With rain forecast for most of Western Washington today, up to 7000 ft, we decided to head out to Washington's rain shadow: Sequim. It was raining until we pulled off onto Louella Road, we were rewarded with clouds parting and a glimpse of the Olympic Mountains.
As we continued up on Forest Road 2880 we saw lots of blue sky and more views of the mountains. We also saw a
fisher run across the dirt road, this is the first time I've seen one in the wild.
I was surprised to see snow at 2500 ft, there was quite a bit in the parking lot. We had left our snowshoes at home, so we only made a 5.2 mile round trip with 500 ft elevation gain. We didn't see any people prints on the trail, so it looks like no one has been one the trail since the last snow storm. We saw lots of animal prints: deer, wild cat and a smaller print I hadn't seen before, maybe the fisher?
There were lots of streams crossing the trail, as the snow is melting.
At one mile we crossed Royal Creek on this log bridge as we continued up the Dungeness River.
As the trail continued in the forest, the snow got a bit deeper, and we ran into several places where the trail was a creek. We went off trail onto the snow when the water was deep.
We were rewarded with our efforts, when the sun came over the ridge and brightened our path.
At 2.6 miles another log bridge crosses the Dungeness River and continues on to Camp Handy (another 0.8 miles) and after that you can choose to hike out to Heather Creek (another 3+ miles) or up to Boulder Camp (another 3 miles and 1800 ft elevation gain) and even further to Marmot Pass and beyond.
We found a place in the sun to eat our lunch and decided to head back. The log looked slippery, the river deep and flowing fast. I didn't want to risk falling in.
Heading back to the trailhead, clear view across the river and a view of one of the Olympic peaks.
We saw some type of a monotrope, pine drops maybe? Maybe spring will be here soon.
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