I got to the trail today about 8:30. No issues with the road and there were just a few cars there with it being Christmas.

At the trailhead, there’s a sign indicating that the trail is closed west of the Mount Washington trail due to mudslides, but this doesn’t impact Mount Washington hikers. 

Overall, the trail was in decent shape considering all of the rain we’ve had in the past month. There are lots of sticks and obstacles on the trail, but they weren’t a big problem.

About halfway up, the snow begins to stick. I managed without spikes or gaiters, but the last mile or so I was basically postholing. It was raining as I was getting to the bottom so I’m guessing that it’s probably snowing at the top, as it was getting cold, so conditions may change in the next few days. 

Overall it was a great hike, beautiful day and friendly hikers. Merry Christmas all!

The access road to Homestead Valley Trailhead is closed, but parked at the gate and walked the quick hop over to the rail trail. The trail up is now pretty much entirely a stream. Prepare for ankle deep water frequently as runoff jumps drain dips and ditches. Culverts are flooded and all drainage crossings were about knee deep. I expect the flooding to last through the weekend. But we love the rain and type 2 fun so this was an absolute blast. Took the normal trail up, routed down via Great Wall Trail, which allowed us to skip two deep stream crossings. Flooding is causing bad erosion and trees are continuing to fall with the high wind. Use caution and have fun!

FYI Palouse to Cascades/Olallie/John Wayne Rail Trail is closed with a mega washout just past the Mt Washington turnoff. It’s taped off but be careful if you check it out there are some overhanging edges and I expect the ground to be unstable as more rain falls.

This was a fun hike. The forecast looked relatively clear for the weekend on Saturday, with tons of rain Sunday, so decided to try and make the most of a Saturday hike. I got to the trailhead around 11 with plenty of parking. 

The route up has a few different options, but generally if you have a map printed and/or downloaded, you should be able to easily find your way up. I marked this trip as having intermittent snow, however it was incredibly minor and really was only an issue if you take the ridge line up (pink trail in attached image). If you take the green instead, you won't have that issue (unless more snow arrives, entirely possible considering the weather Sunday). I did the pink up and the green down, although I think the green is the better route for most folks. 

The going was harder from multiple trees fallen on the trail. Pretty early on I came across a big one that made me think seriously if I wanted to deal with this the whole hike. Fortunately, that was the hardest to cross. I think there were 4 trees on the trail in total, but I didn't keep count. Because they were all wet, it is slippery crossing the fallen trees. I stayed slow and careful. There was one tree that had fallen over a rocky part of the trail, and as I was navigating a rock moved under my feet and I had a slow fall (I have a sturdy hiking stick and I was grabbing a branch at the time, so I didn't get hurt).

With the volume of rain, the rocks were slippery. I had replaced my boot tread last year, so I was perhaps a little over- confident here and had a few slips.

Other than that, it was about as I expected -- lots of Grey in the sky, wind rustling in the trees, several places rock climbers have had fun, and plenty of moss.

One other thing I'd like to note, I did bring some candied pecans. These tasted amazing while hungry on the trail. I am so glad I made that impulse purchase the day before.

Beautiful and challenging hike! I'm glad I got to get out before the deluge hit hard, and that I did bring all my rain gear. I just wish I had better gloves, so I think I'll shop for that today. 

Beautiful day for a nearby hike! We misunderstood and took the trail directly behind the restroom, even though it connects to the main path, I would not recommend (a lot of brush, down trees, spiky vines and slippery steps).

We only saw a handful of people all day, parking lot was less than half full at 11 AM. There are a couple of water crossings/where the water was running down the trail but nothing too bad, recommend waterproof shoes though. There were barely any icy patches towards the top so very manageable without microspikes, it has been surprisingly dry lately.

Were greeted by a pika and a douglas squirrel on our way up and annoyed by gray jays at the top; please don't feed them. Great views of Mt Rainier and Mt Baker!

Mount Washington is a really wet hike right now. Starting at the first main creek crossing there are numerous places where the trail is covered with running water - more so than usual. There are numerous tricky water crossings, especially after the first talus field.

The upper half of the trail beyond the pond/marsh has snow cover, but given how warm it was today, it's pretty much all deep, wet slush. Most of the trees on the upper trail were also shedding snow. Since a lot of the snow is melting, the good news is that you can get all the way up without spikes, but waterproof boots and poles would be your friend.

The lower half of the trail has about a dozen significant blowdowns. Some of them are pretty brushy. The largest ones are about a foot thick. None of them are too hard to get around.

There were very few people on the trail. I ran into five people total (only two of whom went all the way up).