Tronsen Ridge — Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022

In search of autumn larch splendor, we ventured out to the Tronsen Ridge trail starting from the SOUTH trailhead. Several notable things to report:

1) The 10+ miles of dirt road took an hour to negotiate, with the last mile being very rough ..... OK with an Outback, but one mini-van scraped bottom or bumpers several times.

2) The WTA hike description is misleading. "You'll find yourself bound in by walls of larches" is no longer true as most of the larches on the ridge have met their demise in wildfires over the past few years!  I don't know when the last fires were in this area, but new regrowth appears to be just a few years old.  I suspect the hike description was written before the most recent burn. The scattered larches still surviving were just beginning to turn color.

3) The trail, while very dusty, was in decent shape. Do note that from the south TH, this is a down-going-in and up-going-out hike and while the noted elevation gain is modest, there are numerous ups & downs, some with quite steep inclines.

4) I suspect  this would be a wonderful early season wildflower hike as we noted remains of numerous species.

5) Views from several places along the way, as well as at a great viewpoint about 3/4 of the way in, were lovely..... Rainier, the Stuart Range, etc. 

6) Smoke conditions on the 18th were good on this hike.... clear to the east but densely smoky to the west and north.