Thursday September 5, 20.3mi/32.7km

Lillian Camp (1092.7/1365ft) to Olympic Hot Springs (1109.0/2165ft) (WA) +4.0mi side trail to town

I was hiking early, it’s a town day! There was only 8 miles to town this morning, and most of it was on a closed gravel road.

It seemed wetter on this side of the park, so many ferns!

I came to the spot of an old dam, the Glines Canyon dam. It was removed in 2014, so the natural Elwha river could be restored. The dam was built 100 years ago for power generation.

Most of the former lakebed is now overgrown with alders, and other colonizing species.

A mile later, I came to another mile marker. 1100 miles down, 117 to go!

I got to the trailhead at 10:30am, and hitched a ride to town. We had a nice conversation, and the woman was nice and offered to drop me at Safeway. Perfect! I did my food shopping, then went across the street for BBQ and ice cream. Then, I took a bus across town, to the ranger station to pickup a bear canister (they are required in the upcoming coast section). The ranger mentioned that the weather forecast will be rainy after these next two dry days. So, she changed my permit, and I hitched back to the trail today, so I can be out of the mountains before the rain starts. I was only in town for three hours, so I only got one photo!

I was back on the trail at 3:30pm, and hiked up the other side of the Elwha River. There was more information about the demolished dam, which was neat.

I hiked up a closed road for 8 miles, with a viewpoint about halfway thru. In the distance is some smoke from a small wildfire.

Looking north, back toward the demolished dam.

I arrived at camp at 7:30pm, setup camp and quickly made dinner, as it was getting dark quickly. I could hear other hikers around, and saw many small tents. There is also a hot springs nearby, which I’ll investigate in the morning.