The Kids in Coalpits

Grandpa Tom was up for a visit and Jacqueline had to work. So he and I took the kids out to the Coal Pits Wash area. I wanted to see what Zyla could do on a mostly flat trail. She has never been a very ambitious hiker as there are just so many different things to enjoy and really what is the purpose of going farther anyway. She is seeing new scenery everywhere. I took a risk by only taking the one baby backpack for Conrad. She started out great and even wore her backpack. We were moving along quite well for the first 1/2 mile. Then she got semi-distracted and disinterested.

 That is when I pulled out my secret weapon, some bunny crackers. I kept these in my pocket and Conrad and I led the way. Grandpa was behind her making sure she did not get too far behind. When she would get hungry for bunny crackers, she would suddenly spring ahead and come get one bunny cracker from me out of my pocket. Then it was back to just moseying along until another round of bunny crackers. This kept us moving along. We nearly made it to campsite #6, but at that point we finally got some shade from some rocks near us and decided to pull out Conrad and get a larger snack then bunny crackers. At this point we were a mile and a half in and just hopeful that Zyla could continue it for the next mile and a half back. She did fantastic on the way back. She really got excited about the hills. There really are not many out in the Coalpits area, but Zyla really enjoyed them.
 They were only there when the trail crossed a wash. On the way down, she would hold one of our hands, but on the way up she would want to do it herself. So here was my little girl in a dress scrambling up these steep little hills. It was so cute and it made her daddy pretty proud. We seemed to make good progress all the way back and by lunch time we were out and back to the trailhead. I felt like we had maxed out what Zyla was capable of doing on her own and now it was back home for the afternoon nap.  

Bailey Range: Day 5: Out the Elwha

It was the last day and it had been such a great trip. Never once had we had any issue with the weather except for the mildly intense heat. I couldn't say that we were excited to be done because then it just meant back to responsibilities, well for me at least, but we had to know what was going on with fantasy baseball.
I had a slim lead when we left and I was hoping that I could keep it. The morning started out with a finish of our hot food and then we got the packs loaded for the last trip out. There was a short bit of uphill first that brought us to an incredible view looking back toward the Bailey's. They were not washed out this morning and it was hard to believe that we had spent the week hanging out in those amazing mountains. It was time to leave, though so we bid adieu. Then it was a seemingly endless amount of switchbacks downhill. This would be quite the workout to come up this hill. Right now, though it was just a constant down turning right then left.

 Then eventually we reached the Elwha River. We were somewhat excited to see our first group of people here. They were some middle aged ladies out for an afternoon hike. We began seeing more and more people as we crossed the bridge. One guy knew that we had come from the Bailey's and asked how Cream Lake was doing. He was in his 70's and looked as if he longed to be in our shoes for the past couple of days. I could understand if he had been out there a few times. We went through the endless signs and junctions of the Elwha until we made it back to the trailhead with a 14 mile day behind us. We were happy to be back to the car and I still held my slim lead in fantasy baseball. It would be nice to fly back to my family, but there is no beating the wilderness of the Olympic Mountains during a perfect week in the month of September.

Bailey Range: Day 4: Crisler's Ladder

Day four had arrived and this one was going to be a big one. We would have to go over a mountain and down another to reach a place where we could then traverse over to the old trail. Sounds simple enough. We began our hike at dawn going past the lake with floating bergs and then up the slopes of Mt. Ferry. Both Dad and I picked different directions to go up the mountain, but each led to a ridge that we followed over. We had to think about it a bit, but the easiest way definitely was the right way and the path that we were taking put us right below the summit.

 We wandered on over to the top of the mountain. I thought I was going to get a few more summits on this trip, but it still felt good to be on top of Mr. Ferry. The rock was incredibly jagged and thin. It did not give me much confidence as to its stability. After topping out, we now had to figure out how to get off the other side of the mountain. No options looked good, but we did find the semi-remnants of an old cairn. I looked down from there and did not think it could be right. Dad didn't either, but he found another way that he thought was right. It wasn't and despite my warnings about trudging out into the unknown, he seemed to have no problem giving it a try.

I went to the other side to see where he was going and he was sliding down a path to nowhere. He finally listened to me and came back up, but it could have turned out worse. When he got back up, we went back to the cairn and this time it was my turn to give something a shot. I could look down and see that this was the right way to go as soon as I committed. The problem was that it sure didn't feel right. I got myself committed and eventually saw myself side stepping over to a rocky spot with my body nearly vertically into the semi-sandy steep slope. I made it down, but if I would have got any momentum it could have been easy to slip and get myself injured or worse.

 Dad seemed to pick a better path down the steep drop off and then we were back on the path of use for the time being. This led us first down, down, down until we started to climb up. It seemed like an excessive amount of time that we were on this ridge heading toward Mt. Ludden. It honestly felt like it would be easy to just scramble to the top of Mt. Ludden, but Dad said the route was actually from the saddle between Scott and Ludden below. Eventually the path hit a place where going up was not possible anymore and this was the spot it started dropping steeply down to the saddle.

We had to get off the path at one point and just follow a ridge down to the trail. I beat Dad down, but he joined me eventually where we got water and lunch from this beautiful open meadow with water flowing through it. This was not our destination for the day, though and after lunch it was back to hiking again. We were first descending off the saddle and then traversing over to what would be called Crisler's Ladder, a very steep bunch of roots that descended into a gully. This was the first time on the trip that it seemed Dad had slowed us down being in his 60's. He truly is in excellent shape to be able to do such a challenging hike at his age. The heat was getting to him a bit, though, and I could understand as he had not spent the whole summer hiking in 100 degree heat like I had. We kept moving though and the drop offs here made me slightly nervous, though there was good vegetation everywhere. Eventually we were at Crisler's Ladder.

We just handed packs down and then made the down climb without any issue. This put us in a gully that dropped steeply away for who know how many hundreds or thousands of feet. We got some water and snacks here. Then it was up and nearly straight up. This was definitely the steepest part of the entire trip. We followed a trail for some of it, but then it split in different directions and we questioned our decision. I was moving along great, but Dad was going slow, so I should have found the way, but I didn't. I froze at a particular spot not knowing how to manage it with a full pack. Dad caught me and gave it a try. It worked and so I hesitantly followed him and to my surprise, it landed us on the old trail from Dodger Point. At one point, there were grand ideas of connecting the high divide with Dodger Point. It was never finished, though.

This one was truly blasted out of the walls, because it really hugged them closely. It was still very exposed as there had been many rockfalls on this trail. It seemed like a long duration of time before we finally hit good trail and our first sign in days. We soon set up camp and the bugs were pretty bad. We hung out for a while, played cribbage, and ate dinner. After dinner, I decided to make a quick hike to the top of Dodger Point. It was sure nice to be on good trail as I felt like I flew to the top of the point and then back down. Up on top was a lookout and some washed out views of the surrounding peaks. Compared to the views we had for the past 3 days, being on Dodger Point gave a great view of the forests, but not of the peaks. Then it was back to camp to get some rest to prepare for the long hike out on good trail.