Sol Duc/Seven Lakes Basin was cut short.
Best Pump Site Ever
I discovered that my brilliant plan to lighten mypack and take advantage of he 63F nights were not even close to brilliant (maybe a little closer to the opposite of brilliant). Turns out, even wearing all my clothes, and using the sleeping bag liner, any place that was touching the bivy (thigh, hip, shoulder) was drained of heat. Next time, not skipping the sleeping bag. Given that the nights were supposed to drop six degrees over the next two nights, and K’s sore throat was sounding worse, I figured that it wasn’t the best of ideas to continue another night, and just get far enough in that we’d have to take the full four days, and when I broached the subject I. The morning with K, she agreed.
So we made our breakfast, packed up our stuff (trading who was carrying the bear caninster, got water from the best pump site I have ever sen, and headed back the way we came. K was generally feeling ok, but her lack of voice kept the trail talk down. It was absolutely a great slow hike, though. I took to a walking meditation of counting slow breaths as I walked, and we started taking more and more pictures. The morning light offered a change from the late afternoon light we had the day before, and we felt no time pressure, so it was more of a stroll than anything else. And a great one at that.
Sol Duc Falls 1
Sol Duc Falls 2
We stopped by the falls for a photo break, getting lots of various angles on the water – and she helps me try out a couple of new pictures for my website. Lighting and distance being tough, we didn’t try for too long. We passed lots of people asking how far it was to the falls, but had lost track of time while leapfrogging each other on the trail, to take more photos.
Spider on the Trail
It was lovely to take the time, and have someone who also wanted to take the time, to just explore the random things that come alive on a photograph. It keeps your mind in the forest, and is kind of like a treasure hunt. There was even a squirrel that cooperated by posing in various cute ways for a good three minutes and a spider that wandered down the trail with me.
Swinging Bench!
We ended the hike passing more and more people, families mostly, out for a stroll from the resort. Lots of teenagers with iPods, kids with cute hats and shoes, and parents with large cameras. The sound of a gaggle of kids in a pool greeted us as we began to emerge from the forest, and soon we were back at the car, changing shoes, grabbing a snack for the road, airing out the hot car, and taking a go on the swinging bench.
It was generally a lovely, fairly easy, hike through a very pretty forest with lots of bridges over clear, cold water.
Sun, Shade, Trees, Water - A Very Pleasant Hike
The full set of photos can be found on my Upper Sol Duc Bridge Flickr Set.
