There are a couple things my brothers and I try and do each year - get together and go snowboarding a couple of times each winter and go backpacking at least once every summer. My brother Colin usually takes a pass on these things, being a family man and all, and this year my brother Jason was busy getting ready to go on his big ocean voyage.
That left yougest brother Trevor and I to maintain the tradition. We hiked along the ocean last year, this year we decided to head back into the mountains. We ended up choosing to take the Graves Creek trail and then turn off and head up to Lake Sundown. Since its a bit of a drive to get to the trailhead by Lake Quinault we took off Thursday evening after a brief false start involving forgotten hiking boots to spend the night in Aberdeen before heading out first thing in the morning.
Now, Trevor had been gracious enough to handle the accommodations part of our trip. Being even more of a cheepskate than I, he choose Grey’s Hostel at $20 for a single private room with shared bathroom. Now, at that price (and given Trevor’s dodgy reservation phone call - a story you’ll have to ask him about) our expectations were pretty low but I can’t say we were really prepared for what we found when we got there. You get there and there is a single door on the street and a video buzzer you need to use to call to get the manager to let you in. Turns out the owner has modified a wing of an ultra-low rent apartment building into a hostel. You go up several flights of stairs covered in dilapidated, taped up carpeting to get through the dimly lit apartment section to the hostel section. Words fail me when trying to accurately describe the smell, but if forced I would say it had notes of smoke, urine, and musty abandoned house. The hostel section is definitely nicer, nice enough that they lock the adjoining door to the apartment wing at 10PM.
For all the forbidding ambiance the manager (Mike?) was a really nice guy, the rooms were actually really clean even if the place was in poor shape, and our stay uneventful except for the drunk who wouldn’t stop shouting from the street below once we went to bed. We headed out first thing in the morning to swing by the ranger station on the way to the trailhead.
At the ranger station we found out to our dismay that there was a much easier route up to the lake that our guidebook had failed to mention and that there was 16 people already registered to stay up there. So much for trying to choose a little harder route to buy us a bit more seclusion. The ranger couldn’t suggest a backup destination so decided to go for it anyways.
I had hoped that the last several weeks I had spent biking to work would have helped whip me in shape for our trip. I was sadly mistaken. 3275ft net elevation gain over 8 miles kicked my ass big time. It was the last mile or so that really did me in, where you gain about 1000ft of elevation.
Once up at the lake we were surprised to find that we had beat everyone else up and had the place to ourselves. Well, to be more accurate it was us and the flies. Zillions and zillions of flies. We ended up retreating into the tent until it cooled down a bit and the onslaught abated.
I did a bit better on the way back down, but it was (literally) painfully obvious that Trevor was in much better shape than his elder brother - a fact he had no problems verbalizing. We ran into some fresh bear tracks and scat that were not there the day before, but no bear.
We stayed at some interesting places, saw some beautiful sights, and I am now so sore that when I walk its best described as a hobble. All in all, a pretty good trip.
Pictures can be found at on my flickr page.