IF you want to see some great views quickly, this is the hike for you. But, if you love nature as much as I do, go somewhere else, this place will depress you so fast. Here you get to view the tragedy of "reforestation". All the trees are strangely close together, thick dead scrub Alder fills the inside of the forest, doing all it can to keep the stunted pines and firs alive, yet doing nothing for their stunted growth. No plant diversity what so ever, because it isn't possible when, where once 20 trees stood enormous, 75 stunted trees stand crunched together to maximize profits. Garbage hopelessly everywhere, people ignore the "no motorized vehicles on trails" signs. People are shooting guns into rocks everywhere. There's really nothing in the way of nature to see, because nothing is natural here. The views would have been great if there wasn't a murky haze appropriately covering the peak. There's nothing else to say about this hike.

I planned on hiking the Capitol Peak by following a trip report on this website. I live in downtown Olympia and from my West facing window I can see the Capitol Peak, and have always wanted to check it out. The directions were easy with the only discrepancy being that the "C-Line" rd was not identified, although it was quite natural that you would turn onto it when the time came. I got about 6.2 miles up the C-Line rd and was halted due to Logging. I turned around (not before I snapped a photo of both Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens in the same frame and ended up parking on a turnoff right next to a trailhead labeled "Segment 50#". I hiked up about 3/4 mile or so and it was amazing- not too difficult and a good glute workout. My miniature Manchester Terrier could have managed easily. The trail has a pretty steep drop off and is heavily wooded, and being that we recently had a bit of rain there were about 12 waterfalls that went under the trail. Breathtaking. The sound of rushing water was enthralling. Pretty heavy pine, but I managed to get an excellent shot of Mt. Rainier. On the way back out of town, I stopped by the Forestry Headquarters on Black Lake Blvd., which is a division of the USDA. I picked up a map of the Capitol Forest, which they carry because of their close location to Capitol State Forest, although the Capitol Forest is owned by the Dept. of Natural Resources. I am definitely going back tomorrow, as I found out that the trail I was on meets up with another a little down the line(Green Line 6#) and ends up at the peak.

I did some exploring in the Capitol Forest this week. On this day I parked my car about a mile uphill from the Rock Candy trailhead and started out on the North Rim trail. I used that trail, The Mount Molly loop and various logging roads until I reached Capitol Peak. This was a confusing route to negotiate because my GPS does not have a map for the area. The trails at the start were rutted, rocky and uneven. Once I got to the Mount Molly Loop area the trails were smooth. ORV's are not allowed on the trails in the winter but in the summer they are allowed on the North End of the forest so the trails on the North end are not in good shape for hiking. Some ORV users ignore the rules and ride year round so you have to watch out for them. The trails on the south end are used and repaired by mountain bikers and ORV use is not allowed on them. Those trails are nicer but they are also open to mountain bikes year round. I don't know what it is like to share a trail with mountain bikers but perhaps one day I will go down there and find out. Once nice thing about hiking here is the lack of blow downs I hiked 13.7 miles RT without having to climb over a single blow down. There were some nice views from Capital Peak and I posted a lot of pictures and my track log on my blog at: http://mossswalks.blogspot.com I'm done posting my good pictures here since it means that the WTA will use there where ever they please on their website without even giving me proper credit. I spend too much on camera gear and put too much of my soul into my pictures for that.

I wanted to visit Capitol Forest near Olympia to see what it was all about. I visited 5 of the 6 named summits in only a few hours. I started with Mount Molly at 1,180 feet tall, it became the lowest peak I’ve climbed in Washington. The only map I had was from the National Geographic software but it worked pretty good. I drove the Waddell Creek road from Littlerock until I reached the Mt. Molly Campground. Just past the campground is a trail crossing sign. I parked here and hiked the multi-use trail that took me within feet of the summit in only 20 minutes. Back at the car, I drove the main road that takes you to the base of Little Larch Mtn. The road on most maps that traverses around the east of Little Larch is blocked, but I found a newer road that traversed the west side to near it’s summit. Another short scramble in the pouring rain brought me to this summit. I looked…no little larch trees. Next I drove up Capitol Peaks East Ridge road to near its summit. I hiked the final quarter mile because I was just hitting a bit of snow and my trucks tires are bald. No views due to clouds but the rain was gone for the day. I continued to hike from the summit down the north ridge of Capitol Peak towards Larch Mtn. Before reaching the “radio facility” noted on maps, a small spur road climbs over to the true summit of Larch. The spur road ends on the top. Just into the woods at the end of the road you will find the true summit marker, a USGS Delta post. Again….no larch trees. The walk back to my truck from here avoided climbing uphill by walking the road around Capitol Peaks northwest side. I almost settled with four peaks but I had to do Fuzzy Top Mountain. With a name like that, who could resist. With map in hand, I drove hoping to take the right roads. Soon I was at Wedekind Picnic Area, taking a left and soon, another left to the south side of Fuzzy Top. I just climbed up the hill until I reached the summit. The top has a small old growth forest, a summit sign and several sitting benches since a trail also reaches the top. I had driven past the trailhead a few minutes before parking below the peak; I just didn’t know the trail went to the summit. After getting back to my car, I consulted my maps and found I could continue down the road to exit the forest by Sherman Creek. This was a mistake, as all the exit routes have been rehabilitated at the bottom. I ended up driving out the west side of the Forest to Hwy 12. The only other peak I wanted was Rock Candy Mtn. Another day...another day.

The Capitol Forest is an area that has long interested me. It is a DNR owned working forest just like Tiger Mountain. Also like Tiger it has a large network of trails throughout. It is also at a low elevation which allows Winter hiking without much, if any, snow. My only previous attempt ended quickly as one party member developed a blister after only about a mile. Since then it has remained in my memory as a place to check out more thoroughly. A Mountaineer hike gave me a perfect chance to join a group for some exploring. Getting a newer map will solve alot of headaches. My old Footsore book is often incorrect as some roads have been closed down and many others have been created. I used Topozone.com and the map there is very often wrong. Fortunately, John had a newer map and helped us find the trailheads. Instead of doing the 11 mile trail described in Footsore we opted to do a one way trip from a higher trailhead at Camp Wedekind to the summit and then down the regular Capitol Peak Trail to Falls Creek Campground. The Sherman Creek Valley Road no longer goes through to Falls Creek. A newer road from the opposite direction does. We met just off I-5 exit 95 near Little Rock and drove on the Falls Creek Campground. We left two cars and drove the other two to Camp Wedekind. The lower trailhead was dry and fairly warm. At the upper one everything was covered in frost. We were all in a hurry to get boots on and get moving to warm up. Both the trail up to the summit and the one down to Falls Creek are named Greenline #6. The first trail is also known as the Black Hills Crest Trail. Finding the start of the trail is not easy. All the trail starts and road intersections are poorly or not at all marked. Once you find the trail there are markings. One intersection is near a ""Y"" where you would need to know you must follow one of the roads for several hundred feet to pick up the trail again. All the trails we traveled were in very good condition. Mud was at a minimum and the grade was fairly gentle with a number of switchbacks. The Black Hills Crest trail ends up on a road. The trail down to Falls Creek is on the other side of the road. The road walk is about a half mile to the summit. the summit is full of towers. The view to the south and east is terrific. Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens are all visible. The clouds were about 500 feet below us but we were in bright sunshine. It was nice to be out in the sun while the whole Puget Sound Basin was shivering under the stagnant smog cover. After lunch we walked over to the other side of the towers and had a little view of the Olympics. From here on the whole route was down. The trail to Falls Creek is in excellent shape. Horses are banned in the Winter and the result is great tread with little mud. The way travels on a number of old logging railroad grades. Old overgrown roads are passed as well. The maps showed two active roads to cross but we actually crossed five or six. There is one nice metal bridge to cross. Below the last road crossing the trail leaves forest and enters an old clearcut. Looking back we could see the summit for the first time. We ended up in Falls Creek Campgrounds. As usual, there were no directions to get back to the cars. We took several turns in the campgrounds and ended up back on the main road a short distance from our cars. The last step was a nearly 8 mile drive back to the upper trailhead. From there John was able to navigate a shorter route out of the forest. From Camp Wedekind we drove back to Sherman Valley Campgrounds where we reached pavement for the rest of the drive out. Capitol Forest is a nice low elevation alternative for snow free hiking in the Winter. With a good map I think I could find my way around. This will make a good option when Tiger Mountain is getting a little too monotonous. Pictures have been posted at http://www.kuresman.com. Go to ""Trips-2003"" on the left margin.