Mount Townsend, Little Quilcene River — Sunday, Jul. 4, 1999

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

Perhaps the first semblance of summer weather made this short round trip especially satisfying. We purposed originally to visit Tubal Cain and possibly Marmot Pass, but gave up at the ""road closed"" dirt pile across Palo Alto Road. Instead, we took our low-center Mazda adventuring on Road 28, turning off on 2820 just before Bon Jon Pass. The narrow Mazda proved just the ticket for bypassing snowbanks in the last mile before the Little Quilcene Trailhead. The first half mile of the trail is just fine, if you like hiking through clear cuts. Shortly after entering the woods, progress slowed due to a quick sequence of a half-dozen blow downs, together with the remnants of the big snowpack. About a quarter mile below the saddle (little summit @ 1 mi.) the snow becomes continuous. Once through the saddle, the trail reappears for stretches up to a few hundred yards, but it's still snowcovered more than 50% of the way to the intersection with the Mt. Townsend Trail. After making the turn, there was another, say, half mile of snow before the trail breaks out into the open pine parkland. Lots of rusty needles on the tips of the pine branches - was it the tough La Nina winter again' Anyway, the entire ridgetop of Townsend is snow free, full of little flowers and quite fetching on this sunny day. Good views over to the Cascades, back into the interior Olympics and on across the Straits. We saw 13 other people during the round trip, including 5 who came up the Mount Townsend Trail. An ice axe is handy on the Little Quilcene, though we saw two young fellers in tennies who didn't have an axe, and seemed to get up just fine.