1/4/2023 0 Comments Queets river shuttle![]() ![]() The next morning we leisurely rolled out of camp listening to elk calls from the hills above us. After doing this a few more times we were finally on somewhat flat ground as we ran out of daylight and had to camp in a bare tree well surrounded by snow. I tied them together and lowered the boats 100 feet down to Brett. A series of cliffs made us break out our two 70-foot Salamander Throw Bags. ![]() ![]() Starting the descent into the Tshletshy was steep. Luckily, the snow was firm so we didn’t post-hole and my Salamander Bak Yakmade the hike easier than my previous long distance hike-ins. Since the snow covered the trail we had to follow the path of least resistance, leading us into gullies and around features that took up valuable daylight. The next day we hiked up to the snow line at 2,800 feet, many hours later topping out on the low saddle pass at 3,608 feet. “I think we go this way”: The snow hiding the trail. After about 4 miles and gaining about 1,400 feet we set up camp. I tried to convince a couple other paddlers to go, but in the end it was just Brett and I. We met up on Sunday and started hiking until dark. Luckily, we planned for a couple extra days, just in case… Watch epic video here: It sounded good at the time, but the Tshletshy is a major undertaking. Our plan – hike in on Monday, boat on Tuesday, out on Wednesday. To access Tshletshy you have to be ready for a long hike in from the north fork of the Quinault drainage, over the low pass by Bear Creek, and gain about 3,000 feet in elevation heading six miles up from the trail before dropping into the Tshletshy drainage which drains into the Queets in the Olympic’s southwest corner. ![]() Surprisingly, my buddy Brett Barton sent a message that said, “Tshletshy next weekend?Īfter looking over the logistics again and understanding we’d have to deal with six feet of snow at the top of the pass and the water level would be low but worthy of an exploratory trip, we made plans. I tried to go a couple times that spring, but since summer arrived later than expected my window disappeared. Olympus, rivers such as the fabled Elwah and mighty Queets flow out in all directions. That book by Gary Korb was one of my many guidebooks and I was getting intrigued by the Olympic Mountains, whose unique geology is breathtaking. I’d been looking at the description for Tshletshy Creek in the ‘Paddlers Guide to the Olympic Peninsula’ for 10 years now, wondering and dreaming if it really was what I had been imagining. ![]()
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