We had to park 1 mile from the lower trailhead because the road was covered with snow from there on. Up to that point, however, the road was easily accessible. That was in part due to a group of hikers before us that cleared the road from debris and trees. The day was wonderful with a clear blue sky, partially due to the chilly temperature of 34 degrees. The entire trail was covered with snow. Forested areas had about half a foot of snow. In open areas, we actually sank in up to our thighs! Due these implications, we didn't make it any further than a few hundred feet below the first summit. We were just not able to make it any further without snow shoes. I recommend snowshoes for any winter hike. With these this should be an easy hike/scramble to beautiful vistas.

Broke out of the fog before reaching the lower trailhead. A bit of compact snow and ice on the road just before the lower trailhead convinced me to park here. Others hikers on the trail, who had parked at the upper trailhead, reported no snow on the upper road but did report a downed log one quarter mile from upper trailhead that was impassable. The day was gorgeous – very warm, sunny and blue skies all the way to the top while Puget Sound sat in heavy clouds and some fog all day. Several stretches of snow patches on the upper trail but the summit ridge is bare and dry. We ran into only two other parties. Three hours from lower trailhead to summit and two hours return. Very dark at 5pm by the time we reached the car. Extremely heavy fog for stretches of the drive out to 101 made for tricky driving; dense fog on parts of 101 as well. Mt. Townsend remains one of my favorite viewpoints.

wow! what a great payoff for a relatively short hike-- maybe 300 degree views of puget sound, the cascades, and the strait of juan de fuca. this is about 95% of the views of the infamous mt. constance without the camping out, the risky traverse and the tortuous downclimb. in fact, you can see the top of mt. constance from the top. this has got to be one of if not the best summit on the olympics for views. the late season hike cuts off a mile of the round trip. another great feature of this hike is that the access to the trailhead is paved over 11 mi in, a gravel road for 2 mi, and only 1 mi on dirt. go to quilcene ranger station, ignore the ranger trail description which i found unhelpful, continue west on the side road about a mile and look for a right onto perry creek road. unfortunately, the road sign is turned so it is easy to miss. if you come to the bridge, you have gone too far. take a left onto Big Quilcene River Road, that turns into FS Road 27. after 13 mi, avoid FS 2760 {to the early season TH} and stay right. look for the ""mt t. trail 1 mile"" sign, and take the left on the service road and onto dirt to the TH. the parking area is situated between sink lake and the forest. up the trail, see some medium aged douglas fir and a little cedar, on a ""20% grade. warning, the bugs started at the parking lot--and this was 9:30 am--and lasted till making the ridge. going up, when in question, just take a right. once you hit your first views, you will look at welch peaks. some lovely wildflowers, too. a major fork is at the turnoff to silver lake--stay right. you hit the ridge after 3 miles and 2500 ft net elevation gain. a gust of wind from the west greets the hiker. turn right and head for the first peak--that's the official summit ridge. from the ridge, you get a view of the needles to the west, and of puget sound looking east--which you've been seeing for the last 20 minutes. today, i could see mt baker, shuksan, goat peak and a faint mt. rainier. unfortunately, the now usual haze hid mt adams and mt st helen. from the summit, continue hiking to the somewhat lower north summit, and get a great view of sequim, dungeness spit, vancouver, and the east part of port angeles. from here, you can see the alternative route--the little quilcene trail to fs road 2820. on the car exit, i spotted a number of birds, incl 2 quail. wish i was a better birder, but the flyers looked quite unusual. 8 mi round trip, 3200' net gain, 4 2/3 hours round trip. officially, this is categorized as a scramble, but so many folks make this summit, the climber's trail is very clear. bring water since the creeks are all dry. no ice ax needed, solo friendly.

Mount Townsend was relatively uncrowded on this sunny Friday, and it wasn't too hot either. The trail is in excellent shape, with good tread and reasonably steep switchbacks. There are still flowers, although some are pretty ragged, but the ones that remain make the ascent very pleasant indeed. We've been up this trail many times and still get enormous pleasure from it. After we finished lunch on the first summit, we started to head back down the trail but felt we hadn't had enough and it was still early in the day. We decided to explore a faint trail we had seen that takes off from the point where the Mt. Towsend trail reaches the saddle before climbing towards the summits. The ""trail"" is really only a faint path, that starts and then stops as it disappears under overgrown folliage, but if you look carefully and don't mind a bit of scrambling, eventually starts to descend the ridge south of the saddle. This was a particularly beautiful spot, with great views down to the Silver Creek basin and across to numerous peaks above it. The path got steeper and we had to use our hands quite a bit to descend the rocks, but we could see below us what we believed to be (and hoped we were right!)the Silver Lakes trail. We intended to take that back to where it splits off from the Mt. Townsend trail. We didn't quite relish the climb back up if we had miscalculated. We had descended about 300 feet from the saddle. Luckily, it was the Silver Lakes Trail and we we just about at the point where it reaches a saddle at 5700 feet. We took it down, making a couple of switchbacks and then turning north until it intersected the Townsend Trail. The return to the car then was quick and easy. It was a great day!

Four of us went to Mt Townsend - two of us had been numerous times, 2 had never been. Lots of wild flowers and a beautiful sunny day. Luckily we stopped at the Ranger Station in Quilcene and found out the Penny Creek Road was closed for a portion so they redirected us to Lords Lake Rd and FS 27. So glad we had checked. This hike is never disappointing and the views were stupendous. After a leisurely lunch we headed back down. Unfortunately Lisa had a mistep and slid off a step just as we were coming down. She landed on her elbow and was in a lot of pain. She got a little shocky -and when she tried to straighten her arm we could tell something was very wrong with it. While she waited for the pain to subside we tried to devise a splint for her. By accident we found the perfect splint. By putting her empty backpack on frontwards - she could slip her arm in through the shoulder strap and it gave a place to rest her arm in one position and keep it close to her body. She was able to walk down the trail in relative comfort. She went to Urgent Care and found out it was dislocated - so she is in a splint for 2 weeks and hopefully won't have to have surgery! But - it reiterated the fact of how important it is to have the extras with you - ie - first aid kit, extra clothes even tho it is hot, matches, etc. We are all pretty good about that, but it sure reinforces it. Also - she was lucky not to have been alone. But - all is well thankfully and we still really enjoyed the hike. PS No bugs either