Mount Washington — Saturday, Dec. 13, 1997

Snoqualmie Region > North Bend Area

Mount Washington was chosen as a close-in alternative to Mount Si with its hordes of people or Mailbox Peak with its quad-burning steepness. Follow I-90 east to exit 38; turn right; cross the river; and turn right again on an unmarked road to the Olallie State Park TH (47 deg. 26.552 min. N; 121 deg. 40.233 min. W; elev 1200). OK, you caught me playing with my GPS receiver. A trail heads up and west to an old railroad grade. Continue west until the road slopes down a bit. Turn left at the sign ""MT WA TRAIL"" located high in a tree. At the 1800 foot level (about 30 min. from the car) is a small cave on your right. Look at all the climbing bolts and wonder what sort of ""spider-person"" could use them. Continue up to 2600 feet and another trail junction marked left to rock and right to the trail. Many of the rock faces along this section also had climbing bolts placed in high places. At the 2900 foot mark is a flat spot with another fork. Look for 2 soccer ball sized rocks and several tree blazes. We took the left fork although I believe that both forks will get you there. The left fork has been recently brushed. If the snow line is low, some of this section may be a little dicey. Sorry, no GPS waypoints for the last three forks. Continue up to the 3500 foot level to a road (47 deg. 26.039 min. N; 121 deg. 40.965 min W). Turn left on this road and in .5 mile come to a x-shaped intersection. Go straight across this intersection to the uphill leg (47 deg. 25.923 min. N; 121 deg. 40.670 min. W.). Follow this road aroung a knoll and across a ridge. The summit is again in sight to your right. At the end of the ridge is yet another fork in the road (47 deg. 25.176 min. N; 121 deg. 41.501 min. W.). The distance to this waypoint is about 2.0 miles. Take the hairpin right turn along another ridge line road. In 0.5 miles reach the last fork (47 deg. 25.394 min. N; 121 deg. 41.897 min. W.). Take the middle fork which is a boot path up the spine of the ridge. The summit has a small weather station or something there. If you are experiencing horizontal ice pellets like we did, continue along the ridge for another 200 yards to a well protected lunch spot at the very end of the ridge line.