Last Promontory (Green Mtn.)

Far Enough Promontory and Absolutely Last Promontory on Green Mtn.

This hike is best done as a mountain bike ride/ foot hike combination. Park near, but not in the school bus turnaround at the end of Mt. Si road, elev. 920 ft. Continue on paved road turning to gravel road, at 0.77 mi. (1250 ft.) go right, at 0.95 mi. turn right, at 1.1 mi. arrive at a white gate (1260 ft.) and the start of CCC road. At 2.66 mi. (1600 ft.) is a wide open spot, once proposed as a new trail head. Ignore all spurs leaving left and right until at 3.72 mi. (1490 ft.) you leave CCC road and take a spur left, uphill, past a defunct gate, to a gravel pit and Y where it is best to stash the bike and continue on foot. Take the right branch and at the next Y again take the right branch (the left is blocked by a berm). The road does two switchbacks and at 4.8 mi. (2310 ft.) crosses a creek (Brawling Creek?). The descriptions of the creek in the book are overly optimistic. There is nothing like a granite slab like at Denny Creek. The road does four more switchbacks and at 5.7 mi. (2950 ft.) reaches the Far Enough Promontory with some rocks (no bench) and the first view of the tip of Mt. Rainier. The better views are a little further at 5.9 mi. (2900 ft.) at Absolutely Last Promontory, with views of the Mid Fork valley, Mailbox peak, Russian Butte.

Up to this point the road i.e. trail is in good shape and there is not much brush hanging in. The road continues level but is densely overgrown. A short distance into the overgrown road one can climb up to a talus slope from where you have the best views of the Bessemer clearcuts and Garfield Mtn. It is not known if the overgrown road would eventually connect to the Bessemer Mtn. road system, as suggested in the book. The way it looks at the moment, it would be a wild bushwhack.

This is bear country. In early summer there are bear scats filled with salmon berry seeds every few hundred yards.

11.8 mi. R.T., 2120 ft. elev. gain

Descriptions:

Footsore 2 (1987), p. 81 (out of date)

Hiking the Mountains to Sound Greenway (1993) p. 119