Mt. Townsend Date: 11/02/97 Starting Elevation: 2850ft Summit Elevation: ~6290ft The time was 7:30am. Supposedly the two others, who were to go on the hike with me, would arrive at 7:00am. They didn’t arrive at all! I therefore left, deciding to solo the hike anyway. The weather was looking good, clear while not too cool. After a 1 hour and 45 minute drive to the trailhead (~15 miles up Penny Road just south of Quilicene Ranger Station) and get ready to leave. The sky was clear with few clouds visible, not a bad change from the heavy rain earlier in the week! Anyway, the well maintained, good condition trail starts climbing through evergreen forests, up and seldom changes until the summit. At about ¾ mile and 300ft vertical, there is a good condition shelter, a surprise this close to the trailhead(s). Another ¾ mile and 300ft vertical and surprise, there is another trailhead! Oh well, think of it as 3 extra miles(round trip) of conditioning!!! From this trailhead, the trail continues climbing, but a bit steeper, through a mature (second growth') forest. A few miles further, the trail gives way to shorter alpine firs and meadows, an indication of the gain in altitude. Near the camp, called windy camp, melting snow became prevalent. Time for the gaiters… The snow became denser where it was out of direct sunlight, but had all melted where the sun directly shined on the trail. The trees became less dense until arrival at the saddle, elevation ~6100ft. Mt. Townsend has two summits, the south summit and the north summit. The south summit is approximately 30 ft higher. The wind was fairly brisk in the ridge and summit, more clothes, but the views were spectacular. Looking east, one could see the whole of the Puget Sound and a lot of the Cascades (through some haze). Looking to the west the rugged Olympics with clouds seemingly being split by them. The clouds actually appeared to be shifting north and south! Could this be the edge of the Puget Sound convergent zone''' The weather on the summit was holding, so I had lunch just below the ridge looking east toward Seattle, etc.. Oh, there was around a foot of snow on the summit ridge, not enough to be a problem, but enough to make gaiters useful. After a leisurely lunch, it was time to head back down. The trip back down was uneventful with the exception that about halfway down, I passed a deer, seemingly unafraid, with horns! I have seen lots of deer in this area over the years, but few with horns this time of year! I took some pictures and continued down, while the deer slowly wandered of into the trees. Back to the trail, more down, past the upper trailhead, past the shelter and back to the lower trailhead. Total hiking time: 5 hours including 1 hour eating and gawking on the top. The book says allow 6 hours, which is not unreasonable. In summary, the weather was great, the trail is in excellent shape and the views are spectacular! Well worth the effort required to get to the top! I can imagine what this would have looked like during the flowering season…

hope the skies would be clear and be dazzled at Mt. Baker, or head to the Olympics and climb Mt. Townsend. We opted for a drive around the sound to compensate for a possible lack of views (ugly clouds day before). Arrived at trailhead late again, and found 5 cars ahead of us. The trail is in great shape, and after the brutality of Headlee Pass last week, it was a dream. The first summit was very crowded, so we strolled over to the other summit and had it to ourselves for an hour. Some slob left fried chicken parts all over the summit...wilderness it was not. However, views turned out to be amazing, including Baker (after all), Glacier, Raineer, Seattle, Juan de Fuca, and the San Juans.