Sol Duc Falls, High Divide Trail, Hoh Lake & Hoh River Trail to Elk Lake — Friday, Jul. 30, 2021

Three of us once again in 2021 fled the fire closures of the North Cascades for a long hike across the Olympics. This time east to west following much of the route of the Pacific Northwest Trail for 9 days, with minor variations at the start and finish. We began at the Upper Big Quilcene trailhead leading to Marmot Pass, descended into the upper Dungeness drainage and ascended to Camp 1 at Home Lake. We arrived about 6pm. The campsites were nearly all full except for a poor site near the lake. The next morning, we climbed over Constance Pass, descended 4,000' to the Dosewallips R. and continued upstream to Bear Camp. We had this camp to ourselves. A second hard, long day in a row for our older party. The Constance Pass descent was brushy and narrow with a number of logs across the trail. 
Day 3, up over Hayden Pass and down to Hayes River Camp. Note that this camp is not at the junction of the Hayden Pass Tr with the Elwha R. trail as shown on both our maps. It has been relocated along with the Guard Stn about .5 mi north of the junction. We wound up alone in a camp near the Hayes River bridge without facilities. Hayden Pass Trail is in good shape, not too many logs, mostly easily passed.  We met a NOLS group headed up into the high country from the trail a couple miles north and west of the pass. 
Day 4 down the Elwha to Lilian River Camp. Nice area, big camp. We were alone again. Day 5 we continued down the Elwha to Whiskey Bend where the abandoned road begins, and onward to the junction of that road with the abandoned road from the Elwha to the Olympic Hot Springs Trail. There a friend met us with a resupply that he carried in from the present road end 2 mis away, saving us the effort of hiking further out and back. After much rummaging, we hiked about three miles up the Olympic Hot Springs road, camping on the shoulder near a stream, out of the way of mountain bikes and other hikers. Day 6 - Continued up the road to its end, then 2 mis further to Olympic Hot Springs where we had a good soak and lunch. Little did we know that the fierce work of the day still awaited. The trail continues easily another two miles before turning steeply upward and rough, with awkward log and stream crossings and bad brush in the upper basin. Our progress slowed badly. Even the hikers coming down were complaining about the brush and streams. We arrived at Appleton Pass Camp about 6:30pm. Tough day. A delight was a dense field of bear grass in bloom catching the evening light. No water nearby at Appleton Pass. We carried 3.5 liters up and made that do until well down the west side the next morning. 
Camp 7 was a half day away in Sol Duc Park near a small waterfall. We lounged all afternoon. The camp was completely full that night. Up early again, we ascended to High Divide before 8am and followed the trail west to the junction with the trail down to Hoh Lake and the Hoh River, another 4,000'+ descent. Great morning views of Olympus and Mt Tom glaciers from the Divide. Watered up at Hoh Lake. Long descent, trail in good shape overall but goes on forever. Finally we reached the bottom and camped Day 8 at the Olympic Guard Stn. Lots of people there. 
In the morning, we sped out on the flat valley trail, making over 2mph net, very fast for us. The excitement of the morning was a big spruce 5-6' in diameter spontaneousely broke 8-10' up and fell across the trail about a mile from the parking lot in the 8-9am timeframe. No one saw it, but one group passed that point earlier and related to others that it was new to them when they encountered it on their return. Every group we met had to tell us about crawling underneath the huge trunk. We finished a bit after noon. 97 mis and about 18,000' of ascent.

Alert: The Hoh River entrance to the park is being overrun with visitors this season. When the parking lots fill in the morning, cars are only admitted as cars leave.  We departed at 1pm on a Friday. The line waiting for entrance was 1 mile long, estimated at 200 cars and not moving. We guessed the wait was 3 hours at the back end. When we placed our end of trip car, we arrived about 5pm. Our wait was 11 cars, about 15 mins. Plan accordingly.