10/01/06 - Obstruction Point Autumn

Autumn is a wonderful time to visit the high country, particularly the wilderness at Obstruction Point. The growing season is short up there, so the autumn always feels like borrowed time. It has been dry, and most of the flowers are gone, though the pair lurking amidst the warming rocks in the photo to the left are an exception. There is a lot of color in the alpine foliage, some of it brilliant red.

As usual at this time of year, we are hoping to borrow yet one more trip to Obstruction Point before the winter snows. The high country is haunting and it calls to us.

09/06/06 - Obstruction Point Update

We know that we have mentioned this before, but this time we have a proper photograph of the posted notice warning drivers about marmot invasions of their engine compartments. If the image below is too small, click on it for a larger version. This notice is on the outhouse door at Obstruction Point. Obstruction Point is a great high country hike. We should also note that the outhouse is a great outhouse. The park service has been replacing the old, stinky, rickety outhouses at various trailheads with new, well built, not all that smelly outhouses. So far, they seem to be holding up nicely both in terms of structure and scent.

While the high country is already in late autumn, having raced through its summer, the road is still open, and the trail is still wonderful as you can see in our sampling of photos. We particularly like the fall foliage along this trail. Some of it turns bright red, as you can see to the right. Sometimes the views are so beautiful, it is hard to remember that what one is seeing is real.

08/27/06 - Lake Angeles is for Swimming - Who Knew?

We had an amazing new experience up at Lake Angeles. We went swimming. We've been climbing the two thousand feet and then some to Lake Angeles for over five years, and each time we would get to the lake, climb the rock that sort of looks like the one that Psyche sits on in the old Schweppes logo and then turn around and march back down. This time, we noticed something different. There were people out in a canoe on the lake. We had seen tents and other hikers and even campers up at Lake Angeles before, but never anyone on the lake. We decided to wander around a bit longer, and while we wandered south from Psyche Rock, trying to keep close to the lake, one of the canoers, dressed for swimmng, told us something we had never realized. There is an easy way to get into the lake for swimming, or canoeing. A bit past the southernmost campsite, there is a path to the lake where the lake bottom is not all sloggy and muddy, and that this is the best place to get into the water. We had to try it. Indeed, the lake bottom was not sloggy or muddy, though the little stones underfoot made us wish we had packed our dive socks. Still, we were soon sloshing around in the lake, enjoying the fantastic views of the mountain wall that surrounds much of this body of water. In late August, the water was brisk and cold, but no longer frigid. It was totally refreshing, and the aches and pains of our ascent quickly vanished in the cold water. Already, we are planning our return trip, with dive socks and a towel, and hoping the weather holds so we can take another high country swim.

08/18/06 - Corn Lilies and Blue Grouses

We were up on Hurricane Hill and spotted those strange looking plants on the left. Not the little yellow flowers on the ground, but the tall spiky plants with little white flowers on the spikes. Apparently, they are corn lilies, if our trail companions are to believed. They are blooming on the side trail that leads down to Whiskey Bend from Hurricane Hill.

07/19/06 - High Country Update

Obstruction Point Road has just opened, so we decided to take the sharp left at the entrance to the Hurricane Ridge parking lot and see if our Honda could fit on the 1.5 lane road into the high country. We were hoping to take one of our favorite hikes, but the weather was not with us. A bit after PJ's Lake we ran into heavy fog, and were just not up to a harrowing drive on hairpin turns on a narrow road with steep drops and limited visibility. Applying the rule of sour grapes, we rationalized that there was still an awful lot of snow on the trail, as there was along the road, and that we would not have had much of a hike anyway.

Instead, we took a walk at Hurricane Hill, a much more accessible trail. We are pleased to report that the wild roses are in bloom, and the lupines are starting to blossom as well. There were still a few glacier lilies and great fields of dirty sock plant. The Hamper was quite full.

There's a warm weekend coming up, so we'll give Obstruction Point another try in a week or two.

07/09/06 - Mountain Goat Update

There were mountain goats in the news this morning. The local paper, the Peninsula Daily News, had an article about the upcoming aerial goat survey. We Kalebergs decided to check out the situation ourselves, but lacking the requisite light aircraft and helicopters, we took one of our favorite hikes, the Switchback Trail to Klahane Ridge. We had spotted one fine specimen back in June, so we had our hopes for this fact finding expedition.

We started the arduous ascent from the parking lot. The bog orchids were in bloom, and their rich scent permeated the waterfall climb near the start of the trail. Hikers descending reported goats on the trail, raising our hopes. Indeed, as we neared the 1000' apl (above parking lot) mark on our altimeter, there they were, two goats, a nanny and a kid, skulking in one of the shady corners of a switchback.

After a suitable pause to take some pictures and share in the mother-child intimacy, we resumed our ascent. Two goats! We had already broken our old record of one mountain goat sighted. The day was auspicious, and our hopes were high.

We did not hope in vain. As we neared the rocky outcrops near the ridge itself, there we saw him, well above us on the bare rock cliffs, the billy goat. Well, that made our day. Three goats! This was quite a successful survey, and we had more to climb and explore.

We pressed onward to the ridge and looked north, at the great fields of rock and snow, now covered with fog and rising cloud, in contrast to the sun and calm to the south through which we had ascended. The snow had been melting rapidly, so we tried for the high alpine gardens, but in this we failed. We were too tired to deal with the big patch of snow at 1600' apl (above parking lot).

As we returned to the trail junction at the ridge, we reaped a new reward for our muscle cracking efforts. (Our muscles crack more easily than most). There they were, an entire nuclear goat family, billy, nanny and kid, taking it easy and enjoying a snack on one of the rocky outcrops. We had to smile.

We must report that the alpine flowers were spectacular, and judging from our goat friends, quite delicious. The avalanche lilies have passed, but the lupines are just coming in, as are the turk's cap lilies and the pink paintbrush. Whether you go for the goat spotting, or just for the alpine flowers or the spectacular scenery, this is a great time for a survey of Klahane Ridge.

06/20/06 - Clear Trails, Almost, To Klahane Ridge

The Klahane Ridge Trail, via the Switchback, is more or less clear of snow. There are a few patches left, but nothing serious. We qualified this using the Kaleberg scale as a milli-adventure.

The hanging gardens are getting green, but most of the blooms are avalanche lilies, until the ridge proper. There, the phlox is coming out, and a fair bit of it.

(Click some of the pictures for closeups)

06/11/06 - Spring Comes To The Hurricane Hill Trail

The last time we were on the Hurricane Hill Trail, it looked quite different, but spring has arrived. The snow is melting and the flowers are blooming. The air is redolent of phlox. The trail is passable, but as you can see below, there are a few snow covered patches left.

05/19/06 - An Awful Lot of Triliums

There seem to be an AWFUL lot of triliums on the Lake Angeles Trail this year. We've always seen triliums on our way up towards the lake, but this year they are all over the place, sometimes in clusters of six or eight, and each time we climb, there seem to be more of them.

Being Kalebergs, we have several theories about this. The most obvious explanation is that there was an AWFUL lot of deadfall over the winter. There were serious windstorms and the trail seems to be much more open. The various streams, usually only heard, are now often visible, and a lot of the trees seem to be horizontal rather than vertical. This means that there is more sunlight, and while triliums are not sun lovers, the additional sun might encourage them.

Our other explanation is that there was more snow cover this winter, and that means that there is more water in the soil. For the first time in several years we seem to have a proper snowpack in the high country, and while this trail has never been particularly dry, it is possibly moister this year.

No, we have still not made it up to the lake, but we have enjoyed the lower portions of the trail and all those triliums.

03/14/06 - The Last Snow on the Elwha Trail

We've been hiking the Elwha Trail from Whiskey Bend a fair bit this winter. Most of our favorite high country hikes are under all too many feet of snow, and the avalanche danger is way too high. They are also rather cold and uninviting.

In contrast, the trail out of Whiskey Bend has been generally accessible, and the views of the river better than ever because of all the trees and branches knocked down by the wind. Judging by the fallen trees that have been sawn, and the trailside earthworks, the park service has been doing some maintenance on this trail since our last visit.

There was no snow on our last excursion, but this time we caught the tail end of the storm.

02/19/06 - Icy Waters on the Lake Angeles Trail

It's been cold the last few days, at least by local standards. The temperatures has been down in the low 20s towards sea level, and much colder up on Hurricane Ridge. But, today the cold snap seems to have broken, and the sky is full of milky clouds. We went out to stretch our legs on the Lake Angeles Trail, though we had no intention of climbing 2400' to the lake.

The trail itself was hard and dry. We haven't had any rain lately, but the ground seems both friable and frozen. We dodged a few fallen trees and some black ice along the way to the rude bridge that arches the stream up at the first campground. We were rewarded with a great view of ice and moving water. It's a bit hard to tell the white ice hanging from the rocks and logs from the whiteness of the running water, but if you look carefully, you can see the icicles hanging from the log, that used to be the old bridge, in the lower picture, and you can see the ice patches clinging to the mossy rocks and looking much like ctenaphores in the upper one.

There were lots of people out checking out the trail. We aren't sure if any of them made it all the way up to Lake Angeles. We know that there is a fallen tree that fills most of the trough of the trail up around 900' above the parking lot, but you can walk alongside it if you watch your footing. Eventually, we'll make our way up to the high country, but the cold, and particularly our fear of ice, have been holding us back.

02/10/06 - Winter Trails in Olympic National Park

We don't stop hiking in the national park just because it is winter. True, we need to snowshoe up in the high country, and a lot of the high country roads are closed, but there is still some beautiful hiking down below. Even the recent winds and rains haven't kept us from the Spruce Railroad Trail along the north shore of Lake Crescent or from the Elwha River trail from Whiskey Bend towards Lilian Camp.

There was a recent wind storm that caused a lot of damage, though it was much worse in Seattle and the Puget Sound area. We could even see this on the weather map, which showed the wind speeds in Port Angeles as about a half to two thirds of the wind speeds in areas not sheltered by the mountains. If you fly in a small plane, you will often feel the strong winds starting as you fly over Discovery Bay, and out of the shelter of the Olympics. Still, our internet service was down for most of a day, and the Whiskey Bend Road was closed while the Park Service cleared the fallen trees and brush. Whiskey Bend Road is an interesting drive under the best of circumstances. About a lane and half wide, hard packed, but unpaved, it twists and turns and climbs along the ridge to the east of Lake Mills.

There was a fair bit of freshly sawn timber by the roadside, but the road was quite passable in our Honda Civic. There were a few trees down along the trail, and a fair bit of water in the little side creeks, but the trail was open and the views of the Elwha River and the surrounding hills as gorgeous as ever.

As for the Spruce Railroad Trail, the much disputed roads in the area seem to be open, though there were a good number of downed trees along the roadside, and a bit of brush on the road. Lake Crescent is high, but the water has been going down lately during this drier spell, so it is just one short step over water to get on the Devil's Punchbowl bridge. Our special surprise waterfall has dried up, but a number of other channels that are usually dry are now full of running water.

In other words, the roads are opena nd the trails are open, so take advantage of the sunny days of February.

12/05/05 - What It's Like Out

Just a quick note on the outdoors on the Peninsula. We were up at Hurricane Ridge snowshoeing over the weekend, so we cxan report fairly good snow up in the hills, but the Lake Angeles trail is still best climbed from Heart of the Hills in hiking shoes, or boots. There is just not that much snow on the forest floor, even when there is snow by the road.

We were also out at Lake Crescent, and it looks like most, if not all, of the snow on the Spruce Railroad Trail has melted. There is still ice on the access road, so drive carefully.

11/26/05 - Hurricane Ridge Is Open

Last winter, we didn't get up to Hurricane Ridge very much. Either it was snowing, or it had stopped snowing, but the plow was broken, or all the snow had melted. This year, things we hope for better, and the season is already showing some promise. Today, the road was open, there was a nice coating of snow, and everyone seemed to be heading up to the Ridge to work off some Thanksgiving turkey.

We put on our snowshoes and hiked from the Hurricane Ridge lodge to the Hurricane Hill trailhead. We ran into others on snowshoes, cross country skiers, and a number of people just tromping along in boots. The sky was bright blue, with just a hint of cloud, and the air was wonderfully clear. This latter was an especial relief since we had been enduring a bit of fog and bad air of late.

The ski lift wasn't open yet, but there were lots of people with sleds, snowboards and even skis. Of course, they had to climb Sunrise Peak by foot without the lift. As for us, we came for the exercise.

11/20/05 - Winter Light Movies

The winter light is something special this time of year. There are two new movies posted. One shows the high mountain light, and it has a really neat lens flare.

The other is from Lake Crescent, and it also gives a sense of the winter light, what little we have of it.

11/06/05 - Winter Calling: A Report En Route to Lake Angeles

It seems like only yesterday that we were wandering the high country of Olympic National Park, but the snows have been coming in and Hurricane Ridge Road has been closed early. Rumor has it that the park will be plowing, but for now we've retreated from Hurricane Hill and the Switchback Trail to one of our winter standbys, the Lake Angeles Trail which starts at 1870' above sea level, right near the entrance to the park.

There was no snow in the parking lot, but about 600' apl (that's above parking lot) we started seeing a thin crusting along the trail. The traction was great, so we kept on going. The wooden bridge over the stream was covered with perhaps a quarter inch of snow, but even we managed to cross it. It wasn't until about 1200' apl that the trail started to seem snowy. From here on up we could definitely feel that we were walking on snow, and as we ascended, the snow got deeper. We turned around about 1600' apl, and as you can see in the picture, there was an inch or two of snow.

We didn't go any farther, but there were a good number of people heading up and down the trail. They were all wearing boots, and most of them had made it all the way up to the lake. The snow there, around 2350' apl is over a foot deep, maybe a foot and a half. It sounds like rough going, but everyone we met said it had been worth it. Maybe next time.

10/11/05 - Early Frost in the High Country

There is already frost up in the hills. We were up on the Hurricane Hill Trail this morning, and there it was alongside the trail in the shaded areas. The lingering snows vanished months ago, but now we are getting our first glimpse of winter as the temperatures drop at night.

Obstruction Point Road is still open, but they close it at night. The snow poles are up around the Hurricane Ridge Lodge. This is still autumn, but we are seeing signs of winter, and a mile above sea level winter starts a fair bit earlier than down by the sea.

10/01/05 - Early Autumn on the Switchback Trail

We were up at Klahane Ridge the other day and the scenery wa spectacular, both on the climb up the Switchback Trail, and at Hurricane Ridge as well. There was no great panorama, but more of a dance of the seven veils, with the clouds revealing and concealing. It was tricky weather for a photographer with great shots appearing and disappearing as we climbed.

It is tempting to avoid Hurricane Ridge on cloudy days, but the clouds and fog offer a special kind of beauty. The mists accent the mountains and make everything more real and less abstract. The recent rain made for better hiking too. The trail is made of dirt again, rather than dust.

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Not quite a panorama from Hurricane Ridge