Mount Townsend — Thursday, Jul. 16, 2009

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

As earlier posters have noted, the trail is in great shape. We missed the native rhodies in bloom, but the upper trail was a riot of wild flowers. If you are the checklist type, you ccan tick off more than half the flowers in an Olympics flower field guide on this trail alone. Even rare ones like the pipers bell flower that I found on the rocky northern end of the summit. We hiked in from the Quilcene end and saw few hikers on the trail. We were surprised by the number at the summit--turns out they hike in from the easier north end. But take the Quilcene side trail. It is beautiful. At the summit, a glider coasted by, whispering in the wind. Lovely views of the strait and the sound.