Duckabush

Last week the planned hike destination was the Dosewallips on the Olympic peninsula but when we got to the road we discovered that it had washed out.  The choices were to walk the road to the trailhead and start the planned hike, it would have made a 5 mile hike into about a 10 or 12 mile one, or drive a little ways farther and hike at Duckabush.  There were 20 people in the group and all agreed it would be better to try Duckabush rather than walk the extra miles on a road instead of in the forest.

The trail was a mixture of soft dirt with evergreen needles to this rockier surface shown on the photo above.  The Duckabush trail has a greater elevation gain than Dosewallips that made this hike more difficult than expected.  It is up and up to the first high point, then down, down and up, up again.  We hoped to reach the river and stop there for lunch but didn’t know exactly how far it was so decided to stop at 1 pm regardless then eat and turn back in order to return to the parking area by 3 pm the agreed time to meet with the rest of the group. 

Ripe red Huckleberry

There were lots and lots of tiny ripe red Huckleberries offering opportunities to snack all along the way.  The berries are tart but juicy.  It was difficult to get a picture because as soon as one was spied it was picked and popped into a mouth!

There were not as many wildflowers in bloom as on previous hikes but we did come across a couple of fairly rare things.  The Indian Pipe plant shown below was in a massive grouping unlike anything many of the other experienced hikers had seen before.  It is a non-chlorophyll plant so it looks a little strange, all ghostly white and tubular in shape. 

There were many ferns especially alongside babbling brooks.

In addition to the Indian Pipe plant we did see Siberian Miner’s Lettuce, Shasta Daisies, what we think is Lousewort, and Twin Flower in an uncommon double bloom (four flowers).

Indian Pipe

 

We think this might be Lousewort

 Shasta Daisy

 Double Twin flower