Photos from this trip can be found here.
My choral group had a performance in Port Townsend, so I took the boys up Mount Townsend beforehand. The goal was to be back to the car by 2 to make the afternoon call time.
Service road 2812 beyond the last junction, just one mile before trailhead was still covered in snow. We didn’t want to risk of getting stuck trying to drive through the slush, so we walked the mile. Snowshoes were not needed until we arrived at the basin before shooting straight up the east gully. It could still be doable without the snowshoes but it would have taken us longer to get to the top. I would still pack them just in case.
Judging from the snow conditions, it hadn’t snow for quite some time and no one else had been here recently. We had the mountain to ourselves all morning. The views atop were quite spectacular on this clear day, first time seeing the Cascades from the Olympic Peninsula. It was a bit hazy farther out and it would have to be even clearer to see Canada. It felt strange to be this close to the Olympic Mountains that I normally see driving home on Highway 520.
Definitely taking more trips to the Olympic Mountains this summer.