We hiked the Red Mountain/Commonwealth Basin trail on Friday. It was fairly cloudy most of the hike with rain on the way down. We saw bear scat in two different places, which I'd never seen in many years of hiking in Snoqualmie Pass.
A warning about following the trail: there is a key trail junction at the base of the west face of Red Mountain. Heading straight will take you to the beginning of the scramble to the summit. But taking the left trail, as we did, will take you on a trail to a small pond and from there on a trail that winds around to the east side of Red Mountain. You cannot access the summit from this route. Do not make the mistake we made and take the left hand trail. Personally, I think this piece of information should be in the trail description as it's fairly easy, if you've never been on this trail, to make this mistake.
The trail past the PCT junction is delightfully free of other hikers. More than half the hikers on the trail wore masks, which I appreciated.
Comments
trailguy99 on Red Mountain (Commonwealth Basin)
Trail mileage is around 6.5 RT. I had my Garmin GPS as well as my Gaia Running. And when measured on the map it’s right around that.
Posted by:
trailguy99 on Aug 23, 2020 02:18 PM
richards1052 on Red Mountain (Commonwealth Basin)
Since we never made it to the top because of our wrong turn, I'll trust your Garmin and edit the trip report accordingly.
Posted by:
Richard Silverstein on Aug 23, 2020 02:59 PM
Mountaineers trail mileage
The Mountaineers site says it's 9 miles: https://www.mountaineers.org/activities/routes-places/commonwealth-basin-area-review/red-commonwealth-basin-5890
Posted by:
Richard Silverstein on Aug 23, 2020 03:06 PM