Storming Up Storm King

But not quite a summit--July 17, 2023

Kris and I snagged a campsite for a couple of nights at Lake Crescent on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula this week. It was a chance to finally enjoy biking the Spruce Railroad Trail that had been on my radar for this summer. The trail is part of the much longer Olympic Discovery Trail that will eventually connect the Pacific coast with the inland waters at Port Townsend. We did the paved ten miles along the lake, west to east and back again.

Also on my radar was a hike up Storm King Mountain, one of the more popular hikes in this northern reach of the Olympic National Park. As advertised, the trail is steep, but reasonably well maintained, at least until you reach the ropes. Yeah, the ropes. I’ve done my share of technical climbing and imagined these handlines would be no big deal, despite the warnings to the “non-climbers” tempted to run up them. Though not difficult, the exposure was more than expected. Grip and don’t slip, one might say.

I had only browsed a couple of brief descriptions of the climb to “the top,” and wrongly had the impression that the ropes were near the summit, which would contribute to my quest for 70. Had I done my homework, I would have realized that “the top” was just the top of a spooky little crag with a great view, definitely worthy, but not quite a summit to this wayfaring peakbagger.

Regardless, it was a good grunt up a mountain with a lovely view of the lake 2,000 feet below. I might have continued on to the true summit, but we’d exhausted much of the day already, so I opted to avoid civil unrest and keep to the schedule I’d given Kris.

On the way back, I diverged to Marymere Falls for the nice view there, then found Kris basking on the beach, enjoying a perfect afternoon made for reading a good book from your Adirondack chair. All members of the party having enjoyed their brief foray to the peninsula, we reboarded the Chevy and made for home.