MUD!
Pictures from trail
Down to the beach
Trail head marker
Saturday at the beach
Petroleum Creek
Sunday at the beach - low tide
After an less than perfect summer, we were blessed with a great ending week. The forecast was for clear skies. I called the kids and told them to pack!
We left early Saturday am for Port Angeles. We needed to stop in at the Wilderness Information Center, pay our overnight fee and borrow a "Bear Can". I had no idea what a Bear can is either, I don't think they existed last time I went backpacking. A Bear Can is a hard plastic canister to store your food in when in Bear country. They say hanging food from a tree limb, like we used to do, is ineffective because of smaller creatures, such as Raccoons, can still get to the food. They advise you to put all food and food waste, into the bear can and place a short distance from your camp site.
Next stop, Neah Bay. Neah bay is only 70 miles from Port Angeles, but the road winds along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and takes close to two hours to make the drive. We arrived at the Makah Museuem. I ran in and paid for our "Tribal Recreational pass". Now we had everything we needed and it was off to the trail head.
We arrived at the trail head. We parked, and got the food packed into the Bear Can. I then left to go park at the overnight parking area. The trail head does not allow overnight parking. I read on the internet that the lot is 1/4 a mile, the Ranger told me 1/8 in a mile. They were both wrong, it was .6 miles. I paid my $10 dollars to the nice native woman to park in her front yard and walked back to the trailhead.
Finally we began our hike... The first mile of the trail is very nice, well maintained with bridges and boardwalks to take you over the wetlands and creeks. The final 2.3 miles was not maintained. It was an old road, and it was very muddy.
We reached the end of the trail. We were not on the beach yet though. We looked to the right and there was the beach, 250 feet down. There was sort of a trail, steep narrow switch backs and a rope to hang on to. We made it down fairly easily, but there was another couple, senior citizens, who decided to turn around.
Once on the beach, we started heading south to find a good spot to make camp. The fog was coming in fast, the sun was gone. We went down the beach about a half mile and set up camp.
After we had our tents up, we walked down the beach. I wanted to see Petroleum Creek. We packed in our water, but if we hadn't, this would have been our water supply. True to its name, the water was very dark.
The fog was really getting thick. We headed back to get the fire going. We made a nice fire and cooked veggie dogs on a stick. S'mores for dessert of course.
The air quality was getting pretty bad, a lot of campfires, heavy fog, no wind. The smoke was just sitting there. Finally, just after sunset, the fog moved out and we had a beautiful, clear night. It was so calm, I lit the emergency candles.
We all went to bed early. The next am, it was sunny and nice. I wished we had another day, but it was time to pack up and go home. We made the hike out very quickly, not worrying about mud or stopping for water.
As far as hikes go, it's not that great, but for camping, this was a spectacular place. Unfortunately, hiking is the only way in. Next I would like to try to come in from Lake Ozette, 13 miles south of our trail head.
