Green Mountain — Saturday, May. 9, 2015

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Today was a beautiful day to hike Green Mountain! It felt like summer the whole time - even after I hit the snow at 5,000 ft. I don't have anything to add about trail conditions that recent trip reports haven't already covered, so I'll touch on the wildlife. After a few minutes on the trail, I saw a big black bird cross the trail and run into the trees. He was puffed up and displaying his tail feathers and making his mating call, which sounded like 4-5 low drumbeats. I would hear this same mating call several times on my up and down, but this was the only bird I actually saw. I also saw three deer high up on the ridge as I was switchbacking up. Other than the wildlife, it was a quiet day on the trail - I saw 14 people and 1 dog. Trailhead was a 2.5 hour drive from Seattle.