Great day climbing up Songbird and Greenway on a bluebird warm day with Kidz Won't Hike and Aferrenberg! After all that rain, it was surprisingly pleasant, the trail was in great shape and things were pretty dry at higher elevations. This is a pretty obscure hike, so imagine our surprise when we ran into a group of about 10 or so others up there! Good choice for this day, including a fun section of ridge climbing with some short class 3 stuff. There's pretty much a visible trail all the way to the summits we tagged.

Parked at Ollie State Park South Fork TH. One toilet open. No other cars at 8:30am. But there were cars up and down the road at the various THs. 

Started hiking at 8:45, finished just before 3pm. The trail is relatively steep in places and can get rocky. First short section goes up to the Palouse to Cascade trail (John Wayne). Then a short section hiking on that flat trail, before branching off again going uphill. We detoured to climb Hall Point, before heading up to the ridge that took us to our peaks. Once out in the open on the ridge, it was excellent terrain, with blue sky and sun. There's plenty of sections that have steep drop-offs, some short knife-edge ridge work and a couple class 3 sections to get up. Kidz and I were here in Feb 2024 and with snow it was much more committing and sketchy. On that trip we ended up going out a different way than we came in since we didn't want to down climb the class 3 and steep stuff. This time it was no problem, though still exposed and dangerous. We ran into the other party as I mentioned above around the knife-edge ridge and ended up passing them. From here the ridge opens up and then a broad grassy slope to get up to the large summit of Songbird. We relaxed for a while and then headed off down a series of old roads to tag Greenway. Greenway sits on the edge of the watershed, so the roads over there get active use. Views were great today and seemed extra special given all the horrible weather we've been having. Now lets pray for some snow!

Stats: 7.9 miles, 3,730' gain, 6:10 total time, 1:10 stopped time

Gear: Good grippy boots, work gloves for veggie belays and wet/dirty scrambles. Brought poles, spikes, and gaiters and never used them. 

GPX: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=3064149

Trail is washed out bad from heavy rain. Take extreme care and caution.

Hey.., our party of three met at 9:15 at the Rattlesnake Ledge Cedar Butte  parking lot to hike up the Ollalie Trail. This is a great option for a longer hike with no crowds compared to Rattlesnake Ledge. 
Privies at lot were nice and clean, stocked and open. 
Got on the trail about 9:30. We followed Pal to Cascade for two miles to the well marked turnoff to Ollalie Trail.

Turned off there and made our way up the gradual incline for three miles to The Viewpoint. No other hikers but several bikers on the trail today. Seems to be more used by bikers than hikers. 
Lots of Five Finger ferns, deer ferns, salmon berry plants , Devils Club and we heard and ID numerous birds including Hairy Woodpecker, Varied Thrush, and Pacific Wren. 
We ate our lunch at the viewpoint though it got a bit chilly. Headed back to the cars about 12:15 and reached them at 2:15. 10 miles round trip.
We like this hike. MJB

Usually a people-free alternative to more popular hikes in the area.

I parked at the Homestead Valley Trailhead, hiked east a short way on the Palouse to Cascades Trail, then ascended the Change Creek Trail to Change Peak.  Descended via the Great Wall Trail and the Mt. Washington trail.  From the time you leave the Palouse to Cascades Trail, to the time you pick up the Mt. Washington Trail hours later, you are unlikely to see anyone, even on a beautiful Saturday like this.  This is surprising given the quality of the scenery.  

A couple of notes on the route: 1) Ascending the Change Creek Trail, you will eventually come to a creek crossing and a small sign with an arrow pointing to the right, saying "Pond/Mt. WA".  Please do not use this silly bootleg trail.  There is no advantage to it.  Instead, cross the creek and plow straight ahead on the roadbed.  The way looks brushy, but the worst of it has been cut by nameless volunteers, and it goes pretty easy.  In a mere 15 minutes or so, you will emerge where construction of the Olallie Trail abruptly stopped.  From here you just continue up the Ollalie Trail.  2)  The top end of the Great Wall Trail is currently unmarked.  Look for it less than a mile after descending from the high point high  on a shouldeer of Change Peak.  Alternately, just stay on the Olallie Trail until it intersects the Mt. Washington Trail.  (The Great Wall Trail is much prettier, though.  Full disclosure:  I helped build it some 40 years ago.  Or, if doing the loop the other way, the Great Wall Trail is very conspicuously signed where it splits off from the Mt. Washington Trail.)

All in all, a great and lonesome conditioner hike with excellent scenery.

3000' gain, aprrox. 9 miles.

Decided to day hike up Mt. Washington the long way. Started at the Cedar Falls TH on the Cascades to Palouse (Rattlesnake Parking lot in North Bend. Face the ledge & then turn your body 180 degrees & go that direction). Walked East around 3/4 of a mile to the Cedar Butte trail. The TH is signed but may be easy to miss if you're not paying attention. Cedar Butte moderately gains elevation for a mile or so to a very easy to miss intersection where you either take a left to summit the butte (which is clearly signed & easy to spot) or go right to head toward the Olallie trail (which is the part that is easy to miss), which is what I did. For the next mile or so, this rarely used portion of the trail is a bit overgrown with a couple of easy to navigate blow downs. It steeply heads down a ravine, meanders around for a 1/2 mile or so, then steeply heads up to connect to the Olallie. Gaiters will help in this section, which I didnt wear & was pretty wet afterwords. I avoided this section on the way back, opting to take the Olallie all the way to Cascades to Palouse in order to keep dry. Plus, it rained quite a bit after I initially went through & was certainly worse. Either way, I digress. Once connected to the Olallie Trail, I was rewarded with a trail in excellent condition, which was certainly built for bicycles. The track had endless switchbacks & wasted a ton of time ascending up the ridge (I'm not complaining). Once you gain the ridge, Its a long traverse, followed by an easy climb (more flatish switchbacks) up 500 or so feet, followed by another longish traverse to meet up with the Mt. Washington trail. As reported last week, the snow is melted. I crossed 1 small bit, which will be gone in the next couple of days. Once at the summit, I saw a party of 3 hikers, which were the only people I saw the entire day. Stats according to Garmin: 17 miles out & back, 4550 ft up/down, just shy of 7 hours total/6 hours moving.