WOMEN'S WRITE & HIKE: Dosewallips
Writing and hiking with the big-hearted sentience of the Dosewallips River Trail on Wednesday, September 13th from 10am-2pm.
Every place in nature has an energetic signature. A personality, if you will.
The Dosewallips River Trail — the eastern gateway to Washington State’s Olympic Mountains — is no exception. [Skip to: Trail Description | Retreat Details]
Much like a human personality, the personality of a place responds to whatever we bring to it. So if we’re upset, frustrated, sad or checked out, the sentience of the place often responds to our emotions, mirroring them back to us.
As an animist, this makes perfect sense to me: everything has sentience, and that sentience interacts with other sentient beings, including us.
The Dosewallips’ personality, however, is different: it is unconditionally good-natured. Unlike other places (who have tended to get a bit peevish when approached in a less-than-centered way), no matter what I bring to it, this trail always welcomes me with open arms. I can be checked out and tired, grumpy and irritable, and it just holds the space for all of it.
Of course, when someone holds the space for you like that, some pretty big shifts can happen. Inevitably, I always leave the Dosewallips River Trail feeling like I’ve just been enveloped in a very big energetic hug.
So obviously I want to share this place with you!
About the Dosewallips River Road Trail
It used to be that the Dosewallips River Road was drivable for 8+ miles — right up the river valley — and marked the eastern entrance to Olympic National Park. It was, apparently, one of the most trafficked areas of ONP at the time, with visitors enjoying easy access to plentiful campgrounds along the river, as well as to the short-but-oh-so-steep Lake Constance Trail and the majestic Dosewallips Falls.
Then some twenty years ago, the Dosewallips decided to overflow its banks significantly, carving a new path for itself and obliterating sections of the already narrow road. Due to the extensive nature of the damage, ONP closed the road at mile 2 and converted the rest of the road into a trail.
You might be thinking, “Oh man, now there is 6.5 miles of boring old road to walk!”
Far from boring, they are some of the loveliest, easiest miles the Olympics has to offer.
With the exception of the first washout area (at Mile 1), it’s a wide, gentle slope for most the way, the road narrowing in a few places due to washout areas. But the wide road means you can walk side-by-side with hiking friends, which makes it quite wonderful for social hikes. And unlike other river valley walks in the OP, this road has many beautiful glimpses of the river and mountains beyond.
It is for all these reasons that I am delighted to be leading Write-and-Hike Retreats on the Dosewallips River Trail this September!
Retreat Description:
WOMEN’S WRITE & HIKE: Wednesday, September 20th
A wonderful beginner’s half-day hike on the gentle slope of the Dosewallips River Trail!
Due to the road washout 20 years ago, what was previously Olympic National Park’s very popular Dosewallips River Road has become a less-traveled foot trail, affording both incredible views and easy access to campsites and picnic tables on a wide, gentle trail with stable footing for beginners. There are also many places to explore around the river, with ample time for group and individual writing exercises to deepen one’s connection to Self and nature.
Roundtrip distance is 5 miles with easy-to-moderate grade in a beautiful riverside setting in Brinnon, WA.
As with all our offerings, this mini-retreat is rain or shine, so please dress accordingly.
DATE: Wednesday, September 20th
TIME: 10am-2pm
COST: $40-$85 sliding scale
BRING: A daypack, journal, pen, lunch, snacks and water (and a portable chair if you prefer that for sitting)
Are you an elder who would like a shorter, completely flat hike with stable footing? We’ll also have an Elders-Only version of this hike (2 miles roundtrip, no washout traverse). REGISTER HERE.