Mount Walker — Friday, Jan. 14, 2000

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

Wince the day began to look more promising than I had expected, we decided to do a hike even though it was late morning when we left the house. We thought Mount Walker would be a good choice because it's only four miles round trip, and it makes a good half-day hike. We were surprised to see a solid sheet of snow at the gate on Highway 101, at only 800 feet elevation. We started up the snowy road to the trailhead and found that once we were on the trail the snow disappeared and so were able to hike for a while on bare ground with only patches of snow in open places. But the snow increased at around 1300 feet and soon the trail was completely covered. It's a steep trail (2000 feet in two miles) so that made the slogging upward more difficult. I developed a bad cramp in my foot, unfortunately, and had to turn back before reaching the top. Hikers coming down said that there was about a foot of snow on top. Lots of people on the trail--the sunshine brought everyone out from the gloom.