Enchanted?

27 miles of river-bottom.

Hiked into Enchanted Valley last weekend.  Everyone was saying it was the wrong time of year; it's wet, the days are short, it's wet....and so on and why on earth would i choose now to do it?

Well, I've wanted to go for years and years and decided that it was silly not to do it and while feeling such, figured I better do it.  There is an old chalet built in 1930 on the Quinault River.  Enchanted Valley, in which the chalet sits, is a glacial valley with waterfalls tumbling down the mountainsides.  The 13.5 miles of trail are pretty dang flat and fairly maneuverable day or night (with proper preparations and precautions for a night jaunt).  That being said, at this time of year, the trees are getting a bit lazy and sprawling about on the trail.  For the most part, it's easy to walk around them - like exhausted teenagers crashed out in the livingroom - though a few places took a little more consideration (especially in the dark).  At one point, some big ol' giants lost their footing and crashed along the trail, removing all trace when viewing the path through the myopic view of a headlamp.  But---trust the elk to lead you back, and there it is; in all its muddy glory.

And that's the other bit; the trail and stream channels are vying for space in areas.  Water takes the easiest path, and well, footpaths make for easy travel.  Again, however, the elk have been fairly courteous in providing trampled paths through the underbrush and dead giants.  It's a good thing elk dropping aren't marbles though; they're to thick to avoid on the trail, and on those hardpacked sections it'd be like those loony-toons; arms and legs flailing wildly down the path.  And one last thing about the elk; they're unnerving to come across at night - hearing the hoofbeats clattering very close by...

All the bridges are in place for the major crossings, save Pyrite Creek.

But then, it's in an alluvial van and significant debris chute, so i imagine the creek has fun playing with the log bridges.  Perhaps moving it up a quarter mile or so...as long as that doesn't anger the creek by taking its toy away...?  Luckily, even this time of year, it wasn't a bad crossing; not even up to my knees; though cold (except forgetting my gater on the rock on the other side while crossing on the way back--going across three times had a bit of a numbing effect).  The camp just looked wet on the far side of the stream, so i continued on to Enchanted Valley.

The trail to the southern end of the valley is pretty eroded after the bridge crossing.  The river's really cutting into it.  At night, this is confusing; by day it makes much more sense.  First thing i saw was the tie-ups (I'm sure they have a snazzier name) for the pack animals and figured i was close; swept the flashlight (switched from the headlamp to the brighter flashlight for the ford at Pyrite Creek) and...Whoa! there it is.  Big ol' three storey wooden building about to topple into the river.

Dripping as it was, i was sorely tempted to just camp out on the porch.  Instead, i used it as basecamp to keep stuff dry as i set up the little pup-tent.  then crawled inside, read a little wordsworth and called it a night...and proceeded to wonder why my bag was so cold....and waited for it to get light...then woke up to see it a tad better in the wee light hours of the early morning.

hunkered in my tent a bit longer as the sky let a bit more light (and rain) through and then got up to explore a bit and grab my food from the bear wire before packing up and heading back.

The chalet is really on the brink.  I don't even know it it will handle the natural erosion rate of the river at base flow, let alone a winter storm event.  it's maybe three feet from the bank now on the back, downstream corner.

Only one blister from the whole 27 miles; outside of the small toe on the left foot.  big ol' blood blister.  However, I will chalk that up to wearing dress shoes all day the day before and then not double-socking for the hike in.  And it didn't really hurt much.  Nor did it need popping.  Granted, it looked like a leach attached to my foot, and now it looks like a flattened leach absorbed itself into my toe..but...ehrm....adds character; right?