Mount Townsend wildflowers are beginning to show in what promises to be a glorious display in a couple of weeks or so, little wonder this popular hike is hard to beat. We easily hopped over about six trees down across the trai and patchy snow remains at Camp Windy. Views were terrific today, enjoyed by numerous hikers and their canine friends; room for all on this wonderfully sprawling double summit. If you missed spotting the lakes and waterfall on the haul up, be sure to watch for them on your descent. Driving there : Use caution passing by a log blocking half of the road, FSR 190 also has a number of decently sized potholes best to avoid. Stats; about 8.5 miles with 3200 feet gain. Map CC Buckhorn Wilderness

Yay!!!! Trail Pair is/are back. Now where do we go? Too hot in the Teanaways. Overnighter got scrapped. A sad collection of walking wounded needed a hike with decent gain - but nothing too demanding. There was Joanna with a bum knee as a result of an attack by a downed tree on the Lake Gallagher Head exit last weekend; then there was the 44 hour jet lag for Trail Pair after their magical mystery tour (trip report to follow); and then, what did Quark do to Jim K last weekend? - damaged goods; but Sadie's Driver (now also Banjo's Driver!) took this motley crew across the waters over to Kingston and on to Quilcene Ranger Station to meet up with Katie, Mike and Clover to hit the Townsend trail. Got started about 10:00 a.m. from the upper parking area - deciding that the additional gain and distance wasn't necessary today - so we opted not to start at the lower parking lot. Not as many cars in the parking lot as we expected - maybe 5. The road is in good shape - all 14 miles - the trickiest part is the start of the last mile, where there is a a big ol' tree stump with roots blocking about 1/2 the road. But, once past that, the rest is a piece of cake to the trailhead. A big group arrived about 5 minutes after us - 3 cars - but we hit the trail ahead of them. Today was going to be warm and there isn't a lot of water for the dogs above 4400' - but we did find a few small creek crossings, and the dogs took advantage. The wild rhodies aren't in bloom yet on the trail, but it won't be too long. We worked our way through the forested part of the trail and began to break out into the open, just before the beginning of the switchbacks. We wound our way up the side of the hill towards the ridgeline that would take us to the summit of Townsend. The trail was snow-free until about 5000' and then there were just a few spotty patches here and there - but (hooray) no snowshoes, no crampons, no ice ax this trip!!! Just below the ridge and about at 5700' there is a fork in the trail - if you want to hit the summit - go right. We were getting close to the ridgeline. Katie, Mike and the driver had three dogs with them - we had passed several groups and now were headed towards the summit. Bob and Kolleen were just below us. KT and Mike with dogs in tow were on a mission to hit the summit - one other group was there ahead of us. We walked along the ridge until we found a good patch of snow for the now ""hot dogs"" and then, ""someone"" couldn't resist a little hot dogging! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO-yf0MTsMo We continued along the ridge and headed to the west summit - where we would have the place to ourselves for a while and enjoy our lunch. We met some guys at the western summit and they even were kind enough to take a pic of our motley group. But wait, Opus is headed to Townsend tomorrow (Sunday) - so, your reward Opus is waiting for you if you can find it. Look for the humps - and, any good Seattlite will always go left! Clover knows where it is. So - look north, look south, look east and west - but be sure and look down!!! This will be your super-nova! So enjoy - hope you have as wonderful weather as we did! But, it was time for us to leave - - - Our crew made it back to the parking lot - probably 9 miles roundtrip - 3000' gain and a wonderful day in beautiful weather. A fun trip - really not that far away. Lots of folks going up as we were headed down. Less than 2 hours up - a lovely lunch up-top - and probably 1 hour 15 back. Great day.

Mt. Townsend is an amazing spring hike. Where else can you reach a 6250ft peak and alpine meadows with flowers in bloom in May and early June? Views from Baker to Rainier and every peak and city in between. Road to trailhead is in good shape, the trail is snow-free and in great shape. It's all south-facing so make an early start. No water available along the upper portion of the trail. A spur trail leads to the Silver lake basin, which looked still buried deep in snow.

I made my annual pilgrimage up Mt Townsend today, in the glorious sunshine for a great mid-week hike. I used the second trail head, accessed from Highway 101, Penny Creek Road to FS road 27, then road 190. The road was clear all the way, and in fairly good shape. Don’t go too fast, though, as some dips, potholes and narrow sections require careful driving. When I arrived at 9:45, there was only one other car at the trail head. The parking area was full when I returned to my car at 2:15. The trail is in very good shape, all things considered. I counted about eight trees down across the trail, but they are all easily stepped over or around. Some residual snow still lies at Camp Windy and on the trail toward the ridge beyond the camp, but it is compact and does not present a problem. I suggest an early start to avoid mushy snow. I enjoyed the lovely sounds of hermit thrushes in the woods below Camp Wind, a horned lark on the summit, and most likely the call of a northern pygmy owl about halfway up the trail. I don’t know flowers very well, but did see some phlox, paintbrush, a lily (fawn? glacier?) Some residual trillium, blooming wild strawberry and a few others I can’t name. Quite a few people were ascending while I was coming down, including a man whose goal is to document all the native flowers of Mt Townsend. He knows his flowers! A great hike with spectacular views.