I went on a four-day logout along the Duckabush River as part of the WTA’s Backcountry Response Team. This was my first time doing anything like this and I got to cut downed trees in half with a two-person crosscut saw, kick giant logs down steep slopes, and generally just live out my lumberjack fantasies. Oh, and I also got a hard hat with my name on it, a t-shirt, and a sticker. And muscles.
If you’re looking to do multi-day backpacking trips where you cut and clear logs off of trails, build bridges and other structures, do rock work, or build and reroute trails then BCRT trips are for you.
The trail begins at the end of a forest service road which starts just south of the town of Brinnon. It follows the Duckabush River west and crosses a small hill called Little Hump before reaching Two Mile Camp. After that it switchbacks steeply up a much larger hill called Big Hump before dropping back down to the river and Five Mile Camp.
Gear
LighterPack: https://lighterpack.com/r/b2b8sv
Too Much
The forecasts were all over the place: low of 32F, low of 42F, light rain, heavy rain, etc. As a result I ended up bringing lots of extras: a sleeping bag liner, sleep bottoms, rain pants, bread bags for camp shoes, and a balaclava. I didn’t end up actually needing any of these things so it was just a bunch of unnecessary weight. Whoops. On the other hand I finally remembered to hang my thermometer outside the tent on at least two of the nights and the low for both was 39F.
I brought a bear canister because in my head Olympics means bear canister required, but it turned out we were working in a wilderness area just outside the national park boundary so this too was unnecessary weight and I should have just brought my Ursack. Double whoops.
Given the rainy multi-day forecast I got the idea into my head that my Gossamer Gear pack liner wouldn’t be sufficient and I needed to switch back to ye olde trash compactor bag. My reasoning was that the GG liner wouldn’t be tall enough to hold the extra stuff I was bringing and still be able to offer enough extra material to be able to fold over and provide water protection. The trash compactor bag appears taller but it doesn’t have a gusseted bottom, so once you’ve actually filled it up it’s about the same size as the GG liner but heavier (which is somehow comforting) and opaque as opposed to see-through. I think I’ll just bite the bullet and carry two GG liners so that I always have plenty of capacity as well as redundancy.
Too Little
I brought five ibuprofen for four days and could have probably used a couple more. On the plus side I was never sore in the morning which was my main concern going into the trip – looks like adding rows to my lifting routine was the right move.
I forgot tea. The Kojin stove and Caldera Cone make boiling water so easy that I made more than what I needed just for my meals but didn’t have anything to put in it. Sad.
I ran out of food! I didn’t anticipate burning so many calories, I targeted 2,700 per day with a 1,000 calorie trail mix buffer but that was still not enough. We were even given cookies and dessert bars and other snacks over the course of the day so without that I think I would have been pretty miserable. For future trips where I’m working this much I think I’ll go for 3,500 or even 4,000.
What Worked
I’ve been putting off buying a power bank for ages since I mostly do shorter trips but when I got a notification from Amazon that the Charmast USB-C Power Delivery 10,400 mAH that’s been sitting in my wishlist for months was part of a lightning deal I pulled the trigger. This thing is incredible. It has a two-digit LCD display like an old microwave which shows the number of volts (charging speed) whenever you plug something into it and then switches to showing you the exact percentage of charge it has remaining. There’s just something really satisfying about knowing that your power bank is 83% full as opposed to 4 of 5 blinky lights. You can also click a button on the side to bring up the charge remaining display at any time when it isn’t charging anything. Finally, it has an ingenious system where the tether is actually a charging cord with a magnetic closure so you never have to worry about losing the charging cord. Of course I need both micro-USB and USB-C cables so I have to bring a second cord regardless, but it’s still quite clever.
If one of the corners of the Lunar Solo is pretty flat against the ground and the bathtub wall looking a bit sad you can slide a rock under the corner (between the bathtub wall and the adjuster strap thingy) to add some elevation.
The Velcro on the Zpacks dry bag is such a nice touch. Being able to hold all your gear in without having to reroll and clip every time makes these the most user-friendly dry bags I’ve ever had.
You can stuff spare clothes (less effective) or the toes of your shoes (more effective) under the edge of your sleeping pad to help level it out if you’re finding your campsite to be less than ideal.
I saw someone with a similar Vecto gravity filter setup but they used a tent stake embedded in the bark of a tree to hang theirs. I thought this would be handy if you only had large trees nearby but then I did some experimentation and you can actually hang the Vecto from the fly line on the Lunar Solo if you use a slip knot to pull some of the extra cord out. I’ll probably have a note on this later.
Costco chocolate muffins are amazing, I had one for lunch each day. Also they don’t go bad three days after you buy them like the blueberry ones do.
What Didn’t
The side panel guylines (the ones that give you more headroom) on my Lunar Solo aren’t long enough to reach trees or branches that aren’t right next to it – I’m thinking I’ll need to add another 3-4 feet. On the other hand I usually only actually want to raise the one end where my head is so maybe I could just combine a single longer cord with an ultralight carabiner that I could use to quickly attach the cord to one guyout or the other.
Similarly, I need to lengthen the cord that’s attached to the top of my Vecto. It’s too short to girth hitch to anything but tiny branches and the additional length is also necessary if you want to roll it up top-to-bottom like a toothpaste tube in order to squeeze water through it faster while it’s hanging. For this reason specifically the length of the cord needs to be at least as long as the Vecto itself.
The Accurite window thermometer only works when positioned vertically (which sort of makes sense since it’s designed to stick to a window), in other positions the battery seems to lose contact and the device behaves very oddly. Pretty sure it didn’t reach 90F at night in the Olympics in April…
At night my eyelids get cold. A balaclava doesn’t cover them and the hood on the Nitro Quilt can but only if you’re ok with breathing into the quilt (which I am, but many consider this a no-no). Maybe a sleeping mask would work? Or maybe it’s time to finally get a Buff?
The stock fly line on the Lunar Solo doesn’t seem long enough if you want to wrap it around an object like a rock instead of just staking it in. This came up because the ground in front of the tent was rocky as hell and I couldn’t get a stake in for the life of me but there were plenty of large rocks that I could have tied off to instead. I think I’ll replace it with my usual LiteOutdoors cord with a bowline knot at the end.
While I’m at it, I was thinking about replacing the corner adjustment straps on the Solo with cord as well. This would allow a lot more flexibility in attachment (around a rock/root/etc. as opposed to just a stake in the ground) as well as flexibility in the length of the attachment.
Other Notes
The Backpacker’s Cache bear canister should be stored upside-down with the lid towards the ground to prevent rain from entering and filling it up during the night (this was advice given to me on the trip, not personal experience).
Not that it’s a big deal if you get them mixed up, but I thought it might be prudent to use a marker to label the various zipper bags I have lying around (alcohol, tent stakes, water filter, etc.).
I was airing out my Oboz insoles when I remembered a conversation I had with an REI employee when Person B and I were visiting Portland about how Oboz had released a new improved insole design for 2019. Maybe I should consider picking up a new pair? I don’t think the ones I have have a ton of miles on them though, so probably unnecessary.
Campsite
First Night
My first campsite was in the first smaller group camping area on a slope below a log. I knew it was inclined but I didn’t realize how much – although my Thinlight kept my pad from moving my pants and puffy (Stretch Zion and Ghost Whisperer) were so slippery that -I- was sliding off the pad! I considered relocating but it was already dark by the time I got into the tent so I wanted to avoid this as much as possible. I then remembered a trick where people will put the toes of their boots under the ends of their inflatable pads to act as a sort of poor man’s pillow. By shoving the fronts of my boots under the sides of the pad I was able to level it out enough where I stopped slipping, and by shoving my extra clothes (rain jacket and pants, etc.) underneath as well I was able to improve things even more. This got me through my first night.
Second Night
After we were done working the next day I spent some time scouting around for a new site and discovered an isolated solo site right next to the river. Jackpot! Easy access to water, privacy, and the “path” to the larger group campsite via the banks of the wash wasn’t half bad.
Flora & Fauna
Highlights
I finally spotted chocolate lily! We found some on the upper switchbacks between Two Mile Camp and the top of Big Hump.
On the far side of Big Hump we spotted a four-petaled (and four-leaved) trillium right on the side of the trail. Basically the four-leaved clover of the flower world.
I also managed to snag a picture of a trio of fairy slippers which were growing right next to my second campsite. This is actually taken at dusk and the camera lens is just an inch or two away from the flowers while the body was just resting on the ground. You can tell from the purple oversaturation on the upper petals that something’s not quite right with the lighting. Still, the amount of detail is pretty incredible on the two flowers that I was able to get in focus (I couldn’t pull in the third flower without leaving so much separation from the background and keeping that nice floating effect). Another example of how the Fujinon 16mm f1.4 can hold its own as a macro lens.
Plants
- Bleeding heart
- False morel
- Fawn lily
- Monkey flower
- Oregon grape
- Paintbrush
- Red currant
- Salmonberry
- Stonecrop
- Wild strawberry
Critters
- Bluejay
- Sooty grouse
Photography
The forecast called for light steady rain but we only had a couple drops near the end of the third day. The first day was clear and the rest of the time it was either partly cloudy or overcast. From the saddle on Big Hump it looked like you could do some light bushwhacking (log hopping, really, given all the downed trees) to the summit and get an amazing shot of St. Peter’s Dome, The Brothers, and some snow-capped ridges. Unfortunately I was there to clear logs and not run around taking pictures so I missed the one really great opportunity for a mountain shot.
We did, however, spot lots of great plants and the river shots weren’t too bad, although I would have liked to have had a polarizer to cancel out the reflections on the surface of the water. The 16mm f1.4 works so well as a macro lens I don’t think I’ll be buying a dedicated one anytime soon.
This is a nice little shot of Claire’s Rock which is a popular lunch spot just past the aptly-named Five Mile Camp on the far side of Big Hump. I like the brightness of the dry rocks in the lower right corner as well as the gravel bar sticking out just before the rock itself.
This picture emphasizes the clarity and color of the water but at the expense of background focus which is a bit fuzzy.
Just above (in the water flow sense) Claire’s Rock is another pool of water before a waterfall. The sunlight here was falling directly on the rock on the right and you can see one of the volunteers eating lunch on top of it. Unfortunately there’s a distracting split log on the right with a bit too much color – probably should have edited that sucker out or just desaturated it. In any case I think this one has a good balance of light and dark with just enough detail in the shaded wall and water to make it interesting.
Upstream is a small falls below a massive log jam. This one was really hard to white balance and it took a lot of post-processing to bring out the details in the foam and white water without making it look artificial.
Finally, a ho-hum shot of the Duckabush River itself. I nailed the focus and the light on the boulder in the bottom right was a nice touch, and I brought out a lot of gritty detail on the foreground rocks. Just to the right of the big rock on the left you can actually see the rocks on the bottom of the river through the water. The sun was really coming through in the top right so there was too much dynamic range for the camera to handle – I had to darken that corner and lighten everything else to balance the picture out, but I think in the end it’s a good mix. Maybe it could be a half-stop lighter?
Work!
Last but not least I wanted to throw up a bunch of shots of the actual trail work (mostly log removal) that we did. The Duck was recently hit by a fire and every year winter storms do a fine job scattering logs all over the place so the WTA schedules multiple early season logout trips to keep the trail accessible.
