I recall some chapter headings in Jean Craighead George’s Book, My Side of the Mountain, to the effect of “In which I Capture and Tame a Falcon” and “In Which I Build my Shelter in a Tree.” In keeping with that theme, the title of this chapter in my life’s story would be something like “In Which I Take Three Children Backpacking By Myself in a Remote River Valley, Scare Off a Bear, Forge a River, and Move Camp off an Island in a Rainstorm.” This June I decided it was high time I took my kids on a trip up to the Olympic Peninsula to visit some of the treasured outdoor places of my childhood. I was missing the wilds of the far western end of Washington State, and they were long overdue for a vacation. So, I packed up the car and headed north the day after school got out. We stopped over our first night at a cabin by the ocean in Moclips, and got all of our backpacking gear sorted out and packed up. The next morning, we woke up early and visited some giant cedar trees, including the world’s largest Thuja Plicata, and the Hall of Mosses Trail on the main fork of the Hoh River. After a picnic lunch on a gravel bar, we headed up the DNR roads for our trailhead on the South Fork.
The South Fork Hoh River Trail has long been my favorite in the Olympic National Park, primarily for its remoteness. It’s a terminal trail that doesn’t lead into the high country, so you rarely see other folks out there. It simply dead ends about 3 1/2 miles in and you brushwack or criss-cross gravel bars up the river as far as you want to go from there. There’s a big flat on a bend in the river a ways past the trail that is home to a unique stand of Sitka Spruce found nowhere else in the world. This is home to elk, deer, bear, cougar and is a truly wild place. As you hike along the relatively flat trail, passing monumental old growth Sitka Spruce trees and Douglas Firs, it’s hard to not feel humbled and awed by one’s place in the natural world. I think every child ought to stand and compare themself to an enormous old growth tree at some point in their development.
We hiked along through lush vegetation, nurse logs standing taller than our heads, and many exciting shelf fungi that were impossible to resist examining.
I may be a total natural science geek, but these kids seemed just as excited about the nurse logs as I was.
As we dropped down to the first big flats along the river, we started seeing abundant animal tracks in the mud. Some deer, coyote, elk and bear had been there recently. We started following these huge bear tracks up the trail, as though we were following not too far behind it.
There were several bear trees where the bark had been peeled off to reveal the tasty inner cambium layer, and we could tell from the piles of bear scat that they had been enjoying many early summer treats.
We forded at a narrow, shallow place out onto an island with views of Hoh Peak, and as we were getting situated on our gravel bar to set up camp, my son pointed out a huge black bear loping off into the bushes. After all the tracks and fresh signs, it wasn’t surprising. What was surprising, however, was when I stepped into the woods at the edge of camp about an hour later and there was that big black bear looking at me! I knew with three kids in camp, a bear would not do for company, so I waved my arms, gave my loudest, no-nonsense mama bear roar, and told it to move along. The bear, not wanting to tangle with a wild mountain woman such as myself, who clearly meant business, did just as I said, and took off into the forest. I was extra careful hanging our food bag at night, but the bear gave us no trouble.
I was able to keep a fragrant alder wood campfire burning in spite of the pouring rain that set in, but we ended up spending a good deal of time in our tarp shelter, tent, and raingear. We woke up in the morning to elk and coyote tracks right around the tent, so apparently everyone was out in the rain.
The kids still managed to have a wonderful time in the rain building villages out of riverstones and my son even successfully built a smokestack which he got going with a coal from the campfire. As the rain kept on, we realized the river was rising considerably and beginning to come close to the tent and campfire, so we moved off gravel bar onto a bit higher ground, and picked a new place to ford the river when we hiked out the next day, as our old ford had become too deep and swift. We hiked out in the rain, and arrived back at the trailhead soaked, happy and feeling like a bunch of adventurers.
We visited my favorite post-backpacking eating establishment, The Hungry Bear Cafe. My son managed to take on the Hungry Bear Burger. All 1 LB. of it. It was impressive indeed.
As the frontier explorer Hugh Glass once said, “We all have our bear to cross.”
So true.
Rae says
Oh, wow, that brings back memories. I worked out of Kalaloch for a summer around 10 years ago. Loved it up around the Hoh river, though my favorite hike was the Enchanted Valley hike out of Quinault. Stunning.
Looks like you guys had a blast!
LaraColley says
I have yet to make it up to Enchanted Valley. I tried with a group of friends in high school, but it was April and we got so rained out that we only made it about 5 miles in before hiking back out. Working out of Kalaloch sounds like it must have been fun!
EMMA says
Hi, just showed this to my husband and kids, we live and hike in the french alps where sadly there are no more bears. Often out on walks we imagine what it would be like to come face to face with a bear!
It looks like you all had a wonderful time despite the rain, I love the smell of the forest when it rains!
This is my first visit to your blog, it's a beautiful spot.
LaraColley says
Thanks Emma. The French Alps sound like a wonderful place to live and hike, even if there are no bears 🙂
David Cole says
Just saw this blog post. Was just up the South Fork yesterday and saw the same spruce tree that the bear had clawed. I figured it had been last years work as it looked a little old. My favorite valley too!
LaraColley says
I was just thinking of the S. Fork and how I need to get back up there again. It's a spectacular spot. It's good to hear other folks are enjoying seeing that bear tree too.