Tronsen Ridge — Thursday, Jun. 18, 2020

We had a bit of trouble finding the trailhead.  The directions mention a sharp right switchback after crossing Naneum Creek.  We'd describe it as an immediate left after crossing Naneum Creek.  The parking area is a flat area on the left side of the road about 50' from the road.  I think maybe the reference to the "switchback" is so that vehicles make a one way loop to the parking area.  If you forget to go right, you're still OK going left.  Both routes lead to the parking area.   We unfortunately thought that there would be a spur road on the right, somewhere along FR 9712 after crossing Naeum Creek.  We drove for two miles past the trailhead, on an ever increasingly narrow road before we found a safe place to turn around.  Thank you the two drivers we encountered who were more nimble than we, and they expertly drove in reverse until they could pull over so we could get by.

Anyway, the hike was wonderful.  Great views.  So many different flower species in bloom.  Could have spent days/weeks/years trying to identify them.  You can see most of the flowers along the trail within 2 miles from the trailhead in case you don't want to go very far. 

No signage really to get to the correct trail that we could find.  From the parking area, we walked about 1/3rd mile on a dirt road.  We then saw a sign on the right of the road that said Mt Lillian Trail.  Directly across from that sign, we noticed another road.  This we think is the old jeep trail mentioned in the WTA description.  This jeep trail meanders through the forest of dead trees for about 1/2 mile.  It leads you to a trail signage kiosk with a map of the trail and road systems in the area.  It looks like somehow people drive to this trailhead kiosk, although we didn't see any parked cars.  Not sure how they access the jeep road to the kiosk.