Creek Sides has been layin’ low in prepatory style to bring you the goods. Our mission as of late has been exploring the Olympic Peninsula. We’ve ventured to other parts of the state, too, but really we need look no farther than, literally… the west coast. Our latest adventure begins at some trailhead nestled deep in the O.P. woods, up the East Fork of the Quinault. Now the EF Quinault hosts its own share of goods and steeps, but for now we’ll be ascending the steep walls of an EF tributary known as Big Creek to access goods which lay deep in the O.P. backcountry. Big Creek, more commonly referred to as Three Lakes Trail, was the way into this seldom run creek. We ran it last year and I had one of the most amazing adventures… to date. Of course we had to come back, with friends.

Tshletshy Creek, even the name is tough. Pronounced (ta-lee-chee), this Queets River tributary hosts some of the largest conifers on the west coast… or should I say.. the world. There are big trees all over this place, but the Olympic Peninsula is one of THE wettest places on earth. That makes for some healthy tree-sproutin’ conditions. The forest is in a constant state of blossom, grow, destroy, blossom, grow and so on. Sometimes there are areas of pristine beauty, stands of trees left untouched for hundreds of years. Other times one may discover areas of blowdown or even washouts and large landslides where entire hillsides come down. And make no mistake, when a big old growth comes down it makes a sound… and leaves a mark. Sometimes man leaves a mark, too.

Elated to be on this trail again, with more friends this time! Scott Matthews and Scotty Baker joined Ryan and I for what is to be another grand adventure!! Hike long enough and you’ll begin to think about things, considering ‘the big picture’ more often than not. Taking in stellar views and interesting things along the way to break up the monotony of 100 pounds of crap tied to your back.

The woods become an exploration of the soul. The obstacles along the path begin to mirror obstacles in life and judgements. Being in the woods and on these kinds of trips becomes meditative and gives me a moment to pause and embody ‘the big picture’… but just for a moment… Then I have to stand up again and start walking with a 100 pound kayak. Last trip I swore I would bring less, but I think I brought more. Seems to be my meditation tool of choice.

There is something soothing about carrying all that weight for so many hours. Maybe the soothing lies in the brief moments of pause when I find a little stump or rock notch that will accommodate the stern of my boat for a minute. Breathe. Maybe it’s the solitary nature of expedition trips… you’re with others, but much of the time you’re by yourself. With yourself would be a better way to put it. Either way, Tshletshy Creek is a fine place to discover the woods, even if you don’t bring a boat. The woods in this part of the park are simply magical and leave one pondering what lies in the next mile… or 10.

Once the initial shock of SENB (seemingly endless natural beauty) wears off, it’s time to get to work. Following the directions in Korb’s book we drive to the take out only to discover the bridge over Matheny is CLOSED. Turns out it’s been closed for almost 10 years. Shoot. In the clutch we decide to simply take out… downstream of this bridge. Shoot, that’s way easier than Robe Math. What’s another few miles of loggy class II??

Being “seasoned” kayakers, we “marked” our take out. Then completed our shuttle and started packing crap into the backs of our boats. Finally made it to bed around midnight. Scotty Baker hadn’t showed up yet and Scott Matthews was going to meet us a day later on trail?? or at least where the trail crosses the creek above the first canyon. Pretty loose, but the Tshletshy valley isn’t that big…

A semi- mad rush ensued the following morning, even though it took us a couple of hours to finish packing our boats and get on the trail. Good thing we got an earlier start this trip. There’s about 10 feet of snow at the low saddle. After packing and a few snapshots we were on our way. I’m almost beside myself. I love this place. Sunny, not too hot, shaded for the most part. Perfect hiking weather. Within about 15 minutes I was sweating. I got ahead of Ryan and Scotty at the trailhead and I wanted to keep it that way. I knew if they got ahead of me I wouldn’t see them again til dark. Within 20 minutes I was at my next ‘photo op’!

We made it to the bridge over Big Creek (a great landmark) and took a long break. I was feeling awfully “off the couch” on this one and jacked up my knee a little earlier. UP didn’t feel so good anymore. DOWN felt worse. I chose the better of the two and kept going. By now we had made about 1500′ of el. gain and I think we were all ready to be done for the day. Fortunately we still had plenty of daylight (and hill) left to go, so up we went. We made it to about 1800′?? and camped on the trail. I was beat, my knee hurt, and it was late. The outer battle was really complimenting my inner pain right now. It must’ve happened one of the times when I stood up with my boat and lost my balance. Trying to ‘catch’ a 100 pound boat on the way down isn’t as easy as it sounds.

We all found flat spots on the trail, had some good food, and relaxed. I got up early the next morning feeling pretty thirsty. Scotty and Ryan had found a tiny little spring dribbling from the hillside the night before. It was a-ways back down the trail, but man I needed some H2O stat! Once there, it was apparent I hadn’t brought a water filter and the spring really was a dribble. There was a full water bottle, though, propped up with a couple small rocks to help direct the flow. I guzzled. It was a little ‘minerally’, but satisfying! I gimped back up to camp with some water for coffee and oatmeal. Went back down with my water filter later and pumped about a gallon of water for hiking and refreshment.

We were just about to break camp when.. who shows up on the trail, but Scott Matthews!! He had arrived the night before and started his hike in the dark. Got a couple hours in, camped and started early, catching us about 9:30 or 10. Stoked to have the whole crew assembled at this point, but a little nervous because it seemed like Scott had just blazed up what took us all day to do. Little did we know he’d hiked a couple of hours the day before and started so much earlier. At any rate, we were all glad to see one another and what a great place to meet! Hitting the trail by 10, not a bad way to go. Soon enough we hit snow and I think the snow line was actually lower this year (~2000′) than last (~2400′). From here on out there was a LOT of snow. Route finding, for the most part, was straight forward, but once we got above Three Lakes the terrain got a little more challenging. Of course, we lost the trail in the snow long before Three Lakes and by the time we got above Three Lakes it was anyone’s guess where the path of least resistance was. Of course, trails can switchback uphill, but when a guy is walking on 5-10 feet of snow the switchbacks just get burying and all that’s left is the hillside terrain. Needless to say we had a fair amount of sidehilling. Not too steep, but definitely UP pretty much the whole way. The last push to the low saddle was the steepest and once we were all at the top, took a long break.

The clouds had found us by late afternoon and it was starting to feel like work… Who was I kidding, the first day was work, this was grueling. Hundred pound boat, aching knee, sore body, freakin’ parasite… hopefully the downhill starts soon.

By 6 we were descending from the low saddle. It was getting cold, clouds were moving in, and we needed to find some dry land amid this winterscape. I’ve never had to sleep on snow, but I understand it’s less than desirable.  Definitely had more this trip. Scott was motivated to keep going. He was also trying to recapture the trail amid the snow berms. He may have found it a couple times, but lost it pretty quickly. Scotty and Ryan blazed ahead and found a spot, right where the semi-flat ground was about to end. I was cold and exhausted. My stomach burned. We set up our tarps and beds. I went straight into my bag to warm up and fell asleep. Woke the next morning to a beautiful fog. Glimpses of the valley could be seen through towering high alpine trees. Chilly bliss. Felt a little better, so did the knee.

We were all feeling it by this point. Sore and cold we pushed on. With this much snow, the hike into Tshletshy is punishing. Dressed and rolling by 8:30 was nice. Scott Matthews had gone for a scout earlier and found a less-steep way down that didn’t involve a rappel. Sweet. More DOWN and further downstream, finally we were walking along the rim of the headwaters canyon. Lots of cool slides, drops and 20-30 footers, all within a micro fantasy gorge. I bet Korb fantasized about running this thing! Unfortunately, this section had a lot of wood and not enough flow, mainly way too much wood. FInally made it to a spot that didn’t look too steep to run, roped the boats down and put in!!

It was surreal climbing into this boat I had been carrying/dragging/hauling up and over a mountain for three days. I packed my stuff away, put gear on and slid into the water. Bang! Then a rock. Then pushed my way through the first drop. Watery wet bliss, I tell ya!!

it’s all good in Tshletshy

drink from the river, not nasty little springs

 

Scott Matthews –  deep in the O.P. backcountry

deep

 

scannin’ the scene

 

goods

 

 

It’s tough to see here, but look closely at the next couple shots. The “vegetation line” is actually a giant old growth that had been minding its own biznass, growing happily on the inside corner of the river bend. Til one day it fell over, only it was so massive… it fell uphill!! Now it rests on the top of the 30 foot high bank with the massive root sturcture dangling in the air. Most of those trees up there are ‘nursing’ off the downed old growth. Doesn’t get more ‘temple’ than that. abcgangsterchurchstouts.

 

 

 

And this was such a cool discovery. The next two photos show a line of volunteer maples which have managed to ‘branch’ their way down the hillside. ‘Volunteering’ is one way maples propagate and it was a truely amazing sight to see the entire hillside had slid, trees, rock and all, except this vertical line of volunteers. These trees were literally holding the hillside in place. Nothing on either side. It must have taken hundreds of years for these trees to make their way down the hillside, mature, then have the entire hillside slide on both sides, except the ground their rooted to!! Badass. Nature is totally bad ass.

 

O.P. magic

…and the magic continues.

banana slugs playing ‘hard to get’

gooods

deep in the Lower Canyons

many more drops from here

I forgot how many drops were in those canyons. Yep, it looks like we’re gonna be burning daylight getting out of here. Did you see the ‘vegetation line’ on those canyon walls??? Man, something huge musta come through there. By the time we got through the Lower Canyons it was late. Busted and wet gear led us to a less than ideal decision of splitting up. We all wanted to be at the take out, but 17 miles in an hour and a half seemed unlikely. It was just us and the river, though. I wanted the take out, too. We kept paddling into the night. By 9:30 it was pretty dark.

trying to make it to the take out

10:00… I’m glad it was a clear night. The moon was especially gorgeous this evening. I wasn’t feeling all that romantic, however. Hoping the “forested corridor” with the cool granite boulders was going to appear soon. 10:30… it’s freakin’ dark, bro. Is this really a good idea? I’m paddling on 3000 cfs of laminar flow which is cruising in between and around big jams of wood in odd configurations. Big floods tear down the Queets valley seasonally. This river routinely hits 150,000 cfs during the winter and carries a massive amount of wood downstream within that flow. It is cool to see how the gravel bars change and form. Cool, but not this late at night.

10:51… hey what happened to the moon? Why does everything look black without contour? Ooo, what’s that “current” sound? Is that water rushing over gravel… or under a giant log jam I can’t see? Okay, we’re getting out. Look at that, a big gravel bar with a big log jam. Perfect. Camp and a fire.

It took a couple hours to warm up. I think it was extra cold because it was so clear out. We were all wet, too. Just from being out for 4 days. We all slept pretty good that night. Woke up early. I don’t think I even ate anything. We slowly packed up and pushed off for an unknown number of miles to get to the take out. 45 minutes later we rolled around a splashy left bend with some gorgeous, scoured out bedrock benches.. Unmistakeable!! We paddled a little ways down and POW!! ROCK CAIRNS!!! …and a kayak. The first half of our group hadn’t made it out either. They were forced to camp as we were, but had wet gear. We all made it out and had a great shuttle ride back to the Three Lakes Trailhead!! The easiest hour and a half of my life was in the back of that truck.

 

final camp

 

 

After 4+ days of hiking, boating, portaging, roping, scouting, pulling, dragging, tugging, carrying, eating and sleeping… one may wonder how long the shuttle is going to take. Actually, one doesn’t really care upon arriving at the take out, I assure you. However, for such a grand adventure, the shuttle only takes an hour and a half one-way.

shuttle beverage of choice at 8 am Monday morning

back where we started from

 

worked.

 

 

 

After a layover day we decided to have a look at more of the area’s impressive features. In total, I lost almost 15 pounds in less than 5 days. I felt pretty worked over the day after Tshletshy.

 

 

 

 

It’s a little hard to tell from the photo, but this tree had fallen long ago, decomposed, and all the organic material it fell on washed away during its decomposition. These kinds of discoveries make the woods so endlessly fascinating to explore. So many little things like this to find and ponder along the way. I see why John Muir fought so hard to preserve the pristine woods of this country. They are endlessly magical, creating new wonders every season, new for each person. A wonderland of meditative perfection. Go get lost in the woods for 4 days and discover some SENB that will rock your foundations.

 

more amazingness!

 

the woods are simply indescribable

i ran out of words

three bears – is what I thought

The photo above shows some beings, at first glance, I thought were bears. Much to my relief and enjoyment was I soon to discover their inanimate nature! Pictured below, a perfect little spring popping out of the hillside. You bet I drank my fill. It’s neat to see how the water is different in every shot.

 

 

 

 

portrait views at every turn

 

 

 

The Olympics are simply irresistible

 

future projects

 

a very lovely ‘woodsy’ trail

fresh bear swipe

 

complete with poop on the trail

adolescent male??

random badass O.P. critter

 

 

 

O.P. magic

 

 

glacial flow

camp!

 

Squatch??

 

The magic of Tshletshy Creek is only the start of what is sure to be an incredible year on the creeks and rivers of the Olympic Peninsula for the Creek Siders of this fine mountain sanctuary. The year of the Water Dragon is upon us. Big thanks again to Scott Matthews, Ryan Scott, and Scotty Baker for making this a trip to remember.

author’s note:

Plan on a long 4 day trip in here. I would even recommend spending the day before.. cruising around the area, taking it all in. There is a lot to see here. The Quinault zone is pretty deep for all but the locals. If you’re coming here from anywhere south of Bellingham, drive around from the Olympia side. You can do 60mph most of the way and the roads are fairly straight. Going around the north side is slow and windy.