Evergreen Mountain Lookout #1056
Jun 25, 2007
- Type of Outing
- Day hike
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Evergreen Mountain Lookout
- Region: Central Cascades -- Stevens Pass - West
- Agency: Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Skykomish Ranger District
- Trails: Evergreen Mountain Lookout (#1056)
- Avg Rating: 2.75
- Be Aware Of
- Blowdowns
- Clogged drainage
- Snow on trail
We started off planning a overnight backpack to Blanca lake but ended up near the evergreen lookout instead. The Skykomish river road to the Blanca lake trailhead is reportedly blocked. We stopped in Index to ask for directions and were routed back through Skykomish onto Beckler river road. It is possible to access the Blanca Lake trailhead from this direction but we took a wrong turn owing to our lack of a map and near-dark conditions.
The forest service roads 6550 and 6554 are overall in passable shape. There is a short section where it is very rutted with potholes and small gullies that would require a lot of caution with a car but was not difficult in my light suv. The road is barricaded with cement blocks apx 0.5 mi from the bridge over Beckler river which is intact.
Fairly soon we realized we were not where we had planned to be but decided to hike up the road anyway and see what was up there.
We walked (a long ways) up the road - found out later that stretch is 8.3 miles. The views were pretty, walking was easy, and the weather was wonderful. It was deserted with the exception of one nice man on a mountain bike (with a map) who told us about the trail to the lookout. There were 2 large blowdown/road washouts that required climbing over large snags but we didn't get our boots wet. There was an abandoned pickup along the road and multiple beer cans and shotgun shells. We picked up a lot of beer cans on the way out, Bud light winning the day over Coors. There were a few piles of fresh bear scat on the road. Some trilium and lupine as well.
We reached the end of the road and headed up the trail to the lookout.
There is no signpost to the trail anymore because some idiot pulled it out and used it for a bonfire. The trail was in good condition except for one huge blowdown apx 1/2 km up the trail. One member of our party climbed over it but rest of us had to take off our packs and crawl under.
At the 1 km mark we encountered a lot of soft snow on the trail.
It was very slow going and we eventually turned back at that point and camped at a pretty spot just below the trailhead on the road. We ran into our mountain biker friend and he had made it up to the lookout. It was locked, the trail was in decent shape with some pretty alpine scenery, he got around the snowy forested section by hiking up onto the ridge.
We had a beautiful view of the Skykomish valley from our campsite and could even see the top of Mount Rainier capped with a lenticular cloud.
Overall it was a very nice couple of days despite not reaching any of our objectives. I would not plan to return after the road reopens, however, because of the evidence of such heavy and careless useage by hunters and partying car campers.
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