As recorded in Wayne’s Journal: On 4 September, 1993, a friend of mine (Andy) and I (Wayne) caught the 5:40 am Edmonds, WA ferry. We drove to the Elwha River [Whiskey Bend] trailhead, and we were hiking at 9:30 am. After a relatively short amount of hiking, I heard some rustling in the bushes on the left side of the trail. I initially thought it was a herd of elk. I stopped and Andy was a 100 yards in front of me. He turned around and I motioned that I heard something. Suddenly I spotted a bear cub a short distance away from me. And then a second bear cub appeared also. They were black and small - similar in size to a medium sized dog. They were romping around and playing. I did not see the mother bear. I watched them briefly, and then continued hiking. Andy saw the bear cubs also.
It took us 1:50 (hours) to hike to Lillian River; 1:30 to hike to Mary Falls; and 1:20 to hike to Elkhorn camp. The next morning, after breakfast, we picked up camp and were hiking again at 11:00 am. We then hiked for an hour and found a camp site .3 miles from Hayes Guard station.
On 6 Sept. 93 we got up at 7:00 am. I saw a doe and a fawn along the trail. I started the return hike at 12:45 pm (Andy started an hour earlier). It took 2 hours to reach Elkhorn camp.
I was impressed with a log cabin that was a couple of miles upstream from Elkhorn. I noticed that the logs had very little cracking in them.
We continued to Mary’s Falls. We camped there. The next morning I picked a cup of red huckleberries. We had huckleberry pancakes. A doe and a fawn walked near our camp during breakfast.
We started hiking at noon and reached the truck at 4:10 pm. It took 1:35 (hours) to reach the Lilian River; and 1:42 to reach the trailhead.
References:
1. “Beyond the Trails with Herb and Lois Crisler in Olympic National Park”, by Francis E. Caldwell, First Printing 1998
Note 1: The “Olympics_W” web page can be viewed by selecting Trails & Routes->Olympics_W from the menu bar at top.
Note 2: The “Glacier Meadows/Elwha Basin - 1989” web page can be viewed by selecting Trails & Routes->Olympics_W->Gl.Mead./Elwha Bsn. Trip 1 from the menu bar at top.
Note 3: On 5 Sept 92, I (Wayne) hiked the Elwha River Trail. I started hiking at 12:15 pm. I arrived at Elkhorn camp at 6:00 pm. I fished until 8:00 pm. The next morning I had pancakes for breakfast. I fished from noon to 7:30 pm. I caught several trout during this time. On 7 Sept. 92, I got up, fixed breakfast, picked up camp, and was hiking at 10:30 am. I reached the trailhead at 3:00 pm. I got back to Seattle at 7:30 pm.
Note 4: On 23 Sept. 89, I (Wayne) drove from Seattle to Elwha River Trailhead (Whiskey Bend) with a married couple (Wayne and Karen). We were hiking at 11:00 am. After an hour of hiking, we found a camp site next to a creek and close to the river. We fished that afternoon and part of the evening. The next morning we got up and fished; then had breakfast. We then hiked to Humes Ranch (see Note 5). We returned to our camp, and got ready for our return trip. We started hiking at 1:30 pm. We reached the trailhead at 2:30 pm. We arrived back in Seattle at 8:00 pm.
Note 5: As stated in reference 1 on p. 52 (see note 32), Herb and Lois Crisler resided at Humes Ranch during most of the decade (1940s). Additional information about Herb and Lois Crisler can be found in Note 2.