North Fork Quinault River and Halfway House — Sunday, Aug. 8, 1999

Olympic Peninsula > Pacific Coast

Despite the lack of accurate trail reports, we spent six days hiking from the North Quinalt Ranger Station to Whiskey Bend. We had a wonderful time! Except for about a half mile north of Lake Mary (heading down to Chicago Camp), the trail had been cleared of slash. Finding a route around and through the debris field just south of 12 mile camp on the Quinalt side was a bit of a challenge, otherwise the trail is in excellent condition. Low Divide still has a lot of snow and some caution is required to avoid falling through the snow in places just south of the first stock gate on the Quinalt side. The mosquitos were terrible at Trapper and almost bearable Chicago Camp. The crossings at 16 mile and Chicago Camp are made easier by the trees which span both rivers. The rope at 16 mile is very helpful if you don't mind getting a little wet. In both instances, the rivers were between 2 and 3 feet deep, and very swift. We hiked up to Happy Hollow and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. The Elwha Basin trail is in good shape as far as the Shelter. That's as far as we went. The Elwha River is still quite high, fishing will have to wait a year.