Bailey Range Traverse,  Olympic National Park,  Jul 26, 2007 - Aug 1, 2007     page 43 / 97

We dozed on and off in our lumpy beds that night. The forecast rain came early in the morning in two separate, short showers. I prayed that the rain would not return, which might make the terrain more difficult to travel. We rose around 8:00 or 9:00 AM, ate a little, and packed our gear. We discussed the possible ways to Cream lake and our desired route and decided to return to the poor trail, continue the descent and follow the mud and alders which we had tried to avoid.

In twenty or thirty minutes, we had crossed both gullies, beat our way through the alder and returned to the trail we had left the afternoon before. We headed down the hill, recognizing the path for a short time. The trail descended considerably. By 4200 feet, we had entered small meadows. The trail was lost and regained several times. Sometimes, we had no trail to follow and simply traveled in a southeast direction over the easiest route available, using our compass and GPS as guides.

We found the mud our friend had told us about. Stepping carefully on top of small plants prevented us from sinking too much into the gooey mess. At one point the mud was particularly wet and there were no plants for me to stop upon. I took a step with my right foot and found out just how deep the mud was. I sunk up to the bottom of my thigh! I tried to move and could hardly do so. I was on my left knee, with my hands stretched out reaching for anything solid to grab. I slowly pulled my right leg out. The mud held firm, but I made slow, steady movement. I was lucky to get my leg out with my boot still attached! I wore gaiters and rain pants, so my foot stayed dry throughout the process. The pants were simply a bit messy now. Looking back on it, it was quite amusing. We continued our hike through open meadows now, and then into thin forest. We approached the outlet stream from Lower Cream Lake and followed game trails the remainder of the way to the lake.