Made a game time decision with Kidz Won't Hike and SoaringEagle where to go on an overcast drizzly day. Kidz suggested going from Olallie park off of exit 38 and tag some peaks that run up parallel to Change Peak. Turned out a bit longer and harder than we expected and the afternoon clearing never materialized, but we had fun and tagged 4 peaks: Olallie Knob, Hall Point, Easter Island, and Songbird Peak! TH is officially Olallie State Park South Fork Picnic Area. Paved parking and restrooms. We were the only car there all day. 

We set off at 10:20am, a late start due to other commitments and anticipating the weather improving later in the day. Precipitation held off but we never got much clearing other than when we hit the final peak, Songbird. Kidz covered a lot of the details in his report so I won't repeat. There is obvious trail most of the way on this route though it does diminish higher up and especially with the 6-9" of snow, it wasn't always obvious. There was a bit of wet rock scrambling to get to Olallie Knob which we hit first. No snow at this level. Snow began above 2600' or so and as we were going up to Easter Island and Songbird, the fun began. There was several sections of rock scrambles and some narrow ridges that we had to pass thru, made trickier by 4-6" of snow on top and the steep dropoffs on either side. But we persevered. It was a fun adventure, but don't take it lightly when there is snow. We debated going back down the way we came but decided to take the road the starts from top of Songbird down around past Change Peak and then eventually connects to the trail we came up on. This way probably added 2 miles to the trip out so not sure it was faster than going back down the way we came, but at least we avoided down climbing the snowy scrambles. We moved reasonably fast but didn't make it back to the car until 5:45 - narrowly avoiding having to wear headlamps. 

Stats: 10.5 miles, 3700' gain, 7:20 total time, 1:20 stopped time - 0.5 miles was me going back down to the car and returning after forgetting microspikes which I never used. 

Gear: Waterproof boots, gaiters, waterproof layers as there was some veg encroachment and drizzle now and again. Waterproof gloves helped with the scrambling portions. 

GPX: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2442002

I got out today on the Olallie Trail, via Cedar Butte and Southside/Westside trails.

For the Southside/Westside hikers, I can report that the trail is in pretty decent shape, considering the fact that it is early February. There were a few blowdowns but nothing too daunting.

As for the Olallie Trail, I went down at the junction. From there to the PTC the trail was clear. There were a few recently sawed logs just off-trail, leading me to believe that the bikers have once again gotten it together to take care of their trail.

About 6 miles altogether, a great day to be out in the forest.

Pieced together a nice 10 mile hike on a great day.

Started at Cedar Falls TH, walked the Palouse-to-Cascades to the Olallie Bike Trail, went a bit beyond the first good lookout, and then came back via Cedar Butte.

Olallie trail is nicely built for bikes, which makes for a shallow grade and fast hiking.  Trail is in excellent shape.  Saw 2 bikers all day.

On the way back down, we used our Gaia app to spot an escape trail that leads over to the small maze of trails on Cedar Butte.  So we took that, passing a few trail cams, and tagged the top of Cedar.  Or "CEDER BUTT" as the benchmark says.

From there, it's an easy walk back down to the rail trail and the car.

Can't help but think you could do a cool 2 or 3 day backpack trip by using the Olallie trail and combining it with logging roads all the way to Hansen Ridge.  I think that was the original, ambitious vision for the Hansen Ridge trail that Evergreen MTB started.  But now that Tiger and Raging are so great for mountain biking this doesn't get much attention.

It's been a while since someone updated the trail info/conditions on some of these trails so I thought I'd do a report on them.  Jeno and I met at the Cedar Falls trailhead at 6:00 AM with one camper van parked ahead of us.   In contrast over at Rattlesnake the smaller lot was full and there were at least 10 cars in the large lot which was open.  It was a mild 62 degrees with a warm breeze coming off the Cascades as we headed out down the Palouse to Cascades trail.

We like to do this loop hike clockwise so we can ascend the steep hill on the backside of Cedar Butte rather than descend it.   We made good time down to the Olallie trail and turned onto it at approx. 6:30.   As we ascended the switchbacks we could see a headlamp way down below us.  We debated whether it was a runner (my guess) or biker (Jeno's guess) and within a few minutes we had our answer a biker heading up to the bench as he called it along the Olallie trail.  I think it's the bench WTA trip reporter Bentley-Edelman has mentioned before.

There used to be flagging and/or a cairn to mark the turn onto the West Ridge trail but there is no trace of anything now.  We've been up there enough we know where it is and turned onto it.   I told Jeno every time we take this trail it looks worse and worse.   A number of trees are down, there are branches over the trail and at times you feel like you are swimming as your push and part things out of the way.   The small pond back there is dry right now and is covered in ferns.   

We made it up the steep hill, glad to be ascending it and turned onto the Southside trail.  Much like the West Ridge trail it needs some TLC.  Not as many trees or branches are down on it but it is very overgrown and you can't see the trail at times so watch your step.

We traversed over to Saddle Junction and made a right turn to head up to the summit of Cedar Butte arriving there right at 7:45. It was crystal clear, mild and breezy.  Jeno commented you usually don't get many crystal-clear fall days like today and he was right.   

After a much needed break we headed back down the Cedar Butte trail skipping the Boxley Blowout trail this morning and seeing our first hikers of the morning on our way back down to the Palouse to Cascades.    The trail walk back to the parking lot along the PtC gave us a final count of 6 hikers, 7 bikers and 2 runners.   While the Cedar Falls trailhead had plenty of parking when we got back at 8:40, Rattlesnake was a whole other story.   The small lot and large lot were both full with cars circling around.   There were 15-20 cars parked along the road heading up there.   So busy, busy like I'm guessing a lot of trails will be this weekend.  We on the other hand had a fairly quiet and peaceful day hiking.

Stay safe everyone.  See you on the trail.  SR