The next morning we got up as early as possible and got our breakfast. We were trying to be on the trail by 8am, but that quickly became 930. Once at the trailhead parking lot we shouldered our loads and headed into the woods for some good old trudging.
The first four miles went quick and we were soon at Deer Lake. This is the ending point for most of the hikers on the trails and most of the backpackers stay here for the night and then head back down. Kris and I stopped here to eat a granola bar and drink some water before heading on to the higher points. Once we got up the trail we stumbled onto a small herd of elk crossing an open space to our right. We watched them for a while until Kris coughed and they all spooked and went crashing off into the woods. We could hear the males up on the ridge rattling against the trees, I don’t think they liked being run off like that.
The trail was quite gradual and well laid out with switchbacks so that we didn’t feel like we were pushing too hard. This allowed us to put on a good amount of miles and before long we were up on the ridges above tree line. It was here we ran into our first bear of the trip. About a hundred yards up slope of us he was foraging on the berries that scattered the ridge. After about five minutes of watching we made some noise and he ran off into the woods. Over the next two hours we had three or four more bear encounters on the ridges that run up to the high divide. At one point we came across a female and her cub standing thirty or so yards from the trail. We waited for a long while for them to move along but they were more intent on eating than on us. We made a bunch of noise but they wouldn’t move. Finally Kris and I just had to walk past and they didn’t even glance in our direction.
Shortly after we made it to the Hoh Lake cutoff and sat down for lunch. PB&J sandwiches with beef jerky and almonds…sweet. We ate rather quickly and got back on the trail so we could get up on the ridge and catch views of Mt. Olympus. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating and we ended up walking the entire High Divide with only views of fog to the south of us. We did see some great views of the ridges and valleys to our north and west. We caught glimpses of many more bear of the next few hours and before long we were nearing the campsite for the night which was at Heart Lake. As we came over a ridge we noticed a small lake down below which was curiously shaped like a heart. Kris pulled up and turned to me, “do you think this is Heart Lake?” she asked…
Since it was only 4pm and we had daylight left we decided to keep moving on. We had put in 11 miles by this time but another campsite a mile down the trail seemed a better spot to shelter the fog and cold that was blanketing the mountains. We trudged on for another half hour or so and came to Sol Duc Park, which would be our site for the night. When we explored a little we found the resident ranger’s site was seasonal and they had taken down the tent that housed the ranger but the platform was still there. This seemed like the best place to make camp for the night and we figured it would be fun to stay on the “Ranger Station”. We put up the tent, cooked our meals and ate and then headed for the warmth of our sleeping bags for the night.
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