Olympic Sea to Summit

Howdy from The Straits of Juan de Fuca & the beach!!! This morning we ate breakfast sandwiches and checked out the tide pools and learned about the oceanic ecosystem of the PNW. We just got back from our two day backpack trip up to Moose Lake…we know this isn’t our original plan! We attempted the original backpacking route through the Seven Lakes Basin high up in Olympic National Park, but we were drenched, soaked with downpour rain, and a chilly 50 degrees kind of cold —it was wild!! The group ended up making it to Deer Lake as planned and ate dinner before Skye & Erin (our mighty Alpenguides) decided to call it and headed back down to the trailhead to dry out as a safety precaution, this kind of wet and cold was nothing to tough out. It was an adventure getting back to the trailhead and the girls logged many miles this day and safety was at the forefront of the decision making to evacuate early. Edith motivated the group through her stories and songs on the way back to the van. The next morning, we drank hot cocoa, got our gear dried out and made a plan for a new backpacking trip to Moose Lake. The lake was beautiful and the trail lead us through the alpine zone and Min got to walk through a cloud (something she really wanted to do)! We saw three black bears that day (all from a safe distance, so no worries there), and Fionnula led the group in songs to let the bears know we were coming through! Alex was our final LOD (Leader of the Day) of this session, and did a wonderful job of supporting everyone on the rigorous uphill to the lake. Samantha was the head of the hiking pack and was the glue that held us together with her whoops and hollers of motivation! Once there, we set up camp, and Liz and Allie learned about water purification and were able to fill and purify water for the night! Sophie led the girls in another riveting game of Mafia (seems to be a group favorite) as the guides cooked Backcountry Mac and Cheese! That night, we held the Alpenolympic Talent Show and all the girls worked together on a skit that left us all giggling! Maddie is our resident photographer and got some photos of a huge buck that accompanied us on our hike out. We had our first Alpengirl Fashion Show of the summer, where we had all the girls try on their new merch from the store and while all girls shined, Adri won the competition with her “girls with altitude” attitude! We are heading to Port Angeles to have our town day and then we will be driving towards Sea-Tac for tomorrow morning departures. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful group of ladies for the last two weeks - thank you!