Hex Mountain — Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022

We rounded up a group of five hikers for Hex Mountain today. Surprisingly, none of us had ever done it before.

No issues with parking - we parked on the right shoulder just past the gated road where the route starts. No one else was hiking here with us today. As others have mentioned, there are no signs here indicating this is the way to Hex Mountain, nor any signs indicating it is road 116. However, Google Maps, Gaia, and AllTrails will all guide you reliably to the starting point. The shoulder parking is quite sloped, so I am sure it wouldn't work if it were snow-covered.

The road walk for the first mile and a half is a fairly gentle grade and a pleasant area. It's typical open country with lots of different trees, so you get good views as you ascend. We even spotted a grove or two of larch tries on our way up - they were mostly still green, so if you're not larched out yet, you could get to a few easy ones on this trail! There are a lot of side roads along the way so referring to our GPS was helpful at intersections. I didn't see any sign of other markers until we reached the trailhead sign and left the road.

The snow starts probably about 400' below the summit, but it's very thin cover right now. At about this point, we came across a hunter who was looking for deer. He said today was the final day of deer season - I'm not sure if there are other seasons after that. I actually saw a deer cross the trail about 5 minutes after we passed the hunter.

Once you reach the summit ridge, the snow is about 1" deep. It wasn't a problem for traction but I had to keep brushing snow off my pants to keep them dry. On the open ridgeline near the summit, the snow has melted a bit and turned to ice, so that was a bit slippery going up. We had spikes with us, but it wasn't worth putting them on just for that little bit. I also checked out the south summit, which is an easy walk from the saddle. We didn't stay on top too long since the wind was chilly and gusting, but we had a few peeks of sun too. I ended up doing the whole hike in my trail runners, but I think everyone else was wearing waterproof boots. Poles were helpful in the steep sections and the slippery stuff up top.

Too many clouds to see distant views of Rainier, Stuart, Daniel, etc. However, the near views of Cle Elum Lake and the surrounding mountains were good. A bit of fall color on the road and in the distance - mostly vine maples. I enjoy visiting the area around Roslyn due to the large variety of trees and plants you get - it's a nice mix of east and west side.

We finished the hike in just over 4:30. I'd love to come back in the spring when the flowers are blooming - this seems like a nice option when west side hikes are getting rain.