Gabriella Rao, RD

I had a rare occurrence of no scheduled work on October 6th and 7th and convinced my partner, Kevin, to go on a backpacking trip in the Olympics with me. It was my first backpacking trip EVER! And his first trip since middle school!

And what a fantastic idea it was! We wanted to start off with a doable one-night backpacking trip, so crowd-sourced some ideas from friends (easy to do when you live in Seattle). We decided on the Seven Lakes Basin Loop in Olympic National Park. My friend Karen from one of my running groups suggested that instead of taking the High Divide Trail all the way around, that we take the Mirror Lake trail from Lunch Lake, which essentially goes through the basin, alongside several lakes. And so there it was, we had a plan! Or some semblance of one, at least.

Kevin and I arrived at the Olympic National Park Visitor Center on Monday morning, only to find it extremely closed. What we hadn’t considered was that a government shutdown was concurrently happening, and unfortunately many national parks felt the brunt of it. Well, there went our plan to rent a bear canister and confirm our camping permit. Luckily, we were able to acquire a bear canister at a nearby general store in Port Angeles. And so we carried on with our grand backpacking plan and headed to the Sol Duc Trailhead.

On Day 1, we trekked about 8-9 miles and 3,300 feet up to Lunch Lake. Turns out hiking is much slower going with a thirty-something pound pack on! We made very good time, even still, having started around 11 am and arrived at Lunch Lake around 4 pm. On the way up through the woods, we noticed the slightly eery lack of bird song, and joked that it was because the government drones were not patrolling during the shutdown. I would be remiss not to also mention the trail snacks that kept us fueled and happy along the way, including (but not limited to) nerds gummy clusters, fig bars, and trail mix.

During our descent from the ridge down to Lunch Lake, we happened upon a mama black bear and her cub – so cute!!

We were the only people at Lunch Lake when we arrived, and so had our pick of campsite. We chose one a little higher up, laden in sunlight, with a pretty good view of the lake, and set up camp.

As the afternoon went on, a few other groups joined Kevin and me at Lunch Lake. Even so, it was incredibly peaceful and quiet. We passed time playing 21 Questions and Uno and enjoyed a gourmet Backpackers Pantry dinner of Chicken Pad Thai and chocolate cheesecake. Chef’s kiss!

As the sun went down, it got chilly real quick. I hopped in the cozy sleeping bag lent to me by a friend (thanks Junzhi!) at 7 pm, and Kevin rightfully made fun of me for this old person behavior. We played Uno until it got dark outside, and then I went to bed (it was like 8 pm but why the heck not, right??). In a wild and unforeseen turn of events, I woke up at 2:30 am — it couldn’t have been because I went to bed so early…

I climbed out of the tent into the chilly air, admittedly at first to pee, but then to stand in awe, staring at the full moon and stars. The moon was so full, in fact, that I didn’t even need a headlamp to find my way to Pee Tree. I felt wide awake at this point, so just stood outside to experience the majesty and tranquility of an incredibly clear, bright night. (And take some pictures of the sky, of course).

After a little while of enjoying the night sky, I went back to sleep, only to awaken to a sunrise bestowing our campsite with a beautiful pink and orange glow.

I still can’t get over how cool it was to wake up in such a beautiful place.

After enjoying the sunrise, Kevin and I prepared some oatmeal and coffee, packed up camp, then began our Day 2 journey. But first, check out this cool pic of Kevin refilling our waters at Lunch Lake!

Instead of backtracking the way we came and continuing on the High Divide Trail (as All Trails would suggest), we instead carried on via the Mirror Lake Trail. Some trail/GPS platforms might tell you that this trail is not maintained, but it is not in the least bit difficult to navigate, and I would HIGHLY suggest this route if you ever decide to do Seven Lakes Basin.

It felt like we were frolicking through a mini Enchantments! I realize you would understand that reference only if you had hiked the Enchantments before, but it’s difficult to describe in words just how magnificent and breathtaking the Mirror Lake Trail was. Good thing I took lots of pictures!

We passed several lakes on the Mirror Lake Trail (including the aforementioned Mirror Lake), said hello to Mount Olympus, and trekked through huckleberries galore — ate a few too, of course!

It was exactly at the point of this spectacular view of Mount Olympus that the Mirror Lake Trail intersected again with the High Divide Trail, and we continued on the “traditional loop.”

At one point, we came upon a black bear who was enjoying some huckleberries right in the middle of the trail! We tried to wait for him to move, but he was way too intrigued with those berries. Instead, we went off trail a bit to give him a wide berth, and continued on.

Just before we reached Heart Lake, the High Divide Trail split into the Cat Basin Primitive Trail on the right and the Sol Duc River Trail on the left — we took the latter. On our way down, we saw some cool water features and fungi.

The final four miles of the trail were heavenly – laden in fluffy mulch, not a root or rock to be tripped upon. Kevin and I stopped to have our long-awaited pb&j lunch at one of the Sol Duc River campsites, sitting on a log in a sliver of sunlight in the dense, mossy forest.

We reached the trailhead just a few miles after the pb&j refueling, still quite in awe with the fact that a mere few hours ago, we were gawking at Mount Olympus and high-fiving black bears. On the way to get a celebratory beer in Port Angeles, I was already crowd-sourcing more backpacking trip ideas from my experienced backpacking friends.

Our Seven Lakes Basin adventure was absolutely incredible, to say the least. I’m already getting excited for another backpacking trip come spring!!!