28 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain • 1 night
Camped beside Lake Quinalt in order to get an early start the next morning up to Enchanted Valley, to see the chalet that was about to fall into the East Fork Quinalt River due to severe undercutting. The NPS has embarked on an emergency stabilization project to protect the river by moving the historic chalet about 100 feet farther away. Prep was well underway, with helicopters flying in supplies, and just another day or two until teams of horses and mules will begin doing the real heavy work.
Enchanted Valley is a good 13 miles from the nearest road. Of all the hikers we encountered, we were the only dayhikers making the 28-mile in/out run. Access to the valley is highly limited right now. No camping, and you can only move through in between helicopter drops.
The rain forest was probably at darn near the driest it ever gets, which offered a totally different (but still lovely!) perspective on it. Another really great day in the woods! :-)
JM
September 8, 2014
You guys are crazy doing that many miles in a day! Awesome trip. I'd take 3 days to do what you are doing in one.