Doing the Dose

A few days of mild weather and the mountain gods begin to call Tim's name. It was time to take a hike, literally. Marc, Jesica, Mom and Dad decided to hike up the Dosewalips River in the National Forest to the Dosewalips Camp Ground in Olympic National Park on the Saturday of President's weekend. It is a fitting salute to our presidents to go hike in the National Forest!

As you may remember, the road into the trailhead was washed out years ago. Even the bits of road leading up to the washout is...well...a bit washed out. But Marc and Jesica drove us in the Suburban so it was easy squeasy. Can you imagine trying to do this in the little Corolla?

This picture makes it look easy...

This shot shows the other bank pretty well; but look at the back wheel to get a better idea of the angle we had to drive up. Marc was loving it by the way. Jes jumped out to take the pictures.

Since the trailhead is washed out, you have to go over "the hump" to avoid getting wet in the river.

This is the actual trail. A nice easy incline for about 5 miles. At this point it had started to drizzle. Fortunately we came dressed for the occasion!

Jesica at the first small waterfall, just before the section where last summer's fire came down to the trail.

Marc taking a view of the Dose Falls; about 4 1/2 miles into the hike. The trail has a steep incline here, so Jes and I decided this was a good place to stop to ... take a picture...yeah...at least no one complained...

A nice shot of Dose Falls. The thunder of the falls could be heard a long way off. Beautiful isn't it?

Another shot of the falls from the downhill side. Don't we live in a beautiful place?

When we got to the campground, it was raining pretty hard. The guys put a tarp over a picnic table and we all huddled underneath to eat our lunch. Dad set up his pocket rocket to warm our hands. Being wet and cold isn't fun so we didn't stay long. Jes and I stuffed some hand warmers under our...shirts to stave off the cold.

Marc and Mom standing by the Dosewalips River. Although it was wet, the scenery was very green and stunning; lots of moss. It made me think of pictures of Ireland.

After a short lunch we started back, daylight doesn't last forever in the NW winter. We decided that this tree just needed lights to be all decorated up for Christmas. It was harder to hike all the way downhill than it was to come uphill! 10 miles later and while driving home in the warm truck, we all decided that it would be fun to hike out there and stay overnight...in the summer... say sometime in August!

I am so glad Jesica remembered to take pictures with her camera. Mine was in my pack and I am not used to remembering to getting it out!

Hope you kids enjoyed the nostalgia!

XOXO Mamala