Well, if you can’t do the Wonderland Trail, you might as well do the Hoh Rain Forest!
Today we backpacked into the Hoh Rain Forest and it was simply magical! We
are West of Seattle, in the Olympic National Park, and have found the absolute
most Tolkein-ish forest anywhere! After a beautiful drive, in which we exhausted
all possible tasteless jokes regarding the “ho” hike, we found the trailhead and
took off. We are all four together again, as HBB decided that she could finish the WT another day and that she would rather hike with us. That is a good friend for you……
These woods are dark and mysterious, with huge ferns that reach above my head. The trees are huge…some of them easily large enough to drive a car through. I keep wondering if they have Redwoods in this part of the country.
The trail is fantastic and different from anything I have ever hiked. Mostly it is smooth….which in itself makes it unlike most of what I have hiked. Every now and then, huge roots curve up through the ground like giant worms. I pick my way up and around them, wondering if they are going to come to
life and grab me! You may laugh, but this forest is truly that fantas-tical.
For several miles, the trail curves up and down like a gentle roller coaster, and the sun shines through the thick trees in broken beams. It really is quite wonderful.
The only thing keeping this from being truly heavenly is the fact that it is 95
degrees. Seriously. This area of the country is under a heat warning and they are
predicting temps between 95 and 100 all week long! The heat is oppressive and
the bugs are absolutely loving it. However, thanks to my good friend Deet and a
mid-hike stop to cool down in a glacial river, the hike was still really
fabulous.
The best thing that happened to me, though, was completely egotistical.
We came upon a group of middle school girl scouts, with two women leading them, just as
we decided to stop and chill out in the river. They were very sweet, and after a
little conversation, they took off down the trail. After 15-20 minutes, we took
off as well, with bandanas dripping cool water down our necks. What happened
next was truly amazing. No… it was astounding! I actually caught up to them!!
Me!! The slowest hiker around! Well, I was also with Silver Lining and Little
Bit, but we all caught up to them. As they stepped aside to let us pass, I told
them, “You might not want to do that with me…I am pretty slow!”. One of the
leaders turned and said, “But you caught up to us!”. I realized that in all my
years of hiking, I had never caught up with other hikers, much less passed them.
Yes…. the girls were over-loaded with big packs, and they were tired….but I
couldn’t help but feeling like all my hard work in the gym was paying off a little.
Ok, ego trip done…. 🙂
We finally reached camp and set up on the banks of a beautiful, lilting river. After eating a delicious dinner of tuna and beef jerky, (me) and Ramen, (everyone else), we stowed away our bear canisters, and are relaxing for the
evening. We are laying back watching the sky go from light blue to a soft gray
as the sun sets behind the mountains. A partial moon is rising right across
from us and it won’t be long before the stars start appearing. I am typing to
the sounds of soft laughter as the other women joke lightly. You know, I always
say that to see this exact view, you have to actually be the one that walks to
it. Tonight I would add that if you are lucky, sometimes that very same walk
can bring you to this peace and friendship as well. And that is worth all the blisters and sore muscles in the world.
Good night……….