The Olympics are inclined to have cool temperatures, but the afternoons are warm during occasional spells of hot weather, and at such times the nights may have just a slight breeze or perhaps none at all. When this condition prevails, practical backpackers will arise at dawn, break camp quickly, and accomplish their day’s march during the morning, thus avoiding travel during the heat of the day. They can then enjoy the afternoon warmth instead of arduously toiling up the trail. If the day’s hike is long or involves considerable elevation gain, they may wish to split it, doing the first half in the morning, resting over during the midday hours, then completing the walk in the evening. If, however, their schedule demands that they backpack on a hot afternoon, their rate of travel (particularly uphill) will necessarily be slow. They will need lots of liquid and should halt from time to time and prepare one of the various drinks used by runners.
Generally speaking, one need not carry water when hiking in the Olympics because it is readily available. Exceptions occur, however, and trails that follow ridges are likely to be dry. Accordingly, everyone’s pack should include a water bottle.
The hiker is never far from running water in the Olympics, and rushing streams are legion, but is the water safe to drink? The National Park Service and the US Forest Service advise one to boil or filter the water in order to prevent contracting giardiasis. Numerous hikers will swear they have drunk untreated water from the Olympic streams for many years without ill effects, but giardiasis is a serious health problem. Accordingly, both the National Park Service and the Forest Service recommend boiling or filtering the water to make it safe to drink. Although it is often impractical to boil the water, one can always filter it.
Many excellent campsites are located along the trails, both in the forests and the high meadowlands. Responsible hikers avoid camping within 200 feet of lakes, and they do not disturb the soil and vegetation by ditching around their shelters. They leave a clean camp and an extinguished fire and also pack out all trash that cannot be destroyed by burning. Good campers also use ground cloths beneath or inside tent bottoms to provide protection from the dampness so notorious in the Olympics. Unless the trip is entirely in the lowlands, hikers should carry lightweight backpack stoves and fuel because fires are prohibited in high-country areas. Moreover, in the forest, where they are allowed, fires can be difficult to build and maintain during wet weather, when dry wood is scarce.
CROSS-COUNTRY TRAVEL
When hiking in the Olympics, one should stay on the trails whenever possible. At times, however, certain objectives can be reached only by traveling cross-country—picking out the best route possible, based upon one’s prior experience. This may be in deep forest, in canyons, across meadowland, or upon ridges, peaks, snowfields, or glaciers. On such occasions an ice ax is helpful, provided one knows how to use it. The hiker should also be prepared to travel in all kinds of weather.
The first explorers in the Olympics traveled cross-country because constructed trails were nonexistent. They quickly learned that the best way to traverse rugged terrain was to follow elk trails, and today’s hiker finds this still to be true. The conditions encountered in cross-country travel vary greatly, ranging from easy to difficult. At timberline it is often just a matter of walking across meadowland and through groves of subalpine trees. When attempting to reach a river below, it is usually better to follow down a spur ridge because the streams are likely to be in box canyons. On the ridges the ground is often open beneath the trees, although at lower elevations it is likely to be brushy.
One needs clear, sunny weather when traveling cross-country through rough terrain because route finding is all important. Often, it seems, the fog has a tendency to gather, obscuring the view, just when one needs to see the way ahead. The uncertainties of such travel sometimes make it necessary to bivouac. This can be disconcerting when one is on what was intended to be a day trip and is hiking without tent and sleeping bag. When an unexpected bivouac occurs at high elevation, the hiker is likely to face a long, cold night; if in a place where a campfire is permitted, one can keep reasonably warm but will have to sit around the fire all night. On the other hand, a scheduled bivouac is usually a pleasant experience. Perhaps one wishes to reach a certain destination—a peak or lake—without carrying a full pack, but the distance is too great for a one-day trek. On these occasions the hiker should take along a sleeping bag, ground cloth, bivvy sack, stove, and fuel, in addition to the Ten Essentials (see Before You Go).
HAZARDS
Occasionally, one is amazed at the temerity exhibited by inexperienced hikers with regard to traveling in the Olympics. With little knowledge of what they face, they will start out—often alone and ill-equipped—to walk across the mountains or to seek solitude in remote, almost inaccessible areas. Often they do not understand that it is still winter in the high mountains although on the lowlands the warm sunshine may indicate that spring has arrived. Hardly a year goes by that we do not read or hear of someone getting lost in the mountains and either suffering death or severe injury. As a consequence, most hikers would be well-advised not to travel alone in the Olympics.
Nevertheless, in all honesty I cannot say that it is dangerous to do so—at least during the summer and early fall months when one is less likely to be caught by sudden, unexpected storms. I have done a great deal of hiking alone, and on such occasions I am doubly cautious. However, my personal experience should not be taken by readers as a recommendation that they go on solitary hikes. In this respect, it might be well to point out that during the summer months the main trails—and sometimes the secondary ones—are heavily traveled by lone individuals as well as by parties numbering up to the maximum allowed. At such a time the person who hikes without companions is not really alone.
Wilderness is deceptive, its dangers largely hidden so far as the uninitiated are concerned. Consequently, the hiker who exercises poor judgment—whether through inexperience or imprudence—may suffer serious injury or death due to a mishap. At times even the seasoned backpacker is the victim of carelessness, and lack of knowledge is often responsible for the neophyte wandering into terrain avoided by the sophisticated hiker.
The dangers in the Olympics are many. The rivers that flow swift and cold over boulder-strewn beds are often unsafe to cross. Caution should be exercised when wading or crossing on slippery logs. Other hazards include the tangled windfalls in the forests, impassable canyons, slippery heather, scree slopes, and of course glaciers. The latter are broken by deep crevasses, which are often hidden beneath snow. No one should venture upon them except mountaineers equipped with climbing paraphernalia. Many snowfields are dangerous because they are undermined by streams or lie in avalanche paths. However, the greatest hazard in the Olympics is uncertain weather. Fogs move in rapidly, confusing one’s sense of direction, and sudden storms may bring snow and freezing temperatures to the higher peaks, even in the middle of summer. On clear nights, fog often forms in the river bottoms, covering the lowlands under a dense blanket, but the sun usually breaks through during the morning; thus the afternoons are likely to be clear and warm. But sometimes the fog comes and goes all day, the peaks seldom revealing themselves.
One warning signal should always be heeded. When a well-developed storm moves in from the ocean and dark clouds begin to cascade like waterfalls through the gaps in the ridges, one can expect heavy rain within an hour or two, preceded by strong winds. On the glaciers, where no barriers exist to block the wind, the gusts may be so strong that climbers have to lean against the charge of rain or sleet. Quite often the passage of the front will be followed by several days of unsettled weather, with low clouds drifting about, patches of blue sky, and intermittent precipitation.
THE SEASONS
Most of the hikers and backpackers who go to the Olympic Mountains do so during the warm months, from May through September, when the days are long because of the high latitude. But to really know the Olympics, one must visit them throughout the year because they have moods that vary with the changing seasons. Viewing the peaks when they are softened by summer haze is not enough, because they are equally interesting when shrouded in autumn’s fog banks and winter’s mists, or during