Olympic National Park

Kabecoo

This is the third and final post about the Skyline Trail in Olympic National Park.

After a few days of increasing concerns about water, I could not help but drop off the trail to camp at an entirely reliable source: the cleverly named Lake Beauty.

On The Road – Kabecoo – The Skyline Trail, Olympic National Park, Post 3Post + Comments (23)

Kabecoo

This is the second post about the Skyline trail in Olympic National Park. The first two days of hiking brought me to an area I had not seen in several years. I was looking forward to a day with many flowers, a bear or two if lucky, maybe some new blisters!

One small wrinkle: the trail varies from its location as shown on several topographical maps. Most of these variations are minor, but sometimes the maps are off by a thousand vertical feet or so. This had gotten me into trouble a few times before and I was hopeful about staying on route.

On The Road – Kabecoo – The Skyline Trail, Olympic National Park, Post 2Post + Comments (8)

Kabecoo

For many years we lived near Olympic National Park in western Washington. I am fortunate to have had numerous opportunities to explore its trails over almost 40 years, and this three-part series describes one of my favorite areas with a little history thrown in.

The Skyline trail is a somewhat popular backpacking route in the southwest corner of the park. It begins along the north fork of the Quinault River, climbs to a ridgeline on the northern side of the river, and follows various flanks to the headwaters of the north fork, where a shorter trail along the river can be taken back to the trailhead.

In 1986 I backpacked for the first time. Somehow the Skyline Trail had come to my attention and I thought it sounded fun. I bought garage sale equipment and headed off for a week in the woods with a friend. I was wildly unprepared. There were wild animals around and we were otherwise by ourselves. Who knew?

I’ve now hiked the route five times, as recently as August 2023. A comfortable five day loop, I did it in seven to make it even comfortabler. What was once a multi-day exercise in route-finding is now much easier due to a fairly consistent path, indicative of its popularity. Even so, I only saw nine other hikers on the Skyline, so the solitude of the route in 1986 isn’t entirely gone.

On The Road – Kabecoo – The Skyline Trail, Olympic National ParkPost + Comments (16)