We hiked to the top of Mt Washington for the first time- my companion has hiked New Hampshire’s notorious Mt Washington which is much more difficult than this hike! That being said, this hike is quite a workout! Rocky - especially at first— but there are also pleasantly smooth stretches. Interesting to pass by some bolted climbing routes. Also we spotted some rusting bits of logging (?) machinery and cables. We did get confused at a junction with the Olallie trail (after the signed Great Wall trail junction.) There was a sign partially destroyed that obviously had once said Mt Washington- but which way? My Gaia gps app showed more than 1 trail ascending Mt Washington. So we took a hard right at this junction then soon afterwards another left upwards into the trees (a smaller trail peeling off). This became a climbers boot path that cut about .3 miles off the route, skipped the switchbacks and went brutally steeply uphill. Narrow! Some scrambling with hands and feet required. We enjoy this sort of thing but you may not! We regained the main route at one of the upper switchbacks from this boot path and the way up the summit from there was clear, easy to follow. Rather than descend the way we came we followed the obvious trail and then came to a junction where we turned left (legible sign for Mt Washington trail) walked a very little ways and found that illegible sign! Here we took a right and soon found ourselves on the path (approaching the Great Wall trail junction again) that we had ascended initially before our more direct steep detour!
I counted 39 people and 7 dogs (6 off leash). Spread out though so the trail never felt crowded. Hungry bugs were annoying whenever we stopped. Some water sources along the way but nothing I recall seeing in the final mile /1.5 miles to summit. Lots of bear grass blooming!
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