Jen went backpacking August 11 to August 12, 2019 18 miles 3,500 feet gained 1 night
My Black Peak climb was cancelled, and I had 10 days off! What to do......
It looked like the earliest weather clearing was actually on the Olympic Peninsula, so I headed up there instead. Still had to wait out some rainshowers the first day, so I stayed at Lake Quinault for a night and explored around the lake on Sunday.
On Monday, I headed up the W Fork of the Humptulips past the Campbell Grove Campground, and took a nice trail up to a ridge. The trail ended at an old decommisioned road. I then walked/scrambled and bushwacked the 4 miles of the remaining intermittent bits of the old road westward to reach "Humpnoochee Pass" It was pretty exhausting with the big pack on, lots of slithering and putting my head down and just plowing through vegetation.
Finally found the trail (taken off map long ago) down to Elk Lake. There are treads of trail around the lake but the bushes are overgrown and it was difficult to find a place to put my tent. Got rained on overnight. Packed up wet tent and slogged out through the wet vegetation. Instead of returning via the nasty road, I just dive bombed 2000 ft straight down the slope back to the FS road. Then it was a brisk walk back up to my car at the TH.
Can't recommend that trip to anyone.....Hey Father Guido Sarducci have you been there?
