Hex Mountain, Hex Mountain Snowshoe — Monday, Jan. 8, 2018

Decided to break out the snowshoes and venture onto a new trail on a rare Monday off.   Hex Mountain looked to be a fairly simple route with no avalanche danger and if the skies cleared up, some stellar views of the Stuart Range and central Cascades.

Not being familiar with the area and knowing most of it would likely be snow covered, I downloaded a track onto Gaia to play it safe.  This definitely came in handy twice on the trip as I tried to take a wrong turn.  Both times it only took me a few minutes to recognize what I had done and confirm with the app.  

We found the "trailhead" easy enough using Google Maps and parked about a quarter mile down the road from the start of the trail (it's a road) across from the fire/search and rescue station where there is a sign saying parking is Ok (and it's plowed clear). The start of the route is covered in snow so we decided to just throw our snowshoes on at the beginning instead of hauling them on our backs.

Weather was completely socked in and the recently burned trees gave everything a very eerie feeling.  There is an easy to follow path along the road as you make your way to the trail proper which you come across about two miles in.  There is a fairly obvious sign marking the trail but a pronounced path as well in the snow.  We turned right and continued up the trail.  Here the burn was very evident and the black trunks stood out in stark contrast to the snow and fog.  

The path continued to be easy to follow as you intersect the road two more times on the way up the mellow ridgeline. At the last road intersection my partner decided to call it a day as her knee was very irritated and she didn't want to risk injury.  Knowing I was fairly close to the summit and had a hunch the weather was going to break, I made a quick push up the remaining mile.  The last as the fog burned off and the sun started to break through the trees was magical.  Sure enough, as I climbed the final hundred feet to the open summit, the sun was shining down on me and I had 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains.  Every view from a summit is special but there is something unique about being above a sea of clouds.

Took a few pictures and then headed quickly back down to catch up with my partner.  We finished in just over four hours.

A note on trail conditions.  We used snowshoes the whole way but the trail was so packed that I would have preferred to have just been in my trail runners.  To confirm this on our way down we encountered the only other person we saw on our trip and he was indeed motoring up the trail in his trail runners with no issues.

Also, something I am going to try and include in TR's now, phone reception.  We had little coverage at the start but by the time we had climbed about a thousand feet, we had full 4G coverage.  Our carrier is Verizon. 

Highly recommended if you are looking for fantastic views on a fairly mellow trail.  

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.strava.com/activities/1347703588