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Trip Report

Mount Catherine — Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

TL;DR - It's a far less crowded Rattlesnake ridge type hike with near impossible road conditions to get there unless you have an SUV or truck with clearance

ROAD
Well let's talk about the road since that's probably the first thing people should know. NF-9070 is filled with potholes pretty consistently throughout, you'll regularly run into .5-1 meter wide holes that are roughly 4-8 inches deep at their deepest point. Some collected together so you have to go through them. These were easily navigable if you had an SUV with clearance and took it slow, however if you have a regular sedan I would not recommend trying. You might be able to get past some of them but it's going to be very sketchy.

At approximately (47°22'00.9"N 121°25'06.8"W) there's a big turn in the road and the road is significantly washed with very rough terrain. I parked here and walked to the trailhead (~1.5 miles) which wasn't bad at all. There is an unofficial pulloff section that fits roughly 10 cars, and just prior to this there is another pulloff section that fits 7-10 more. When I arrived at 9:30am there were 6 cars combined in each. When I left around 12:30pm there were 12 cars at the upper section, and 6 at the lower section.

Thinking back I'm fairly confident I could have managed the rough terrain in my 4Runner or any other SUV/Truck with ~1 foot clearance, as I saw several others able to do this. If you can make it past this turn, there is a decent sized parking section just outside the trailhead that will fit 6-10 more cars. When I left the trail at noon there were 4 cars here.

TRAIL
The trailhead itself is an a single wooden board that just reads "1348", the official sign is 50 feet or so beyond that. The trail is very similar to Rattlesnake Ridge, it's 90% uphill with the last 20 feet getting to the peak at a very steep angle. There is a cable that you can use to help you get up. The peak is very small, fits maybe 4 or 5 small groups.

Trail is in good condition, narrow and rocky, but nothing crazy. From the pre-washed road parking lot to the peak took me roughly 1.5 hours at an above average pace. Going up around 10am on a Saturday, I ran into about 4 groups. At the peak there were two other groups. And coming down around 11:30pm I passed about 6 or 8 groups. 

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