What a treat. Three straight days of hiking. Cousin Clover joined this morning's hike. Sadie is staying in Sequim this week, so the driver decided there must be a hike in the National Forest where Sadie and Clover could go. Sure enough. Five miles south of Quilcene, Mt. Walker awaits - accessible right on Highway 101. Since it was a little brisk this morning (nothing like at Stevens Pass yesterday - it was 20 degrees warmer this morning at the trailhead - a toasty 29 degrees). Since we were in no particular hurry, because the hike is only about 4 miles roundtrip from the trailhead, we got to the gate about 10:00 a.m. Two cars pulled in right behind us!!! The road is gated, but there's enough room for about 8 cars to park off of Hwy. 101. A couple with a dog started out ahead of us - it's about a 1/2 mile from the gate to the trail head. The other couple were still getting ready when we headed out. There will need to be some clean-up needed before cars will get back up this road. The road to the top of Mt. Walker is 4 miles long. From the trailhead, it's 2 miles - but however you do it, it's still a 2000' gain! Almost a Mailbox or Tenerife trip! Sadie, Clover and the driver left Kate and her owners at the trail register and we were off and heading up, up, up. It wasn't long, maybe a little more than a 1/2 mile, before the driver had to stop and take of the vest, the coat AND the hat! The layers that worked yesterday up to Lichtenwasser, were way too much for today! Plus, this would be a no nonsense hike today. The nice thing is - I didn't have to schlep snowshoes, because today was a total brown hike! The trail winds through a lovely wooded area with lots of wild rhododendrons along the way - bet it's pretty in the Spring. The trail switchbacks up the south side of Mt. Walker and ends up two miles later at the top of Mt. Walker at the northern viewpoint - somewhere you can drive when the gate is open - but this was so much more enjoyable. Views of the Olympics (Mts. Jupiter and Constance along with Baker) were stunning. You can walk from the northern viewpoint to the southern viewpoint - it's only a 1/2 mile and gives you a different perspective. There was a light dusting of snow on the top, but nothing significant. We took in the views from this exposure - lovely. As we made our way back to the north viewpoint again, we ran into trail pup Kate and her humans; and then the other couple was enjoying their lunch at the northern viewpoint. I quickly warned them that the thief (aka Sadie) was making a surveillance run, so they'd better be careful! She is known to grab a pb&j sandwich before you can say STOP! Anyway, they were kind enough to take our picture (Clover was being shy). Off we headed back down the trail. Ran into a solo hiker on his way up about 2/3's of the way down; and then on the closed road we saw another couple coming up. Stats: 3 hours car to car; 2000' gain in 2 miles (whew!) total distance: 6 miles. A great little hike. Sadie is resting comfortably in Sequim.

Although a previous report (on December 5) mentioned that there was one and a half to three feet of snow at the top of Mt. Walker, in the past few days it seems to have melted almost totally. There's still a couple of inches on the road in places, but even that is melting quickly. There's no snow on the trail (except for a couple of tiny patches). We had started out with our snow boots on and carrying our snowshoes, since we expected to use them. The road had a minimal amount of snow, but it disappeared when we reached the trailhead in about a quarter of a mile. (We realized that we probably would regret carrying our snowshoes all the way up to the top since the trail was so bare and it didn't seem worthwhile even if we found some at the top. So we walked all the way back to the car and changed our shoes and left the snowshoes.) We had the trail to ourselves and enjoyed the steep climb up to the viewpoints. The Olympic mountains were clearly etched and we could see Mt. Baker from the north viewpoint. We walked to the south and had a great view of Mt. Rainier, and even Mt. Adams and Mt. Saint Helens. It was a good hike even without the fun of snowshoeing. On the way down we passed the only other hiker all day. It was already nearly four in the afternoon and he was only half-way up. I would guess that he must have had to descend in the dark, as the light was already fading when we reached the car.

I knew there would be no snow to stop me from getting to this trail head that is right off 101. There was plenty of snow on the trail though and there were lots of cars at the trail head but most of them belonged on one big group. People we walking up without snowshoes but I put my shoes on about half way from the top. The top was a winter wonderland with 2-3 feet of snow in the drifts and about 1.5 feet of snow on the trail. The sky was clear and I finally got to see the view up there. I could see Mount Baker and Mount Buckhorn and I could look down to the town of Quilcene.

After reading Tom Trimbath's report on Mount Townsend, I'm glad that we decided against driving up there yesterday and settled on Mount Walker instead. The Mount Walker trail is completely snow free and in perfect condition: not even one downed tree the whole way. This is an excellent conditioning trail as it climbs 2000 feet in two miles. I was delighted to find that for the first time in several trips to the summit over the past year, we finally had a clear view. (From our vantage point at the north summit, Mt. Townsend looked like it had only a thin dusting of snow.) Mount Baker was brilliant in the sun on the east. We then walked to the South Summit and ate our lunch in the sunshine on the bench directly facing Mount Rainier. It was clear enough to see faintly Mount Saint Helens and Mt. Adams as well. On our descent, it became a bit breezy and we recognized that our day in the sun was only a brief respite from the storms.

The rhododendrons are in full bloom from the start of the trail to the top. The trail is in great shape.