Olympic National Park: A River Rat Vacation! (Episode 3)

This is the third and final installment of the Olympic National Park: A River Rat Vacation! Video series.

High Definition Video (best viewed in full screen):

Olympic National Park: A River Rat Vacation! (Episode 3-High Def) from Jamie Higgins on Vimeo.

Standard Definition (best viewed in full screen):

Olympic National Park: A River Rat Vacation! Episode 3 Standard Def from Jamie Higgins on Vimeo.

Mountain Biking Adventure Section of the Olympic Discovery Trail:

In this episode, Kate Wilkerson, Karla Vinnacombe and myself mountain bike the Adventure Section of the Olympic Discovery Trails bike path that will eventually extend over 100 miles from Port Townsend to the Pacific Coast . There are several sections of trail that are complete. Most of the trail is suitable for road bikes, but we decided to mountain bike along the Adventure Trail Section. We took a mountain bike tour with Adventures through Kayaking (http://www.atkayaking.com/). We had to rent bikes and it wasn’t much more money to take a tour. What the video doesn’t show is the strenuous 7% uphill climb along the State Forest service roads. Originally, we had planned to bike 5 miles to the top of the ridge, but the climb was extremely tough. At the slow rate we were going, we would have gone over our allotted time for the tour. Our guide was gracious enough to recommend a short cut that would eliminate most of the climbing on forest service roads, and maximize the single track downhill. At that point, I really liked the sound of the word “DOWNHILL”!

It was so much fun blasting down through towering hemlocks and spruce trees. I had a hoot! The trails were smooth and fast…just like I like them! We only biked about 7 miles or so, but it was really a lot of fun.

Hiking Lake Crescent :

After mountain biking and grabbing lunch at Kiwi West, we decided to take a short, flat hike along Lake Crescent . Lake Crescent was formed by glaciers and is an iconic feature of Olympic National Park. It’s about 5 miles long and the water of the lake is an uncanny blue. It almost looks dyed like something you would see at Disney. We hiked along the Spruce Railroad Trail, which was built during World War I by the Spruce Railroad Division of the US Army. They were trying to build the rail road to transport spruce and other logged trees to Seattle for production of fighter planes. Apparently, the spruce was the best material for manufacturing of the planes. Although they completed in only 18 months, the war ended before they could really use it. After WW I, logging companies did use the railroad to transport logs to Seattle.

The rail road bed has been abandoned for a number of years and a few of the old tunnels still remain. There are plans in the work to make the Spruce Railroad Trail part of the Olympic Discovery Trail and they plan to pave the path to make it suitable for road bikes and handicap accessible.

Hiking Hurricane Hill:

On our final day at Olympic, we decided to visit Hurricane Ridge and hike Hurricane Hill. To get to the Hurricane Ridge Visitors Center, you have to drive 17 miles uphill along a winding road that gives way to breathtaking views of the mountains. The drive alone was spectacular, but the views from Hurricane Ridge and Hurricane Hill were unbeatable. At every vantage point, the immenseness of the Olympic mountain range was seen and felt spell bounding.

We decided to hike to the top of Hurricane Hill, which was about a 3 mile round trip. The last mile of the trip was STEEP, but Karla and I took a few breaks while Kate charged up the mountain with a purpose. Despite being in the height of summer, there was still snow left on the ground. The views atop of Hurricane Hill were gorgeous and I tried my hand at capturing the view in a 350 degree panorama from my wide angle HD Go Pro helmet camera.

There were warnings all over the place about a rouge mountain goat that has chased hikers in the vicinity of Hurricane Hill. Sadly, just months after our visit a hiker was killed by the mountain goat and local authorities killed the goat. I’m sure a tragedy like this is very rare, but it was sobering and reminded us to never let your guard down even in a highly used area like Hurricane Hill.

The following morning we used the ferry and headed back to Seattle for our early morning flight on Saturday. Despite the fact that I missed my pets, friends and home, I was a bit sad leaving Olympic. Olympic is just so beautiful and unique. I know it will be hard to find a place as beautiful, and I know we’ll be back to visit again. Karla, Kate and I plan to make our next epic River Rat vacation to Yellowstone National Park …so stay tuned for more adventures. I hoped you enjoyed the videos and blog.

I also want to thank Karla and Kate again. They not only are great traveling companions, but they put up with me constantly shoving a camera in their face. Plus, they really help make the videos interesting and entertaining!

Jamie "Queen Rat" Higgins