Delighted with both the weather forecast and the fact that Westside Rd. is still open, I happily set off this morning. I was even more delighted to see that I was the first car in the lot at about 7:30 am. I quickly froze to a solid ice cube as I made my way up Westside Rd. The roughly 4 miles passed uneventfully. The road is snow-free to the junction with Lake George TH and probably even beyond.

Once you are on the trail to Lake George, the snow and ice starts almost immediately. In the early morning, it was an annoying mix of slippery ice and dry trail. I didn't bother to pull out my spikes yet, although I did have poles. The silence brought me so much joy. Of course, there was the occasional dramatic THUD of snow/ice falling from the trees. I did casually wish for a helmet, as the amount falling would have certainly hurt if I had been hit (I was lucky the whole time!!) The trail was very easy to follow, no trouble there.

Within about 1,000 yards from Lake George, I finally got what I wanted....a gorgeous layer of snow covering all that ice! Lake George was pristine with the snow-kissed trees and cliffs surrounding it. 

The trail was now completely snow-covered, but still with a solid bootpath, as I made my way up to Gobblers Knob. Truly lovely forest/winter wonderland. Animal tracks only on the trail heading down to Goat Lake.

There was one open slope about 500 ft from the lookout where the recent sun had melted the top layer of snow, leaving only the ice underneath. The lookout itself and the immediate trail leading up to it was again a mixture of dry trail and ice/snow. The steps leading up to the lookout....WOW. Seriously just sheets of solid ice. Coming down those was an interesting time. You get very similar views from just beneath it, so if you don't feel comfortable, I promise you are not missing much!

At this point, I had nearly forgotten other humans existed on this planet and was startled when someone else approached. It was nearly 11 am, and this was my first human sighting! What a wonderful day of solitude to reflect on the many summer adventures and mentally prepare for winter.

I headed back, now with spikes and poles. Could you have done all of this without spikes? Probably. It's definitely a personal preference, but it was a much smoother ride with them on! The sun had somewhat softened some of that ice closer to the TH, so it was at least crunchy. I passed 5 other people the rest of the day.

Roughly 4 miles walking on Westside road was uneventful and quick. Trail was in good condition and well grade made it comfortable trek toward the lookout! We didn’t encounter any hikers our entire way up even parking area was almost full when we arrived . We had the lookout for ourselves!
What a wonderful day!

Beautiful hike to Gobblers Know fire watch tower. Westside Road was in good condition and you park at the road closure. Arrived at 10:15 on a Wednesday and 2 other cars were there. 3.8 miles to Lake George/Gobblers Knob trailhead (which is to the left of the bike rack). The hike on the road was nice with lots of vibrant fall colors. Lake George is stunning and there is a toilet there.

You get most of the elevation on the section from Lake George to the Gobblers Knob. Once at the top, a little windy with great views of Rainier. Low cloud cover prevented me from seeing Adams, Hood, St. Helens, or the Olympics. Chilled out for ½ hour at the fire tower, then headed down. Took a total of 7 hours at an unhurried pace. For final numbers, I got 12.81 miles with 2614 elevation. Saw one other hiker the entire day and there's lovely solitude to be found on this trail mid-week. Also, so many kinds of mushrooms to be seen - orange, tan, yellow, white, big, small, it's a fungi time of year.

WOW!! What a beautiful day!! The 4 mile hike to the trailhead is quite the haul but so worth it. I only saw 1 hiker when I was going up and 5 hikers when I was going down. Many cyclists on the 4 mile road. Mt. Rainier was stunning as usual. 

Knowing I had a 50/50 chance of getting high enough above the predicted inversion layer this morning, I headed out anyway.  It paid off!

I started by riding my bike to Round Pass.  The road is much easier to ride a bike due to all of the heavy equipment that has traveled over it the last couple of weeks.  Not sure if they were all fire fighting trucks. Or like today, it looked more like permanent road repair equipment and dump trucks carrying fill dirt heading up Westside Rd.

Fall colors are bright just below the lookout.  200 ft below the lookout, some of the berry bushes are just starting to change.  500 ft below the lookout, everything is still very green. Vine maples are stunning along Westside Rd.

Best part of the day was running into Lisa E. and the Mountaineers group she was leading on my way down Westside Rd.  Lisa and I have been chasing each other around the mountain for years!  It was great to finally meet her today!

Super quiet on the trail today.  Besides Lisa's group and two other hikers I met in the parking lot on my way out, no other people on Westside Rd.  With the exception of a lot of traffic of ranger's vehicles and heavy equipment trucks going somewhere to do something.