We left the trail head about 10AM and arrived on top 3 hours and 45 minutes later. The first 2 miles with the rocks and ferns were by far the hardest as the second 2 miles is nicely graded and clear of brush. We meet one couple on the way up and one on the way back. The views on top are great. Don't go if its not nice. There were only a few bugs. We got down in a little over 2 hours. Nice day. Nice place.

My friend Bob called me Sat afternoon and suggested Bare Mtn. up the N.Fork Snoqualmie for a easy Sunday hike. I haven't been up to Lennox Creek area since fishing there in the mid 90's. Met a ranger at the TH in a official USFS vehicle. ""Be careful, there have been bear sightings in the area"" he advised. ""They apparently have been down in the lower elevations due to the salmon berries"". We didn't have any encounters along the way, and I'm certain that if any black bear were in the vacinity, we spooked them way ahead of approaching. It is interesting to note that Bare Mtn.- a former lookout site, is reached by paralleling Bear Creek which originates at Bear Lake. Odd. Trail itself is in pretty good shape, except the open slopes ""fern forest"" need a good brushing out. Some of the foliage is head high, but the tradeoff is the flower show is peaking - insane quantities of Tiger Lilly, Red Columbine and Thistle with a few varieties of daisy. Up on the ridge to Bare Mtn. are paintbrush and some bluish-purple trumpet shaped low to the ground flowers (I don't know their name). Cool and comfortable overcast going up, but once reaching summit of ~5400', the clouds dropped and the fog rose up the valley and our neighboring views of Dog Mtn., Lennox Pk., and Paradise Lakes abruptly came to an end. Then the steady drizzle came. After lunch we decended back in the very wet switchbacks. Glad I brought the rain pants! However, I did find a secondary use for a trekking pole -dull machette! Attempted to at least lessen the overgrowth in the brushiest areas. Nice exercise hike, bugs were minimal, lots of flowers and a warm although misty day. 8 miles RT ~3400' gain

We found no other cars when we parked at the Bare Mountain TH under cloudless skies and rising temps. The trail up to where you turn off for Bear Lake is in good shape, assuming you don't mind hiking in dried stream beds part of the way. Turn off on a faint path, an old roadbed, at the first switchback after crossing the large slide path and follow it to the site of a cabin, long since burned. Just before the cabin you'll see a path breaking right: follow it. At the adit, head up hill and to the left. We didn't and had to scramble up a short rock section. This section is a steep scramble, but the lake is well worth it. We took a break at the snow-free lake and then headed up to the saddle between Points 5449 and 5706. We finally hit snow on the traverse beneath Point 5706. Dropping about 400 feet, we regained the ridge at the low point NE of 5706. From there we followed the ridge, going off on the right side when necessary. We found a bit of snow left on the summit ridge, but not much for this time of year. Of course, for this year I guess it's not bad. Coney Lake is still snow-covered. Boy, what a great place to camp. The trip back was uneventful, though regaining that 400 feet about wiped me out. Thank God for Larry's steps! All in all, it was a great day with excellent visibility. Stats: 10.5 miles; 4600' gain

Clear skies in Duvall and no afternoon obligations, so I decided to try Bare Mountain in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Travel on the North Fork Road is slow. Most of the road is fine, but the occassional washboard bumps, potholes, and ruts made my '62 International skip like a stone. If you are unfamiliar with this area, the secret is to stay on the more heavily travelled route. The turn to Road 57 is just past Lennox creek and is clearly marked. The trail head is also well marked. I measured approx 19 miles from the pavement end to the trailhead. The hike starts off on an old road bed which has become a drainage/creek bed. You will be walking on loose gravels and cobbles. Many of the rocks were softball sized. The first crossing of Bear Creek was no problem. The double logs are wobbly, but the big log looked slippery. The second crossing has a wooden bridge. Slippery with the recent snow, but sound. There are some big trees past the creek. Stop and admire them. The trail soon opened up into a meadow. My trip was (accidentally) timed so that the brush was down and much of route easily visible. I did not encounter any of the ""waist high"" brush described in other accounts. At an elevation of 3500 ft the trail turns uphill from the old road. You can't easily follow the road beyond this point, as it's overgrown with small trees. Snow was present from this point on - gradually increasing from a few inches to knee deep the closer to ridge I walked. Snow had fallen over the weekend, but the switch backs (there are lots of 'em) were fairly easy to follow. Near the 4900 ft level I put on snow shoes, as I was sinking into the snow covered brush. The last 200 ft of elevation was a bit of a challenge because of the snow and the angle. It is obvious that in a normal snow year, this area would be deep under snow, with the associated dangers on the open slopes. By the time I got to the top the clouds had come in and most of the views were gone. A few snow flakes were falling. I could see a ""peek a boo"" view of the Snoqualmie Valley and the sun appeared to be shining on the lower flanks of Glacier Peak. I took three hours to go up and two hours back. (I spent some time on the way up fiddling with boots and mucking around in the snow.) I measured 8.75 miles total length. With the long slow drive on the North Fork Road, it's a pretty good day's trip. Some warm weather and this will be a surprisingly good early season (this season, anyway) hike.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2004 – BARE MOUNTAIN What’s this? A hike finally to get the cameras out again? A hike…a hike NOT 800 miles away!!!? After yet another summer of completing a photography project in the Inland Northwest….and having not hiked since that was completed on July 28th…today was the start of something new to me: hiking and photography just for me. I opened up the schedule of mine to tag along with a group up Bare Mountain at the far end of the North Fork Snoqualmie River region. I met meteorologist Michael F. at the Preston Park & Ride as well as Dennis and Denis (Dennis squared?). Getting an early start we headed out with all our gear in the back of the pick-up to get the day accomplished before the incoming rains began. While the 20 miles or so out the rough North Fork road wasn’t an eternity, it was plenty long enough. As expected it was lonely at the Bare Mountain trailhead. Just as we were walking across the road loaded with gear for the day a car flew up and came screeching to a stop in the gravel---ah, Michael’s other friend Randy did decide to join us after all! Thus the five of us headed up the old mining road/trail for the fun of hiking on softball-to-cantaloupe size rocks. How nice on the ankles that could be! The first crossing of Bear Creek was a bit tricky as only logs were down on the crossing…slick early morning covered with water logs. We all opted for the “two small logs which were lying together” vs. the “one huge log without bark on it so it would be as slick as ice” and continued on our way. Upon reaching the second crossing of the creek (bridged nicely with new handrail) and entering the Alpine Lakes Wilderness boundary it was relaxing hiking past the huge old growth stands of western hemlocks that dotted the way. Huge! Huge also were a small number of mushrooms growing under them—one must have been 14-16” in diameter and 12” tall! After much photography of it the day continued up through the massive open slopes of 6-8’ tall bracken fern. I was leading the gang much of the hike in and had the pleasure of staying clean since I was soaked with the wet ferns, all loaded with heavy morning dew! Complaints still rang from my four comrades that I wasn’t doing a good enough job of getting all of the wet off of the vegetation however---tough! As we began the last 1700’ elevation gain up the multitudes of switchbacks my dead legs from the day before (too much of a workout on Mr. Stairmaster the day before huge elevation gain hike was stupid) were telling me “don’t you dare stop until you reach the top or we’ll call it quits”. The way steepened, the views were grand, and the first ridge views down at Pinnacle Lakes were just enough to get me to the top. Dennis L. followed with me while I kept going and the rest of the gang shortly got to the summit of Bare Mountain after us. The summit team then announced it was time for the standard minimum one hour eating, dozing, lying around, and photography time on top. The winds were picking up with the approaching front but it remained pretty nice—the hot sun was almost too much hiking up as it was clear out! Mount Rainier sported a three-tiered lenticular cloud for a bit until the mountain went to sleep under the cloud deck. Lennox Mountain was just next to us, Phelps Ridge across the way, and holy smokes did Glacier Peak look stunning! Mount Baker was in plain view, Mount Garfield, Mount Index, you name it. Fun too was seeing the skyline of Bellevue, Seattle, and also the Olympic Mountains! With binoculars I could make out Carnation Farms north of Carnation in the Snoqualmie Valley, I could see where Hwy 520 leaves Redmond, and I could see the roofs of many of the buildings at Microsoft! Amazing. I waved at all the people I still know working there and packed up for the 5-mile slog back out. Heading down Randy spotted two bears when he stopped to stand out on a rock outcropping off the trail. Raptors were soaring in the updraft winds along the ridge---two American kestrels were chasing a larger hawk for a long time! Getting back to the creek crossing I just jumped onto the larger log and stormed across it since it was a bit drier than in the morning. Plus, at this point in a hike I could care less if I get my feet wet in a creek crossing should I mess up! We had an excellent day of stories, photography talk, weather talk, and mountain talk. I got the Dennis Squared Team back to the park and ride and headed home to await the tired leg syndrome of a good nights sleep that was to follow! Rains began by 7:00pm….we cheated the weather for a change during this mess of a last three weeks we’ve had of heavy rains! Alan L. Bauer 09/10/2004