LITTLE QUILCENE TRAIL

Length 4.2 mi/6.8 km
Access FS Road 2820; FS Road 2860
USGS Map Mount Zion
Agency Olympic National Forest

The trailhead (ca. 4200 ft/1280 m) is located at the 4.0 mi/6.4 km point 
on FS Road 2820, which is reached via the Bon Jon Pass Road. The trail 
begins in a big clear-cut that has been slash-burned and is now covered 
with blackened stumps and fireweed. As the trail climbs above and parallels 
the road, it crosses a little stream-the only water on the route. This was 
the site of Last Water Camp before logging obliterated much of the trail.

Beyond the clear-cut the trail goes through a fringe of second growth before 
it enters the virgin forest-at this point Douglas fir and western hemlock, 
with the typical under story of rhododendron and azalea that is found in the 
eastern Olympics. The trail climbs sharply to a more or less level area covered 
with subalpine fir and lodge-pole pine. An old sign riddled with bullet holes 
indicates that this is Little River Summit (0.9 mi/1.4 km; 4800 ft/1463 m), 
the divide between the Little Quilcene and the Dungeness Rivers.

Open spots permit one to look out over the patch logging in the foothills to 
the Strait of Juan de Fuca. When the weather is benign, this is a pleasant 
place, but during storms the wind shrieks in the subalpine firs, creating a 
wilderness symphony.

The trail crosses into the Sleepy Hollow watershed, where it traverses thick 
stands of subalpine fir. Here it climbs again, but not so steeply, going up 
and down like an elevator as it makes its way through lodgepole pine and 
subalpine fir to the intersection with the Mount Townsend Trail (2.0 mi/3.2 km; 
5275 ft/1608 m), near the head of Sleepy Hollow and below the crest of Dirty 
Face Ridge.

How Dirty Face Ridge and Sleepy Hollow received their names is not known, but 
one is tempted to speculate that the former may have referred to the smoke-grimed 
faces of men fighting a forest fire-or perhaps they were miners from Tubal 
Cain returning to civilization.

Beyond this point the trail is not maintained, and it is sometimes called the 
Dirty Face Ridge Trail or the Sleepy Hollow Trail. The path climbs onto Dirty 
Face Ridge, where it winds among bushy pines and up thrusts of pillow lava. 
The forest is the same mixture of lodgepole pine and subalpine fir, with the 
former predominating. The views are excellent. Mount Townsend looms to the south, 
little more than a mile distant; Iron Mountain and Buckhorn Mountain are in full 
view. More distant are the peaks at the head of the Dungeness. The view to the 
northeast embraces Puget Sound and the Cascades, with Mount Baker the major peak. 
Below, to the north, are forested ridges, with a few clear cuts discernible in 
the distance.

The trail then traverses below the ridge, leaving the subalpine country, and 
the views disappears. But as the path circles around to the southwest, logging 
roads and clear cuts are visible along Silver Creek and the Dungeness.

The views again disappear as the trail begins a precipitous descent that is 
hard on the toes. Unbelievably, it gets steeper, until the rocky trail is little 
more than a gully. The route goes through stands of stunted trees and thick 
growths of rhododendron, where the display of blossoms in early summer is 
reason enough to hike over the trail. Although water is usually not available, 
the path crosses a seep (4.0 mi/ 6.4 km) where it can sometimes be obtained. 
The trail improves beyond this point-it is no longer rocky and loses much of 
its steepness as it comes out to FS Road 2860 (see Dungeness-Graywolf chapter) 
on the uphill side (4.2 mi/6.8 km; 3400 ft/1036 m). No sign is present to 
indicate that this is the trail's western terminus. The person driving on the 
road merely sees a path going up the mountainside. The parking area for the 
Tubal Cain Trail is down the road just a bit.