Forest road gates are closed so expect 1.7 miles road hike to actual trailhead. As of today snow on trail packed very well. I did all the way without snowshoes but saw lot of people were using them, spikes may be helpful on steep sections. No cool views because of clouds, bit boring.

Might just be my new favorite hike! Gorgeous views at almost every turn. I arrived to the parking area mentioned in the description at about 9:15 AM - there were 3 other cars, but only room for about 8 or so with the snow piled up as it was, so was glad I got there when I did. In walking to the start of the trail on Forest Rd 116, I noticed several other cars parked on Forest Rd 116 before the gate, so seemed to be a more popular trail than the initial parking area let on.

That being said, I encountered only a few people along the trail. On the forest road part of the hike, there's plenty of room to social distance. After turning off at the Hex Mountain trail marker, not so much, but most everyone had masks and kept distance where possible.

The entire trail from start to finish is snow covered. I left the snowshoes in the car and glad I didn't haul them since they really weren't necessary. As it currently stands, the snow is quite compacted on the boot path - I put on microspikes at the Hex Mountain trail marker since I needed more traction with the steep incline, but they did the job just fine. It probably would have been more fun to have the snowshoes on the way down though! They're definitely needed if you want to go off-trail. I can imagine with a few more snowfalls, snowshoes may become more necessary for up and down. 

Really enjoyed the walk and the views. Roundtrip to/from the car, I clocked 8.37 miles, 2,921ft elevation gain.

Finally got out to Hex Mountain, and what a day for it! We had dramatic clouds early, with a gorgeous clear view at the summit.

The “parking lot” is more just a short bit of road where you pull off and park before the gate. We arrived around 8 AM and there were maybe 2-3 cars.

Trail is easy to follow up to Hex right now because it has been well worn down in the snow by other hikers. No need for snowshoes at this time as the snow is crusty and hard-packed for the most part, and the trail very uneven from frozen post-holes and deep steps. Spikes helped a lot in the hard icy morning snow, but you could probably be fine without them too.

We took our time taking photos of the lovely views on the way up and reached the summit around 10 AM.

Having read the trip report from yesterday that mentioned making a loop out of the trip rather than going back the way we came, we decided to try that! But read on if you’re interested in the same, as it isn’t a path without issue.

The snow on the backside of the loop was much better for snowshoeing. We hadn’t brought ours from the car, and still managed okay, but had some knee and thigh-deep postholing that would have been mitigated by snowshoes.

The Gaia map of this loop is accurate... to a point. As we closed in toward where the backside loop connects back with the Hex trail, suddenly there wasn’t a trail. We ran into the same issue mentioned in yesterday’s report: you get near the creek and Gaia tells you there should be a crossing but it’s a STEEP and dodgy drop into the creek area and just not anything we felt safe attempting, nor did we see any sign of a trail anywhere on the other side of the creek.

At that point, we decided to simply follow the creek (from safely above the steep areas) in the general direction toward Salmon La Sac road and bushwhack a bit.

This worked out okay, if a bit more adventure than we planned on! I think we even ran into the footprints from yesterday’s same adventurers eventually.

We found the easy creek crossing they mentioned way further down and around 2600’. Crossed and continued bushwhacking to get back to the Hex trail.

Thanks to having had a map/GPS to follow, this off-trail section was simple enough, but I would NOT recommend anyone try it if you’re counting on following tracks - there aren’t any, and if you follow ours, good luck... we did some back and forth trying to find the original creek crossing! Please be wise and prepared. The much clearer/simpler option is to just go back down from Hex the way you came. Do not attempt the loop without proper gear and GPS to help you.

All in all, we made it back to the car around 1 PM.

Great fun, beautiful views. Solid day!

Arrived around 8:30 and parked at the gate - FR 116 is quite melted out after the recent sunny weather. Snowshoes are overkill until we get more snow, but microspikes are useful for the upper part of the ridge heading to the junction with Sasse Ridge trail. A lot of that section is in the trees, and parts of it were  icy. Plus the last push to the summit of Hex is over a steep, wind-scoured snow crust - spikes will be nice to have for that.

Since my partner and I lugged our snowshoes all the way to the top, we decided to leave the crowds behind and turn our trip into a loop. The route we took heading down would make for a nice out-and-back if you want to summit Hex without seeing anyone along the trail.

We ate our lunch at the peak directly southeast of Hex and then followed the ridgeline south. According to Gaia and Caltopo there is a trail here, and we were occasionally walking on forest service roads. There were some old snowshoe tracks, but most of the tracks were obscured by wind-deposited snow. So, if you opt to go this route, I'd recommend bringing GPS. You can either follow the topography back to Salmon La Sac Road and walk back to the TH parking, or you can cross Newport Creek. The map shows a crossing that looks pretty steep - we found a nice crossing at 2600' right where the forest service road does a U-turn. From there it's a short stretch across some downed trees with a layer of snow on top (be mindful you don't twist any ankles), and then you can rejoin the forest service road network back toward the main Hex route.