High Divide - Seven Lakes Basin Loop, Sol Duc Falls — Monday, Oct. 5, 2015

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

This would be my last overnight back packing trip of the season. I have wanted to do this trip for a while but wanted to go with other people and not alone because I have never camped or hiked out in the olympics. So much for that idea, the person that wanted to go with me had to work so off I went solo to take on this hike. I set out kinda late in the morning and it was a pretty long drive from Tacoma, about over 3 hours including going to the ranger station and getting permit. I did not need a permit because season was over but I wanted someone to know I was out there and where I would most likely be if I never came home. FYI Always get a permit because then rangers know you are out there! I started my hike late I. The day after 2 pm so I had planned on camping first night in seven mile group camp near Appleton Pass trailhead. I had made good time and had plenty of daylight left so I kept hiking, I started getting tired and the sun was setting over the mountains so I started to look for another suitable camp. I stumbled upon the ranger station slab of wooden deck (ranger tent gone for the season), I thought, nice spot to put my tent for the night and close to a stream for water. This was Sol Duc Park Camp on Green Trails Map 133S. It was getting dark quickly. I filtered water for the night and next day, made dinner and was asleep within an hour. I woke up next morning with hearing rain drops on tent at about 0500 so I decided to sleep in. I woke up around 0900 and the sun was shining! Another beautiful day. I packed up and moved onward. I luckily ascended most of the steep section yesterday so today was nice. I was very close to Heart Lake about a mile or so. When I got there I saw one person there. He said no one else was there all night which was interesting because the ranger yesterday said I couldn't stay there because it was full?? The most frustrating thing about thruhiking is that there are always no shows at camps!! People make reservations and get permits and never show up. It would have been a beautiful place to camp! Any way, onward to the High Divide! Absolutely breathtaking! At this point I am enjoying a little piece of heaven up here. My designated next permit site is Lunch Lake. I passed one other hiker on way there who had tent set up near Bogachial Peak, what a beautiful spot to make camp! As I hiked the divide the weather was changing, getting colder quickly and very windy with storm clouds in distance. After taking pictures of the lake basin I decided to not stay at Lunch Lake but instead to finish entire trail today and head home. It got so cold I put on all my layers including down jacket, hat, scarf and gloves. I passed no one for miles. The trail gets very very steep about a mile or so before Deer Lake and just relentlessly continues to be steep jagged rocks all the way down through Canyon Creek down Deer Lake Trail. I made it to my car around 1730. I was feeling the pain in my legs from the downhill trek. I was tired and hungry. I ate in my car and drank tons of water. There were a lot of people at Sol Duc Falls area on the trail. The ride home was painful. Sitting for 3 hours in the car trying to stay awake. My body was saying "REST YOU FOOL" but the thoughts of a hot bath and a warm bed were comforting enough to get me home. This was a beautiful place and I can't wait to go back next summer earlier In the season like June or July and make it a longer trip to enjoy it fully. I highly recommend this hike for the beauty of it all and the well defined trails and that you can actually have a campfire at most of the designated wilderness camp sites. Most of the campsites has a designated fire pit area with fire wood left by other campers. Very beautiful camp sites and more camp sites than what are actually shown on green trails map 133S. There seemed to be a camp site around every 3 miles or so. There are stock camps as well. Hope this report helped.