Hume's Ranch, Hurricane Ridge

A little less trip report and a little more go with the flow fun time weekend report. New friendships were to be had this past weekend, brought together by Instagram, hashing, and however else. Ahh social networking, and I now understand Instagram better! #itsridiculous.

Frosty morning

Friday four of us united up in Port Angeles where we were to start our journey with a short backpacking trip down by the Elwha River. A little behind schedule we got a later start so we hiked in a couple miles to Hume’s Ranch, I only had one good wipeout before needing to turn on our headlamps. Little do they know I probably would have tripped myself in the day light too. J

With camp all set up in the field the adventure was in full swing. Spirits were toasted as we explored the river bed, star gazed, played camp-made charades, and some monkey men climbed the big trees at camp. The weather held out and was beautiful and clear the entire time, but oh so cold!

The next morning one from our party departed and the three of us remaining hiked out our packs back to the car at the trail head for an adventure day. We trekked up from the Whiskey Bend TH to Hurricane Ridge, all the way to the visitor center and then some. The grade was slight but constant and we got to play in the snow! Yay! We made it to the top before dusk and were rewarded with an amazing sunset over the Olympic Mts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's go get a ride

With nightfall upon us we headed up only a short way more before deciding to skip hiking the trail back home then more or less slid down to the road to hitch a ride into town. We didn’t have many options as the road closes at dusk so most visitors have left, but a few cars remained…although they passed right by us without hesitation! We ended up walking down the Heart O’ the Hills Rd towards Port Angeles making a few phone calls to see if anyone would be willing to come get a few hikers many miles from home or a car. Luckily another vehicle headed down the mountain and this time they stopped. They were kind enough to let us hop in the bed of their truck and delivered us only a few blocks from home where we could get another car to retrieve the one left at the TH, after dinner of course! Oh boy was that a cold car ride! No complaining though, I’m grateful for a ride and they were really friendly. They didn’t even question all the ridiculous sounds coming from the back of their truck as three crazy people were yelling and “barking” through the tunnels!

Once everything was settled and cars were picked up and back at the house we headed down to watch some live music… and apparently belly dancers and Salmonella, the local Queen in town, for a fund raising event. She was absolutely fabulous! I didn’t think a small town like PA had it in them for such a good time, but then again local places usually are better! Like that place we had burgers…OMG SO GOOD! Whatever it was called (of course I can’t remember), definitely going there after a hike again up that way.

One more day left in the weekend and it was surely not wasted. Headed back to Bremerton for a little running, beer and good times to top it all off. What a trip. Started out Friday being little more than strangers and ending up with great stories and a weekend of awesomeness with friends. Thanks guys for the good time and not feeding me to wild animals (although you did have me going there at the end about a bear, lol!) Hope to adventure some more soon!

Taylor River, Otter Falls

11/16/13

Wet wet WET! This was quite the rainy day hike. After the storm that passed through dumping a lot of snow as low as 2500’ the day prior we decided on a river hike.

On the road to the trail head right before it turns to gravel there was a big tree that blocked the road. It was right before the road met back up (from the loop) so you had to turn around and go all the way back around. I guess a lot of people go to the right (like we did) because there were a lot of people backtracking!

 

 

We got a little turned around with our directions and had to stop and walk around the campground before we figured out which way to go. Between the signs at the trailheads and our book’s direction (which weren’t exactly on the same page as each other) we finally got on track just before 11:00.




Trail starts by crossing over
Taylor River

Trail up to Otter Falls

This trial is pretty straightforward. You follow the trail to Snoqualmie Lake (which we didn’t initially know which caused us to get confused) which goes along…wait for it…Taylor River! Our destination was just to get to Otter Falls, which was more than enough in this downpour!

 




Climbing down to the falls

The trail to Otter Falls, and Lipsy Lake below it, is a little side trail off the main path marked by a couple cairns. You hike up through the trees a few hundred feet or so before emerging at the base of an impressive slab of stone with streams of water trickling down into the lake.

During our trip there were a few people camped out just inside the trees overlooking the falls. They’re in for a wet one! At least they’ll have the place to themselves for the night. Besides that group there were a few other groups of hikers. A couple and their puppy turned around when we got to them short of their destination of Otter Falls because the pup was getting too cold, I wish I could have told them they were so close!!! Not that I knew how close we were at the time.

LOTS of water on the trail, at times we were walking through ponds it seemed. In addition to rain it hailed on our hike, too.  There was snow on the trail also, but at a closer glance it looked like accumulation of hail.

Still without my GPS I am unsure of our final mileage and time, but it took us about 1.5 hours each way on this almost completely flat trail. Glad to get out of the rain, I’m hesitant on camping in it this upcoming weekend! >_<