A lovely trip, celebrating a new job, up a quiet rain forest trail to spend a rainy night at a shelter. The little campfire I had was just icing on the cake. This is a less-traveled, tho no less magnificent trail, than the Hoh – both are known for passing thru magnificent rain forests. The advantage to a weekend spent on the Bogachiel is that one is most likely alone.
From my trail journal: “1:54 PM, June 9, 2011, Bogachiel River trail head, ONP. I’m about to set off down the Bogachiel River Trail. I’ve wanted to do this trail for years! Woohoo!”
I also recorded the weather (cloudy, calm w/ pizzle, 62.8F), the number of cars in the parking lot (8), the miles from home to TH (146 miles via Deckerville, Cougar Smith Rd, and Donkey Creek Rd), and hours of travel (allow 4 hours, to include check in at Quinault RS, I drive slow, thru the mountains, it takes a while).
An hour later found me at the end of a side path leading to a very nice campsite at the river. It’s cloudy – the soft grey clouds are hanging low, obscuring the ridge-tops across the river, and I’m chilled enough to put on my hoodie while I write in my journal.
I arrived at Flapjack Camp at 7:00P, having hiked about 10 miles over 4.5 hrs. The entire trip was beautiful, of course, passing initially through well developed river bottom land. Lots of sandy forest floor, adjacent to the river, Acer macros galore, and level, easy travel. The rain forest really assumes stunning proportions beyond the Rugged Ridge TH – here the trees gain size and moss and mystique to rival the Hoh. After one crosses Kloshe Creek, however, the trail trends upward, and the lush bottom-land rain forest with its massive firs is left behind. The trees from here to Flapjack are still huge, one is still in the rain forest, but they do lack the grandeur afforded by the deeper soils.
Camp was established among some smaller timber, just above the edge of the riverbed. I had to tromp x-country a little bit from the main camp to get there, but it sure provided a gorgeous site with trees to tie my tarp to, clean soft moss to sleep on, and a stunning view to wake to. The dinner I packed that night proved to be too much food. I’d been tinkering with my Primal hiking food recipes, and tonight’s fare was a large foil-pack of tuna with whole milk, Parmesan cheese, butter powder and seasonings for a creamy sauce. I recorded in my journal that it tasted fine, but was too filling, and worried about packing all that wasted food. I closed out the night, perched above the river bed, watching bats until it got to dark to see them. They proved to be pretty much the only wildlife I saw.
After breaking camp in the morning, and hitting the trail around 10:15, it was an easy-peasy hike to FifteenMile shelter. My itinerary called for continuing on from there to Hyak Shelter, arriving there at 3:00 PM – just in time for a last break before pushing on to Twentyone Mile.
It wasn’t 10 minutes beyond Hyak that I got stopped. Hyak Creek was running very high. The crossing was treacherous. After careful consideration, I decided the universe was speaking to me. I turned about, and set up camp at Hyak. I then proceeded to have one of the most relaxing evenings I can recall. With light rain falling thru the evening, I reclined under the protection of the shelter’s overhang and enjoyed a small fire. Small firewood was plentiful, and there was even dry paper left behind in the shelter! I was able to poke a fire, stay dry and comfortable, and enjoy the isolation of the North Fork Bogachiel River canyon from the comfort of a wilderness shelter on the edge of a meadow in a rain forest. I never build fires when I’m hiking, so this was all a very special treat – fitting, as I was celebrating my new job with Labor & Industries, my first day would be later in the week.
I hiked out the following day. It proved to be a long trip, and I recall being very weary by the time I got back to AblMabl at the trail head. I met some colorful characters along the way. Not counting the group of elementary school students I met on the way in, I also met Bryant and Beth – the former a homeless man carrying a very large pack, telling even larger stories, who informed me he’d been living out in the Bogachiel for weeks, and was looking forward to resupplying in Forks in a month. He’d been eating nothing but oatmeal for weeks. He’d also been photographing a local cougar.
The latter was Beth – she’d been living out on the Bogachiel for some weeks as a Wilderness Volunteer. She has history with the Bogachiel River, and ended up being my neighbor, her home being less than a mile from mine – on the opposite side of the peninsula! We bump into each other on occasion when I’m out for a walk in the neighborhood.
By 5:40 PM, I had made it back to my truck. On the way out, I saw a really large herd of elk crossing the road. Burger at Smitty’s in Forks, then the long drive home.
Leave a Reply