Hiked this on a Saturday, 08/01/2020. Got to the trailhead around 8:30am and there was only one other car that left as I was gearing up. Had the trail up and summit to myself! Gorgeous views similar to Mailbox Peak but with less effort. About an hour up and 45 minutes down. Trail is in great condition, incline starts immediately and doesn't let up for awhile, but quite manageable at a steady pace. Multiple groups headed up the trail/road as I was leaving at about 10:30am.

Some mosquitoes but a little bug spray on a hat kept them at bay.

The road is in rough condition. Lots of potholes and there is a pretty good washout on FR 9070 at the hairpin turns. Most people park there and walk to the trailhead. I made it through fine with a 95' Jeep Cherokee at stock height, so any modern pickups or vehicles with larger tires/a lift should be fine. Sedans and lower SUVs shouldn't try it. After that there are a few more rough spots, but that washout is the worst of it.

Great hike with a nice pay off after a steep 1.5 miles. Low crowds. Unfortunately, I will not be coming back due to the terrible condition of the road (see below).

I completed this hike last week. We only passed a handful of other people on a weekday afternoon and had the summit all to ourselves.

This hike has an excellent reward to effort ratio and the summit offers 360 degree views including a nice view of Ranier on a clear day. There is a short scramble at the summit with cables that can be used.

The road to get to the trailhead was extremely terrible. Four miles of large and frequent potholes plus patches of jagged rocks about 1.5 miles from the trailhead. I damaged my all wheel drive Honda CRV crossing over the rocks. This should really only be attempted by very high clearance and/or off road capable vehicles and is not passable at all with a sedan. Many people parked 1.5 miles before the trailhead which I also should have done in retrospect.

I've officially added a "night hike" to my resume of hiking. I chose Mount Catherine because it's a short hike to the summit meaning I'll spend considerably less time trying to get down. It took me just under an hour to get to the top and about 50 minutes to get down. 

The service road to the trailhead, as many have stated in other trip reports is a little rough. There are a couple of spots where the trail is washing out exposing some rocks and large dips in the road. I've driven this road in both a four-door sedan and the ol' Dodge Ram 4x4, both made it but the sedan took some damage. If you have a high clearance vehicle, I would recommend driving up in that. The potholes are not terrible. Obviously you'll have to slow down for them but they aren't too bad. 

At the trailhead, there is a small pullout large enough for a few vehicles, (depending on how people park) but further up there is another pullout that can be utilized. On a busy day, I'd say the road is wide enough to handle 6-7 cars without any problems. 

The hike began around 6:30pm and the temperature was about 87 degrees. The trail is well groomed, very rocky and full of roots but that's typical terrain behavior for the Mount Baker/Snoqualmie area. Just watch your footing coming down because there are plenty of rocks that can skitter underneath your hiking shoes/boots/whatever that'll cause ankle rolls, etc. 

Once at the summit, the views were amazing. Silver Peak and Mount Rainier stood tall to the south as Granite Mountain, Kaleetan, Chair, Bessemer and a few others I could not identify stood to the North. I could actually see the lookout on Granite. As the sun faded to the West, the bugs died down as the winds from the South picked up. There was supposed to be a thunderstorm but it never happened while I was up there. 

After the sun dropped down, the stars started to illuminate the sky as well as the moon. It was really amazing and a great experience. I waited 'til about 950pm before I started to gear up and switch on head lamps. The only spot I was concerned about was the small scramble up to the summit. There are hand lines that seemed secure enough to assist your descent but I didn't trust them fully. I used trekking poles and a side step down maneuver to get down and I did just fine. Someone reported a nest of Brown Recluse but I didn't see any of that. 

Without the sun, the forest section is pitch black. I used my headlamp intermittently because as soon as I clicked it on the bugs attacked my face. I had one person behind me giving me ample backlight and two people in front of me shining the way down. I would recommend flash lights instead of headlamps. 

If anyone has other recommendations of night hikes they've done, I'd love to read about them. This was a great experience and not as scary as I thought it was going to be. 

I posted a video and a few pictures- the video has some of the climb down in near pitch black. Really, really cool. 

Started around noon, few groups on trail and everyone was polite/wearing masks. Road was definitely rough and dusty, high clearance would be better. Some cars parked a mile from the trailhead which weren't able to pass one bad spot. Took about 45 mins up, 30 down at moderate pace.