Moran State Park - Mount Constitution via Mountain Lake — Saturday, May. 14, 2011

Puget Sound and Islands > San Juan Islands

Our Mountaineers group of six made the most of an inconsistent weather weekend by soaking up the sun on Friday, hiking the cloudy Saturday, and getting the heck outta town on Sunday. This has become a biennial favorite, and we had a couple of first-timers -- I always enjoy bringing folks to somewhere they've never been before! We took our time on Saturday morning and left from Mountain Lake Trailhead about 9:00 a.m. to do the Mt. Constitution Loop. I've done the loop clockwise and CCW twice each now. We did CCW by majority vote, but I recommend CW to get the rough trail out of the way early. All the trails are in great condition, with just a few muddy spots and no fallen trees crossing the trail. Mountain bikes are allowed on the trails 9/15-5/15, and the couple of groups we encountered were cautious and shared the trail well. It was cold and windy at the stone tower at the summit, with few visitors and limited viewing distance. Many side trips are possible -- Twin Lakes, Cold Spring, Little Summit, Cascade Falls -- and we took all of them. Hot showers, an excellent pasta dinner, and Trivial Pursuit rounded out the day! We woke up Sunday to a power outage and medium rain, so decided against a hike of Turtleback Mountain in favor of an earlier ferry home. See you in two years!