I enjoyed this hike, finding it pretty challenging to do on a hot afternoon. I started from the upper campground at 2:15 PM, took the Hamilton Mt trail to the summit, continued on past the saddle and took the Hardy Creek trail back. My Fitbit says 9 miles. Maybe 7.5 miles is for going to the summit and going back the way you came. Got back at 6:00 PM, so 3:45 for the trip. I took a few breaks for water and photography. I'm 61 but I'm ornery and I moved along at a pretty good pace.
I did not find the summit to be too overgrown. It was sort of hard to pick out the final short path to the very top. Maybe people are missing it. The saddle is certainly a nice wide open place rest before starting down again.
I found one issue with all of the posted maps in that none of them had an obvious "You are here" marker. I just made my best guess and ended up taking the route I had planned on, but I was never positive I was going the right way.
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