Hex Mountain — Monday, Dec. 11, 2017

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

After turning right onto the forest service road from Salmon La Sac road (coming out of Roslyn), we parked almost immediately behind another car. The road is gated, no signs saying any passes were needed but we stuck our NW Forest Pass on the dash just in case. Got our gear together (very chilly so we were happy to have brought several layers) and attached our snowshoes to our backpacks - the snow was patchy for the first mile or so up the forest road. We did use them for the rest of the trek. You follow this road for maybe the first mile and a half before heading up into the trees. Easy to miss the Hex Mountain sign as a tree hangs fairly low over it. Throughout the hike/snowshoe, we found it easy to take the wrong turnoff or occasionally miss the path - we always quickly noticed and corrected our route (noticing if we were starting to head more downhill, the packed in snow trail started to disappear into more powder, etc.). It was still helpful to have a download of the area on my phone’s Gaia app for reference. Signs of the Jolly Mountain Fire were clearly evident - nearly every tree was blackened in some regard, many (most? I’m not an expert) dead and fallen. The whole lower section of the trail was heavy with fog but we were lucky to pop out above the layer into blue skies and a panoramic view at the top (can’t name all the surrounding mountains but Rainier was visible along with the Stuart and some of the Enchantment Peaks). Hex Mt itself is above treeline and fairly windswept. Total distance per my Garmin watch was 7.4 miles and it took us almost exactly 4 hours including rest stops and a lunch stop near the top. The watch reported a 2,600’ elevation gain but take that with a grain of salt given it doesn’t have an altimeter. We did not see anyone else along the way and did not have cell service the entire time.