Hurricane Ridge

Thur 20th Oct: Double Yay today - hiking boots back on and no smoke. However it was cloudy and trying to rain as we drove the rest of the 12 miles to the top of the road, and set of on our 3.8 mile hike to Klahhane Ridge. Since we started high it wasn't to strenuous walk, until we hit the Switchback trail that lead to the Klahhane Ridge (800 ft climb in 1 mile). Once at the top there was a sign with two trail options - we decided to take the Ridge trail towards Lake Angeles for a little while, with maybe getting to the lake if it wasn't to far. The weather had improved by now, and we were even getting some sunshine. It was nice being on the mountain tops again, and the rock faces were quite dramatic. About 3 kms later the lake came into view, so we turned around here rather then continuing to the lake - we hadn't taken lunch with us as we were only intending it to be a 10 km walk, and I was feeling the lack of hiking fitness from having quite a few days off. Hike stats: 17.16 km, 3 hrs 58, 1037 m elevation gain - quite surprised how much elevation gain we ended up doing. Drove back to Port Angeles - third of the way down the hill went into thick cloud and rain for about 5 miles, and then back to ⛅ after that. Continued west and stopped at the road block on Elwha Road Park entrance. This road has been closed due to a flood washout, however there are quite a few trails off it. One we are quite keen to do is Olympic Hot Springs - natural hot springs remain where a resort once was between 1907 and 1966. So depending on the weather tomorrow we will get on the bikes and go 8 miles up the road to the trailhead. In the meantime we did the short walk to view Madison Falls, before settling down for the night. Steps D 28822 / V 28746.Read more