Notch Pass — Sunday, Jun. 1, 2003

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

I had seen this trail listed in the WTA work party lists for a while and wondered about it. I finally picked up a description from the ranger station and decided to try it on a day when I wanted only a short hike as it's listed as only 2.1 miles each way. Since we had a late start yesterday it seemed a good time to try it. The trailhead is accessible by driving from the Quilcene Ranger Station one mile to Penny Creek Road, another 1.4 miles to the ""Y"" at the two gravel roads where you take the left fork, then another .9 mile to an unmarked road (which has a small sign when you're on it ""010"". This infrequently used forest road will take you to the trailhead in 1.4 miles. When we got to the trailhead we were suprised to see two other cars parked and wondered how we were to squeeze the jeep alongside the very narrow road. Fortunately, the hikers from the other cars were just then returning, and one of them graciously moved his car to let us park. If this trail becomes more popular, the parking will really be a problem. It was lucky to run into these people for another reason. We were told that the trail continued beyond the end at road 100, as specified in the forest service flyer. In fact, one can take it all the way to the Lower Big Quilcene trail near Bark Shanty. The Notch Pass trail was built originally in the 1930s by the CCC and had fallen into dis-use for many years. Evidently it's an historical route, used by Native Americans for hundreds of years before that. WTA has done an amazing job at restoring the trail. I loved seeing the little bench (at about the half-mile mark) with WTA carved into it. The trail is steep, switchbacks up the east side of the Quilcene Range to Notch Pass at 2500 feet. (That's about a 2000 feet elevation gain in 2.1 miles.) Following the directions from the other hikers (one of whom had worked on the trail), we crossed the road and found the trail continuing, now downhill losing about 400 feet until it reached the paved road that leads up to Mount Townsend. Turning right on the paved road for a short distance we spied a ribbon and the continuation of the trail downwards. We found ourselves in a beautiful forest, moving high above a creek, passing ""Mosquito Rock"", Allen Creek, and finally stopped at Townsend Creek for lunch. We had dropped another 600 feet from the paved road. Since it was getting late and we hadn't planned on such a long hike, we turned back there. Of course we had to regain 1000 feet of elevation before we could do our descent to the car. I think we probably did about 7 miles altogether. It was great fun to explore an area we had never seen before, on a trail still in process (much more work is planned; many ribbons indicating work to be done).