A True Gold Medal Performance - The Olympics! LaCrosse Basin, 8.5.21 - 8.10.21, Part 3 of 3
DAY 5: ABOUT NINE MILES (INCLUDING DAY HIKING), ROUGHLY 500’ ELEVATION GAIN, ROUGHLY 2,100’ LOSS
We had one more full day before we needed to start our journey back. The main event for this entire trip was to pay a visit to LaCrosse Basin and now that we knew the lay of the land a bit more it became clear that it wouldn’t necessarily take the entire day to accomplish that. The journey out was originally planned to be a two day hike compared to the three days we took to get to Marmot Lake. Our rationale was that we would be stronger and our packs much lighter with so much less food at the end of the week. Still, the way we had planned our exit sounded daunting. To shorten the pack out down to two days meant we would leave Marmot Lake and descend 3.5 miles, losing 1,655’, then climb 2,000’ over the next 2.6 miles and continue another 3.3 miles with an additional 2,688’ loss. That would be a 9.4 mile day with lots of steep ups and downs, leaving a ten mile descent for the final day. Looking at our options we decided it might be easier to day hike up into LaCrosse Basin and then break camp and drop back down to Upper Duckabush Camp on the same day. That would make it easier to shorten the second to the last day from 9.4 miles to 5.9 miles. In hindsight it was a good choice. We were also a little bit discouraged that the weather hadn’t cleared out as much as we had hoped but Day Five dawned crystal clear and the morning light was beautiful.
Dawn at Marmot Lake
Warm sunrise light on the ridge above Marmot Lake
A cloud free O’Neill Pass from our camp
After breakfast we trudged back up the mountain above Marmot Lake to the junction. This time, instead of taking a left to Heart Lake we continued straight ahead. The trail gently climbed over a rise and now the entire LaCrosse Basin lay before us. Adding to the scene, what we believe was most likely our friend the Heart Lake bear was off on the hillside consuming more berries. We slowly hiked past him as we gently dropped down towards Lake LaCrosse. We came upon a big pile of bear scat on the trail and even saw some fresh bear tracks along the way. And sure enough, there was a different bear a little further along, once again off on the hill, vastly more interested in consuming berries than a couple of old stinky hikers.
Our first look at LaCrosse Basin from the rise above the trail junction. Fisher’s Notch on the right
Our fourth bear sighting of the trip!
Bear pawprint along our trail
Lake LaCrosse was in a lovely setting, surrounded by peaks and ridges with lush parkland all around it. At the head of the lake, a gully rose up to a saddle on the ridge. This was called Fisher’s Notch and I knew from our research that getting to that notch would most likely provide us with an entirely new view including one of the finer peaks in the entire Olympic National Park called Mt. Anderson.
On the shore of Lake LaCrosse
Mt. Duckabush reflected in Lake LaCrosse
Beautiful Lake LaCrosse
After taking photos around Lake LaCrosse we began the climb up towards Fisher’s Notch. It was moderately steep and there was not really much of a trail but we had no trouble working our way up. Arriving at the notch we were greeted with a jaw-dropping view across the Enchanted Valley to the Mt. Anderson massif which includes Mt. Anderson and the West Peak as well as one of the glaciers resting in a bowl between the two summits. Mt. Anderson was clearly on another level than the peaks we had seen so far on this trip and it was much bigger standing at Fisher’s Notch than I had envisioned it would look. In addition to Mt. Anderson we could see many more peaks near and far as well as the deep Enchanted Valley leading up to Anderson Pass.
Mt. Anderson from Fisher’s Notch. Anderson Pass on the right.
Mt. Anderson
The joy of being in the mountains (courtesy of Greg)
LaCrosse Basin from Fisher’s Notch
The notch provided us with outstanding views looking back down and across LaCrosse Basin. Descending from the notch we opted to take a winding circuitous route over to some higher tarns that rested above Lake LaCrosse before heading back to our camp. Wandering through the basin completely off trail was a joy and I wish we could have stayed even longer but we still had work to do. Back at camp we packed everything up and started the descent back down to Upper Duckabush. Along the way we met up with a younger couple. They confirmed that the missing woman had been found alive after four days of searching. Somehow she had become disoriented and ended up in a trail-less basin east of Mt. Steel but west of Home Sweet Home. She had been choppered out to a hospital for a checkup but I believe she was physically fine and eventually reunited with her family so that was a huge relief.
DAY 6: 16 MILES, 2,000’ ELEVATION GAIN, 3,900’ LOSS
The hike back to Upper Duckabush Camp was uneventful. In the morning we made the slow steep march up to Home Sweet Home and then First Divide. Dropping back into the North Fork of the Skokomish we arrived at Camp Nine Stream by 1:30PM. We were supposed to camp here and make the final ten mile descent out of the valley on day seven. After a week of hiking and lighter packs, we were still feeling remarkably strong when we got to Nine Stream. It had been six days since either of us had seen our sweeties and we were kind of missing them so we made the command decision to just try and pack all the way out to the trailhead and head for home. Sixteen miles in one day with a backpack was a new personal best for me but I was really dragging those last couple of miles!
In summary I think this may have been the hardest backpack I had ever done but the bear encounters and the gorgeous trip through LaCrosse Basin were so worth the effort. Greg is even older than I am and we stayed together step for step the entire trip. This was our gold medal performance and we earned our badass badges on this one! So now Greg and I have three days to prepare before our next trips. Greg and Cindy are off to do a backpack in the Tetons and I am off to southern Montana to meet up with my dear friends Mike and Sandy for another week long backpack in the Beartooth Mountains. What a year!