Olympic National Park, the mountains, part one
Aug 13, 2016 01:13:25 #
Recently spent a week backpacking in Olympic National Park. Walked approximately 50 miles and climbed and then lost 18,000 feet of elevation during the trip. Great trip, unfortunately you must camp at designated camp sites, so sometimes it's just too far to get to the right places for early morning light. Still, a magnificent park.
For those of you who have been on past posts about how much to carry when backpacking I had 47 pounds of camping gear, 30 pounds of camera equipment and my water supply. Those of you who say that is too heavy are probably right, but I wouldn't have been able to get some of the photos I did if I hadn't hauled all my gear.
Just in case anyone cares I'm 60, so if you want it bad enough you can take all your gear with you. Uphills were tough, but it was worth it.
For those of you who have been on past posts about how much to carry when backpacking I had 47 pounds of camping gear, 30 pounds of camera equipment and my water supply. Those of you who say that is too heavy are probably right, but I wouldn't have been able to get some of the photos I did if I hadn't hauled all my gear.
Just in case anyone cares I'm 60, so if you want it bad enough you can take all your gear with you. Uphills were tough, but it was worth it.
Sunset at Deer Park
(Download)
blacktail fawn
(Download)
Heading up Grand Valley
(Download)
The view from Lilian Ridge
(Download)
A tarn in the upper end of Grand Valley
(Download)
Still climbing toward Grand Pass
(Download)
Looking down Grand Valley from near Grand Pass
(Download)
Looking south from Grandview Peak elevation 6,748
(Download)
Unnamed falls on Grand Creek
(Download)
Aug 13, 2016 02:53:47 #
dickwilber
Loc: Indiana (currently)
Congratulations on a spectacular trip and some great photos from one of my most favorite places in the world. Two decades ago, my son and I embarked on what turned out to be our last backpacking trip (he is now introducing backpacking to his 10 year old boy, but at 77, I can no longer keep up - maybe a canoe trip instead). Due in part to the logistics of our cross country flight to get there, we too were a bit overloaded, plus, I was carrying so much camera gear. And during this period of time, my corporation was in the throws of serious dislocation, resulting in overload for those of us trying to hold things together, which prevented me from doing the pre-trip training required for this effort.
So, overloaded and unprepared, we hiked along the Hoh River from the visitor center to the ranger station where a climbing club was preparing to assault Mount Olympus. We wished them well and went the other way up towards Hoh Lake. The elevation gain on that trail was a little less than a mile, but more than my knees were prepared to carry my overloaded pack. By the time we reached our campsite at Hoh Lake, my knees were screaming! It felt as if there was no cartilage left at all. Bone on bone! (Evidently, it felt worse than it was as I eventually recovered and have covered a lot of ground since on those same, unreconstructed knees.) But for the remainder of our Olympic National Park adventure, and several months thereafter, I could walk on level ground only with considerable pain, uphill with great pain, and downhill with excruciating pain.
The lesson I would pass on is that backpack load does matter, and pre-trip conditioning matters even more.
But, not-with-standing the considerable discomfort from my knees; the disappointment of having to abandon our time on the mountain trail, leaving at Sol Duc when our water filter failed and we discovered our backup iodine pills had gone bad; and having my Nikon N8008 quit working due to the rainforest moisture getting into the works through a crack in the body from a previous fall; that trip remains one of my fondest memories of all time. And, yes, before my camera failed (and using my sons rangefinder backup) I have many spectacular Velvia slides of the trail, Mount Olympus, Hoh Lake, black tailed deer, Roosevelt Elk, Hurricane Ridge, and Hole-In-The-Wall, and sea stacks above Rialto Beach.
I love that Park!
So, overloaded and unprepared, we hiked along the Hoh River from the visitor center to the ranger station where a climbing club was preparing to assault Mount Olympus. We wished them well and went the other way up towards Hoh Lake. The elevation gain on that trail was a little less than a mile, but more than my knees were prepared to carry my overloaded pack. By the time we reached our campsite at Hoh Lake, my knees were screaming! It felt as if there was no cartilage left at all. Bone on bone! (Evidently, it felt worse than it was as I eventually recovered and have covered a lot of ground since on those same, unreconstructed knees.) But for the remainder of our Olympic National Park adventure, and several months thereafter, I could walk on level ground only with considerable pain, uphill with great pain, and downhill with excruciating pain.
The lesson I would pass on is that backpack load does matter, and pre-trip conditioning matters even more.
But, not-with-standing the considerable discomfort from my knees; the disappointment of having to abandon our time on the mountain trail, leaving at Sol Duc when our water filter failed and we discovered our backup iodine pills had gone bad; and having my Nikon N8008 quit working due to the rainforest moisture getting into the works through a crack in the body from a previous fall; that trip remains one of my fondest memories of all time. And, yes, before my camera failed (and using my sons rangefinder backup) I have many spectacular Velvia slides of the trail, Mount Olympus, Hoh Lake, black tailed deer, Roosevelt Elk, Hurricane Ridge, and Hole-In-The-Wall, and sea stacks above Rialto Beach.
I love that Park!
Aug 13, 2016 06:59:07 #
I lived in Wash. State for 3 years back when I was in the service. Beautiful and varied topography. Saw your second post first as happens on this site. Very impressive undertaking and a wonderful little travelogue. Thank you for taking us all along. djt 
Aug 13, 2016 08:25:36 #
Aug 14, 2016 09:29:12 #
Aug 14, 2016 09:53:09 #
btbg wrote:
Recently spent a week backpacking in Olympic Natio... (show quote)
Fantastic images!!!!!
Great trip
Aug 14, 2016 13:41:50 #
Enjoyed both sets. I did the Grand Valley to the pass as a dayhike from the Hurricane Ridge access. I was amazed as to how arid that section of the park is due to the rain shadow. From the pass I did an overland cross country jaunt back to the car hiking peaks way above the valley. Could you share how you shot these, esp #2,3,4...it looks like HDR. Doesn't look like jpeg but some other. Thanks
Aug 14, 2016 17:23:06 #
dreff wrote:
Enjoyed both sets. I did the Grand Valley to the pass as a dayhike from the Hurricane Ridge access. I was amazed as to how arid that section of the park is due to the rain shadow. From the pass I did an overland cross country jaunt back to the car hiking peaks way above the valley. Could you share how you shot these, esp #2,3,4...it looks like HDR. Doesn't look like jpeg but some other. Thanks
Everything is shot in raw. A couple of the photos are HDR, because of the depth of the shadows, but the three you pointed out are just raw files that have been processed and then converted to jpeg. I tend to like more color than some people, so although I have the camera set to shoot relatively flat raw files I bump up the clarity, vibrance and slightly bump up the saturation in post processing.
Aug 14, 2016 18:03:45 #
Beautiful set. Thank you for taking all your gear with you and taking these magnificent photos - so I will never have to attempt anything even close to this hike.
Aug 14, 2016 18:30:08 #
Aug 14, 2016 20:12:31 #
Aug 14, 2016 21:59:34 #
These photos are breathtaking, btbg! Kudos to you for hiking that distance with all that equipment!
Aug 16, 2016 22:31:30 #
Good for you! Landscapes are incredible and the wilderness is so amazing! I'm so glad that there are still places like this in this country. Your packs were heavy but,then, nothing to leave behind. Hopefully there was no need to hurry, just enjoy.
Aug 17, 2016 02:28:02 #
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