Did our annual leg warmer to Mt Townsend Saturday, and decided to try the north trail, instead of the south ( Camp Windy ) trail. The road (2820) to the trail is in great shape, and the trailhead was far above the clouds. After a fairly steep climb, all in the shade, the trail goes around to the ""back side"" of the mountain, after the turn off at 2 miles. At this point, it became one of the nicest day hikes I have been on. The views were the best, and are of a part of the Olympics that you can't see from anywhere else. The trail leaves the tree line right above the Tubal Cain trailhead, and you can see all the way up that valley to the snow fields above Buckhorn lake. The trail continues at a gentle pace to the summit, where we had a view to the east, of a sea of clouds, with Rainier and Baker sticking out. Bring lots of water, there is none on the trail, and little or no shade after the tree line. The trail is in very good shape. A very good day, and we only got passed by one little old lady.

After driving through the rhododendrons in full pink bloom, arrived at the upper trailhead to a full parking lot. Trail quite popular with lots of large dogs shlepping up the mountain not as in as good a shape as their owners! But oh the wildflowers in full bloom!! Yellow violets, blue violets, orange indian paintbrush, carpet phlox, wild strawberries in full bloom with no bugs yet. The views were spectalular at the top - foggy still below. Well worth the effort to see the wildflowers. Snow in minimal easily traversed patches still remaining in spots

""Misty Mountain Hop"" would have been an appropriate title for today's hike. I hit the trail at 3:10 and summited at 4:50. There was some sun and blue skies at the top, a nice reward for hiking through the mists from the trailhead on. I brought snowshoes but they were unnecessary..some patches of snow just below Camp Windy becoming bigger but more intermittent the closer one gets to the top. Postholing was minimal with max snow depths of 3' +/-. Some rhodedendrons were in bloom on the forest service road but none on the trail. Three easily negotiable blowdowns total. The rabbits are out above Camp Windy as well as one very hungry chipmunk at the summit.

What an amazing early season hike Mt.Townsend is! Where else can one top a 6200' summit in mid May without need of snowshoes, crampons, or ice axe? But plenty of snow still remains and, in fact, access to the upper trailhead remains inaccessible. As of this writing, one must park at the junction of FS 27 and 190 and hike an extra mile or so to reach it. The trail itself begins a consistent switchbacking ascent through montane forest dominated by Western hemlock and cedar with Pacific rhodies making up much of the understory. For the first half of the hike, the snow was well packed and the trail easily followed. At around 5000', however, it became easier to make a vertical assault on the summit, as the trail proper vanished under deeper snow(for those wanting to reach Camp Windy or Silver Lake, you will have to blaze your own trail at this point). The snow conditions allowed for good kickstepping up the southeast face of Townsend, and I only postholed to my waist once or twice. The views once I reached the top were truly sublime. The Brothers and Constance, appearing close enough to touch; the Dungeness River valley, awakening from her winter's nap; Glacier Peak, relaying messages between Baker and Rainier; most of Puget Sound, laid out before you as a map; and the urban entities, Seattle to Port Townsend appearing meek and insignificant. After hours of such solitude, it was difficult to leave, and the trip down was a bit more tricky than the trek up. The softening snow made glissading unrealistic, and the march down left me sinking down to my knees with every other step. What fun, though, it is to bisect the serpentine switchbacks while knowing that you are not disturbing any of the underlying vegetation or contributing to the everpresent trail erosion. One reminder--if you do decide to hike Townsend before the melt, do not forget sunglasses (as snowblindness could be a real issue), and sunscreen, even on a partly sunny day (as my sunburn will attest). For those willing to make a little effort, Mt. Townsend is ready for the taking and worth every bit of it.

I'd been wanting to do this one for a long time and finally got around to doing it today. Yes, just as I'd heard, finding the trailhead is a bit of a challenge. The roads are not marked. The trail is 4 miles to the summit and I believe this is to the first summit. I figure the second summit is about another half mile or so. The trail starts out in the lovely forest. I wish I'd have seen this part when the rhodies were in bloom because it's loaded with them! After a couple miles you break out of the trees and onto a beautiful slope of colorful wildflowers and views (provided you're not in the clouds) and ...and switchbacks. Once you've gotten here, you're pretty exposed the rest of the way, so could be hot and sun-burning on a clear summer day. Noticed a handful of side trails that I'm curious as to where they go. They're not on my topo and they're not signed. The trail is somewhat steep pretty much the entire way - at least until you get to the ridge not far from the summits. The gain is 3000 ft. in 4 miles. Unfortunately we never really broke out of the clouds so we didn't get the views we'd hoped for, but it was still beautiful and we did still have some views. Perhaps the clouds and the breeze had something to do with our not seeing any bugs! :) Had the summits to ourselves for about an hour before we headed down and saw the masses headed up. Whew! Just in time! This is a very nice trail. One thing I thought kind of unusual was that it was very smooth. I mean, not a lot of ankle-twisting rocks and roots. You know, the kind of trail you might be able to walk ok on without tripping too much if it got dark and you forgot your headlamp or something! :} The top actually was not what I'd expected, but VERY scenic. Very bare but green at the ridge and summits. I definitely recommend this one!