an unexpected adventure

On Saturday (September 2) afternoon Matt picked me up and we headed out to the Olympic Peninsula for what was to be Matt's longest run and a bit of an epic adventure for us. We were excited for the 75 mile adventure and with how light we kept our packs. We planned to start at 1am so that we could reach the view of the Blue Glacier by sunrise. We tried to sleep in the car for the couple of hours prior, but were both pretty uncomfortable. We must have slept though because the alarm woke us. Matt took all of our gear while I drove the car 6 miles from the Hoh Valley visitor center, parked and rode my bike back. We got started just before 2am, snapping a few pictures and moving into the dark. The stars were amazing as we weaved along the river. Unfortunately we lost the trail for about an hour due to some major downfall and subsequent rerouting.
The route does an out and back to Blue Glacier; the climb and view were a wonderful way to welcome the sunlight. We made our way back down and I started take note of the time, these miles were taking a bit longer (treating water, taking pictures, talking with hikers, etc) than we’d planned, so as we moved on we decided to cut out the next out and back to heart lake (unfortunately) but with limited light power left after the morning we needed to get out before dark. Even with cutting out that small section, we were treated to some spectacular running, yummy huckleberries, beautiful lakes and fun conversations with passing hikers.
To keep this post shorter, we made it down to the last river crossing just after 7pm. Only 10 miles to go, but we could not find the trail on the other side. The guide book and signage had been perfect up to this point, but with the book’s instructions to “find the trail and hike 0.5 miles and turn left” we were at a bit of a loss and quickly losing the sun. We were fortunate to meet Duane who had come down the trail a couple of years ago and he got us headed in the right direction with a rough description of what the trail should do. We followed along and lost it, then doubled back and rechecked, tried to make sense and think logically, but now at 10pm running on very little sleep and facing the dark we made the decision to put on all of the clothing we brought for the “just in case”, curled up under Matt’s space blanket on some moss and roughed it till the sun came up.
Periodically Matt would ask if I was warm enough and double check that the growling we heard was my stomach (and not a bear!). The next morning we were able to easily make sense of trail and covered the last 10 miles and roughly 3200 feet of gain in about 3 hours. We were both very thankful to pop out on the road and see his jeep parked just as we’d left it. We both immediately reached for the recovery drinks we’d packed me Ultragen and him Recoverite and then clean clothes and Molokai flip flops.

What a (couple of) day(s)!

For more a little more, you should link to Matt's Blog. He has the pictures posted and will do a great job writing it up soon, I'm sure.