Hiking Goat Lake, Petunia Peak, 6998 Peak, etc (Fri, 10-25-2013)

Bagging Multiple Peaks via Goat Lake on Royal Divide (a loop of Petunia Peak (6960 ft, 6998 Peak, 6763 Peak, and 6626 Peak) in NE Olympics: About 12 miles with 5500 ft elev gain. Fri, 10-25-2013. Another foggy week has plagued much of Western Washington. Also, the temperature inversion has been going on close to 2 weeks. While the low lands were in 50s, the high country (over 5000 ft elev) was near 70s. Last week Fri, 4 of us had an excellent scramble-climb traversing Mt Washington to Mt Ellinor. This week, we decided to hike another nice loop hike in Upper Dungeness Area: Upper Dungeness TH, Goat Lake trail (parallel to Camp Handy trail across the river), Goat Lake, Petunia Peak, 6998 peak, and off-trail bushwhack along the ridge that divide Royal Creek and Dungeness River. Trail description: a. Upper Dungeness TH (2500 ft elev) to across Camp Handy (3100 ft elev): about 3.2 miles. Get on the ridge just before crossing the 2nd log bridge. It's trail is parallel to Camp Handy trail. Well defined trail. b. Across Camp Handy (3100 ft) to Goat Lake (5920 ft): 2.1 miles. The key was to stay left of the meadow heading west and then stay right of the creek that was flowing from the Goat Lake ! c. Goat lake (5920 ft) to Petunia Peak (5960 ft). 0.9 mile. Near class 2 until below the Peak. Before the summit, needed to watch out for falling rocks. d. Petunia peak to 6998 peak. 1 miles. Class 2 back down to ridge. Class 1 Ridge walk. A fantastic 360 views of the area (Gray Wolf, Mt Townsend, Buckhorn Mt, Marmot Pass, Warrior Peak, Mt Constance, Inner Constance. ...) e. 6998 peak to short of Junction with Royal Basin trail. 3.6 miles. Downhill ridge walk. Bushwhack about 2500 ft down (5400 ft to 2900 ft). A lot tougher than I thought. Going the opposite direction would be easier. f. To Upper Dungeness TH. 1.3 mile Well maintained trail. In overall, it was an excellent (9 out of 10) dayhike in high country in late season. The Petunia Peak was one of the best view spots in the Olympics. For the ridgeline walk back to the TH, not sure if I would do that again though.

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