After our experience with ever increasing bugs for the last couple of weeks, we decided to go to the ocean for our next hike, but then we found out the Graves Creek road had just been opened for the first time in four years.

The road washout had added 6 miles to the Enchanted Valley trail. The NPS seemed to be keeping the road opening a secret, so we thought this might be our best chance to do the Enchanted Valley hike without running into droves of people.

The trail in is pretty easy, gaining just 1700 feet over 13.1 miles, but this was our first overnight trip of the year and I felt like I had the living room sofa strapped to my back. The trail follows along the Quinault River before moving inland through some impressive forests.

We stopped at O'Neil Creek for a snack and my wedding ring fell off my pinkie. I had been wearing it there because my hands were swelling a little from the pressure of my shoulder straps. I should have taken the time to adjust my pack, but I figured it wouldn't be too bad to just leave it.

A half mile up the trail, I realized I never picked up my ring, so I dropped everything and went back to get it. When I got there the ring wasn't there. We had stepped on it and buried it in the forest duff. I spent ten minutes sifting through the duff until I found it.

In the meantime, Lisa was waiting for me up the trail and a bear cub appeared. She was scared, because she didn't know where the mother was and the cub was between her and me. By the time I returned, the cub had wandered off.

The Quinault River has to be forded just before arriving at the valley because the suspension bridge is out. Brrr, it was cold.

The west side of the valley is nearly vertical with many lovely waterfalls. We set up camp, ate and went to bed.

The next day we did laundry, futzed around, and swatted 3-4,000 black flies. We decided to hike up towards Anderson Pass at 2:30. We stopped and took some pictures at what remains of the largest known Western Hemlock tree (the top is broken off). At 6:10 we were standing on the moraine above Valkyrie Lake, after hiking 6 miles and climbing 3,300 feet.

We made it back in 2 hours, just in time to eat before dark.

The next day we were going to hike to O'Neil pass, a 23.6 mile round trip, but turned back after 7 miles because it clouded up and looked like it was going to rain. It was a good thing we turned back, because not only did it rain, it also got foggy, so there would have been nothing to see.

It also turned out to be good that we turned back because our dogs were very sore on the return hike out of the valley the next day. It was nice to eat long before dark for once too.

Some climbers came in and camped by the bear wires on our last night. In talking to them, we learned why hardly a tree in the valley isn't broken or blown down: during the big snow year of 98-99, the air blasts from the avalanches destroyed most of the trees in the valley.