A Night of Bears and Lost Food in the Olympics
We started our Labor Day trip heading to Anderson Pass in the Olympic National Park . We took the trail up the Dosewallips River to Honeymoon Meadows. Along the way several people mentioned that there were bears nearby and then we met a woman who had a bear come and lick to the front of her tent that morning. She cut her trip short. We finally arrived at the pass and found that the three-sided shelter was unoccupied. There used to be many of these in the National Park but gradually they’ve been taken out or in severe disrepair.
We hung our food on the bear line that was stretched between 2 trees and settled in for the evening. It was comfortable not to have the confines of a tent. The next morning, we heard a rustle outside, about 30 feet from our shelter, and looking out saw a bear climbing out onto the bear line and snagging all six stuff sacks of our food; we rose and took our ice axes and metal cups and started banging it all to scare the bear away while staying at a safe distance. The bear panicked and ran through some bushes with our food.
Since we were there for three days we decided to complete our climb of Mount Anderson West Peak and then perhaps stay for a second night with minimal food (we had a few granola bars and snacks in our day packs which we had forgotten to put in the stuff sacks). So, we geared up and started our path up the route to Mount Anderson heading for the Anderson glacier. At this point the glacier had pulled away from the rock forming a large bergschrund which was the most difficult part of the climb – we had to carefully climb down 15-20 feet of ice into the trough separating the glacier from the rock face, then scramble on broken rock up the other side. From there it was a reasonable scramble up to the col between Anderson peak and the West peak which is actually higher at 7330 feet. Once there we had a spectacular view in all directions.
Mount Anderson has the unique feature of being a triple hydrographic apex which means it’s the source of three major rivers going into 3 distinct outlets. (Our camp was near the pass that separates the Quinault and Dosewallips rivers.)
5 Glaciers flow from Mt Anderson:
- The Anderson Glacier feeds Dosewallips River flowing east to Hood Canal.
- To the north, the Eel glacier, in the southeastern corner of the park melts into Silt Creek which flows into the Hayes River, a major tributary of the Elwha river which eventually exits at the far northern edge of the park draining into the Strait of Juan de Fuca about 50 miles away.
- Lastly the Echo Glacier drains southwest to the East Fork of the Quinault river to the Pacific Ocean
Part of the experience of climbing is combining the minutiae of the step-by-step climbing, the many variations in snow, & the tactile feel of rock and how it affects climbing. All involve a mindfulness where the outer world recedes At a macro scale, many climbers study the geology of the mountain ranges, especially in the Olympics which are mostly volcanic, but being so close to the ocean has pillow lava formations and areas of sedimentary flakes that became shale. with some areas of shale.
The down climb was relatively easy with a bit of a standing glissade down the snowfield. And so, back to our camp . When we got to the shelter we heard a rustle in the bushes and saw that there was another, smaller, bear that was trying to get our stuff sacks which h ad been tangled in the dense brush . So again, noisemakers emerged and we scared them away. We brute forced our way through the bushes and retrieved the stuff sacks They’d been torn open and in a fit of sour grapes the bears had bitten through the food freeze dried food packages; they didn’t particularly like them but instead slobbered all over them so most of our food was not inedible . Luckily several of the stuff sacks had snagged in the bushes and the bears weren’t able to access them. So we had two stuff sacks for the six of us for two nights. From the other stuff sacks we salvaged some chocolate bars and granola bars. Gorp was spread everywhere
So that evening. after a frugal dinner, we put the remaining food on top of the slanting roof of the shelter. In the middle of the night we heard a bear scrambling on the back of the shelter. Well protected by the other two sides, we took our ice axes and pounded on the back until the bear went away. This happened several more times that night but our food survived. In the morning we carried the remnants of our food with us and went on to climb two peaks to the South. First we climbed White Mountain – about 6400 feet – which was an easy scramble, then traversed across the narrow ridge to climb La Crosse mountain at another 6400 feet over 2 miles-broken rock but easy going with a little care
Next morning we packed up early and trudged out. Driving back we stopped at Shelton for our traditional post climb meal huge breakfast and salad. Just another day in the woods.
Note – tempting as it was, I avoided using any puns about bears but we did wonder if he was Catholic.
Coda: We did our trip before Dosewallips River Road washout, A section roughly 300 feet wide where the hillside and road collapsed into the river. This added about 11 extra road miles for a round-trip of 34miles (biking is recommended instead a boring forest service gravel road). This has become a common occurrence after road and bridge washouts and landslides. For budget and environmental reasons, national parks do not repair these blockages which has the additional beneficial effect of reducing visits to overused areas. A more recent one is the North Mowich Lake entrance to Rainier NP which is totally closed at the Fairfax Bridge. You need to come in from the West or east part of the Wonderland trail about 15 to 20 miles one way
Finally, while this article itself is AI-free and since I wasn’t using puns, I delegated & take no responsibility for what AI produced after I was done. Some related to our experience
- The situation was getting pretty grizzly.
- We had a bear-y close encounter
- The bear necessities.
- Unbearable campsite
- Paws for a moment.
