Web Mountain via Putrid Pete's Peak — Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024

Arrived at 9:30am on a sunny Thursday. I parked at the end of Tinkham road, exit 42 off I-90. I prefer that to the Ira Spring trailhead because it saves about 15 min of driving and adds about 15 min of hiking. Just go to the north end of the road and there's a little spot you can park.

There are 2 connector trails from Tinkham up to the Ira Spring trails - one that goes straight to the Putrid Pete's Peak (P3) trail and one that takes you to the road just east of the Ira Spring trailhead. I took the first on the way up and the second on the way down. The connector trail going to P3 was pretty ugly for the first half and involved going along a logging road that was strewn with large logs and branches and thorny bushes. It suddenly turned into a nice bootpath in the woods after about 0.9 mi though and then it was quite pleasant. I had to follow the route on my phone (Gaia) pretty closely to find that bootpath initially.

I made it to within about 0.25 mi of the peak and then turned back, basically right where the trail emerges from the trees for the last time. The snow got deeper as I was going up and at that point was about 2-3", which was just deep enough to make it very hard to find the trail and nearly impossible to figure out where I could safely put my hands and feet. The trail gets very steep as you get higher and I was already worried about the descent and didn't want to make it any longer than necessary so I decided to call it. The views were impressive from this point but of course you're only getting the south facing view.

I'm not much of a winter scrambler or route finder so it's possible that people with more expertise might have a better time on this trail in these conditions. The descent was very slow and I made good use of my gloves and rain pants staying low and in contact with the ground, at least until I got back into the trees and out of the snow. It was pretty hard on my knees but didn't feel as sketchy as I was expecting.

I took a sojurn on the Dirty Harry connector trail to the Little Balcony on my way back since my hike was shorter than planned. It was a pleasant trail and a nice spot for a sandwich, but the view was underwhelming after being above the treeline on P3 and the roar of I-90 there is a bit much.

I took the other connector trail back to Tinkham, going out past the Ira Spring trailhead and picking up the connector trail from the road. It was a much nicer trail than the connector to P3, and parallels Mason Creek the whole way.

One last thing I'll note is that the P3 trail was a bit confusing in places. It seemed like the trail branched a handful of times and only one way was correct. If you chose incorrectly you'd wander in the woods for 50 yards or so and then the trail would disappear and you'd need to backtrack or bushwhack to find the main trail again.

I only saw 3 people all day: 2 people going up the P3 trail in running gear which sounded like a poor choice to me, and one guy on the Ira Spring trail with an off leash dog.