A 3-day backpacking trip. This is by far my favorite outing this year: amazing views, incredible flower both in quantity and variety, fun scramble.
I had been checking the availability of wilderness permit in Grand Valley for months.
Was there once, in Aug 2008.
Was very impressed with the profusion of elephant heads and lupine in Badger Valley, and the deer at camp.
As soon as I saw a Saturday night openning, I snatched it.
When I printed the permit, I also printed a map of camp sites provided with the permit.
The 3 lakes in Grand Valley have bear wires, so no need to carry a bear can.
7/12, Saturday, a cool morning ferry ride Edmonds -> Kingston.
Drove to Hurricane Ridge, and onto the unpaved 8 mile road to Obstruction Point.
The parking lot was full. Parked on the road.
Saw many harebell here. We started hiking shortly after 11am, armed with bug juice.
There are multiple trails starting from here. Most people went south. We took the one down to Badger Valley.
Along the way, from dry loose slope gradually to verdant creek and flower fields.
Quite some flowers in both habitats, a few are rare.
Higher drier slopes have: yet-to-bloom
Olympic Kittentail, bright pink
Smooth Douglasia,
Lomatium Martindalei.
Met one couple coming out, and 2 day hikers going in.
As we went down, more vetch, some elephant heads, speedwell, harebell, bistort, a few remaining avalanche lily. Especially vetch, covering slopes like pink carpets.
Further down, a large patch of columbine with cows parsnip, and then, an entirely slope filled with millions of tiger lily, a lot of bog orchid too.
Amazing, I've never seen this many tiger lilies. That made my day.
The trail then goes down into woods. More bugs.
Cross Badger Creek, more than 2000' below the TH.
Saw some
mountainbell.
Turn south, slowly gaining elevation.
Cross Grand Creek.
We were thankful for the shade, as it was getting hot on this sunny afternoon.
~500' later, emerged from the woods.
More meadows and flowers: columbine, cow parsnip, arnica...
Finally reached Grand Lake, the largest of the 3 lakes in Grand Valley.
Pretty. The north part of the lake where we first hit the shore is shallow and a lot of algea and moss in the water.
Walked to the south side, looking for a spot to swim.
The bottom of the water is murky, as soon as you step in. Had to wait for the sediment to sink. Then the water looks clear. Water is cold, refreshing.
A lot of willow on the shore.
Going up for ~200' on a flowering slope. A lot of tiger lily here too.
Saw some white rhododendrons.
Hit the trail junction: north (right) towards TH, south (left) to Moose Lake, our permit for tonight.
The first and 2nd camp sites we came across are higher, very good view of the lake.
We picked a large site close to the lake in a large flat meadow.
It's very warm, didn't bother with the rain fly.
Fancy compost toilet up a short but steep trail, a clever sign to toggle "in use".
Cable bear wire.
Later, a family with kids came by looking for camp site.
The nice one next to ours was taken when we arrived. No one else.
I showed the mother my printed camp map. She said too many mosquitos in the woods.
Not bad out in the open.
While my partner braved mosquitoes fishing, I walked around looking for flowers.
Found
olympic onion,
butterwort,
thread-leaf sandwort,
alpine willowherb,
fan-leaf cinquefoil,
early blue violet, shooting star.
As the sun dipped low, more and more bugs. Put on headnet at dinner time.
Deer came, their tails swishing and swatting, apparently also bothered by the bugs.
The night wasn't dark enough for stars.
7/13, Sunday, hot.
3 deer came by our camp early morning.
Packed up, moved to Gladys Lake, where my permit is for.
Pitched the tent on a little rock butte above the lake (circled on the camp map).
Nice flat rocks for seat and table. Water is a bit shallow here. Fetch water at the lake's outlet.
Buggy in the trees.
Only ~9am, already too warm. Will be upper 80°Fs today.
I packed a day pack, heading out to Low Pass to check out my planned return route via Lillian Ridge.
Continued on the trail south, passing some creek and another pond. It's quite pretty. Lots of bistort, and heather.
Then the trail bifurcates. The left goes up to Grand Pass, the left to Low Pass with is, yes, lower.
The trail all the way is in good shape, without snow.
Here, I met 3 backpackers coming my way.
The old guy said that he saw a young black bear for a couple of minutes early in the morning.
I inquired the trail condition along Lillian Ridge. The girl said it was chill.
Looking down from here to Gladys Lake, I could see that the lake has a deeper half more south.
Once at Low Pass, the view to the east opens up.
I scouted a route south along the ridge to loop back to Grand Pass, couldn't find anything obvious.
Going up/down Grand Pass looks too snowy.
The trail north along Lillian Ridge looks well defined, even though nothing marked on Gaia, and it was dot-dot on Caltopo.
Saw
cutleaf daisy, Olympic kittentail, sickletop lousewort growing in the rocks.
I decided to head over to McCartney Peak.
This means going down to Lillian River.
It was a boulder+scree field first, somewhat steep. However, a use trail was mostly easy to follow, left (south) and down.
Saw
Olympic larkspur in the rocks.
The lower slope is covered with flowers, one section is a carpet of red columbine.
At the river, unable to cross. I almost turned around. A lot of avalanche lily. No more trail.
Followed the river upsteam towards the "lake" more east on the map.
It's just a tiny creek in a flat meadow. Walked across this "lake".
Continue south towards the headwater of Lillian River, now gaining elevation.
Scaled a heather filled slope above a waterfall.
Then over some morrain, following the water.
Another waterfall or 2 later, reached a lovely alpine basin, with 4 blue tarns.
Put on microspikes, ice axe in hand (not necessary), trudged on snow (good condition).
Reached the saddle. ~2:30pm.
Now it's straightforward. Easy scramble to right (north). As I got higher, I could see Baker.
15 minutes later, I was at the summit of McCartney.
Looking down NW, I could see 2 more blue lakes. Fantastic view all around.
After snapping a few photos, I returned to the saddle, intending to scramble the long jagged ridge to Grand Pass.
Continued on the ridge, climbed up that peak. Coming down is not pretty. Contemplating giving up.
At the bottom of the east slope of this peak, saw
Olympic bellflower in the crack of rocks.
A good sign, I continued.
However, after ~an hour of struggle over steep scree and unstable rocks, lost my trekking pole, I gave up
Scrambled back to the saddle. I glissaded 2 short sections in the snow.
A few minutes later when I wanted to check my position, I realized that I lost my phone.
Trudged back uphill to look for it, angry with myself. Thankfully, I found the phone by my higher butt track.
By then, it was already 7pm.
Instead off dropping down to the river basin, I kept traversing the slope higher, seemingly some track when I looked earlier.
No consistent track. I don't think it saved me any time.
When I reached Low Pass, it was 9pm!
Gladys Lake basin glowed under the setting sun.
My partner caught a fish while I was struggling on the loose scree.
As soon as I returned to the camp, I ate the cooked mashed potato with fish.
Very buggy, even though it was so late.
The pot was difficult to clean when cold.
After washing up, I felt asleep quickly, very tired.
7/14, Monday. Not as hot. High 70°Fs.
Packed up early to take advantage of the cool morning temperature.
We started hiking before 6:30am.
Going up to Low Pass, turn north on to the Lillian Ridge.
Scrambled over the first peak, there, we found a girl reading. Very surprised.
The north side of this little peak is rather flat. Her friend was still in the tent.
Snow was still lingering on the east side of the ridge.
That's a good idea, so not to be limited to the quota of camping permit in Grand Valley.
I inquired the trail going forward, and was told okay.
Good view north towards Grand Pass Peak and McCartney.
An easy flat ridge walk later, time to go up
Moose Peak (opposite direction as described on this web page, as we were going towards Obstruction Point).
Along the way, saw
Larsen's Collomia!
There are also quite some shruby cinquefoil, and buckwheat.
This is scree slope. But gentle, so fairly easy.
The summit of Moose offers fantastic view.
Only 8am. Took a long break.
Looking ahead (north), I don't like what I see. Had to traverse a loose slope, and cross this jaggard ridge.
It turns out not too bad.
We dropped lower than the track I downloaded on my phone, because the lower traverse is less steep and better (more trodden) track.
Just need to regain more elevation, when crossing the ridge.
There was a clear track to follow through the crags. A fun scramble here.
Saw quite a few Olympic Larkspur along the traverse here.
Took another break at Peak6529.
Soon, we can see the north end of Lillian Ridge, and the trail junction with Grand Valley Trail.
Along the way, saw some more Olympic Bellflowers.
At the junction, a sign of "Trail" pointing to the east. More hikers.
Continued west on Grand Valley tail back to the parking lot.
Saw quite some glacier lily.
Still many cars in the parking lot, consider it was a Monday.
Saw a lady on crutches and a "service dog".
Pets are not allowed on national park trails.
11am back to the car.
On the drive down from Hurricane Ridge, saw a
Hurricane Ridge bus going up.
Checked its schedule: May to Sept, daily, 8am - 4pm hourly going up, 9am - 5:30pm hourly coming down to Port Angeles.
After a gas stop in east Port Angeles, we took the same ferry back.
All pretty smooth. Not yet hot.
For 4 days (Thur-Sun), public was invited to the ship tour during the fleet-week, at US Coast Guard base at Pier 46.
I walked from Bainbridge Island ferry south between 2 fences. It was about a mile south of Bainbridge Ferry.
Even after I saw Pier 46 sign, the entrance was still farther south. A very large area.
The coast guard let us sit inside its helicopter. This one is based in North Bend (Coos Bay), OR.
Many booths, encourage you to enlist, trying out rifles, ...
Not a bad turnout. The tour of each ship needs to wait. They process us by batches.
Photos are allowed only on deck.
USS Jack H Lucas, named after Jack H. Lucas, who served in the U.S. Marines at Iwo Jima and survived after jumping on to a grenade.
The ship was built in Mississippi, and was commissioned in 2023.
Based in San Diego.
The ship is 509 feet in length and has a crew of 359 enlisted Sailors, 27 Chief Petty Officers and 41 officers.
The USS Jack H. Lucas is the Navy’s first Flight 3 Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer.
USS Somerset (Wikipedia),
named for Somerset County, in honor of the 40 passengers and crew who gave their lives on United Airlines Flight 93 at 911, whose names are engraved on the ship.
The ship is 684 feet in length and has a crew of 699 Sailors.
It is an San_Antonio-class amphibious transport dock.
2 helicopters on deck, one is manned by 4 guys, one by 2 (one lady).
Many trucks in its bowel, a canon too.
