Bare Mountain — Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2005

Snoqualmie Region > North Bend Area

Clear skies in Duvall and no afternoon obligations, so I decided to try Bare Mountain in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Travel on the North Fork Road is slow. Most of the road is fine, but the occassional washboard bumps, potholes, and ruts made my '62 International skip like a stone. If you are unfamiliar with this area, the secret is to stay on the more heavily travelled route. The turn to Road 57 is just past Lennox creek and is clearly marked. The trail head is also well marked. I measured approx 19 miles from the pavement end to the trailhead. The hike starts off on an old road bed which has become a drainage/creek bed. You will be walking on loose gravels and cobbles. Many of the rocks were softball sized. The first crossing of Bear Creek was no problem. The double logs are wobbly, but the big log looked slippery. The second crossing has a wooden bridge. Slippery with the recent snow, but sound. There are some big trees past the creek. Stop and admire them. The trail soon opened up into a meadow. My trip was (accidentally) timed so that the brush was down and much of route easily visible. I did not encounter any of the ""waist high"" brush described in other accounts. At an elevation of 3500 ft the trail turns uphill from the old road. You can't easily follow the road beyond this point, as it's overgrown with small trees. Snow was present from this point on - gradually increasing from a few inches to knee deep the closer to ridge I walked. Snow had fallen over the weekend, but the switch backs (there are lots of 'em) were fairly easy to follow. Near the 4900 ft level I put on snow shoes, as I was sinking into the snow covered brush. The last 200 ft of elevation was a bit of a challenge because of the snow and the angle. It is obvious that in a normal snow year, this area would be deep under snow, with the associated dangers on the open slopes. By the time I got to the top the clouds had come in and most of the views were gone. A few snow flakes were falling. I could see a ""peek a boo"" view of the Snoqualmie Valley and the sun appeared to be shining on the lower flanks of Glacier Peak. I took three hours to go up and two hours back. (I spent some time on the way up fiddling with boots and mucking around in the snow.) I measured 8.75 miles total length. With the long slow drive on the North Fork Road, it's a pretty good day's trip. Some warm weather and this will be a surprisingly good early season (this season, anyway) hike.