Buckhorn Mountain, Marmot Pass — Monday, Aug. 21, 2023

 DAY Hike.  Arrived at Trail Head #833 Upper Big Quilcene Around 10:15am there was still plenty of parking in lot. Started Hiking around 10:30am. Someone put up a Post-It note at beginning of trail stating that they sighted a cougar Aug 2nd about 1.5miles up the trail by the river. There was a blanket of smoke that partially obscured views of peaks. The Smoke Seemed to fade through the day, and also with elevation. The trail to marmot pass was well maintained and on the sides of the trail were wild blueberries, wildflowers, and thimbleberries (they looked like they will be ripe in one to two weeks). I was not bothered by bugs but but a hiker I passed on the way up stated that they were getting worse with the elevation. I had Difficulty finding the trail to continue from camp mystery to marmot pass but with a bit of searching it was found. Made it to marmot pass by 1:00pm and took a break till 1:15 before continuing on to Summit Buckhorn Mountain. From Marmot Pass if you look North-Northeast you can see a steep trail going up the side of a mountain and a peak beyond. this is the trail to Buckhorn Mountain, Buckhorn Mountain's Summit is hidden behind this lesser peak that you see when looking from Marmot Pass. Took me about 30min to reach the summit of Buckhorn Mountain after leaving Marmot Pass. The trail was easy to follow but steep and had a many sections with scrambling on loose unforgiving rock. I arrived on the summit at about 1:45PM took about 15 minutes to soak in the views and then proceeded to start the hike back down. I made very few stops on the way back down and it took me about 2 hours to get back to the parking lot from the top of Buckhorn Mountain.