Usually a people-free alternative to more popular hikes in the area.

I parked at the Homestead Valley Trailhead, hiked east a short way on the Palouse to Cascades Trail, then ascended the Change Creek Trail to Change Peak.  Descended via the Great Wall Trail and the Mt. Washington trail.  From the time you leave the Palouse to Cascades Trail, to the time you pick up the Mt. Washington Trail hours later, you are unlikely to see anyone, even on a beautiful Saturday like this.  This is surprising given the quality of the scenery.  

A couple of notes on the route: 1) Ascending the Change Creek Trail, you will eventually come to a creek crossing and a small sign with an arrow pointing to the right, saying "Pond/Mt. WA".  Please do not use this silly bootleg trail.  There is no advantage to it.  Instead, cross the creek and plow straight ahead on the roadbed.  The way looks brushy, but the worst of it has been cut by nameless volunteers, and it goes pretty easy.  In a mere 15 minutes or so, you will emerge where construction of the Olallie Trail abruptly stopped.  From here you just continue up the Ollalie Trail.  2)  The top end of the Great Wall Trail is currently unmarked.  Look for it less than a mile after descending from the high point high  on a shouldeer of Change Peak.  Alternately, just stay on the Olallie Trail until it intersects the Mt. Washington Trail.  (The Great Wall Trail is much prettier, though.  Full disclosure:  I helped build it some 40 years ago.  Or, if doing the loop the other way, the Great Wall Trail is very conspicuously signed where it splits off from the Mt. Washington Trail.)

All in all, a great and lonesome conditioner hike with excellent scenery.

3000' gain, aprrox. 9 miles.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been up Washington. I don’t regret it! A great backpacking training hike with full weight.

Trail was clear until hit fresh snow (seems like everywhere this weekend based on other trip reports) @ 3850’.

There was some runoff meltwater below the snow level, enough to get wet feet.

I love checking out the climbing areas on the lower part of the trail. There are some pitons that I can’t imagine climbing up there 🤣

Decided to day hike up Mt. Washington the long way. Started at the Cedar Falls TH on the Cascades to Palouse (Rattlesnake Parking lot in North Bend. Face the ledge & then turn your body 180 degrees & go that direction). Walked East around 3/4 of a mile to the Cedar Butte trail. The TH is signed but may be easy to miss if you're not paying attention. Cedar Butte moderately gains elevation for a mile or so to a very easy to miss intersection where you either take a left to summit the butte (which is clearly signed & easy to spot) or go right to head toward the Olallie trail (which is the part that is easy to miss), which is what I did. For the next mile or so, this rarely used portion of the trail is a bit overgrown with a couple of easy to navigate blow downs. It steeply heads down a ravine, meanders around for a 1/2 mile or so, then steeply heads up to connect to the Olallie. Gaiters will help in this section, which I didnt wear & was pretty wet afterwords. I avoided this section on the way back, opting to take the Olallie all the way to Cascades to Palouse in order to keep dry. Plus, it rained quite a bit after I initially went through & was certainly worse. Either way, I digress. Once connected to the Olallie Trail, I was rewarded with a trail in excellent condition, which was certainly built for bicycles. The track had endless switchbacks & wasted a ton of time ascending up the ridge (I'm not complaining). Once you gain the ridge, Its a long traverse, followed by an easy climb (more flatish switchbacks) up 500 or so feet, followed by another longish traverse to meet up with the Mt. Washington trail. As reported last week, the snow is melted. I crossed 1 small bit, which will be gone in the next couple of days. Once at the summit, I saw a party of 3 hikers, which were the only people I saw the entire day. Stats according to Garmin: 17 miles out & back, 4550 ft up/down, just shy of 7 hours total/6 hours moving.

Parking: Arrive just after 9 am. Parking lot beginning to fill. Later spoke with a couple of hikers who'd driven over to hike Mailbox but said there was no parking anywhere there. Trail didn't feel crowded or busy.

Snow: 3-4 places to take a dozen or fewer steps on snow. Melting quickly. a non-issue.

Trail: Really rocky for long stretches, so felt harder than the miles/elevation usually seem on Mt. Si - a bit like trail up Dirty Harry's Peak. 

Good! Great exercise on the ascent. Gained 3,293 ft or so in the course of 4 miles, so this is a great hike to use to get in shape for sure. Tiny little patches of snow up top, no crampons needed this time of year. Good view of Rainier and Mt Si on clear days.