Incredible weather for the beginning of May, so Janelle and I decided we’d better use it! We drove to the Hoh Rainforest visitor center, got our overnight permit, and hiked out to Five-Mile campground on the Hoh River. Less than 50 yards down the trail we were stopped by an elk right in the trail who was simply not interested in letting us pass, and actually got aggressive toward Janelle when she tried to sneak past him. Took about 10-15 minutes for him to wander off the trail far enough that we could get through. I thought Hoh elk were generally nice, my opinion has now changed…
I decided to bring along my new bear canister, gotta practice lugging it around for this summer at Yosemite and Ansel Adams Wilderness. There are bear wires at the campgrounds, which would have been much easier. End result: I hate the thing. Pain in the rear to fit into a backpack, pain in the rear to haul 3 extra pounds, pain in the rear to get food in and out of it… but it’s necessary, so we’re beginning to develop a love/hate relationship with each other. On the other hand, I’m madly in love with my new Nemo Obi 1P tent, love it, love it, love it, and am looking forward to spending a lot more time with it 🙂
Just after getting to camp, another person there told us we’d missed seeing a bear crossing the river by about 5 minutes. We wandered around looking for signs of it, but never saw it.
After setting up camp at Five-Mile, we wandered a bit further up the trail to Happy 4 campground for an evening stroll and to see the shelter there. I think I’ll stick with Five Mile. I slept well, after putting on every single layer of clothing I had and crawling into my down sleeping bag with hand warmers and a wool hat. I passed the test of sleeping outside in what otherwise would be too cold for me. I’m a chicken in the cold, ‘nuf said.
Next morning we broke camp early and headed back to the car, heading for Klaloch and the Olympic coastline…
