Today my plan was to ride the motorcycle to Hurricane Ridge and go for a short hike. I loaded the hiking gear on the bike and was underway at 0645. The ride was excellant. Today was suppose to be hot, but along the north coast between Port Townsend and Port Angeles, the temp was kept cool by the proximaty to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
When I got to the visitors center at Port Angeles, the sign said that the road to Hurricane Ridge was closed. Evidently there was a slide that closed the road and it "could" be open by midday.
Well, time for Plan "B". So I decided to continue on to Sol Duc and do some hiking there. The ride then continued along the shore of Crescent Lake. This has some nice corners and there was no traffic going my way.
At Sol Duc, I hiked the four miles to Deer Lake. This is not a real strenuos hike and only climbs 1500 feet. Later this fall I may hike this again, but continue around the High Divide Loop. That will only be about 18.9 miles with about 4000 feet of climbing. I did feel a lot better doing this eight miles than I did doing the six miles last week on Mt Ranier. It was hot and did not cool down again until I got to Port Angeles. Then it got hotter near home.
Motorcycle Distance: 234.2 miles
Hiking Distance: 8 miles
Sol Duc Falls, not much waterflowing!
Deer Lake at 3500 ft.
Saw that they were able to open one lane to hurricane ridge. Same as you didn't even know it was closed. Sounds that plan B went well anyway. Good to keep plans flexible.
ReplyDeleteI recommend staying at 'silver spur' on the high divide between 7 lakes and heart lake. Watching the sunset against olympus is incredible, and if you go in late september, the crowds and bugs will be gone. Go after a rain, and the berries will be sweet, and the little tarn will be full so you don't have to haul water.
ReplyDeleteWhat? It is just a day hike!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeletewow, gorgeous!
ReplyDeletei love the forest but i don't enjoy tramping along, i just wander around.
your pal pip