Pack Forest - Hugo Peak — Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025

Headed over to Pack Forest to get a nice shot of Rainier on this crisp day. There were 7 cars in the lower 2 lots when we arrived. We drove up to the upper lot near the Conference Center. There were about a dozen cars there. The Honey Bucket was open and stocked, but getting full. More cars arrived as we geared up.

We knew Hugo Peak was a bust as far as views go, so we wanted to get out to the viewpoint we made it to last June with very cloudy skies. We headed up the road and onto the Horse Trail, which seemed a bit more direct than the Hugo Peak Trail. The trail was frozen most of the way up, with just a couple of partially thawed sections. We were allotted views of the Olympics and even the tip of Baker. The climb was good for warming up, though I never got away from gloves and a beanie. Made it to the Hugo trail and continued down road 1080 to the Trail of the Giants, where there are old growth tree which survived an 1800 fire. Continued onto Windy Ridge past the weather station and just a bit up Road 2000 to our spot. Caught the tip of Adams too, so 3 volcanoes today. On the way back, we took a short inconspicuous trail up to a memorial. The picture below gives the explanation.

Headed back down. 5.9 miles and we saw exactly 1 person on all the trails today. Don't know where everyone was, but it was a lovely day to be out.