So…my plans and goal to hike the Olympic Traverse has shortened, by 63.2 miles to a 45.5 mile different but similar hike due to changed circumstances. A friend whom I’ve mentioned before on this blog in “Ryan ALONE Wouldn’t Stop Beaching“, has moved from New York City to Seattle. With this friend so close to Olympic National Park, he took more of an interest in the hike and contacted me. To get a gauge to determine desirability of this trip with friends we setup a Zoom with pretty much everyone who attended our last big backpacking trip in the post I had just mentioned, plus two others, where we learned that the group wanted something a bit less rugged and more vacationy. From there this friend and I went back and forth planning and putting together logistics.
It was good this friend had contacted me when he did about his interest in the trip because it turns out that in order to backpack and camp in Olympic National Park, you need to not only know your party’s size in advance, but reserve each individual campsite, meaning you need to know the exact route that you plan to take. Upon gathering information in a call our friend made to a ranger station in the park, we learned that it wasn’t that camping reservations had not started yet, but that all of the campsites in the area we were interested in had already been booked for our selected dates. Without releasing exact dates, we had to push our trip back two weeks just to do the same trek and unfortunately, still we were not able to get the camp sites we initially wanted. Some of the camp sites we were considering, to our surprise had already been booked for the entire Summer.
Camp sites, were not the only thing scarce. Since this is more of a chill, vacation vibe sort of backpacking trip, the first half of the trip is backpacking and the second half is hanging out. In order to hang out we needed a place to stay. We eventually found a place, but if we had waited even a single week later with all of our options in the single digits, I don’t think we would have been so lucky.
With most of the logistics planned and plane tickets purchased 🤑, I can finally say this trip to put simply, has me giddy to reflect my high anticipation for this trip. With our set route we will be backpacking through a lush mossy rain forest, up to the higher elevations 🏔 with the lakes🌅, meadows🌾, more trees🌲🌳, & wildlife 🐻🦌, back down to a waterfall💦, back up over a pass, and past some natural hot springs! ♨ Rain 🌧 or shine 🌞 this is going to be a dope 🍑 hike! 🤙🏻 Even better, I’ll be surrounded by some of my closest friends. 🔥 Afterward, to rest, we found an Airbnb to address those needs with a sauna and hot tub. 🙌🏻
For those of you reading along, I’ll be sure to capture at least the first half of the trip. For the second half, I want to focus more on being in the present with my friends. I plan to be present on the backpacking portion, but not to the same degree so I can do what I do best and capture those insanely awesome shots!
This blog post is a little off beat from my usually destination oriented blog posts, but I’m excited about this and I wanted to share! 😁😃😋 In a later post, after the trip, I’ll be sure to post the details and the actuals! Thanks for reading! 📖
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