Mount Townsend
Sep 04, 2009
by
Moby
—
last modified
Sep 08, 2009 10:08 AM
- Type of Outing
- Day hike
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Mount Townsend
- Region: Olympics -- East
- Agency: Olympic National Forest, Hood Canal Ranger District
- Trails: Mount Townsend (#839)
- Avg Rating: 3.89
- Why You Should Go Now
- Ripe berries
The delayed start to the 2009 school year made Friday 9/4 the perfect day for the "last hike of the summer". The Boy was promised a mountain this summer (hikes earn ice cream; climbs earn pizza), and Mt. Walker in May "didn't count", so when the weather for Quilcene looked "reasonable", we headed for Mt. Townsend. At 9:30 AM we were the fourth car in the upper trailhead parking lot, and we set off at 9:55 under beautiful blue skies and a light breeze. A few minutes up, we passed the site of the first WTA trail work I helped with, a trail repair and trunk removal done with Richard's crew in June 2008. It's a tribute to his skill that we hiked right past the sawed-off tree trunk that once blocked the trail without even seeing the cut ends; it was the hillside trail repair on the following switchback that finally caught my eye.
The Boy is supposed to be getting his middle-school legs in shape for flag football, but growing pains or just plain exertion was giving him achy knees. Most of my pictures of him on this hike show him sitting down, at least until we got into the huckleberries! Nothing like free food for a pre-teen. We lunched on the open slopes above Camp Windy around 12:30 and finally reached our summit vantage point at 1:25 PM. While there was light haze and building high clouds from the south, we had great visibility under sunny skies, punctuated by enough breeze to make bugs a non-issue. The only peak that vanished under the approaching clouds was St. Helen's.
Other hikers we met on the way up included a gentleman with a fanny pack essentially doing a swift walk up and back, a fellow planning to reach Silver Lake then return to the trailhead by another route (his description was unfamiliar to me), and the retired gentleman building a photo collection of Olympic wildflowers who was headed to a small meadow near Windy Pass to look for one of the five remaining species he needs.
We left the summit at 2 PM under rapidly building overcast, and reached the now-full parking lot just before 4 PM. The increasing overcast didn't seem to bother any of the 7 groups headed up that we passed on our way down (how can people start a hike so late in the day?). Our traditional stop at the Hoodsport Coffee Company for hand-dipped ice cream was replaced by a pizza feed once we returned home. Kudos to the people who keep this beautiful trail in such great shape. We'll be back during next year's rhodie season, though we'll be hard-pressed to beat the incredible weather we lucked into for this hike!
The Boy is supposed to be getting his middle-school legs in shape for flag football, but growing pains or just plain exertion was giving him achy knees. Most of my pictures of him on this hike show him sitting down, at least until we got into the huckleberries! Nothing like free food for a pre-teen. We lunched on the open slopes above Camp Windy around 12:30 and finally reached our summit vantage point at 1:25 PM. While there was light haze and building high clouds from the south, we had great visibility under sunny skies, punctuated by enough breeze to make bugs a non-issue. The only peak that vanished under the approaching clouds was St. Helen's.
Other hikers we met on the way up included a gentleman with a fanny pack essentially doing a swift walk up and back, a fellow planning to reach Silver Lake then return to the trailhead by another route (his description was unfamiliar to me), and the retired gentleman building a photo collection of Olympic wildflowers who was headed to a small meadow near Windy Pass to look for one of the five remaining species he needs.
We left the summit at 2 PM under rapidly building overcast, and reached the now-full parking lot just before 4 PM. The increasing overcast didn't seem to bother any of the 7 groups headed up that we passed on our way down (how can people start a hike so late in the day?). Our traditional stop at the Hoodsport Coffee Company for hand-dipped ice cream was replaced by a pizza feed once we returned home. Kudos to the people who keep this beautiful trail in such great shape. We'll be back during next year's rhodie season, though we'll be hard-pressed to beat the incredible weather we lucked into for this hike!
Document Actions
- Email this page
- Print this
- Share
Forgot your
New user?
