We pulled onto Rainy Creek Rd, the turnoff from Hwy 2 to Smithbrook TH around 11 am and was in a lineup of cars when all of a sudden a young bear darted in front of our car! I was too shocked that we almost hit a bear to take a photo, but I'd advise to not go too fast on this road up. There were way more cars than I expected for this hike, but it was a beautiful day. We went past the trailhead and parked a lil bit up, the walk to the trailhead wasn't too bad for us.
We started our hike around 11:30 and this trail was busy busy. As we made our way up I noticed other hikers coming down with sandwich bags full of wild blueberries and huckleberries. They said the berries were great on trail. We took the junction to Mt McCausland and got 1/2 way up this part of the trail before finding a spot to eat lunch, enjoy the views, and pick berries. The trail was very crowded going to the summit, so we opted not to go much further than our lunch spot. The trail is steep and narrow, we heard 2 dogs going at it and one of the owners taking a small tumble, but they were ok. Great fall colors!
We did run into a bear hunter on our way down, we did caution him that this was a very busy trail, he said he was going to go the opposite way on the PCT.
We got back to our car a lil after 4 pm. Then it took us 4+ hours to drive home from TH to Lynnwood, which was very rough. Didn't see any accidents, the usual Sunday traffic but worse due to Blewett Pass closure I'm thinking.
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