Yes, yes, it has been too long. Believe it or not, I have been hiking, camping, and generally enjoying the outdoors these last few months. Most of it has been in national parks, though, which seriously interfered with my plan to gather more post material.
 |
| Hello, Mt. Olympus. |
This is not to say we haven't been exploring some wild areas. In September, Wet Boots and I embarked in our first off-trail** backpacking trip through Cat Creek Basin in the wilds of Olympic National Park. It was an amazing, exhausting, overwhelming experience under the near-constant shadow of Mt. Olympus. We went over pass after pass without seeing any sign of human civilization. I took my first fall on a slope (not recommended). We did our first unguided snow traverse. We had to turn back before reaching our planned destination for the night due to "trail" conditions (more like, lack of a trail). And we got chased off a campsite by mountain goats.
 |
| At the beginning of our adventure |
Given our many adventures on the hike, I'm not going to give a detailed review of the traverse. Suffice it to say that
experienced hikers only should attempt the trip from Appleton Pass to Boston Charlie's Camp at the base of Mt. Carrie via the Cat Creek way trail, and only in good conditions.
More trail reviews to come in the new few weeks, though. Promise. In the mean time, here are a few more shots from the trip.
 |
| Trail? Trail?! Where did you go?! |
 |
| I may or may not have scooted down part of this on my derriere. |
|
 |
| Views from one of the several passes we crossed. |
** "Off-trail" means we were on a primitive trail, not a maintained NPS trail. It makes you appreciate the excellent work of the NPS and trail crews everywhere.
***
