Spike Camp (7/2/13)

When on the summit of Mount Ellinor, we were scouting our next-day backpacking trip up nearby Mount Stone. The local climber sharing the summit warned that it was a treacherous trail. Yippee!

That warning, combined with the extreme heat, prompted us to change our plans. We decided it just wouldn't be fun. 

Instead, we slept in a bit at our river-side campsite and then explored nearby Rapids Loops Trail. It was beautiful!

Look at the size of those bridge anchors:

With plans still up in the air, we decided to load up and backpack up the North Fork Skokomish River Trail a few miles to Spike Camp. The trail was tree lined and flat-ish, so we thought that sounded a lot more fun than climbing.

Still, we were sweating buckets and laughing that it was a good thing we chose the "flat" trail :)

We knew we were close when we spotted this:

What luxury! Nice to not have to squat.

We set up camp, ate dinner and read before the mosquitoes drove us inside the tent.

Had the mosquitoes been better, we would have hung out all day - it was lovely!

So fun to explore new areas :)