Mount Walker — Sunday, Jun. 19, 2016

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

Oh Washington, you are a big tease. I decided yesterday that I would do a sunrise hike today up to Mt Walker in order to capture some photos at the Golden Hour. I checked the forecast. I rechecked the forecast. I checked it again when I arrived at the trailhead at 0400 this morning. Everything: Clear. High 40s. I thought "perfect!" The road to the trailhead is very short and in good condition. The trail is also in excellent condition. I had my headlamp on but was more to follow the trail. It wasn't needed to avoid obstacles as other than one small tree down across the trail (easily crossed), the trail was immaculate. It is a near constant incline, sometimes with the grade between 10-20%. It is a leg burner. Even so, it took about a hour to get to the top. About 0.3 mile from the top, the fog rolled in. I thought "you got me again, WA!" Needless to say, there wasn't so much a Golden Hour as more a Foggy Hour. I strolled over to the Southern viewpoint and there was a bit better view from there, albeit still not a ton to see. I took the road back down to my car at the trailhead as the descent is a bit more mild. Only people I saw the entire time were some folks that drove up to the lookout. There looks to be a small rockslide at one spot but can be easily driven around.