La Push to Oil City!

This is going to be a long one, but no one is forcing you to read!

A couple of my cousins and I started planning a sweet backpacking trip about six months ago where we were going to navigate and hike across Washington's Alpine Wilderness Area. Unfortunately, the whole area was completely snowed in so we had to change our plans (Note: we actually might have still done the hike in the snow but couldn't have done it in 3 days as we had originally planned). So... we decided to hike the western coast of the Olympic Peninsula instead. We began our hike in La Push and made our way down the coast to Oil City (for those of you who are familiar with Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, this stretch of forest is werewolf territory). For those of you who aren't familiar with the area, the Olympic National Forest is actually a rainforest and is therefore extremely dense and intensely green.

DAY 1:

After checking in at the Ranger Station in Forks and picking up some bear canisters (to protect our food from bears and other wildlife), we drove to La Push and were off!

I didn't get a picture of us all before we left, but here are some pictures of the four of us on the first leg of the hike:

From left to right: My cousin Zac, Zac's friend Mike, my cousin Ben

Me

After hiking through the rainforest for a bit (maybe 2 miles?) we arrived at the beachhead and made our way south. The coastline was beautiful with lots of big rocks out in the water like on the Oregon coast. However, unlike the Oregon Coast, the water was crystal clear with a blueish tone that kind of resembled the tropics.


As we made our way down the coast we sometimes came to impassable points on the coastline (labeled "never round" on the map) that we would have to detour around. Often this required us to climb up and over some kind of cliff. Fortunately, most of them had ropes anchored at the top and some even had ladders or stairs.

Luckily, we had an endless supply of beef jerky to keep us going since Mike works for Oberto!


Then back down!

Although we did bring tents to sleep in, we decided to sleep out on the beach the first night. Soon after choosing a spot to camp, Ben and Mike fired up the camp stoves and Zac and I went to pump water out of this little nasty looking creek. Afterwards, we had dinner and went to check out some sweet tide pools. While at the tide pools we tried to make it out to some little islands just off the coast but the tide was already too high (Ben and Zac tried to wade out to the islands but only made if a few feet out because the water was too cold--I thought about joining them but was too lazy to take off my boots and roll up my pants). So... we returned to our campsite, built a fire, and just kind of hung out for the rest of the evening.

DAY 2:

In the morning we ate breakfast,

then set out to explore the little islands that we had tried to check out the night before. The water was just low enough to make it to the islands and Zac set a timer on his watch so that we wouldn't lose track of time and get stuck out there.




Then, shortly before leaving camp, I set out to find a latrine that was supposedly near our campsite. So, after climbing up a muddy, overgrown trail, this is what I found (notice the caved-in floor!):

Luckily, it had a great view...


Which inspired deep thoughts!

And after much work...
we were back on our way (disclaimer: this is only a dramatization).

This stretch of trail brought new obstacles,

new views,
and new challenges.

Nevertheless, we made pretty good time to our next campsite and decided to build a fort to sleep in. While it might not look like much, our little fort did an excellent job at keeping the wind off of us (despite being roof-less)!


Upon completing our fort we decided to hike up Boulder creek. However, we hadn't made it far before it was virtually impossible to follow it any further without swimming. So, after hanging out by the water for a bit, Ben climbed up this little cliff and started exploring the extremely dense forest (so dense we couldn't see him). Before we knew it Mike disappeared into the brush as well. Zac and I were feeling pretty tired and were kind of reluctant to embark on yet another adventure, but ultimately decided that we would regret it if we didn't go (Ben and Mike helped influence our decision by throwing sticks at us!). I swear, with Ben along there is never a dull moment!! Before we knew it we were scrambling up fallen logs, forcing our way through the overwhelmingly dense foliage, navigating through swampland, and following game trails (we found one trail that had both deer tracks, and what appeared to be cougar tracks).


At one point while hiking through some dense brush Mike vanished before our eyes!! Upon closer inspection we discovered that he had fallen into a hole so deep that all we could see was his head!!

After hiking around for quite some time we finally arrived back at camp and were able to eat some dinner.

Then we thought about taking a swim, but quickly ruled against it after getting in up to our ankles!! Zac used his watch to check the water temperature and discovered it was a balmy 53 degrees!!



So... we spent the rest of the night just hanging out by the campfire.

DAY 3:

On the final stretch of our hike we came to an impassable point on the beach where we were supposed to take a detour trail through the forest. Unfortunately, we were unable to find the trailhead. So... rather than hike all the way back to where we had camped, we decided to go straight up the hillside (in order to intersect with the trail).

The climb up the hillside was really steep and muddy.

And Mike got stuck in some really deep mud that was almost like quicksand.

But we blazed our way through the brush and eventually made it up to the trail.

Then we followed the trail down the other side!

This little detour put us behind schedule, so by the time we made it to our final rounding point it was almost high tide. Fortunately, we were able to make it past the rounding point by timing the waves and bouldering across some little ledges.

The final stretch of the hike was spent making our way over this rocky terrain.

By the end of the day Ben was "walking on stumps" because of his lousy shoes. Here he is stopping to rest while climbing under a tree that blocked our path.

Before we knew it, we had arrived in Oil City and our hike was at its end.

Nevertheless, before heading home we stopped to take a picture at Forks High School for all of you Twilight lovers.