3 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain •
I knew, after looking at current conditions in the Olympics, that I may not get too far on my goal of the Enchanted Valley on the East Quinault River. Hat tip to Kyle for the recommendation. On paper everything looked good. Sure, there were 40 blowdowns between the trailhead and mi 13. Sure, there was snow at higher elevations. But what I didn't know is how soon I'd be bailing. Probably the first time to ever bail before even making it to the trailhead.
I arrived at the Quinault winter ranger station, aka the forest service office that has to deal with the crazy brand of hiker that wants to hike in the rainy season. When I announced my intentions that I hoped to head up the East Quinault as far as possible and stay for the night, the ranger paused for several seconds and gave me quite the look. Who in their right mind backpacks in pouring rain? (Mind you this was a forest service ranger) She confirmed that there were indeed several difficult blowdowns on the trail, but I put my best "experienced hiker" face on, and got a permit, only after several comments about "how rainy it was," "how wet I'll get" and "you can always just stay at the campground to get your adventure in the rain."
I headed down the half-decent gravel road towards the Graves Creek Trailhead at 600ft. The NWS forecast, with the nifty elevation feature set to 2000ft, called for highs of 46 and lows of 38 for the next few days, so I thought surely I'll be able to get to the trailhead, as it's much lower. Needless to say, it started to sleet at about 400 ft and 1/4 mi from the trailhead, my car temp read 31 degrees, and there was high water on the road that looked ominous for my little car. The NWS elevation-temperature estimates have been fairly accurate in other places, so I can only imagine that those canyons act as giant cold sinks. Knowing that I wouldn't stay the night as snow began accumulating on the ground, and I didn't want to get my car stuck 7 miles from people and no cell, I decided to turn around there. Not an easy choice when you drive up that far, but I made the best of it.
