By Bret Wirta-The Incidental Explorer

Distance: 10 miles round trip – Time out: 5 hours

Degree of Difficulty: 2 – Pet Friendly: Yes

March 8th 2012.

The Klahhane Hiking Club is an Olympic Peninsula-based hiking club. The club hikes regularly all year long. I was invited to join the group for a hike, but I was a bit nervous as I don’t head into the forest much in the winter. I bought a pair of micro-spikes and gators for my hiking boots and lashed my snowshoes to my daypack. My equipment ready, I met the group, ready for a snowy adventure.

We started up the frozen trail around 10am. Though it had snowed recently, there was just a skiff of snow on the trail. There was more snow on the last few miles of road than at the trailhead. Our four-wheel drive bottomed out a few times on the last mile of rutty road. The light snow on the frozen trail was slippery, so I pulled on my micro-spikes.

The group told me that the Klahhane Club, like the Sierra Club in California, the Mazamas in Oregon, and the Mountaineers in Seattle, is an old hiking club. The Klahhanes trace their beginnings back to 1915. In Chinook jargon, Klahhane means, “Good times outdoors.” They even have a cabin of their own at Olympic National Park.

Continue reading “Hiking Deer Ridge with the Klahhane Club” »