Enchanted Valley via East Fork Quinault River — Saturday, May. 23, 1998

Olympic Peninsula > Pacific Coast

Hi, Enchanted Valley was nice overall on memorial day weekend. It rained lightly on and off Friday through Monday, and most of Sunday, and include some mandatory drizzle. But there were also sun breaks and some mild weather. Not cold at all. The ranger we spoke with said there was a total of 98 people in the valley for the weekend, which was apparently down from last year. Many people hiked out on Sunday and all who did missed the Sun and lack of crowds on Monday. I recommend looking on the web for a satellite weather image loop to try and determine what the weather will be like if you do this hike. It seems to change often in this valley as clouds blow in off the Pacific. Snow and glaciers were barely visible through the overcast, so it was a treat to see them on occasion. We encountered 3 black bears off the trail on the way up, but didn't encounter any problems with them in our campsite. Hanging our food helped. Usual bear procedures. Plenty of dear and elk to go around. I was camping close to the river and noticed big green 1 to 1.5in. stoneflys(') crawling on my tent at times. Made the fisherman in me wake up. There was also a small spinner(') hatch near our campsite that wasn't too out of control. The biting bugs were almost none. I wasn't bit once and had no repellant on. The road to the trail head (11mi from 101) seems to have had some recent repairs and wasn't a bad drive at all, even with the rain. The trail was relatively dry on the way in with no blow-downs, but was wet and sloppy on top most of the way out on Monday. The fact that there isn't much elevation to this 13 mile hike made the mud easier to forget. Not bad at all. Glad I went. Bye, Paul