Wince the day began to look more promising than I had expected, we decided to do a hike even though it was late morning when we left the house. We thought Mount Walker would be a good choice because it's only four miles round trip, and it makes a good half-day hike. We were surprised to see a solid sheet of snow at the gate on Highway 101, at only 800 feet elevation. We started up the snowy road to the trailhead and found that once we were on the trail the snow disappeared and so were able to hike for a while on bare ground with only patches of snow in open places. But the snow increased at around 1300 feet and soon the trail was completely covered. It's a steep trail (2000 feet in two miles) so that made the slogging upward more difficult. I developed a bad cramp in my foot, unfortunately, and had to turn back before reaching the top. Hikers coming down said that there was about a foot of snow on top. Lots of people on the trail--the sunshine brought everyone out from the gloom.

Since we got a late start, we decided to do a short hike, but wanted to get a good work-out while we were doing it. Mount Walker is great for that purpose: 2000 feet of elevation in 2 miles. There were only three cars at the trailhead and we were surprised, since it was such a beautiful sunny day. What we had overlooked was the fact that the road was still open and so people were driving up to the summit. It's always a bit disconcerting to reach the top and find the people strolling from their cars. Among the ""visitors"" were a couple of young guys strumming guitars, and then later, a young woman happily blowing bubbles into the clear air! Clouds to the west blocked some of the view of the mountains, but blew away from time to time so we got some great glimpses of Mount Constance while we ate our lunch. We walked over to the southern summit afterwards and there had a nice view of Puget Sound, Seattle, etc., but the clouds blocked Mount Rainier and the Cascades. The trail is in great shape all the way.

We were the only people on the trail on this drizzly Monday. Mt. Walker is a great warm-up hike: 2 miles up and 2000 feet elevation. There was no snow at all on the trail and only a few small, inconsequential patches on the road between the north and south lookouts. Since there were a few sun-breaks during our hike, we had some glimpses of the higher mountains, and a nice view of Puget Sound. Unfortunately, although we had the pleasure of isolation, it turned out not to be an isolation of quiet. There was a logging operation on Buck mountain and the sound of the helicopter continued throughout the entire time of our hike. From the south lookout we watched it for a few minutes through our binoculars. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the exercise and the lovely woods.

It felt like a Spring day, warm and sunny, except the clouds started to darken when we reached the summit. We still had great views of the snow-capped Olympics, and cloudy views east of Seattle and a glimpse of Mt. Rainier. The trail is in excellent condition. It's completely snow free all the way to the top. A great winter work-out: 2000 feet of elevation in two miles.

Mount Walker is an especially good conditioning hike at this time of year when the higher peaks are snow covered. On this misty Monday, we were completely alone, and even though the road up to the top was still open, there were no cars at the top (no view either!--it was such a cloudy day). Nonetheless, the 2000 feet climb in two miles gives a good workout; the forest is lovely, and the solitude made us feel we were much further into the Olympics. We walked to the South viewpoint to add about a mile (roundtrip) to our hike. We kept hoping the clouds would break and we would get a glimpse of the Sound and Seattle far in the distance--no such luck. But it didn't rain, and for that we were grateful.