Mount Townsend, Silver Lakes & Little Quilcene River — Friday, May. 27, 2005

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

On Saturday I hiked a loop starting at the west end of the Little Quilcine trail, which is located across the road and up a bit from the Tubal Cain Mine trailhead. The trail climbs steeply up Dirty Face ridge to the Mount Townsend Trail junction and when the trail opens up there are views of Buckhorn and Iron mountains and the Gray Wolf Ridge. From there I hiked the length of Mount Townsend and turned right at the Silver Lake trail junction. About one mile before Silver Lake I turned right again onto the unmaintained Silver Creek way trail which was clear except for a few blow-downs. It was about a mile of road to my car after the end of the Silver Creek Trail. This is about a 10-mile loop and is steep and scenic no matter which direction you choose. There was no snow to speak of and though not yet the end of May it was already July in the mountains. Flowers were out and fragrant on the ridge and there were Trillium and Calypso Orchids on the creek trail.