Marmot Pass — Friday, Jun. 27, 2025

Spreading out the elevation gain over three days I thought would make this trail “easier,” but from the trailhead at 2400 to Camp Mystery at 5400, it’s 3000 feet of gain no matter how you look at it. Yes, it was a slog, but my daughter and I followed the orchids, wild ginger and pipsissewa into stunning open meadows of paintbrush, larkspur and wild onion. Two or three downed trees and several stream crossings were, shall we say, interesting for someone like me (advanced age, knee problems, etc), but doable. Camp Mystery still had plenty of room when we arrived, but parties arriving until sunset kept filling the available spots. When we got up Saturday morning, a whole tent city had sprung up. At the crack of 11am, we headed for Marmot Pass. The clouds had thinned a bit so we hoped for, maybe, a little view. At Marmot Pass we turned south up the ridgeline until we found a couple of rocks for sitting out of the wind where we had a wonderful view to the west as the clouds finally lifted. The sun warmed us and the sky turned blue. To the east, the clouds remained stacked up; we never got even a glimpse of Buckhorn Mountain. On our way back to camp we met a family heading for the sites in the basin: dad and 7-year-old were out in front, mom and 4-year-old were not far behind. We were impressed! Four-year-old told us that he was carrying the important water filter. More overnighters had arrived at Camp Mystery during the day and when we returned almost all the spots were taken, even the couple of sites at the western end beyond the main camp area. When two women asked if we minded if they took the other tent site that was almost a part of ours, we said they were welcome to it and everyone managed to fit in. When a troop of ten young men showed up about 6, however, we groaned and watched with dismay as they set up near us on both sides of the trail. But these young men turned out to be great neighbors and we would camp near them again any time. They were a Scout troop from Tacoma who were doing their last training backpack before a 77-mile trip next month. Sunday was a blue-sky day and our hike out was in sunshine with great views of The Gargoyles and over to the Cascades and Puget Sound. We enjoyed talking to many of the folks we met on the trail. Don’t miss the ice cream at Peninsula Foods in Quilcene, at Highway 104 and Center Road!