Appleton Pass, Cat Basin Primitive & High Divide - Seven Lakes Basin Loop — Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024

My hubby and I have just returned from a three night four-day backpacking trip. We departed the sol duc Falls trailhead, intending to do a more advanced version of our annual high divide loop pilgrimage we do every year. This trip would take us over Appleton Pass, Spread eagle pass to cat basin primitive way trail and a backcountry lake. We do have some experience traveling off trail, had our GPS and topo maps and felt well prepared and trained up. Also, reviewing past trip reports, it sounded like there were no major obstacles that we would be encountering.
Day 1: we started up the sol duc River Trail, you come across two downed trees that are fairly easy to pass, one you duck under and had our first snack break at the Appleton Pass intersection. Once you turn up towards Appleton Pass, the Trail begins to climb solid and the conditions deteriorate. Mainly, it is just a very overgrown brushy trail, which climbs steep switchbacks, there is one down tree that is a little bit tricky to cross but if you pause and evaluate it, you’ll find the way over it . The trail continues on and I wondered if I must have misinterpreted how long this trail is. You passed two murky tarns, then finally a lovely creek, which was a great spot to get water because I have read there is not much water up at the pass if any. It is very quiet on this side of the trail, and the berries are prolific, huckleberry, and blueberry, some the size of grapes. Once At Appleton Pass, the views are really beautiful. I saw at least 6 great camping areas. There may be more. Due to the rain, We opted for a campsite under a tree patch. only saw one other camper by oyster Lake, otherwise we had to place to ourselves.
Day 2: we had a late start, rain on and off. I had believed it would be a fairly short day, but boy was I mistaken.. note we were now entering primitive unmarked Trail territory, you pass the sign that leads you to Boulder Creek or points back to sol duc. We head straight, to travel to spread Eagle Pass and the cat basin primitive way, trails. We thought we had a break in the rain, so off we went. I was aware that I am on unmaintained way trail and felt prepared but I may have over estimated my technical abilities in some places, I cannot recommend spread Eagle Pass and cat basin way trails in rainy conditions, whatsoever, not only is the trail extremely overgrown with trees and bushes. It also had a few exposed rock areas where it took all fours to pass down chutes holding ‘green rope’ with full backpacks which was challenging, probably OK during dry conditions, during wet conditions I feel this could be considered dangerous, as water starts to flow thru the way trail chutes in some sections like a creek. The erosion on a boot path, as well as some areas there are trees that are growing out in the middle of the trail. Passing through the branches and brush constantly so despite rain gear we were soaked. The trail is easy to spot and way find without a GPS for most of it. As we traveled it felt like after we would cross one difficult section and I thought we were done, only to then come upon at least 11 rock slide areas where thankfully somebody has marked those with cairns, but again, during rain the rock is pretty slippery and awkward so we had to just move slowly and carefully skirting around the gorgeous basin in these horrible conditions. I mostly just found it sad how unmaintained this entire section is, because it is so gorgeous and would be awesome if maintained! Due to the conditions, it took us many hours only moving about 4 miles, I believe? Finally we made our way to our lake camp for the evening. As we were caught in many downpours and there is nowhere to wait out the rain. It is just exposed rock and brush the entire trail so we had to continue forward despite heavy rain showers due to no where to stop! By the time we set up camp we were probably nearly hypothermic. We rushed to strip off wet clothes and found some mostly dry clothes to put on from our pack. This is all soaked despite having rain pants, gators, raincoats, and pack covers. ugh, well we were thankful we brought a lot of dry camp food in our bear canister so we did not need to cook and had to eat inside the tent which I know is not recommended but the downpours made it so. We were asleep by 9 PM. I woke up around 11 PM and the rain cleared out and we got a quick shot of the gorgeous Sturgeon moon.
Day 3: Nope. our next camp permit was to be lunch lake, however, due to the rains and now also windy conditions, sore muscles, soaked clothes, from climbing two passes, we felt this was an emergency card to stay put, rest up and wait out the rains. We had the camp to ourselves and actually only heard one other party pass by and I think they were heading the opposite direction? (which I was thinking coming up Appleton Pass through cat basin to the high divide might be the easier of the two ways due to the side stepping and poor conditions climbing up to spread eagle pass? Some spots are tricky to go down and i feel easier to climb up)
Day 4: we woke early To dry conditions, hooray and lovely views, we hit the trail by 8 AM. The cat basin portion is gorgeous views of cat peak and the Olympic Mountains. We saw a bear foraging below us in the basin, moving his way through the berry patches,he paid no mind to us as we talked and walked and stuffing ourselves with blueberries and huckleberries that were just prolific.. again thou, getting soaked by brushing by all the overgrown brush and berries. If I came back out here I would bring clippers. this section from the lake camp up (and down, note trail is very up and down in elevation, its a grunt) you head through cat basin up towards the high divide the trail conditions improve my guess is due to more people travel this route from Heart Lake down to the cat basin trail and lake for obvious reasons. At high divide we saw a sign that the trail is actually closed after cat peak for Bailey Range right now, due to fire. We took a break utilize the awesome privy at heart lake, have a snack there and headed down towards Sol duc river trail rather than completing the loop on the high divide as originally planned. As yet again to my surprise it’s August but I could see another dark rain cloud moving our way despite before I left, I had read Thursday was to be a sunny day. We were on main high divide loop trail, heading past the sol duck park camps where we came across a woman in distress with a possible broken ankle. We asked if ok and Her party had already splinted and had reached Rangers on radio, so they seem to have all they needed, so we headed on our way. I felt so bad for this woman being in such a precarious situation, as that could happen to any of us, at any time. I slowed after this. An hour later, We met Molly, who we had met last year, a very calming friendly and professional ranger, I felt better now that She was on her way up to assist. Also she was behind a trail runner rescue Ranger, very cool, whom had brought some crutches in case that may have worked. (We had found out after speaking to a ranger later, that the injured woman would need to stay another night on the mountain due to the rain conditions, and that they will be dispatching a mule up to assist her, her my thoughts go to her, what an exhausting trip.) We headed back down an uneventful 12 mile day, other than sore muscles, tired and wet so we made our way to sol duc Hot Springs, most deserving soak ever for $18.
Moral of the story is conditions can drastically change your experience and especially when on unmaintained or primitive trails, be ready to be humbled!
Our trip was about 24 miles and 5500 feet of elevation gain over our 4 days.
Pro tip: They sell single cans of cold beer in the little sol duc general store, lol!