BRINNON — Thad Moore will never forget his first trip to Olympic National Park.
Moore, 16, and his hiking buddies from South Carolina walked straight into the heart of the Heatwave Complex of wildfires July 30, and had to be plucked out by helicopter the next day.
Moore and nine other hikers from Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia, S.C., were four days into their backcountry trek when they noticed the smoke coming from the Constance Fire.
A lightning strike started the Constance Fire — located in the Dosewallips Valley in east Jefferson County — on July 11. It flared up to 438 acres during the hot spell in late July.
At first, the haze was so light that Moore thought it was coming from a campfire.
“It wasn’t too dense,” said Moore, who had never been to Washington state before the trip.
“The smoke was really affected by the wind.”
As the party neared the Dosewallips Ranger Station, the smoke intensified.
“At a couple of points, there was some light ash falling,” Moore said.
The hikers started their trek at the Duckabush trailhead July 27 and traversed LaCrosse pass before heading down the west fork of the Dosewallips River.
Before they arrived at the ranger station, they met up with four other hikers from Bainbridge Island.
When the hikers reached the Dosewallips Ranger Station, they encountered signs that said the road was closed because of logs rolling down from the steep ridges above.
“Because of rockfall and trees falling along old Dosewallips Road, we didn’t think it was safe enough to allow anybody to walk through that area,” said Larry Nickey, a fire management officer for the National Park Service.
The hikers didn’t have the supplies they needed to turn around and walk out the way they came in, Nickey said.
Besides, Moore and his friends had to catch a return flight to South Carolina.
Park rangers at Dosewallips Ranger Station told the hikers they would be evacuated by helicopter on July 31.
“It was a pretty exciting prospect,” Moore said.
The group spent the night at a campsite near the ranger station. They were airlifted out two at a time the next day.
“We utilized the fire helicopter to bump people around,” Nickey said.
The hikers were lifted to a private field near the trail head on a McDonald Dougalss 369-F model helicopter, one of about 10 choppers the park uses to manage fires and study wildlife.
Nickey said the dangerous section of trail was about a quarter mile long.
“It was longer than you could just run by real quick,” Nickey said.
Park officials brought in fire crews to protect the Dosewallips Ranger Station with sprinklers. The hiking party was airlifted out on the outbound flights.
“We didn’t want our firefighters walking through it also,” Nickey said.
During his helicopter ride, Moore snapped some photos of the fire and admired the view.
“It was neat,” he said.
“You could see plumes of smoke coming up. You could really see how steep the terrain there is. It’s pretty incredible.”
Although he camped less than a mile from the edge of the smoldering blaze, Moore said he was never concerned for his safety.
“We were talking to the ranger, and we knew the fire wasn’t going to spread towards us,” he said.
The party was warned about the wildfire danger before they embarked, but the fires in the Heatwave Complex flared up when they were deep in the backcountry.
“Sixteen people got the experience of a lifetime,” Nickey said.
“You don’t get to do that very often if you’re a private citizen.”
Firefighters focused on containing the eastern edge of the Constance fire near the Ranger Station.
Park officials have monitored the remaining fires in the Heatwave Complex while allowing them to burn because of the benefits to the environment.
Five fires are still smoldering from the original 12 in the Heatwave Complex.
Mike Johnson, fire information officer with the National Park Service, said there has been “pretty minimal activity” with the fires in recent days.
“Right now, we’re in a holding pattern,” Johnson said.
Recent rains and higher humidity have helped to cool the complex, Johnson said.
According to the latest acreage estimates, the 10 Mile Fire in the Duckabush Valley, at 492 acres, is the largest of the five fires in the park.
The Constance Fire is 438 acres.
The Buckinghorse fire, in the heart of the park, is 324 acres, and the nearby Knife fire is 140.
Clallam County’s only active wildfire — the Solduc — is about 4 acres.
Johnson said the fires will likely extinguish themselves in October with the coming of heavy rains.
“We just switched out some of the local fire crews to give some guys days off and put some fresh people on the fire,” Johnson said.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
