I was a little intimidated by this hike after reading all of the trip reports but I am happy to share that it was a fabulous hike up!

We had an early start and were on the trail just after 7AM. Reports are right - it goes straight up a rocky, rooted trail from the start. For two women who grew up hiking in New Hampshire, this felt just like home! 

At a couple points, it was a little tricky to find the best route, but the way was easily found by referencing Gaia (you can download my route: https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=13.1/-123.2469/47.5233&pubLink=LquqUzObGs1GkT5slldSr9pu&trackId=9fcbc91aab4c387558bf1cccf5d446edd1e4af14 ). Plus some kind hikers have build carins and flagged the trail in confusing sections.

Scree fields were a fun challenge and the final ascent around the summit was exciting but not as scary or exposed a scramble as I had prepared myself for. I was glad to have a helmets though, as there were a few points when one of us accidentally kicked rocks. Poles were also a must for both going up and going down.

We had the summit to ourselves and only saw one other hiker the whole morning!  Round trip, it took about 5.5hr, including two lengthy stops to snack and enjoy the incredible undercast views of Tahoma to the east and the Olympics to the west. What a great spot!

My son left his phone at the summit so I have $100 cash if anyone can bring it down and we can meet up. 360-440-4111. Thanks Steve

With hiking friends from the Olympia Mountaineers, we trekked to the summit of Mount Washington on the afternoon and evening of August 17^th. The steep and grueling climber’s trail is well worn. It’s almost impossible to lose your way even though the terrain varies from forest to meadow to talus to varying forms of dirt and bare rock above tree line. Although water was cascading down Big Creek just past the trailhead on Forest Road 2419, we found none flowing in the seasonal stream channels in the lower meadow or up at the top of the aptly named Horn. I personally carried 2.75 liters of water and consumed nearly all of it by the warm day’s end. At upper elevations, pockets of wildflowers growing out of rock provided a small but brilliant color show. On our descent, the sky filled with sunset colors, then gave way to emerging stars. Our final half hour was by headlamp, turning us into a line of fireflies zigzagging through the forest on our way home.

My recorded GPS track for the standard route we took was 3.2 miles, 3218’ gain, over 7.5 hours.

The road to Mt Washington and Mt Elinor is closed 7-11-22 to 7-22-22 to allow safe helicopter removal of mountain goats. We didn't realize it until we got to the gate. 

Right after July 4^th, my oldest son, Patrick (42) who is a legit mountaineer, and I decided to climb 6,255’ Mount Washington in the Olympic Mountains. It is so named because the ridge line looks like a profile of George Washington. While it isn’t a high peak, getting there was a combination of bushwhacking over steep root filled slopes, navigating up snow fields, and climbing some class 2 and class 3 rock.  Oh, and I forgot to mention this was nearly 3,200’ of elevation gain in just 2 miles which is a 30% grade. Took me 6 hours for the 4-mile round trip.  While others have done this is 4-5 1/2 hours it took me longer mainly because I am old and slow.  While Patrick thought this was a lot of fun, I huffed and puffed my way to the top taking a few “breathers” along the way.  We were fortunate to have good weather on the way up, and it only started to rain when we descended.