peaks
of interest
At 87, Carolyn Morillo continues to trek
across the North Olympic Peninsula
Tucked back on a cul-de-sac near
Freshwater Bay, Carolyn Morillo
lives in a Pacific Northwesterner’s
dream home — on the smaller side
but with a large yard surrounded
by evergreens and clear skies, far
enough away from neighbors but
close enough for one to borrow a cup
of sugar.
She has the birds she admires
daily, and she has her love of books,
a constant connection with family
and the Klahhane Club of Port An-
geles to keep her in touch with one
of her favorite activities — hiking.
16 FEBRUARY 2017 • LIFELONG JOURNEY
story by Laura Lofgren
Carolyn, who grew up on Stei-
lacoom Lake south of Tacoma, has
family strewn about the states.
At the prompting of her daughter-
in-law, Carolyn bought an Apple
computer so she can Facetime with
her family.
“There’s lots of ways of keeping
contact now. It used to be the letter.
[But] my mother had a rule: The
handwritten note is required,” Caro-
lyn said.
Carolyn’s eldest son, Stephen,
lives in Indiana, teaching history
at Wabash College. Her youngest,
John, is in Raleigh, N.C., working as
a professor of English.
Needless to say, the Morillo family
is one of academia.
Growing up on a lake post-Great
Depression, Carolyn had a quiet,
small-town life where she was able to
appreciate her natural surroundings.
“It was a relaxed, very pleasant
way to grow up. What’s not to like?,”
she said.
“I loved getting up early in the
morning before anybody else was
up, and you go down to the lake and
it would be glass smooth.
 “I’d watch the dragonflies.”
Carolyn’s favorite subjects in
school were history, biology and
reading.
“My mother was always a great
reader,” she said. “A reward was
always ‘Here have a book.’”
After high school, Carolyn went
one year to Stanford, but because of
the cost, she transferred to the Uni-
versity of Washington (UW), where
she would go on to major in philoso-
phy and psychology.
During her time at UW, Carolyn
met a fellow philosophy major, who
also loved hiking and the outdoors.
They married and lived for a bit
up at Mount Rainier.
“That’s my mountain,” she remi-
nisced.
She’s climbed it three times.
They then moved to Aspen for a
spell, but that marriage soon dis-
solved, and Carolyn returned to UW
to get her master’s degree.
She then moved on to the Univer-
sity of Michigan in 1955, where she
would pursue a doctorate and where
she met her husband, Marvin, who
was in the Ph.D. program in English.
During this time, Carolyn and
Marvin had their first son, Stephen,
in Ann Arbor.
Marvin was offered a job at
Tulane University in New Orleans,
and the couple moved to Louisiana,
where Carolyn would finish her dis-
sertation and teach at University of
New Orleans.
She taught a lot of students who
were the first in their families to go
to college, and she saw many suc-
ceed and many who she would never
see again.
Awhile after their second son,
John, was born, the academia couple
with their two children would pack
up their car every summer and take
off on their family vacation.
“We’d put all of the camping gear
into the car and leave,” Carolyn said.
“I think we’ve camped in every
state in the country.”
Carolyn Morillo hikes Mount Baker — which has an elevation of 10,781 feet —
in August 2016.
By the 1990s, and with the kids
grown up and starting their own
lives, the Mo-
rillos decided
it was time to
“I’m a Westerner!
move.
Marvin
Where are my
retired first,
with Carolyn
mountains?”
shortly thereafter.
They used to visit family in west-
ern Washington, so Carolyn thought
moving to the state would be good.
“I’m a Westerner! Where are my
mountains?” she said.
But there were grumbles about
the copious amounts of rainfall.
Marvin suddenly suggested Port
Angeles, and Carolyn was sold im-
mediately on the idea.
They moved to Freshwater Bay in
1994.
“It’s just a wonderful area to be
in,” Carolyn said. “I can hear the
birds breathing.”
Now fully on a retirement sched-
ule, the Morillos were able to do a
lot of traveling that had been diffi-
cult due to their academic schedule.
They went on long excursions that
included Egypt and China.
LIFELONG JOURNEY • FEBRUARY 2017 17
Photo by Martha Moyer
But before the long trips, Carolyn
wanted to know more about the hik-
ing around here.
“I think I asked
a real estate
agent if anybody
around here went
hiking and she
mentioned the
Klahhane Club,” Carolyn said.
After some initial hikes with the
club, Carolyn was a full-fledged
member and ended up serving in
the club in a variety of roles, includ-
ing president, over the years.
“The club’s been through different
phases,” she smiled.
Carolyn has hiked all over the
Peninsula, from quick jaunts around
Lake Crescent to five-day backpack-
ing adventures.
The club hiked all over Olympic
National Park, she said, to places
like the Dosewallips River area and
Hurricane Ridge, but less so on the
West End.
They have hikes plenty of western
beaches, though Carolyn says those
are some of the tougher ones these
days, what with the rocky beaches
and colder winds.
 Morillo throws her hands
It’s your brain that hears.
up in a "faux celebration
of what is clearly not a
Not your ears.
true summit of anything"
during an August 2016
Mount Baker trek.
Photo by Martha Moyer

It’s your brain that hears.

By this time, Marvin wasn’t that interested in going
for hikes. But, being a pretty decent chef, he did make
“I’m just a consumer!,” Carolyn laughed.
Marvin passed away in December 2015 from an

Not your ears.plenty of meals for the club’s monthly potlucks.

According to Carolyn, other club members were al-
injury sustained in a fall, but Carolyn makes an effort
to produce meals similar to his, eating plenty of fruits,
ways excited to try something Marvin made. vegetables and seafood.

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 Today, Carolyn is taking it a bit easier than she did
when she first joined the Klahhane Club.
“I’m really in a tapering off phase,” she said.
“I’m at the stage where I’m both more cautious and
don’t have as good balance and I’m saying ‘Don’t break
something; don’t be stupid.
“Time was [when I said] ‘Sure! I could keep up with
them and chatter away.’ [But I’ve] definitely slowed
down in a sense that I try to be fair to the club.”
And, she chuckled, “I’m not as enthusiastic to hike on
a rainy day anymore.”
In her earlier days of hiking, Carolyn said is was
the socializing part she really enjoyed. Now that she’s
slowed down, the group “spreads out and suddenly [you]
realize this is very nice.”
“I’m noticing things I wouldn’t have noticed before, so
it’s very much being out in nature,” she said.
The Klahhane Club was organized in 1915 and has its
own clubhouse at Lake Dawn, where potluck meetings
are held in the warmer months. The club has more than
150 members, with a typical hike attracting anywhere
from six to 20 hikers, according to their website, www.
klahhaneclub.org.
Although active hikers average 60 years old, anyone
18 or older is welcome to join. Day hikes range from
2-mile easy strolls to 16 miles in steep terrain.
The club hikes year round in the Olympic Mountains
Photo by Sandra Vahsholtz
Carolyn Morillo poses next to the Elwha River in what was
formerly Lake Aldwell. Not too long after the lake was drained,
the mud on top of the stump is what was left after the water
level dropped in April 2012.
and other destinations on the North Olympic Peninsula.
For more information on joining the Klahhane Club,
Morillo encourages fun-seekers to attend a few “get
acquainted” hikes.
Once you’ve made the decision to join, there is an ap-
plication process.
After completing six qualifying hikes, the membership
chair will introduce you at the next monthly club meet-
ing and you are now a member. For a complete break-
down of the application process, visit www.klahhane
club.org/getstarted.html. Brown’s Outdoors in Port An-
geles also has Klahhane Club information.

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LIFELONG JOURNEY • FEBRUARY 2017 19