Trip Reports

Love these nice November days! Taking advantage of the pleasant weather, I rambled around a long 7 mile loop on Tiger Mountain, using various paths including the Bus Trail, Poo Poo Point, West Tiger Railroad Grade, Section Line, and Nook trails. Saw very few people most of the day; many of these trails are lightly used despite their proximity to the popular Tradition Lake trailhead. The railroad grade trail in particular gets little use and has a pleasantly remote wilderness feel where it makes its rugged traverse through the Many Creeks Valley. The autumnal colors were pretty much gone from the trees, but colorful leaves still carpeted the trails.

Now for the rundown on trail conditions: the Poo Poo Point Trail was in good shape, but drain dips need to be cleaned out. Steep portions of the trail above the Many Creeks Valley crossing could benefit from rerouting to reduce the grade.

The West Tiger Railroad Grade Trail was somewhat brushy and muddy in the Many Creeks Valley. The trail was in better shape closer to the Tradition Lake area. A few logs are down on the trail.

The Section Line Trail was extremely steep from the railroad grade down to the talus caves. If you like Mailbox Peak, you'll be right at home here. This trail is officially "unmaintained", so no improvements are planned any time soon. And if you break your leg, don't bother complaining to the DNR.

The Nook Trail to the Talus Caves was in good shape. Drain dips need repair.

What a sweet hike - well, at least until you hit The Wall. Exit 62 off I-90 and proceed to Kachess Campground. Turn left onto FS 4930 and in maybe a quarter mile turn right at the junction. Four miles later come to a huge parking lot with outhouse. Note - lots of breakins here in Sept and Oct. The trail climbs a bit then saunters lazily along Box Creek. The brush is down, the bugs are gone, and on a beautiful dry November day with sunshine and good spirits, this is a wonderful hike. The rivulets are gushing but easy to cross with trekking poles. Some muddy spots and some minor water (some drainage work and a small culvert would help here) but no problems - until The Wall.

At 3 miles you start climbing The Wall. The 100 hikes book describes this as a cruel mile and it is an understatement. Roots, rocks, water, mud up to the waterfall crossing. Then it gets a little easier up to Rachel Lake. The lake is beautiful and so far still liquid. Around the north shore the trail passes a small pond iced over and a little surface snow. The switchbacks up to Rampart Ridge are clear and well engineered. Stunning views of Rachel Lake from the switchbacks. Atop Rampart Ridge is a little snow, about 2 inches. The trail is easy to follow over to Rampart Lakes.

Not enough can be said about the beauty of Rampart Lakes but to find them pristine and alone in the November sunshine is a blessing. Ice is forming on the lake surfaces but so far only the smaller lakes are iced over. Mt. Alta still looks clear. It took us about 2.5 hours up and that much down.

  As earlier reports say, the trail is in excellent shape up to the creek crossing. There are a couple somewhat recent debris flows across it, but all very easy to cross. Someone has even whacked the weeds this summer.
  Trail conditions deteriorate instantly after crossing the creek, as you wade into some salmonberries. The climb up after that has some muddy spots (and one down tree) down low, and lots of poor, steep (cross-trail, in particular), rooty tread.
  Snow started where the trail emerges from the woods immediately before the ridgecrest at ~4900', and the trail was mostly covered from there on. Sloppy wet snow, maybe 4" left, on average. At the high point before the ridge drops down again on the way towards Mt. Forgotten, everything is snow covered, including a small pond.
  The climber's trail from there on had, unfortunately for me, just enough snow to cover the trail, hiding rocks and roots, without enough to step in solidly (a few inches). There were bare areas in the trees, and on more southerly facing slopes, but mostly the trail itself was snowy. All areas NE of the summit were completely snow covered (including a large pond), and snow climbing up to the summit on that lee face was ankle to knee deep.
  Given my slow progress after leaving the small pond and meadow, and one failed route towards the summit, I did not have much time on the summit, but the views of Three Fingers, White Horse, Baker, Shuksan, Pugh, Glacier, Sloan, Del Campo and Big Four were pretty spectacular. Nice to have only seen one other person on the way up, too.
  Perry Creek valley was also quite pretty, with large areas of dark brown ferns, some patches of yellow and green leaves still, the trail carpeted with brown maple leaves, lush moss, ferns, waterfalls, a few big trees, lots of stunted bigleaf maples growing on talus...

This is a 5 mile round trip hike to Thompson Spit.The trail access and description can be found in Craig Romano's book,"Dayhiking the Olympic Peninsula". The tide was high so we hiked only to the beach which is 1.75 miles. The view of Mt Baker, Mt Shuksan, and Protection Island was beautiful! Again we saw many varieties of mushrooms! There is a log to the right of the trail as you are about to get to the beach that has at least a hundred turkey feather 'shrooms! We saw only one other group of hikers, a young mom and her 2 sons. It's a great family hike esp on such a beautiful day as we had today!

Driving up the highway it was incredibly tempting to throw caution to the wind and hike up high for some views, but I forced myself to be good and stick to lowland trails for another week while my knee gets back to strength. Back to Boulder River, one year to the day since my last visit. This time I brought my tripod along since it was a significantly drier day.

I was surprised to see seven other cars at the trailhead on arrival! It turned out to be a boy-scout backpacking trip along with several other parties camping out too. I wandered up the trail at my normal sluggish pace, dropping down to the river level at Feature Show falls for some photos. I dinked around here for a long time until the sun rose high enough over the ridge to spoil my fun. It's a very pretty trail on a bright day but much more atmospheric under clouds.

Goofing around with my macro lens I actually hit my turnaround time of 1pm, surprising give it isn't a hard trip. No matter though, the end of the trail is pretty anticlimactic, petering out at the river. The river was really raging and I found enough mushrooms and other small things to keep me busy. I made the return trip in significantly less time. Boulder falls was really raging loud, tempting me to drop down there, but I left for later to give myself a reason to return.

Trail conditions: Road to trailhead has some potholes, drive careful. One spot where the road passes through the clearcut looks like it might be a little undermined. Trail is very muddy in the last half and a little slick. Some small creek crossings are running above boot-depth. Trekking poles helpful.

Full trip photos here: http://www.pbase.com/billcat/boulderriver2

Hancock's Comb is the tufted point above Hancock Lake in the North Fork of the Snoqualmie drainage. If it wasn't included in the Home Court 100 I doubt it would hold any interest. The intent was to mountain bike to just past the summit and climb the short ways to the ridge and on to the summit. I had tried this trip a couple weeks ago and had to abandon when I lost a bolt holding my front tire on. Although it seemed stable I didn't want to take that type of chance. I had plenty of time and I even took the time to enjoy the very warm hazy sunshine. I wasn't able to ride much more than half the way and pushed it the remainder. I was making good time until I reached junction not on my map. There was a road closure sign due to ongoing logging in the area. I pushed on until I reached the actual logging operation blocking all of the road. I gave some thought to dumping the bike and sneaking around the working area. I was concerned about how to handle the dogs and lacking leashes it could have provided an unhappy outcome. I backtracked to a lower road which I followed on foot hoping to go cross crountry to reach my road higher above me. I followed this road until it ended in a tangle of brush before a torrent of a stream. I decided a leisurely return to enjoy the remainder of the day was much moredesirable than a tedious bushwack.

Approx 14 miles 2000' of climb 4 hours car to car

This was a great day for this hike because it was perfectly clear and the views were excellent. As you approach the ridge, there is some snow accumulation on the north side, not enough for snowshoes but more than you'd want to encounter in anything other than waterproof boots.

The good part about this hike is that it doesn't take long before you start getting some incredible views. It would be a good hike for kids or those who aren't in the greatest shape because there's little elevation change and the reward for the first .5-1 mile of woods hiking is a ridge view of Mt. Rainier.

The only thing I'd point out is that the trailhead is located about 7 miles from the paved roadway on a gravel forest road. The forest road really climbs and goes through some relatively rough rocky spots and some slippery mud. We were fine in an SUV and there was a Subaru that made it easily as well. But I wouldn't have attempted it with my car.

The weather was exceptionally fine for a mountain hike on Sunday. We headed up the old Commonwealth Basin trail to Red Pass. The old trail (the former route of the Cascade Crest Trail) was in remarkably good shape in some places, muddy and steep in others. The two creek crossings in the basin were challenging to cross with all the recent rain. You may as well take your boots off and wade the first crossing; the second is doable with a little rock-hopping acrobatics. Above the junction with the Pacific Crest Trail, the Red Pass Trail was really muddy in places, with running water everywhere on the tread. Don't bring your dress shoes here. There were more tricky creek crossings, too. Some trail crew could have a really great time here building turnpikes and puncheon.

The Red Pass trail got better once it left the basin and commenced the steep climb to the pass, although rockslides and erosion had damaged it in a few places. There was just a bit of snow and ice around the pond area. It was so warm and sunny around the pond that some of our group stopped there (including me) and didn't bother to go to the pass.

This was a nice hike. The trail was very muddy and wet in some spots, and slippery in others due to soggy leaves. The dogs did not enjoy the very narrow bridges to cross, but we managed. There were wonderful photo opportunities everywhere.

The directions in the "hike of the week" section for this hike state:
"In Granite Falls, take a right on North Alder Street..." This is incorrect. The street signs in Granite Falls indicate this road is, in fact, South Alder Avenue.

Team Border Collie
~always on leash~
http://weebordercollie.com/

snow: widely scattered patches of snow; basically the trail and summit are snow free.
companion: Amy.