Sol Duc to Bogachiel Day 1 (July 4th 2009)

Monika and I left early in the morning after splitting a stack of pancakes and a pound of bacon. As usual the drive to the trail head took longer then we’d like, but we still started off by noon. The first half mile was littered with day hikers and tourists out to take photographs of the easily accessible Sol Duc waterfall. Just after the falls the trail became suddenly narrow, less maintained and empty… Success! There was a constant sound of running water and sights of mushrooms as we steadily gained elevation. After about three miles and a 1000’ ft. we stopped for lunch at Deer Lake. This is where we discovered the amazement of Skagit River Valley ham nuggets!

From there we headed towards our camp for the night. With plenty of light left we pitched our tent, ditched some of our load and continued on to the Seven Lakes Basin via the Little Divide Trail. Towards the top we had the splendid opportunity to hike in 80 degree weather in the snow, it was awesome! The alpine trees had that wonderful Dr. Seuss quality to them, contorting and bending into dreamlike corkscrew shapes. As we crossed the ridge we noted the change in North vs. South facing slopes. From snow and stunted trees we entered a world of warmth and wild flowers. Pictures don’t do the meadows justice.
When we got to the edge of the Seven Lakes Basin we were breath taken.


The trail down was long winding snow covered steps cut into the rock. It seemed fairly possible that one wrong step and I could easily slide/fall the few hundred feet to the half frozen lake below… but I didn’t. At the bottom we met a ranger, not chisel jawed with a badge but covered in tattoos with facial piercings (oh how I love the North West). We had our second lunch at the edge of the frozen lake seen in the photo and pumped water streaming from the lake (it was delicious!). We made it back to camp just in time for sunset, made some organic man n cheese and passed out.