Distance: 25.3 mi.
Elevation Gain: 9350 ft.
I like to get out on at least one solo overnight trip each summer and on this particular weekend a friend had to change plans on a Friday, so I quickly made arrangements to head to the Mt. Cameron area, which I had been wanting to do for a while. This year, Olympic National Park is doing all overnight backcountry reservations online. This only applies to designated camp sites however and you have to call one of the ranger stations to book offtrail zones. I called the Quinault station since I’ve had a good experience with them in the past and they usually aren’t too busy. They were able to quickly get me set up with a permit to camp near Cameron Pass at 3 PM on a Friday. Thanks!
I woke up bright and early and caught the first ferry (6:10) to Bainbridge Island and did the long drive to Obstruction Point. It went smoothly and I was starting my hike at 9:20. The first 1.7 miles flew by and I turned off on the Moose Mt. way trail. This was a pretty obvious path and easy to follow up and over the first few bumps. Before getting to Moose, however, the path descends a crappy gully on the south side of the ridge and fades away into a scree slope. Luckily it was easy to see where to regain the path on the north ridge of Moose.
The path disappeared again on the south side of the peak but heading back toward the ridge got me back on track again. I decided not to follow the path down toward the main trail and Glady’s Lake, instead continuing to follow the ridge to Grand Pass Peak. There were some climbers paths through here and I had to do a bit of 3rd class scrambling but nothing very difficult. This is where I decided to I would try to run the ridge all the way to McCartney. I didn’t know what it would be like, but knew I could always bail either direction off of the ridge or backtrack.
Heading south from Grand Pass was not too difficult, but the travel got more difficult as I got closer to McCartney. It was particularly difficult between pt. 6615 and pt. 6728. I had to descend, traverse, and ascend multiple terrible steep scree gullies to get through this section. If I had to do it again I think I would have dropped west from Grand Pass Peak to about 5600′ where I could easily access for (former) Lillian Glacier basin.
It was not difficult to get between pt. 6728 and McCartney itself. There were a few tents set up near small lakes in the Lillian Glacier basin below and I enjoyed the views for a moment before heading back to my overnight gear that I had left on pt. 6728.
I had to descend a bit to the west of 6728 before being able to head along the ridge toward Cameron. This portion of the ridge was generally enjoyable to travel and I traversed around most of the points to get to Cameron Pass. I filled up water at a patch of snow with a small trickle since I figured it might be my only opportunity besides having to melt snow (and that was the only chance it turned out). Just below pt. 6685 I actually ran into a couple doing the ridge traverse between Lillian Lake and Cameron Pass. I didn’t expect to see anyone along this stretch so it was nice to chat about our routes. They camped near the pass and I continued on the ridge a bit further to bivy on top of pt. 6650, where I found one nice flat spot the size of my bivy sack.
I decided to go up Cameron that evening to make the second day more relaxed and to hopefully get some good sunset photos. I made the mistake of trying to traverse around some of the minor bumps on the ridge and ended up in some really tedious sidehilling. I traversed all the way over to the east summit of Cameron to be sure I got all the high points of Cameron. I returned directly on the ridge and realized that it was easier and more enjoyable despite looking intimidating in places. Some clouds came through and kept sunset from being really spectacular, but it was an enjoyable scramble overall.
I relaxed and enjoyed dinner and a beer I had lugged up with me. I was pretty exhausted at this point and passed out quickly, only to wake up to an amazingly bright moon at times. Sunrise was much more beautiful than sunset and after a quick breakfast I easily made my way down Cameron Pass. I had to cross one low angle snow patch that was quite easy to cross without any traction and it was dry trail besides.
I did a quick water refill in the lower basin where some others were camped and kept moving toward Grand Pass. The trail up the south side of Grand Pass is steep and a bit rough in places, but I made good time. I decided to make a quick side trip from the pass up to pt. 6759. This was a fun easy scramble and there is a beautiful little lake up near the top of it.
After returning to Grand Pass, I hoofed it back down the trail past Moose Lake and then back up to Obstruction point, passing more and more people as I got closer to the trailhead. I made it back to my car at 1:45 and drove down to Port Angeles where I had a quick porch beer with some friends that recently moved there from Seattle. The ferry home was of course more of a headache and I had to wait quite a while, since there was a reduced schedule at the time.
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Recommended brew: Lagunitas IPA
Gear Used:
- Bear canister
- Bivy
- GPS
- Helmet
- Overnight pack
- Sleeping pad
- Summer sleeping bag
- Stove
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
- Water drops
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