We rounded up a group of five hikers for Hex Mountain today. Surprisingly, none of us had ever done it before.

No issues with parking - we parked on the right shoulder just past the gated road where the route starts. No one else was hiking here with us today. As others have mentioned, there are no signs here indicating this is the way to Hex Mountain, nor any signs indicating it is road 116. However, Google Maps, Gaia, and AllTrails will all guide you reliably to the starting point. The shoulder parking is quite sloped, so I am sure it wouldn't work if it were snow-covered.

The road walk for the first mile and a half is a fairly gentle grade and a pleasant area. It's typical open country with lots of different trees, so you get good views as you ascend. We even spotted a grove or two of larch tries on our way up - they were mostly still green, so if you're not larched out yet, you could get to a few easy ones on this trail! There are a lot of side roads along the way so referring to our GPS was helpful at intersections. I didn't see any sign of other markers until we reached the trailhead sign and left the road.

The snow starts probably about 400' below the summit, but it's very thin cover right now. At about this point, we came across a hunter who was looking for deer. He said today was the final day of deer season - I'm not sure if there are other seasons after that. I actually saw a deer cross the trail about 5 minutes after we passed the hunter.

Once you reach the summit ridge, the snow is about 1" deep. It wasn't a problem for traction but I had to keep brushing snow off my pants to keep them dry. On the open ridgeline near the summit, the snow has melted a bit and turned to ice, so that was a bit slippery going up. We had spikes with us, but it wasn't worth putting them on just for that little bit. I also checked out the south summit, which is an easy walk from the saddle. We didn't stay on top too long since the wind was chilly and gusting, but we had a few peeks of sun too. I ended up doing the whole hike in my trail runners, but I think everyone else was wearing waterproof boots. Poles were helpful in the steep sections and the slippery stuff up top.

Too many clouds to see distant views of Rainier, Stuart, Daniel, etc. However, the near views of Cle Elum Lake and the surrounding mountains were good. A bit of fall color on the road and in the distance - mostly vine maples. I enjoy visiting the area around Roslyn due to the large variety of trees and plants you get - it's a nice mix of east and west side.

We finished the hike in just over 4:30. I'd love to come back in the spring when the flowers are blooming - this seems like a nice option when west side hikes are getting rain. 

Today we hiked up the Hex Mt road to the point where it meets the trail. There is a trail sign there. It was hot and smoky today on the road, and we were the only ones out there. The road is steady uphill and in some places somewhat steep, and the heat was unrelenting. From our high point, there are good views of Lk Cle Elum and the mountains west of the lake. Also, there are lots of closeups of the local hills and woods. There are bear tracks on the road. Bears have been especially active this late summer around my place in Roslyn, and also in Cle Elum. Bear scat is all around town. There has been a lot of residential development around here, and with that comes habitat loss and poorly managed garbage—a major bear attractant. 

We arrived at the start of this hike around 9am knowing that the start was difficult to find. We plugged coordinates in and it took us to a service road that was gated shut with no parking signs. There was one other car parked along the side of the road but no other indication that this was correct. We took the coordinates and other car to be a positive sign and started up the service road. About half of the hike (maybe a little less) is along the service road and there are a few forks in the road which you stay right for. There was an arrow on the ground made out of rocks/sticks in 2 places which also gave us hope we were on the right path. Finally, we came to a sign for Hex Mountain which is where the typical single-track hiking trail begins. The service road was pretty dusty and rocky and the trail was the same, but with more foliage and some wildflowers peaking through. It was slippery coming down. Both parts of the trail are very steep and I am glad we chose a day that was not too hot. Views were very nice and it is definitely a hike where you feel accomplished at the top. Once we started back down, we ran into a couple more groups of people who asked us if they were on the right track and once we got to the bottom there were about 4 other cars parked in the no parking area. I would probably recommend parking on the side of the road because there are some properties and we did see some of the residents on the way up and I could see them calling to get the cars towed.

I did this hike on a Saturday and arrived at about 8am. There was only one other car there. When you plug Hex into google maps it takes you to a private road turn off with multiple signs saying no parking. There is a place to park off the road a bit further down and we didn’t realize that so we risked it on the private road. When we got back to the car at around 11:30 there were about 7 other cars parked all over the no parking area (some blocking the service road gate as well) so I could see the owners getting annoying and towing all the cars. I wouldn’t park there again, just park down the road and walk to the turn off. There is also no trail marker at the start so we weren’t sure this was the right place but we just started walking up. It’s a fairly steep hike on a service road so it was very dusty and a lot of gravel. I slipped a couple times on the way down because of how steep and dry the ground was. There are a couple forks in the road and you pretty much just stay to the right. It was a beautiful view when you reached the summit.

Did this hike with a Meetup group.  The hike up to summit wasn't too bad.  Trail gets steeper once on Hex Mt. trail proper.  There is a cairn and sign that marks the beginning of the Hex Mt. trail (trail #1343) from Forest Service Road #116.  Weather was sunny at times throughout the hike and a the summit.  Trail can get slippery from the small rocks while descending the steep trail.  Taking your time and hiking poles are helpful for those sections.  The group also hiked over to the nearby secondary peak east of the Hex summit and descended down the spine near that secondary peak.  We continued to follow the multi-use dirt bike trail that eventually connected back to FR #116.  These trails are not very well marked and we had to use our best judgement based on the info we have from our GPS apps/maps.  There were also a couple blowdowns noted.  I got a chance to use my Sawyer filter for the 1st time to re-up on H2O for some group members from a stream about 1/2mi from where this dirt bike trail reconnected to FR #116.  We only saw a couple other groups and a pair of dirt bikers on this trail today.  It was pretty chill hiking adventure and would like to return in the winter to some snowshoeing out here.  Happy trails!

Total milage: 9.2mi

Elevation gain: 2900ft

High point: 5034ft