Marmoteering, Cross-country, and More!

For the Olympic National Park Marmoteer program you send in your application and select three top choices for your trip, and the park assigns you what they feel is a good fit based on your selections, your experience, and their needs. Due to my past backpacking experience we were assigned a difficult/strenuous trip. It was not a long mileage trip, but there was plenty of elevation gain and loss and cross country just takes more time, there is more risk of injury, and there is absolutely no way to know what you may come across. Topographic maps can only show so much. You don't know until you are there. We definitely got ourselves in some sketchy situations, but we knew how to handle them. However, not everyone knows how to handle them, and not everyone has the physical stamina (mentally and physically keep in mind), so please know your limits if you do a cross country hike or backpacking trip.

Did you know that the marmots that reside in Olympic National Park are endemic to the area? This means you will not find the species of marmot that is in Olympic National Park anywhere else. Pretty dang cool if I say so myself! The park has even applied to put them on the endangered species list. Their population has declined thus the park created the Marmoteer program to help track marmots.

If you love backpacking, think marmots are cool or cute, and want to help out Olympic National Park (because we all know they are beyond under-funded), then I highly recommend their Citizen Scientist Marmoteering program. It is really a fantastic program. I will definitely do it again!

DAY 1:

The first day of training was fantastic. We were able to learn all about marmots, check out pictures, learn how to identify their habitat and identify if their burrow is occupied or abandoned. This year they involved scat collection so they can identify the DNA of what predators are eating in order to see which predators might be eating the cute little marmot rodents - yes they are rodents. Being an educator, the park's directions are fantastic. When you combine oral information with the written word with precise pictures, that is one component of great teaching. The field training was great so that we all had hands-on experience looking, identifying, and recording what we needed to record. We were ready to go!

After training we were SO ready to get on the trail, but first we had to muster up the courage for the drive. The road required to drive to the trailhead is considered and frequently labeled as Washington State's scariest road. I have driven it before, and had to do a lot of breathwork while white-knuckling the steering wheel. This time, Josh, who was new to this road, was driving so at least going to the trailhead, I was cliff side. I had to turn away and focus on my breath - so grateful for that tool. After not going over the cliff, and not meeting another vehicle head-on where who knows what would happen, we made it to the trailhead! Both of us were quite relieved to get that part of the trip out of the way.

The hike:

We didn't get on the trail until 5pm due to the training all day. It was a short hike - only 4.6 miles, with a lot of downhill. With not much sleep, a long drive, then training all day, we were tired. There are many reasons it is better to get an earlier start on the trail. One of those reasons is it's hard to find a place to camp. In fact, none of the campsites were available when we arrived - which means some group was there when they didn't have a permit. :( Please follow park guidelines - they are there for a reason. It's important to get a permit. We ended up using the group site since that was the only one available, but luckily it was alright and no group showed up that evening.

I love how no matter what experience someone has, or what their age may be, there will still always be firsts. That evening was the first time I've had an agressive deer literally take my trekking pole. Yup. We were coming back into camp after filtering water and there was a deer in our camp. The deer was messing with something, but I didn't know what it could be because everything was put away under our tent. Well, evidently everything except my trekking poles because I've never had an issue (unless goats are around anyway). Josh tried scaring the deer off... they weren't that scared. Finally, the deer ran off, but it took my trekking pole with it. I stood in camp while Josh ran after the deer that had my trekking pole in it's mouth. I was super lucky that the deer eventually dropped the trekking pole, so I was able to get it back...slobber and all! Both my poles were so slimy - it was pretty gross actually! :) Later, I read reports that the group of deer at this particular lake are known to be pretty agressive. :(

DAY 2:

Such an awesome blessing to have a bear walk through camp, though I think Josh startled the bear, and the bear startled Josh! Right as he was walking back into camp coming from the awesome Olympic National Park bathroom, the bear decided to be right by him. Luckily, the bear behaved as he was supposed to and should, which is we all just went our own ways. Such a great way to start the day!

Some, not all, of the Olympic National Park privy's are awesome. I love that they have composting ones in some of the sites now! This particular picture is to help some of you (some friends I know) who are nervous about going to the bathroom in the woods. At least the park has some nice ones!

This day was a small part on a trail, then the rest was cross country/bushwacking. We also started surveying our units this day. It was so fun to navigate and find the units, then explore the units, and record all the information. It was a long day though - we ended up surveying 6 out of our 8 units total all in that day hiking to the lake!

The lakes were beautiful and of course being cross-country we had them to ourselves. The marmots were flourishing where we were camping. And, those of you who have worked with me, or know me, understand that I love analyzing poop - so looking at scat for hair, bones, etc was awesome!

However, the mosquitoes... oh those mosquitoes!

Mosquitoes oh my! We donated a lot of blood to the mosquito population, but also lowered that population at the same time, so who knows where it is at now. I think Josh broke my record of 100 mosquito bites per arm on a previous Bitterroot Wilderness backpacking trip in Montana. Poor guy - he is absolutely covered with mosquito bites. :( Nothing natural works. I've tried SO MANY. I would like to say that I haved tried them all, but of course that is not possible. I even made my own this year hoping it would work. Nope. Nothing but deet works with those backcountry mosquito critters! I actually learned that there are specific alpine snowmelt mosquitoe's that lay dormant eggs, then when they hatch those mosquitoes are really intense. Fascinating! Evidently these type of mosquitoes existed where we were at.

DAY 3:

This was a delightful day. We could hear the marmots waking up in the morning and being active so we set out early to survey our last two units. We were able to survey both units in a decent amount of time so had the majority of the day to relax. It was so nice. Peaceful. Quiet. Beautiful. Time to read. Time to simply be. It was the perfect chill day in the backcountry.

Having a GPS that can check weather if a plus. We discovered that the next day a storm was rolling in, then it was going to be rainy all day on our scheduled day out. So, here is a thing with cross country - you need to know your terrain. We knew that the terrain we were in would be dangerous in pouring rain, so we decided to leave a day early. We only thought we knew the terrain - we found out it was way more unsafe that we had thought!

DAY 4:

We felt ok leaving the beautiful area a day early because we had surveyed all the units and had a lovely full day chilling at the lakes the day prior. The storm hit early anyway, so had we stayed we would have been in the tent a lot! Serendipity in listening to the Universe.

This day brough sketch, in two different ways: 1) Sketch that can happen with cross-country backpacking. 2) Additional sketch that comes with being on an unsafe trail.

We tried to go a different way back, that was supposedly along this 'boot trail'. Please remember that cross-country and off-trail means no trail. Maybe there may be a boot path that people have taken, maybe it won't be there, maybe storms washed it away, maybe parts never existed.... cross-country is no trail, despite what what apps and descriptions might say. You will have no trails, game trails, trails people have made from going the wrong direction, etc. I mention this because I had the experience of backpacking with individuals a couple years ago who did not listen to my cross-country recommendations or understand this, and this lack of understanding brought frustration, anger, and much more.

The first sketch part was when I realied we were in a highly unsafe area and needed to get out fast, so we did! :) We nearly were cliffed out. At one point in time I was sliding down a steep incline and two trees saved me with one foot on each of them holding me from sliding down the rest of the mountain. Yikes! It was ok though. It was nothing like the sketch we didn't know was coming our way.

The route back we went a different way since we weren't camping at the lake. We were taking the ridge back, which had a trail. All maps showing the ridge trail show it as yes, being a knife-edge trail, but pretty straight-forward. This was not the case. The following comments occurred, somewhat in consecutive order:

That's not the trail, right?

I thought we were following the ridge, why are we going down a scree slope?

Looks like that is the trail alright, we have to go down, then back up to get to the ridge.

That can't be the trail, it has to go around.

That's the only trail, and the only way.

But it's straight up a washed out rocky crag with scree?

This is fucking sketch.

This is fucking bullshit.

Here's the deal. Those of you who actually know me, and know me well, know that I have backpacked an incredible variety of terrain for 37 years, on trail, off trail, in the states, outside of the states, and have a lot of backpacking experience. So, when I say "This is fucking sketch" that actually means something. The trail portion of the trip was on a knife-edge ridge. When looking at google maps it looks pretty straight forward. However, when you are there it is an entirely different situation. I could not find anything online, especially from the park, that warns about this route. There really should be something.

A friend of ours was supposed to go on this trip with us, but had to cancel last minute due to a work obligation. We were bummed, but after being on the trail I realized the Universe was looking out for us. If she had been on the trail, there is no way she would have made it. We would have had to call search and rescue, seriously. It has nothing to do with her hiking ability. This was not hiking. This was unsafe. How horrific would that have been if we had to call search and rescue because of an unsafe trail? :( I'm grateful we did not have to, but I will tell you that I was nervous that we would make it out ok - one wrong move and Josh and I were gone. At least I am a rock climber, so again....if being a very experienced backpacker and a rock climber mentions something is sketch, it is. I felt sorry for my hubby Josh who is absolutely not a rock climber and has a fear of heights. Upon returning home I found some reports that others have recommended not taking the ridge because it is "unsafe" - the park really should clarify this part of the trail.

Oh, and keep in mind that the storm started to roll in extra early. Luckily, it was not downpour rain or I'm not sure we could have made it up one part. However, the high temperature was supposed to only get to 46 that day and there was about 30-40mph winds on the sketchy ridge. This is that point in backpacking when you laugh, smile, you still find the lightness and joy because this is the suffering that you agree to participate in when you are a backpacker. Backpacking isn't all light and joy - there can be a lot pain, feeling miserable, and wanting to get off the damn trail moments, depending on the circumstance. I cannot begin to tell you some of the solo trips I am on where I am cursing myself out wondering why the hell I'm doing what I'm doing. Yet, I know. It's a love. It's just one of those loves that can be really brutal at times, though still worth it.

Honestly, I don't remember a time I was so happy to see the car besides this time, and I've had some rough trips! We were both stoked to see the car. Then, it was all about making it back on the sketchy scary road. After that, easy peasy!

Giggle moment. We had to return all our research and gear back to the park when we came out. However, the zipper busted off the large ziploc bag it all was in. They wanted us to drop it off in the bear can drop-off container, but I didn't want the contents to fall out. I wasn't sure what to do... until I was! I've had this flapper headband in my car for so many years because I simply didn't bring it in after wearing it one time, and simply liked having it in the car. So, I wrapped the ziploc bag with the feather headband. It made me giggle so much! I really hope it made someone in the park giggle as well! Hopefully, the feather headband is on a new adventure!

Happy Trails Friends!