across olympics

I think a TrailsNW trail building/maintenance crew is a fantastic idea! Maybe once the site gets a few more devoted members it could be a possibility....

thank you so much for all the advice! I like the idea of trailsNW building some trails :)

Would be an awesome trip if it can be done. Seems like there would be a lot of logged country to walk through to make it out to the coast, but could still be nice. Too bad there isn't a trail that connects. Maybe TrailsNW needs to organize a trailbuilding crew!

You also should call the park headquarters in Port Angeles.More and more areas are requiring bear proof containers.So you might want to be prepared for that.

The trail system in the olympics doesnt give you a true east west route.Your best route given your time frame would be Quinault to Dosiwallips.The road is washed 4 or 5 miles before the trailheads on both sides.The hike goes through Quinault rainforest,to Anderson pass then back down the West fork of the Dosiwallips.If you have a couple of extra days you can take Oneil pass trail and spend a day in Lacross Basin.You won't regret it.You could also come out Duckabush but it's more miles and very few views.If you want to know more about the areas you can check out washington trails association page.Alot of knowledgeable hikers with good reports.And The Olympic Trail Guide by Robert L Woods is the best book on the Olympics IMO.Just know if you hike in the Olympics most of the milage you travel is along the river drainages,lovely but not many views.On the route i gave you the only days in the alpine zone will be around Anderson,Oneil passes and the Lacross Basin.You might have 4 days just walking in the trees.Nothing wrong with that but there are better views to be had.I loved the hike myself.Good luck

I've thought about doing this for a while. I figure somebody has done this before, but haven't actually heard of anyone doing it. My route has always been to start on the Duckabush or Dosewallips, connect up with the Elwha (or stay on the ridges above the Elwha, (Cameraon Pass, Grand Valley, etc...)), then connect with Boulder Creek, and connect oer with the Bogachiel River. It seems like the Bogachiel gets you closest to the coast, but you would still have to connect with old roads to make it all the way. I'm not aware of any trails that connect the mountains with the coast.