Why torture ourselves by backpacking miles in unpredictable weather and challenging landscapes, rational people often ask hikers and backpackers. There is not one definite answer; there are so many reasons, and everyone has different personal ones. For me, I derive energy from the natural world whenever I am in a forest. Additionally, I truly experience living in the moment, all that matters is the next milestone, which path to take, how much water is left, do we have enough food and where is that damn campsite.
Out of mist of rain and dwindling dusk light, the sign board of Lewis Meadows campsite greeted us. We were relived, but immediately, we had to tackle next sets of tasks. Find an empty campsite, set up the tent in the rain, make and eat food, pack food and trash in the bear canister, and find a place to stash it in a secure place at least 50 feet away from our tent.
Once we done all that it was time to tuck in our sleeping bags. Instead of giving to exhaustion and falling sleep, we started worrying about bears and coyotes. Since we had to eat in our tent due to rain and darkness, a strict no-no per the guidelines. We were worried hungry bears in the vicinity looking for some late-night snack might pay us a visit driven by aroma of rehydrated channa masala. Suddenly the night was filled with loud cacophony of animal noises. It took our tired minds some time to realize it was sound of an owl hooting. We laughed it off and fell asleep eventually.
I and Suneet, my friend since college were embarking on a 3-day backpacking in the Hoh rainforest, Olympic National Park. We both were inexperienced backpackers with high degree of over confidence in our ability to walk long miles. We choose Hoh river trail, as it didn’t have challenging elevation and we basically had to walk alongside river so getting access to drinking water was a non-issue. We really hoped that rain, stayed out of the rainforest; which was stupid wish on the hindsight.
Next morning, we actually were pleasantly surprised to see partly sunny morning. We followed babbling sound of the river, and we were greeted with glorious snow-capped mountain vistas. We prepared breakfast (blueberry oat meal) lazily, basking in temperamental sunshine on the river bank. Refilling our water was series of time-consuming steps - boil water on the stove, cool water (we dipped the vessel in cold river water), and fill our bottles with cooled down water. We even moved our tent to a new campsite which had river and mountain views. Our first site was in the meadows, essentially the first empty one which we found as we didn’t have light nor energy to scout good campsite on the previous day.
We were finally ready to start our hike for the day at around 11 am. The second day our backpacks were much lighter (no sleeping bag and no tent). But trail took much more uphill turn this day, it was challenging, but our efforts were rewarded after hard 5 miles of hiking, we reached scenic Elk Lake and had our lunch on its bank. The hike onwards from Elk Lake took us over the tree line and it became even more scenic, as we were finally out of dense canopy of rainforest, and could see splendor Olympic Mountain range. But soon a new challenge awaited us; snowpack. I was sort of prepared for this with my hiking boot and clamps, but Suneet on the other hand deemed it wise to embark on a 35-mile hike with running shoes.
Incidentally this was not the only faux pas Suneet committed while deciding on camping gear. He didn’t bring enough full-length pants, overestimating warmth of Pacific Northwest early summer. So, end result was he was wearing shorts over a full-length leg warmer (ala Superman costume). Most people would have maintained social distance from a person in such attire regardless of their COVID vaccination status.
Soon our feet were constantly immersed in the snow and our socks were wet once again.
We marched along nonetheless. We reached a frozen waterfall, which had potential to be dangerous. We wouldn’t have known it but for a couple who were debating the merits of crossing it. They even threw a large rock at it to see whether that sinks or not. They were exploring other ways to cross it. We threw caution to the wind after seeing a few footprints on the snow crossing the fall and leading to the other side. The cautious couple followed our lead once we reached the other side alive.
The end point for this trail is Blue Glacier, I was pumped and hoped we would be able to touch it. But alas due to Suneet’s scrappy shoes, he was feeling numb in his feet due to all the snow which was sweeping in. We decided to start back, around 1 mile short of our destination.
The journey downhill was fast, especially Suneet literally started running presumably to warm up his feet.
As we neared our campsite for second time, our trail was blocked with couple of elks, they were happily munching on grass. I remembered sign on the trailhead to maintain 30 feet of distance from elks, which meant we had to patiently watch them for 10 mins as they snacked.
The dinner was much more relaxed affair this day, we even indulged in 2 servings of dehydrated food per person, after doing some quick calories calculations.
After dinner we spent time watching clouds; nature’s screensavers. A thick blanket of clouds was constantly creating new unique natural tapestry across the river. It covered and revealed different portions of mountain peaks and forested slopes, which kept our eyes rooted while our mind was frantically trying to capture the scenery in a verse or a poem (Suneet is an amateur poet). We gave up on our creative endeavors and settled on singing old Hindi songs.
After restful night’s sleep, with sounds of raging river blocking other forest sounds in the new campsite; we were ready to head back to the civilization. The third day of the hike presented its own unique challenges. Both pair of socks which I brought were wet and I had to walk sockless. On top of that in one of the streams crossing my shoes got completely wet (yet again). Which meant after couple of miles my feet started blistering and shoes started cutting into back of my ankle. But there is no benefit in dwelling on a problem which we can’t solve. We trudged along and started day dreaming about what we are going to eat once back in the civilization. Eventually, after another 6 hours of hiking, we hit the parking lot. Getting rid of our shoes and back to flip flops allowing our stinky and wet feet to breath was both a blessing and a curse.
But we still had room left for one last adventure. In order to make us “presentable” for our grand dinner plans, we thought we ought to take a dip in a lake. We stopped by Crescent Lake which was on our way back, to do exactly that. We were shaken to our core with the cold water and couldn’t deal with the frigid water for more than a few seconds. But that was enough time to give our sore muscles a soothing ice bath effect; we actually felt energized. But our efforts to make us presentable turned out to be worthless since the restaurant we ended up getting our dinner from had curb side pickup only. We had to eat our food at a waterfront park, where the smell of 3 days of backpacking wouldn’t have been a major concern.
As we started driving back listening to original songs which we were butchering on the trail for the past 3 days; we already started planning our next backpacking trip; sticking to our believes that torturing our bodies nourishes our souls.
