This year I had eleven days of vacation at the end of September. I was anxious to get into the hills, but did not decide where to go until about two weeks prior to the trip. Eventually, I decided to return to the Bailey Range. While the trip Tom and I had done in 2007 was grueling, it was also extremely gratifying. Having seen photos of the area in the fall, I knew it would look considerably different than when we had previously visited.
I began making lists of gear and food I would need to take. I shopped while I was home and began building piles of the gear and food in our house. It looked like a lot of food, but I wanted to be ready for eight days in the hills. Tom and I had used up nearly all of our food on our previous trip, and I wanted not to cut it quite that close.
Rather than do a car shuffle, as we had done before, I chose to enter and exit via the Sol Duc River and the Catwalk. While this would require longer time on tough terrain, I considered it a reasonable trade off.
I got my gear packed and headed north on Monday, the 21st of September. I was on the trail by 11:00am. The weather forecast was for clear skies for at least a week. The sun was shining, though it was cool in the old growth forest.
I quickly made it to Sol Duc Falls. I took a very brief look, then continued up the hill, along the Sol Duc trail. I stopped briefly at Sol Duc Camp 1 for a quick bite to eat. No sooner did I take off my pack, and I heard the bugle of an elk. Very cool! I hoped that I would see plenty of those majestic animals on this trip.
I hiked swiftly in the cool forest air. I reached Bridge Creek and found that the bridge had collapsed. I have a photo of Kevin sitting on this bridge from 2007. Fortunately, the creek was quite small this late in the season, so the bridge was unnecessary.
After crossing the creek, the trail ascends through the lower end of Sol Duc park. Around 4000 feet, near the Sol Duc camp, I met a ranger named Mark. I spoke with him for several minutes. I told him my itinerary and he quickly said he remembered Tom and me from our 2007 outing. I gave him a brief review of that trek, and asked him about conditions on this venture.
I continued up the hill, reaching Heart Lake by mid-afternoon. A few campers were admiring the lake. Some looked as though they had gone swimming. I scanned the hillside for goat, but saw none. There were at least a dozen seen here during our last visit.
A few minutes later I stood on the ridge, High Divide. There was a wonderful view of the lake and Mt. Olympus could be seen through the trees.
Continuing along the ridge I stopped to take a photo of the Bailey Range. While doing so, I heard a sound from below. I looked down to see a bear approaching the pond I was standing near. The bear walked up to the pond, put a couple feet in and slowly moved into the water, sitting down for a minute. He had water up to his shoulders. Apparently, the water felt good, for it was a little warm outside.
A few minutes later I reached the junction to Cat Lake. It was only another three-quarters of a mile to the lake. I hiked through bright red stands of huckleberry to the lake. The color was intense, and there were still berries on the plants, but no bear were seen on the hillside.
The lake was just as I had remembered it. Beautiful! Another couple was camped there. I expected to have the place all to myself. I was curious about their itinerary, for the ranger at the wilderness center told me I would have the lake to myself. Hmmm. I greeted them. They acknowledged my presence, but did not seem interested in conversation, so I kept to myself.
The evening was cool and quiet, except for a small family of ducks. They swam back and forth on the lake, occasionally diving down for food. After the sun set and the sky darkened, the three ducklings could be heard flapping their wings and "running" along the water surface, as if practicing their takeoff for flight. They did this several times. Eventually, they tired of this activity and all was quiet. The ducks were gone by morning.
Morning light on the hills over Cat Lake were just as stunning as they had been in 2008 with Dad. The only thing missing were the foraging black bears. Dad and I had seen several during our two-day stay at this location. I saw none on the slopes. Perhaps it was simply enough later in the season that the berries were tastier elsewhere.
