Mount Townsend — Saturday, Jun. 19, 2010

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

Had a lovely afternoon hike up Townsend from the upper east trailhead. Not many flowers yet, although the rhododendrons are nice on the drive up. Snow starts a couple hundred vertical feet below the bench, at around 5000', with the usual slow, soft, postholing, steep snow on the trail. Not too bad, though. Complete snow cover on the bench. Much of the trail is melted out on the more open slopes on the way to the summit. The summit ridge itself is completely dry except for the one usual snowdrift halfway up. There are 2 step-over logs across the trail low down. Also, the road to the upper trailhead has been greatly improved since the last time I was up there. And the trailhead is even free! As for flowers, there lots of yellow violets, a couple honeysuckle bushes, some phlox, and up on top a tiny yellow mustard and Phacelia - some of which was already past. Meadowrue on the slope that is covered with it has nice purple buds, but hasn't bloomed. The usual nice hike, nice views, including the Friday afternoon cruise ship rush out of Puget Sound, and only saw a few people. If you want to go, though, please be prepared for snow, at least for the next couple weeks. I really hate to see the vegetation destroyed by people trying to avoid snow.