Since it’s shoulder season, I thought I’d provide an update on the Mount Catherine trail. The trail is in great shape with only a couple down trees, both of which are easily passable. The intermittent snow that’s actually on the trail starts around 3/4 of a mile in according to my watch and appears in short patches most of the rest of the way to the top. The last quarter of a mile or so is all packed down snow that’s pretty icy, some of which goes along the ridge. I used poles on the way up and both spikes and poles on the way down until I had gotten through the really icy portion. It’s passable without either, and there were a couple people doing it without any traction but it was much more slow going for them than it was for me, so I recommend poles at minimum, and both spikes and poles if you prefer more peace of mind. Incredible views at the top, some mushrooms along the trail, very little fall foliage left—just some bushes at lower elevation. The trail is still easy to follow and had lots of packed down snow up high, but if we get any more snow, be sure to have navigation so you can find it when the snow isn’t packed down and making it obvious. The road to the trailhead is pretty rough, but if you take it slow you’ll do fine. No snow on the road yet. 

Went for a sunrise hike to Mount Catherine, so I thought I'd provide updates since the last trip reports.

First, the fall colors at Snoqualmie Pass might be near their peak right now. The vine maples, which line the forest road to the trailhead, are gorgeous. As another reporter said, there isn't that much fall color along the trail itself.

I also wanted to clarify previous reports that said that the road is completely unsuitable for low-clearance vehicles. It's actually fine, as long as you are comfortable driving your low-clearance vehicle on rough forest roads. If you have some experience, it's actually not that bad -- much better than the old Mount Pilchuck road, for example -- *except* for the washout a couple hundred feet before the trailhead. But even there, it looks like someone very kindly piled a bunch of rocks in the gully to make a "bridge" for your left tires. So if you pick your line right and go very slowly, you will be totally fine. I didn't bottom out once in my Prius, which is more than I can say for the old Pilchuck or Bandera roads.

I was very lucky to have amazing sunrise conditions. Not every sunrise hike looks like this!

This was a nice mellow hike with big views. The switchbacks and slope grade remind me of Mt. Si, if Si were about half the length. There were lots of great views on the way up as well as at the top. It's fun to look at the assorted mountains north of the pass that I've gone up this summer. 

Forest Road 9070, as always, is challenging. (This is the road that inspired me several years back to get rid of my old VW Golf and buy an AWD.) Seems like they've worked on the lower part of the road, but the upper portion still has several rocky and washed out parts that could be a challenge in a regular car.

Air quality was great today and it was chilly enough for an extra layer. There were butterflies, but no sign of the rare Taylor's Checkerspot. I only saw two other people, so mostly had the hike to myself.

There were fall colors driving in, but not so much on the trail itself. Looking out from the top it looks like the Melakwa Lake hike has the fall colors happening. 

Rain: 
It was 60% showers in the forecast today, and we got showers 60% of the time, all the time. If you're willing to accept that you may have no views, I thought both of these hikes at least kept decent footing and drained well. There is a degree of exposure especially on Silver, so mind your feet even on a nice day!

Spur Trail?: 
I had intended to check out the spur trail named "Silver Peak Trail" on a number of trail maps at (47.35989° N, 121.45213° W). It is, as it turns out, at the magical 1.7mi mark, but from the Mount Catherine trailhead. Definite possibility for confusion there, especially with all of the reports around how easy the turnout is to miss. Well, I can say with some certainty that no such spur trail exists. If you want the real Silver Peak Trail as it is described in the WTA entry, your cutoff is at (47.35396° N, 121.45455° W) and although there is no flashing neon light, it can be clearly found by anyone looking for it.

Silver Peak: 
Not much to comment about the PCT. It is a known quantity and serves its purpose well to get you to your junction. There is one point maybe half way up the Silver Peak Trail where you encounter a rock face. There appears to be a path heading left around it, but I would actually encourage you to take the wall straight on as the mud on the bypass will get slippery. The holds are good even in full rain, and you'll want to warm your hands up for the latter portion of the trail anyway.

The scramble appears daunting at first, and I won't deny that it's steep, but the path is pretty clearly laid out, and the loose rock holds its shape reasonable well. After the initial climb up shale, there's a brief respite followed by a few hundred feet of 3-4 limb scramblung. At least the rock here is mostly solid, and if you're lucky, you may even encounter a Pika.

I was surprised to see some persevering heather and a couple other wildflowers in the final scramble. Although edible berry season has come to a close here, berry plant fall colors were on display. The winner of the fall color show, however, was the perennial champion of PNW fall colors: unrelenting grayness.

Mount Catherine: 
This is an excellent burnout hike, or potentially (although I haven't tried this) a sort of hike where you could watch the sun set from the summit and make it down before dark (god have mercy on your suspension navigating the potholes in darkness though). The views are probably good, probably not as good as they probably are at Silver Peak, but mine wouldn't be the right trip report for that.

Road: 
It's really not all that bad for any attentive driver until the last quarter mile before Windy Pass with the notable exception of one washout just before the Catherine trailhead. You'd have to really dislike your car to put it through that gauntlet of rocks to Windy Pass instead of pulling off to the side of the road and just doing an extra 5 minute warm up walk. In fact, I'd recommend doing that anyway to split the distance between Silver and Catherine so you can pair up the hikes. Anecdotally, the outbound side of the road seemed to have fewer washboards, potholes and other obstacles with the (again notable) exception of the one washout. I still think any car could carefully navigate the washout, but it's a matter of approach angle as much as it is overall clearance. The longer your front/rear end hangs past your wheelbase, the more likely you are to scrape it.

We were aiming for Mirror Lake, but GPS overshot us, and we ended up at the PCT section near Windy Pass. This wasn't terrible until 'I' made it terrible (keep reading). PCT section to Mirror Lake was great. Ripe blueberries at the beginning and lovely fall colors throughout. Views were peekaboo as true to form, Washington's bipolar weather was on full display with alternating rain, sun & clouds. Made it to the lake, which had a nice spot to enjoy the view and snack - do know you'll go down about 400' then also have to come back up, incase you're already tired.

Once you're back up at the junction before heading down to the lake (while researching the map), I realized I could make a loop rather than be relegated to an out and back...
here's where bad life decisions were made. Opted to take the Cold Creek trail down then connect to Mount Catherine back up to FS 9070, where it popped us out just a few hundred feet from where we started. Perfect right? No, only in my mind. When you see the sign to Twin Lakes via Cold Creek trail, ignore it, pretend it doesn't exist (technically, it shouldn't). It was steep, primitive, overgrown, difficult to navigate in places and my "favorite" part was the (thankfully short) but sketchy talus slope I thought I might just be stuck on forever and end up living out my days. Here you completely lose the trail and hope it continues on the other side.

Yes, I realize I should've looked at the description when I pieced this loop together, so now I'm a/your cautionary tale. For lack of a better term, you shimmy down the side of a mountain and it barely gets better once you hit twin lakes until it clears up at the junction of Mount Catherine's spur trail, which was also a bit steep (but far more doable) and overgrown in places but thankfully short! So, just go back the way you came on the enjoyable, well-graded section of the PCT you started on. Map screenshot of said loop of misery included.