Sourdough Mtn, Aurora Ridge, Olympic Park
Sourdough Mountain, as the name implies, hosted a mining camp that appears to be a moderately-serious old base-camp or prospect, on a line of recorded claims along a band of mineralization, ca 1930s. It consists of a fairly/partly level little sheltered meadow in the trees, on the ridge-top and tucked in against the west foot of the Sourdough rise; a short water-trail to an intermittent source out on the steep north slope, and a fairly long & impressive local trail up the peak. There used to be a small Adirondack-type shelter, but it slowly collapsed; there were also formerly visible remains of a box-latrine … and other artifacts which likely post-dated the mining-era (perhaps reflecting post-WWII horse-camping practices). It is just off the main Aurora Ridge Trail on its own very short side-trail, and the peak offers good & useful if relatively undramatic views into the North Fork Sol Duc River drainage, and of the north aspects of Mount Appleton and Boulder Peak, which bound the southern headwaters of the North Fork. … cont’d >