The Dosewallips

The Dosewallips River

The Dosewallips River is one of the major rivers draining the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. The photo above was taken from the old car campground that is now backpack in only, since the road washed out over 20 years ago. (it’s about 6.5 miles – about 10.5 km) It is in the Olympic National Park, but the access road is in the Olympic National Forest. So, who’s responsible for fixing the road? Let’s argue about it for another decade or so…

Below shows the trail not far outside of the campground. It’s beautiful country and it’s too bad that it is so much harder for seniors to access these days.

Dosewallips Trail
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Water Quality in the High Country

Filtering Water from Heart Lake

Back when I was hiking in the ’60’s and ’70’s, we just drank water out of streams and lakes if they seemed like they were ‘safe’. We looked for running water, especially if it had enough of a drop to it to get aerated. We figured the oxygen cleaned it up. I had friends that kept that philosophy up through the ’90’s. I started filtering water much earlier than that … about the first that backpacking filters became available. These photos are both taken at Heart Lake in the upper Sol Duc valley in the Olympic National Park. The photo below shows how the lake got its name.

The Heart Shape of Heart Lake
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Happy St David’s Day

Daffodils for St David’s Day

St. David’s Day is March 1st and St. David is the Welsh Patron Saint. It’s like St. Patrick’s Day, except the Welsh get together and sing and read poetry. It doesn’t have the same marketing appeal as drinking green beer does. But, as a person of Welsh heritage, it’s important to me. The daffodil is one of the symbols of Wales. (like the shamrock is for the Irish)

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Sometimes It’s Worth Getting Your Feet Wet

Wading a Cold Mountain Stream

Sometimes it’s really worth getting your feet wet, even if the water is really cold. In this case, wading across this stream (and a little hike uphill) gave us the perspective below. Well, that little wading plus a few days hiking. These were taken in Martins Park in the Central Olympic National Park.

View from Martins Park
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