Hit the Upper Big Quilcene TH a bit before 8 and headed up the trail. Admired all the hard work that has been done this year clearing a dozen or more large-diameter windfall trees from the trail. A few trees remain across the trail, but they present little trouble. Lots of wildflowers, especially paintbrush, on the steep meadows east of Camp Mystery. Patches of snow from Camp Mystery up to the bottom of the bowl just below Marmot Pass, plus a short stretch of snow across the trail just before the Pass. No snow on the way trail up to Buckhorn Mountain, and as usual every few feet of elevation gain above Marmot Pass improves the view. Still quite a lot of snow on the north side of Constance Pass and Del Monte Ridge. Looking across the Dungeness River valley toward the Goat Lake basin, there was still snow in the vicinity of the lake and above it, but almost none below it, so the way trail up to the lake is probably snow-free. Mount Baldy was snow-free, and Gray Wolf had very little snow on its south face. However, there is still a lot of snow on north-facing slopes to the south of Buckhorn. Clumps of brilliant phlox abounded on the the mountainside beside the way trail, and a lot of phlox was also blooming right at the summit of 6988 ft Buckhorn Mountain. The sky was extremely clear and warm. T-shirt and shorts weather the whole hour on the summit. No one else on the summit, and did not meet any other climbers until heading down the way trail toward Marmot Pass. Quite a few parties hiking in on the trail from Marmot on down. TH to summit and back, about 14 miles with about 4500 ft elevation gain.

Thwarted from a hike up Mt. Jupiter by the continued closure of the access road due to logging, headed up Buckhorn Mountain via the Upper Big Quilcene trail to show a friend the view. The advertised partly cloudy conditions never materialized, so the views were quite limited. Left the TH at 2500 ft at 8AM and reached the 6988 ft summit at 11AM. On the way, a break in the clouds at Marmot Pass (6000 ft) briefly revealed the Needles and Mt. Deception with new snow above about 6500 ft. As for trail conditions, someone has spent a lot of energy shaping up the trail a half mile or so east of Camp Mystery where fallen rock last winter had made crossing the rock slides a minor challenge. The trail across this section is in fine shape now. No snow yet on Buckhorn from Marmot Pass to the summit. Clouds socked in the summit the 40 minutes we were there, with a couple of brief breaks. WARNING: there is some kind of high mountain deer hunting season in progress now. Wear bright clothing. Saw three parties of hunters roaming the high ridges with their deer rifles. Two photos: One showing the east summit of Buckhorn from the slightly higher west summit, with wildflowers still in bloom at 6988 ft; the other looking west from the east summit.

To Upper Big Quilcene River Trail trailhead: Turn west off US 101 at the second left north of the Quilcene River Bridge (just south of MP 296). This road is signed Penny Creek Road. Go approx. 1 1/2 miles south on 2-lane paved Penny Creek Rd, then take a left fork onto FR 27 (signed), which is good one lane dirt/gravel for the first 2 miles but then is one-lane paved the rest of the way. Follow FR 27 (which winds around and eventually heads north) to shortly past Mile Post 7, where you take a left fork (signed) downhill onto FR 2750, which is good hard packed dirt and gravel, with only a few potholes. Continue on 2750 generally westward five miles to the end, where you will find a nice outhouse and plenty of parking. The top of the Lower Big Quilcene trail is here too (the approach to the bottom of the Lower trail is signed way down the road). Total distance from 101 is about 14 miles. (Note the wrong FR number and total mileage from 101 appear in the WTA Trail Guide write up.) I left Seattle at 8:30 A.M., and drove through Olympia as the Hood Canal Bridge was closed for repairs. Got to the trailhead about 11:15. Trail is well graded and pleasant, just a gentle uphill trudge to Marmot Pass. It leads past camps at Shelter Rock (no rock, no shelter, just an obvious flat area along the river while the trail is still in deep woods) and Mystery (a collection of sites and paths also along the river, which is but a small creek at this point, in a patch of woods along a mixed hillside). Neither is signed. Nice flower meadows on the side of the hill before and after Mystery, with tremendous variety and colors of blooms. The trail steepens for a little way just below Marmot Pass, but remains well-graded and easy to follow. If approaching in snow, know that Marmot Pass is the northern of the two passes at the head of the valley; you can see the southern one more easily from the approach trail along the hillside, but that is not the way the trail goes. The bowl just below Marmot Pass was dry (as was everything above this point), though water was only about 10 or 15 minutes downhill, a bit above Mystery. At Marmot Pass you have 4 choices (after enjoying the views). To the right (north) is the main trail to Tubal Cain. To the left (south)is a way trail over the ridge top to the other saddle seen from below, and the passes further south. Straight ahead and bearing left is the main trail toward Home Lake. I took the 4th option, which is to start on the Tubal Cain trail for only a hundred yards or so and then take the spur trial to the right, up the shoulder of Buckhorn. As viewed from Marmot Pass, this route is obvious: the dusty path is about as well-worn as is the main trail to Tubal Cain. In case you were to not have scouted out the route from the pass, there is a rock cairn with sticks poking up from it at the trail junction. Hard to miss. From this point the way trail just winds up and up, steeply for a while, then less so, to the nice level false summit of Buckhorn. From there it continues a hundred feet or less down, then up again on some scree and rock to another easy grass and rock summit. The only part of the entire hike where you might need to use your hands is the part right after the between-summits saddle. It would be a shame to hike to Marmot Pass and not continue up. The views to the south improve rapidly as you ascend the shoulder of Buckhorn. I encountered one backpacking party exiting as I entered, another entering as I exited, and a third up on top of Buckhorn (they’d come up from the west side as part of a longer hike). We were unable to find a summit register, though someone had left a small bottle with a compass/whistle and a blank piece of paper in it. Few bugs, but those present were mostly deer and horseflies, with nasty bites. This was my second hike without DEET, as I recently bought some Cutters Advanced (picaridin) after the Consumer Reports favorable review of this and Repel (lemon eucalyptus). Usually I am a mosquito magnet. But when I started this hike without any repellent, I wasn’t seriously bothered. After the day warmed up, the flies began to get annoying, and so I applied a very little bit of the Cutters Advanced. Thereafter, a few flies landed on me seemingly only through randomness, not through any intent to seek me out. I never had to reapply it. I was passed by one other day hiker (the only one I saw all day) who found the flies so bad he beat a hasty retreat from Marmot Pass without going any higher. By time I got there, I thought the breeze was perfect and the bugs not a factor at all. Hard to say how much the repellent helped, but I will definitely continue to use it and leave the DEET at home. Trailhead sign warns of recent cougar activity. Since I was hiking alone, I kept a hiking pole handy and tried to stay alert for lurking cats. Saw no sign of cougars on the way uphill, but on the downhill, just below Mystery, I saw a very large, very fresh, cat paw print in the mud at a small stream crossing. It was headed downhill on the trail. I sang and talked loudly the rest of the way down, probably amusing the incoming party I encountered a few minutes above the parking lot. Times: TH to Marmot Pass 3 1/2 hours (including long stops for birds - lots of immature Townsend’s warblers in a mixed flock - below Mystery, and to filter water at Mystery). Pass to summit 45 minutes. Summit to TH 3 hours.

Road open (with no snow cover) to Upper Big Quilcene trail head. Trail in very good shape to Marmot Pass. Snow to perhaps 8 inches beginning at about 5400 feet to just before Marmot Pass. No snow from Marmot Pass to summit of Buckhorn Mountain.

Check the two good reports from last weekend for info on the trail as far as Marmot Pass. From there up to Buckhorn Mountain, the trail is entirely snow-free, water-free, extremely steep, and full of glorious wildflowers, especially lupine and paintbrush. And lots of other purple, yellow, white and pink things. Especially notable are some mauve colored paintbrush - something I've never seen anywhere else except up by Marmot Pass. Bugs weren't too bad and weren't biting at all. There were some little knats and mosquitoes at Camp Mystery in the evening. Up by the pass and beyond, there were swarming flies and other large winged creatures, but again they weren't flesh eaters. One thing of note: by 10 a.m. Saturday EVERY nice campsite was full at Camp Mystery. Most hikers seemed to have come in Friday or earlier. We were shocked that there's no box toilet up there. With around 30 campers in the area, searching for a private spot to take care of business is creating a lot of extra side trails and damage. Someone lost a ton of gear on the trail. We're thinking it was probably horse packers, since hikers would have noticed so much stuff falling from their packs. Right in the middle of the trail we found sunglasses, a tin mug, a ladies sandal, a big buck knife, a fresh banana peel, and a full red duffle-bag. We set the stuff off to the side of the trail on the way up, planning to clean the stuff up on the way down, but it was almost already cleaned up by then (thanks to some nice hiker!). Hey packers - watch your loads - it's bad enough to have to hike around so many piles of fresh horse dung, let alone all the lost gear!