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CRISLER TRAVERSE
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Atop the Bailey Range [295 Kb]
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The Bailey Range, the backbone of the Olympic Mountains,
runs through some of the wildest and most remote regions
of Olympic National Park.
Although mostly without trail, the high alpine ridge of the Bailey Range
coupled with the ridge separating the Queets and Quinault Rivers (the
Skyline Ridge "primitive" trail) allows one to traverse the Olympic Range
from north to south almost entirely in high and scenic alpine country.
This traverse is named after Herb Crisler, who used the route extensively
while living in the Olympic backcountry in the 1930's and filming for Disney
the feature entitled "Olympic Elk".
We followed the Crisler Traverse in July 1977.
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Mount Olympus [383 Kb]
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The "zeroth" day of this trip didn't involve trail hiking, but was nonetheless
rather involved. From Victoria, we boarded the ferry Coho with my 1965
Volkswagon and sailed to Port Angeles at the north end of the Olympic Peninsula.
From Port Angeles, we drove to the Soleduck Hot Springs camp site, pitched our
tent and cached our gear, then drove a couple of hours down to the North Fork
Quinault Ranger Station to deposit the car at the trailhead we planned as
an exit point. Hitchhiking back to our camp site wasn't difficult until
we reached the Soleduck River Road, where we ended up walking much of the
distance due to lack of traffic. We prepared supper at the campsite and
settled in for the night, ready to start the hike the following day.
An day-to-day account of the traverse follows:
day 1 - up the Soleduck
day 2 - on to Boston Charlie's
day 3 - socked in with the goats
day 4 - escape from Boston Charlie's
day 5 - looking down on Cream Lake
day 6 - along the Bailey backbone
day 7 - on to the Skyline Ridge
day 8 - exit in an Olympic downpour
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