Mount Jupiter — Sunday, Feb. 20, 2005

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

Had a nice little day (and night) hike up to Mt. Jupiter on Monday, Feb 21. There was a gate closed on the main gravel road at the power lines, but this was bypassed on some of the many other dirt tracks in the vicinity (4WD/high clearance recommended). The road was in fairly good shape, and recently travelled, all the way up to the trailhead. There was snow and some ice on the shady parts of the road, most was bare and dry. No snow at the trailhead, but a nice view over the clearcuts. There's a bit of a climb at the beginning, after which the trail levels out through the pleasant second growth woods. The trail is all in excellent shape, with little erosion, and only one little blowdown and some small rocks on the trail. The woods are nice, with lots of lush green salal, oregon grape, roses, wintergreens etc. Patchy snow (from last weekend) started around 4000', and occasionally on shady slopes the trail was snow filled as you climb towards the summit. The new snow was no problem, but there were a few drifts of old, hard snow covered with loose new snow as you started traversing the first of the main peaks and along the summit ridge. An ice axe would have been reassuring, but we didn't have any. It wasn't too scary in mid-afternoon. The final switchbacks up to the summit were mostly snow free thanks to the southern exposure, but there is drifted snow on the north side of the summit, and the basins below are snow covered, including the frozen-over nearest lake. Generally speaking, all the south slopes are snow free, and north slopes (which the trail usually avoids) are snowy above 4000 to 4500 feet. Some of the shrubs are starting to bud up high, but otherwise no signs of spring. Hard to say if spring flowers will come early up there, or not at all this year. Hiking back the lower half of the trail in the dark was nice - it's smooth enough you don't need a light (with a little moon light) except for maybe the final descent to the trailhead. A nice little walk in the woods, and fantastic views of the Cascades, Constance, The Brothers, Anderson, Washington etc. and Seattle. Even got to see a little steam cloud coming out of St. Helens just before sunset. Be prepared to deal with at least a little snow and ice, though.