Mt. Erie

I'm slightly familiar with Mt Erie from learning rappelling there with the Mountaineers 25 years ago. At that time we parked by the Mt Erie Grocery at Lake Campbell and scrambled up from the south side. Not seeing any obvious trails beginning there today, I drove north on Heart Lake Road to where Mt Erie Drive intersects. I parked in the parking lot just north of Mt Erie Dr. I haven't been very familiar with the Anacortes Communtiy Forest Lands, of which Mt Erie is a part of, but determined where I was on the large ACFL map posted at the trailhead and snapped a photo of it with my smartphone to refer to. My destination was the summit of Mt Erie, and I set off on trail 215. The ACFL trails are rated easy, moderate or difficult. Trail 215 is rated difficult, and it gets steep in a hurry after heading north for .2 mile and then circling back to the south along the western flank of Sugarloaf, a summit which I hadn't heard of previously. The quickest way to the top of Erie seemed to be taking 215 for about 1.25 miles until it intersects Mt Erie Dr and then walk the Mt Erie road about another mile to the top. Trail 215 has about 5 trail intersections before leading you to Mt Erie Dr. All are marked except for one. Once I got onto Mt Erie Dr, I looked for marked trails leading to the summit, but didn't find any.

It took about 70 minutes to the top of Erie. The trail part was almost all in trees except for one viewpoint, but was very pleasant. The views from Mt Erie are fantastic to the south, north and west and it's a great workout getting up there. Having looked at the ACFL map after the hike, there is a rather convoluted way to stay totally on trails to the summit of Erie which involves about 5 differently numbered trails. The official ACFL map or I think the Green Trails map for this area will help you out, but a standard USGS map won't give you much guidance. The Anacortes Community Forest Lands look like a nice place to come back and explore more.