Hiking in the Olympic Mountain Wilderness

For those of you who know me, you know that when I hear about something or get an idea about something, I am determined to do it. This was one of those situations. A while back I met a woman who had just done a hike to the wreckage of a WWII B17 bomber plane. As she spoke of the hike I was enraptured. I knew I simply HAD to do this hike. I googled it like crazy and found out it was actually part of a hiking trail called the Tubal Cain Mine. The trail passes by abandoned mine shafts from the 1890's. It sounded so interesting! Abandoned mine shafts, plane wrecks - that was all the motivation I needed to do this hike! haha.

Of course, the best time to do this hike is in the summer, when the days are long and sunny and the flowers are all in bloom etc etc. However, I am Unstoppable Gina and I was not about to wait until summer next year to do this hike, so I opted to do it now, in winter.

My friend was game enough to come with me. It was a bit of a roadtrip just to get to the trailhead which was on the other side of the Puget sound in the Olympic Peninsular, in fact, right in the Olympic mountains. We left home at 8am and got there at 12.30pm, it involved  a car ferry, and then once we were close, it took over an hour on back forest roads, navigating through hundreds of potholes (literally). Lately it has been getting dark at 4.30-5pm, and since we had arrived at the trailhead so late, we made a pact that no matter how far into the hike we were, at 2pm it was time to start thinking about heading back. The area we were in was part of 'cougar country' and the cougars had been known to be very active and aggressive in that area. Luckily, I am not put off by cougars, mere pussy cats to me! haha. The hike was 7 miles altogether, but I had no idea how long it would take us to walk it (I still don't understand how long a mile is, I still think in kilometres!).

To get to the mine shaft you just had to stay on the main trail, however to visit the plane site you needed to take a smaller trail that veered up steep mountains from the main trail. It was a detour that we would need to look out for carefully on the hike so as not to miss it.

We began walking, and I was just so excited to be there and to be doing the hike! It was really gorgeous surroundings too - in fact, it began to snow! As time wore on, I began to get a little worried that we would not get anywhere before 2pm - neither the mine nor the plane!

We kept walking, then at 2pm, we stopped to assess the situation, and have lunch. The fact was that we had not reached the mine, and we also had not found the trail to the plane, and it was already 2pm. I didn't want to go home without seeing anything, so I did the best - and only - thing I could do: I prayed. After praying, I decided to leave my friend eating her lunch and just quickly peek a minute further along the trail to see if by any chance the mine or the plane trail were right there. Alas, I did not see anything, however, I did suddenly spot fresh boot tracks in the snow from a man - I couldn't understand this because the tracks were leading back the way I had come and I had not met anyone on the way - and believe me, the tracks were very fresh. So I followed the boot tracks all the way back where I had come, to where my friend was still finishing her lunch, and lo and behold there were 2 men there! It really was a miraculous answer to prayer. They were really friendly (and not dangerous or creepy at all, just in case you were wondering haha) and had been camping in the woods for several days hunting deer. They knew the forest like the back of their hands and were able to tell us exactly how far we were from the plane and the mine! They said that we had actually passed the trail to the plane, and also that it took about an hour and a half to get up there and come back to the trail, and the cougars hung around up there, so it was not going to be possible for us to do safely before dark. However, they said that the mine was only 2 minutes further up the main trail!

We packed up and continued on the main trail, following the men's instructions to get to the mine shaft. In the end, the mine shaft was at the top of a very steep hill made of rubble and covered in snow - it was very slippery, but I was determined that after coming all this way I would make it to see the actual mine shaft. It was a great feeling when I made it to the top!

We thanked the men for their help and climbed back down to the main trail. Melissa and I took our time coming back to the car, chatting and enjoying the scenery (we finally saw the trail leading to the plane - it was partially hidden so it was easy to see why we missed it). We got back to the car right on 4.30, it was still light out and we could see the mountains so clearly, it was spectacular. I drove with a craned neck through the potholes and then drove us to one of my favourite places - Port Townsend, where we had a well deserved delicious Thai dinner before taking the ferry back home.

Even though I did not see the plane in the end, I did not regret anything. Even just doing the hike and seeing the natural beauty was enough, but to see the mine shaft too and imagine the toil and hardship of those miners, well, that was something really special. And besides, maybe it would be a little too spooky - even for me - to intrude on the debris field from a plane crash that took lives with it and that happened so many years ago.