The weekend before July 4th we decided to take advantage of having a few days off and head to the Olympics. I planned this hike and didn’t tell Blair where we were going because I wanted it to be a surprise. I knew he would get a kick out of seeing the plane crash from the 50s. It’s also a throwback to our first backpacking trip where we camped at a plane crash in the Talladega National Forest.
One facet of hiking in the PNW is that often, the really great hikes require a long time driving on fire roads. This one was no exception and after leaving the main road you still have at least an hour of driving along narrow gravel roads to get to the trailhead. I bought a Northwest Forest pass just in case, but apparently the Tubal Cain trailhead does not require a pass. The trails in this area travel through an amalgamation of various public lands, including the National Park, the National Forest, state-owned and privately owned land.
We left home after a lazy morning, taking the ferry to Port Townsend and driving from there. We probably got to the trailhead around 3:00 PM and set off with all our gear. I was surprised at how much more difficult the hiking was with a full pack, but the trail was slightly uphill and it had been a while since I’ve hiked with a heavy pack. After around 3 miles we reached the junction with the offshoot trail that led to the plane crash. Back in the 1950s, a B-17 crashed here while flying to McChord in bad weather. I had read that there were multiple campsites in the area, however I am always nervous about first-come, first-serve sites being taken. We actually ended up being the only ones camped out by the plane crash! Perhaps because it’s a very steep 1 mile climb up to the crash site.
The crash itself was really interesting and it’s surprising how much is still there after so many years. Parts of the wreckage have definitely been dragged around by people, but most of it is still in a flat section near a small pool of water. Unfortunately the still water meant that during he evening there were quite a few bugs and mosquitos. We built a fire and that kept most of them away until we got in the tent. In the middle of the night I definitely heard some sort of animal investigating our campsite, and of course since it’s night time I immediately thought the worst, that it could be a mountain lion. I was very glad that I insisted we hang all our food in a bear bag because I at least knew we had no food in the tent. I’m pretty certain it was actually a deer but it’s impossible to know for certain. Anyways, whatever it was it never bothered us and left us alone.
The next day I wanted to check out the mine, which was about a quarter of a mile further up the trail. There’s actually a rather confusing network of trails and campsites in that area but we did eventually find the path up the steep scree-covered hillside to find the mine. There’s a stream flowing through the tunnel into the mine and it was filled with spiders and bugs so we didn’t do more than look inside. It’s always interesting to see signs of human activity from long ago and imagine what life was like for the people who built and worked on this mine.
We returned back to the trailhead after that and honestly both of us were pretty tired from the trip. I hadn’t gotten great sleep, but that always makes me appreciate my own bed that much more! I would definitely recommend this trail; although it doesn’t lead to panoramic vistas, it does have some interesting sights.