Mount Washington — Thursday, Dec. 21, 2006

Snoqualmie Region > North Bend Area

Mt. Washington, near North Bend, is an interesting winter destination. It's unlikely you'll find crowds there, the route finding can be challenging, and the summit, if you get there, has great views. On the way up, I met Paul who has been doing much of the trail maintenance at Mt. Washington. This morning he was working on drainage and brush removal. He told me about a new route he'd put in up the North Ridge. I decided to try it. I put on snowshoes around the 3500 foot level, snowshoed past the ponds and followed a logging road to where a path marked by surveyors tape went up through the forest. Eventually, I climbed out onto a nice ridge with steep slopes. Not a place for novice snowshoers. I followed this route up to another logging road, hiked it a short distance to the south and then went up to the summit via an old clear cut. The summit has a small, unobtrusive communications tower. The views are 360 degree, south toward Rainier, west to the sprawl of the Puget Sound coastal plain, north across I-90 to Si, Mail Box, Teneriffe, and east to McClellans Butte, Defiance, Bandera. I decided to descend via the so-called standard route in order to make a partial loop. I had been down this way only once before following well-defined tracks. This time it was trackless snow and I went too far to the east along the main ridgeline logging road wasting precious time. I backtracked and this time picked up the right logging road that descends into the Mt. Washinton Creek drainage. I got to the parking lot just at dark though I was prepared for night travel having with me a very bright headlamp. This is a long trek, maybe about 12 miles round trip, with about 3400 feet gain. The route does not have signage except for one small handwritten sign at a critical junction lower down and the Green Trails map is not very useful since it doesn't show all of the complex web of logging roads. Prepare for a full day of travel.