Needed a change of scenery so left the rainy morning at home and headed to Salmon La Sac to go up Hex.  We were the first car there at 0915 after missing the parking lot needing to backtrack (no cars there so easier to miss).  Directions: 9 miles from Roslyn, look for a very small tan and green county fire station on the right with parking across the street (blue and white signs). Then walk 100 yards further on the road to find the yellow gate which is the starting point of the Forest road.  Follow the boot path on the Forest road and pay attention.  We missed one turn but looped back over to the forest road after about 0.2 miles.  It seems all other tracks/roads lead to the Forest road.  The trail was very compact on the way up.  It’s my first time there since the burn and the views were amazing.  The burnt trees look beautiful against the snow.  But it’s distressing to see this transformed environment.  I had no idea how bad that burn was until seeing it with my own eyes.  Made a right at the Hex mountain sign (there are a few live trees there with green needles).  And headed up the ridge.  You can see where the summit is during much of the climb up.  You really need to watch the many pockets and snow bridges around all of the downed trees.  There could be some serious injuries if you plunge through and trap your leg against the tree.  Approach slowly and watch your footing or go around them if needed.  There was fresh snow starting around 4400 ft, just an inch or so.  We could easily kick steps up the last steep area leading to the summit.  The views were amazing!!  Enchantments were out and just the top of Rainier over the Lake. Cool to see Mount Daniel too.  Looking down from the corniced summit at the spindly burnt trees against the white with the Enchantments in the horizon was a real wonder to see.  It was a true wilderness experience even with being so relatively close to a road and houses.  I would not want to drop something (especially my body) down that steep hardened slope without an ice axe.  We layered up because the wind chill was definitely below freezing.  Stayed up there for about 20 minutes.  Headed down and only saw 4 people climbing up.  The snow had softened a bit when we were back on the Forest road which always makes for an awkward walk out, slipping, tiny plunge steps, wobbling, etc.  but not too bad.  There is one creek to cross about 0.2 miles from the end and it was running but I did not get water.  Also, we just used micro-spikes for the entire trek (thanks to previous reports).  Great day and nice to be in wide open space with sun.  Oh, and we stopped at The Brick for post hike food and drink.  It’s still as good as ever. Glad it was open.

Excellent weather for a trip up Hex this weekend! We arrived right around 8 and got one of the last legal spots. I'd say there's room for ~15 cars, so not a lot! Upon our return to the car, all of the cars lined down the road past the last green and white "Single vehicle parking only" sign had tickets. I did not check to see the cost but it sounds like it would be $100-200 based on last week's reports. We used the America the Beautiful and sno-park passes and did not received a ticket.

The trail itself is hard packed and doable in just spikes. Hikers were 50/50 snowshoes or spikes. The bootpath goes over many downed trees where the snow has started to melt, so be cautious of post holing. 

Everyone was extremely friendly and cheerful which always makes for a pleasant day in the mountains!

Snow is so high along the road to Hex that there is no where to park - the road has become a one lane road. Perhaps over 8 ft of snow - no way to even begin to navigate up Hex. This was on Monday 1/10/22. 

The first place to park was nearly 5 miles further down Salmon La Sac road, near French Cabin. We ended up snowshoeing around there, along Cle Elum River.

Arrived at the Hex Mountain trailhead at about 9:30am on Sunday. There were two other vehicles at the trailhead, and really only spots for one or two more vehicles. We parked in the last spot that wouldn’t block the gate and wasn’t along the side of Salmon Le Sac Rd. Snow starts from the parking lot, and continued the entire trail.

The trail starts off along a winding forest road. Pay attention to cairns or follow the route on GPS, as it is very easy to take a wrong turn. Luckily three people were ahead of us and stomped the trail, so we didn’t have to deal with finding the trail or postholing. It was also soft fresh snow, so we didn’t have to use microspikes. It was cold but luckily not windy, so we could relax at the peak and enjoy the views before heading back down. 

Pretty empty trail due to small parking area at the trailhead. We only saw about 10 people the whole day. Made it back to the trailhead around 2:30pm. 

Another loop inspired by Carol. We started out at a locked, private, gate off Samon La Sac road, 2400', and followed the dirt road and trail (#1343) using Gaia. After leaving the road the trail follows atop the ridge, through many dead, burned out trees.  On the ridge it was extremely windy, so we proceeded cautiously, listening for any cracking trees or branches.  It appears this is not uncommon as the trail was littered with fallen trees from westerly winds.  We had started out about 9 and reached the summit at noon.  We had lunch below the summit, out of the wind, then proceeded down a SE trending ridge on our loop route.  It appears we were following a bike trail down as we continued to use Gaia as our guide.  From about 3120' we started following the Gaia track down to cross over Newport Creek but found no trail.  I went down to scout out the route and determined it was a very steep, and difficult canyon going down to the creek.  We turned back and decided to follow motorbike tracks that took us to a road and a much better creek crossing (2600').  Upon reaching the other side we found a dirt road and it connected to the road we had started out on; reaching our parked vehicle at 1645.

The high winds above were no longer a concern as we descended but the Gaia marked trail leading us astray caused us to worry about the earlier approaching sunset; and possibly hiking out in the dark with headlamps (not the best option).  It all ended well this time but made us think of doing a little more research before deciding on our next Loop.

It was probably a record day for temperatures in this area as my Thermometer read 57º along the ridge near 5000' and there was no sign of snow anywhere except on distant peaks.