Return to Lake Ozette

This weekend Jason “Kiwi” Goldstein, Brad Miller, and I traveled to Lake Ozette to explore the southern half of the lake. As I had mentioned in previous posts from last summer, the lake is the third largest lake in Washington. While leading trips for REI Adventures, we had taken the clients on the lake but had only been able to explore the northern half. With this trip we wanted to see what was available at the southern end as well as explore the Ericson's Bay campground located on the west portion of the lake for possible future trips with clients.

We arrived a little later in the day then we had hoped, but where rewarded by a herd of Roosevelt Elk (Cervus canadensis) crossing the road. The bull was massive and his rack would have touched the bow of the boats on top of the Montero. Although this is a popular destination during the summer season, there was no one to be seen as we packed all our kit and food into the hatches. Paddling across the lake, it didn’t take long for one of us to remark on the total lack of noise, the only sound to be heard was the occasional bird, and ever constant hum of the coastal surf a few miles to the west of us. It was dark by the time we our bows scrapped the shore of where we thought the campsite should be located. I could hardly believe our luck as I approached the tree line to find that we had landed dead on the trail leading back to the sites. I started our dinner, as Brad and Kiwi unpacked the boats and setup camp.

Morning found us in Erickson’s Bay with the sun making cameo appearances between the clouds despite the downpour we suffered through the night. We had decided to head down toward Allen’s Bay and if possible hike the trail out towards the Norwegian Memorial. It was unbelievably serene to have such a large undeveloped lake to ourselves, and although the weather was unsettled with one minute finding us basking in the sunshine the next hunched over against the hail, it just added to the drama and beauty of the lake. Along the way we kept our eyes open for one of the many homesteads marked on the topo map of the area. it seems that the predominately Scandinavian settlement also had a church, school and cemetery, but despite our best efforts we couldn’t find any remnants of these structures. Apparently the rain forest had made quick work of reclaiming its property.

It didn’t take long to find the trail head at the base of Allen’s Bay, however, it’s been some time since this trail had seen any maintenance and it quickly turned into a full fledge bushwhack through the dense foliage. After a full hour of crawling, climbing and pushing our way through the obstacles, we had made only a half mile towards the coast, and released we’d never make the memorial and back before dark, and the thought of scrambling in the dark was something none of us had any illusion of wanting to take on. On the fight back to the boats we realized that we couldn’t wait to get back on the water so we could dry off! Pushing through the trail was like going through a car wash.

Our second night found us on the beach marveling at the stars, none of us could remember when we had seen so many. It was quite a treat, and it was late before we headed off to our sleeping bags. The next morning we had our coffee and oatmeal in warm sunshine, and it was with great reluctance that we finally forced ourselves to break camp and start the long trip home.

Although we had answered some of our questions concerning this lake and its history, we also realized that we’ll have more trips in the future to fully appreciate the beauty of this area. I’ll post a gallery as soon as I get all the photos together.