The path to Home Sweet Home

Mark H. & I had planned to hike to Fryingpan Loop (5200' elevation) near White Pass.  The weather forecast:  snow.  We agreed to consider another destination.  At an elevation many thousand feet lower, the trail to Camp Pleasant (1600') & Home Sweet Home drew us in.  The weather forecast for that area included a chance of rain hiking in, clear the next day & rain hiking out.

We drove to the Staircase entrance of Olympic National Park (elevation 800').  We saw but one human in the parking area.  She came from Australia via Portland.  Blah, blah, motor home talk, blah, blah.  I reminded Mark that a very long time ago he'd asked me to shoot him if he ever bought a motor home--he bought one.  I didn't feel I could fulfill that ancient request--another will have to take my place..

We ascended the wet trail along the North Fork Skokomish River, passing Slide camp (no facilities), the junction to Flapjack Lakes, Spike Camp (with full facilities=a bear wire and privy), Big Log Camp and finally Camp Pleasant (full facilities).  Seven miles.  We saw one day hiker.  We collected wood for a fire and Mark labored over it, and the wood, though wet burned just well enough to take the bite out of the cold draft that had slithered down the river valley.

Pensive Mark

Mark, Triumphant after making all the camp furniture with a few deft strokes of his knife.

Mark, disguised as himself

The next day we day hiked further along the trail toward Home Sweet Home, reaching Nine Stream and Two Bear camps.  The latter, at 3600' marked our turnaround point.  Ten miles round trip.  Home Sweet Home will wait for another trip.  The wet landscape fostered a fungal heaven of wonder of amazing colors shapes, etc.  A few blueberries still hung on twigs. 

 One backpacker came down from Home Sweet Home.  The sun poked through the clouds several times during the day, before moving on to another galaxy.  Sheets of clouds filtered much of the light, and gifted us baby raindrops.  Again, we collected wood, ignited it and with some three inch thick pieces of freshly split wood left by previous campers, we soon had an exceptional fire for a forest that had rained a week straight.  Sprinkles of rain resumed after we went to our tents.

I enjoyed hearing the stories Mark told while hiking, about his Boy Scout days, previous jobs, toys he has at home, toys he wants, toys he despises, etc.  Mark's sharp eyes on the landscape brought my attention to things I'd have just walked over.  I photographed most of the little gems he found, but missed a few, such as the ghost mushrooms, a pure white gem that occurs uncommonly (to me).

The next morning the rain continued mild but constant, impelling us to break camp without a hot meal.  Mark's tent soaked up a pound or two of water.

Eight Stream

A very good trip not ruined by rain or cold.

Re:  hanging food against bear forays.  We saw wires and cables at all camps except Slide Camp.  Don't bring a bear canister, unless you want to camp elsewhere.

Above, amateur video produced on the North Fork Skokomish River.

The following paragraphs have nothing to do with the trip--they're about the gear.
Mark's cool toys:

MSR Twin Sisters tent

1. an early version of the MSR Twin Sisters tent, a multi sided fly-only-bring-your-own-groundsheet home with no mosquito netting, two small vents and a very sticky water proofing coat which we treated with talc 5 days earlier.  Trekking poles held the thing up--the newer tent includes two poles.  Mark's tent looked awkward inside with the two supports right in the midline--picture a twin bed with two poles right in the middle where your chest and knees go.  Interior space improved some when pitched using a cord run through the loops at each peak, and each end of the cord tied to a tree.  I correctly predicted severe condensation on the walls.  Maybe it does better at high altitude.
2. A Jet Boil stove (maybe 15 oz. for stove with pot, lid & small bowl)..It has welded to the bottom of the pot a corrugated ribbon of aluminum that surrounds the stove burner when in use.

   

   Jet Boil stove.  Right:  A view of the pot's bottom.

   The aluminum ribbon so effectively redirects to the pot the heat normally lost to the sides, that I could hold my hand right next to the bottom of the pot and feel only a hint of warmth.  I estimate that it burns 4 or 5 gm of fuel to bring 2 cups of water to a rolling boil, based on the 6 grams my canister stove burns.   A 7 oz fuel canister containing 110 gm fuel came along. Total weight: about 22 oz.
3. A remarkable eye for observing details in every direction as well as the knowledge to interpret the sights.
4. a Pentax Optio WP with a mini tripod.  An early-days-of-digital treasure with a cool nano tripod attached.

   

   Mark pushes his Pentax up against the ropes

5. A Marmot Hydrogen sleeping bag that works down to 30 degrees F, but if the bag rolls with the sleeper when going from back-sleeping to side-sleeping, his backside chills.  Owners of the bag do better to roll inside the bag, instead.

My toys:

1. my Six moon Designs Lunar Solo tent. Moderate amounts of moisture collected on the walls the first night with the front flaps closed but open flaps effectively reduced wetting the second night.

   

   Lunar Solo
   

   
   

2. A 0.25 oz alcohol stove made from a small cat food can with a 0.7 oz. foil windscreen.  Fuel for four 30 ml burns and fuel bottle added 4 oz.  Waterproof matches maybe 0.3 oz   Pot cozy 1.6 oz.  5 oz saucepan. Total under 12 oz.  The stove performed well.

   

   Above: alcohol stoves from cat food cans
3. A rain skirt and rain legs instead of rain pants.  Goretex gaiters also came along for a side by side comparison with the rain legs.  The rain skirt permitted transpired moisture to dissipate unlike Mark's rain pants which he doffed after hiking 15 minutes.  I wore my rain skirt, one gaiter and one rain leg all the way back to the car.  The rain leg did as well as the gaiter, but without the weight--it had no strap to keep them under the instep of my shoes, but still stayed over the tops of my trail shoes.
4.  With the GoLite Chrome Dome umbrella I could hike in a wool t-shirt & arm warmers, with my raincoat in my pack--no clammy condensation as with a rain jacket.  My low profile Ray Jardine pack helped with dome clearance.
5. A hastily sewn pack cover kept the pack from getting wet in the rain.  The umbrella shunted rainwater away from my back, eliminating water dripping down my back.
6. A 2.5" thick REI Flash air mattress with Primaloft insulation--warm and comfortable.
7. An Alpine sleeping quilt from a Ray Jardine kit.  Warm, but each position shift required some fuss to eliminate drafts.  That's probably good, so that I stay alert for Bears, snakes, elephants, pterodactyls, etc.
8. Waxed paper towel fire starter.  Great stuff, both nights.  We found dry wood under large logs, piles of pine needles next to large trees.  Laying small sticks in a log cabin pattern worked to keep a fire going.
9. A 2 oz LifeStraw water filter.  No waiting, no pumping.  After priming the filter with a good suck it worked well.

   

   The LifeStraw at work in the third world --Sub-Saharan Africa, not America's Deep South.

10. A too-small 8 oz. cup for tea, etc. A 12 oz Coleman polypropylene cup with marks every 1/4 cup from Walmart will replace it.