I have backpacked more than I’ve camped out. But when you have back muscle spasms, backpacking just isn’t the best option for comfort. Then camping and dayhiking is a better option. It lets you bring a lot of luxury items like kerosene lamps, camp chairs and maybe a cooler with some adult beverages. Ya make do the best you can.
This is the abandoned car campground on the Dosewallips River. It makes a great spot to hike to and spend an evening or two while doing some dayhikes. It is also very interesting to watch the natural world reclaim the area. Stinging nettles are plentiful … that’s the majority of the ground cover in the near areas. But it makes a wonderful place to walk after dinner.
Earlier in my hiking life, I carried a fishing pole fairly often. One of the best trips I had was up into the Pasayten Wilderness in north central Washington. It was fairly lightly visited at the time and the fishing was good. I feel a little bit guilty now that I have changed my view on fishing (if I do any, it’s catch and release).
But on this trip the fish were biting as were the black flies. Using a black fly, the fish were striking fast and hard. We cooked the fish over our wood fire. just delicious.
Three Prune Camp supposedly got it’s name from an early Mountaineers party that camped there with their provisions reduced to 3 prunes. The camp is along a ridge between the North Fork Quinault and the Queets valleys in Olympic National Park. It was seldom visited, but is an excellent camp along the Skyline Trail, which provides dramatic views of the central Olympics from the south. There are more hikers up there these days, but it is still a remote area, a long ways from a trailhead.
Sorry, the title came to me and I couldn’t resist. The last days of a hike, it is always interesting to put on the pack first thing in the morning. The pack typically doesn’t weigh as much as it has on other days (as a result of consuming over a pound of food a day), unless you have been collecting rocks … or unless it has been raining and your gear is wet. Of course, it can be bittersweet, too: sadness at leaving the wild and looking forward to a cold beer and a burger.