We tried this one again with friends this week, and this time we went only to the first switchback on Forest Service Road 6830 (about 2 and 1/4 miles).

The road to parking (just past the railroad trestle) was bare and dry. On the way back the wind had knocked down a large tree, blocking the road and knocking out power. The power company removed the tree from the road.

From the parking, the trail was very hard packed and the snow was melting and subliming (since it's been so nice around here lately!) and snowshoes were pretty much useless until the junction with Road 6830. About the place where we turned around (at the first switchback on 6830), the snow was deep and soft enough to make snowshoes practical.

This one was pretty crowded today, with several hikers, cross-country skiers (who seemed to be having a tough time with the old hard-packed snow/ice, too), and several snowmobilers.

We got a few views out across the Foss river valley, but didn't hike very high, so did not have great expectations for views. The nice, sunny weather really made up for any views we missed.

I'd recommend this one for snowshoers and cross-country skiers for next weekend (or later), after the upcoming storm drops some more snow on the ground.

Road 68 (Foss River Road) was excellant to parking just past the railroad trestle.

Road 68 from the parking to the Road 6830 (Tonga Ridge Road) was hard packed (and much was melting) and the snowshoes were probably overkill.

We arrived very late in the day so turned around several hundred meters up Road 6830.

We encountered several hikers and skiers. Snowmobile tracks were clear but we saw no machines on the trail. We did not notice any wildlife or wildlife tracks in the snow.

Tonga Ridge/Mount Sawyer. We planned to do a short hike and the Tonga Ridge trail seems like a good fit. As usual, we got a late start around 11am on this nice sunny Sunday. There were about 20 cars at the trail head. The trail was easy and flat. We met a few trail volunteers on the trail. Soon we got a nice view of the mountains south of the ridge, including the icy top of Mount Hinman. Around 11:50am we saw a side trail going left and up to Mount Sawyer. This was our plan, but we walked further straight to Sawyer Pass to take a look. There were a couple of trails split off to lakes.

We turned back to the side trail and started going up around 12:35pm. The trail was in good condition and not really steep. It went up on the south side of Mount Sawyer and exposed us completely to the still hot Sept. sun with very few trees to provide shade. We were rewarded by delicious blueberries on the side of the trail, and great view of Mount Daniel and Hinman. We got to the top at 1:05pm - the 700 feet ascent seemed quite long on this hot day. The panoramic view on top was beautiful - north to Three Fingers, Glacier Peak, tip of Mount Baker, south to many peaks in the Alpine Lakes Region, the top of Mount Rainier, east and west to many other mountains. Lots of bugs though. We left around 2pm and got back to our car around 3pm. (Our short trip was unfortunately lengthened by bad traffic on US Highway 2 and we didnít get back to Seattle until 6pm.)

Getting there: Drive US 2 and take the Foss River Road up past the Tonga Ridge trail FS #6830 to the Deception Crk. cut-off trailhead. The Trail: Begin by hiking up towards Tonga Ridge probably a mile or so before heading off trail up towards the high point on the eastern most end of Tonga Ridge. The summit is a nice meadowy ridge walk with some clumps of Alpine fir and heather. From here descend down off the ridge and reconnect with the trail you came in on and take the obvious left fork (at a large campsite in a flat meadow) towards Fisher Lk. Once at the lake follow the trail to its outlet and then drop another 300 feet or so to the Ptarmigan Lks. (this section is not much of a trail but it is very heavily flaggged). After you reach the outlet of the lower Ptarmigan Lk. begin heading towards the southwest ridge of Terrace Mtn. (sort of an upward traverse to your left) you can't really see where you need to get to standing at the outlet. Eventually you'll hit the ridge above Clarice Lk. Once you've gotten here you just need to follow the SW ridge all the way to the summit. There is one notch that you need to get around to get to the top but if you stay on the ridge verbatim there is an easy small chimney to scramble down (no exposure). I started this whole trip around 3:00 in the afternoon and finally reached the summit of Terrace around 7:30 as the fog began to settle in. On top there is a metal film canister register that dates back to 1971. My descent route was to be down the ridge that runs north to south above Clarice Lk. back down to my car. Well by the time I got to the hariest part of the descent it had gotten quite dark... so I spent the next three hours or so thrashing around in the brush trying to find my car. Luckily at a little past 11:30 I hit a trail that led me back to the safe confines of my car, what a process! By the way routefinding with a greentrails map can be difficult and it didn't help being completely dark standing in six foot high brush, so much for my shortcut back to my car! Well what can you do, last weekend on our Ptarmigan traverse trip I encountered no brush so I guess I was due....! Well take care. See ya on the trail. Pilar