My friend Bob called me Sat afternoon and suggested Bare Mtn. up the N.Fork Snoqualmie for a easy Sunday hike. I haven't been up to Lennox Creek area since fishing there in the mid 90's.
Met a ranger at the TH in a official USFS vehicle. ""Be careful, there have been bear sightings in the area"" he advised. ""They apparently have been down in the lower elevations due to the salmon berries"". We didn't have any encounters along the way, and I'm certain that if any black bear were in the vacinity, we spooked them way ahead of approaching. It is interesting to note that Bare Mtn.- a former lookout site, is reached by paralleling Bear Creek which originates at Bear Lake. Odd.
Trail itself is in pretty good shape, except the open slopes ""fern forest"" need a good brushing out. Some of the foliage is head high, but the tradeoff is the flower show is peaking - insane quantities of Tiger Lilly, Red Columbine and Thistle with a few varieties of daisy. Up on the ridge to Bare Mtn. are paintbrush and some bluish-purple trumpet shaped low to the ground flowers (I don't know their name).
Cool and comfortable overcast going up, but once reaching summit of ~5400', the clouds dropped and the fog rose up the valley and our neighboring views of Dog Mtn., Lennox Pk., and Paradise Lakes abruptly came to an end. Then the steady drizzle came. After lunch we decended back in the very wet switchbacks. Glad I brought the rain pants! However, I did find a secondary use for a trekking pole -dull machette! Attempted to at least lessen the overgrowth in the brushiest areas. Nice exercise hike, bugs were minimal, lots of flowers and a warm although misty day.
8 miles RT ~3400' gain
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