These photos were taken from scans of photos that I took back years ago. Fortunately, I had shared prints with a friend and he still had them after my digital files were lost in a change to a new editing/organizing program (after which point I developed a significantly more thorough backup system). The Upper Dungeness Valley is outside of the Olympic National Park in the Buckhorn Wilderness.
This was taken a few years ago when I was more able to wander around the high country. We were on our way up to the High Divide and then down to Hoh Lake and back. (Note that the pack doesn’t have a sleeping bag or other items strapped to it … a sure give away that this is a day hike.) We were camped down in the basin (which requires a hard to secure reservation for camping) and were enjoying the scenic highcountry without having a heavy pack. The 7 Lakes Basin is a frequent camp location to those hiking the High Divide loop trail, which provides some of the most stunning views of Mt Olympus and the central Olympics.
Going through my hiking photos from years past. I didn’t take nearly as many photos when it was foggy or misty or raining. Since I primarily hiked in the Olympic National Park, that meant that I had my camera in the pack a lot of days. After a while I got a couple of different waterproof (or resistant) cameras … first a Minolta and then a Nikonos. But the Minolta didn’t have a real good lens on it and the Nikonos was a brick. Like real heavy. I was delighted when I found the digital cameras became available in a waterproof, rugged vesion (my favorite was the Nikon AW series). These were all taken the same day, but I’m not sure what camera. It was film, though.
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.
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.
