Mount Townsend — Sunday, Feb. 20, 2005

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

After days of viewing very skimpy snow on the east flanks of Mt. Townsend and thinking a President's Day jaunt to Townsend might just work, took off for the trailhead. Took the Penny Road exit off 101 and followed it higher. The snow gate on FR 27 was open, but past it and particularly where the road follows the north side of the ridges, there were significant stretches of ice and compact snow. There was also a stretch of compact snow from FR 27 and along the spur road to the upper trailhead. The spur road has both bare dirt and stretches of compact snow or ice, and on some of these you would not want to meet an oncoming car and have to back up to let them by, or vice versa. Took off from the trailhead at 8:20 and arrived at summit at 10:15. The trail is predominantly clear of snow and ice, but there are many 50 to 100 foot long stretches of ice and hardpack snow that require careful footwork. On our way back down around 11:30, some of the frozen ground and icy patches were melting on the higher southern-exposed sections of trail above the tree-level, but in the shade of the trees, the ice patches remained pretty firm all the way down toward the trailhead. Passed about 4 other parties during our descent. Vehicles in the parking lot included both 4-wheel and 2-wheel drive,so depending on how you handle snow and ice, you didn't need 4-wheel drive to get to the trailhead, but that of course could change with the first snow. Views were superb all the way around, and pretty amazing to have so little snow in February at this altitude. Couple of photos are included, one looking south from the summit toward the Brothers and Constance, the other looking westerly toward the slopes of Mt. Baldy and Gray Wolf Peak, both of which are showing very little snow, although it looks like there might be snow along the east side of the ridge where the Maynard Burn trail goes up toward Baldy.