Roaring Ridge Snowshoe + 4902 bonus points

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When I saw the low avalanche danger forecast for super bowl Sunday I made plans to summit Scout Peak, hoping to avoid most of the target practice crowd. I knew I would be walking a few miles of the access road on the way in, but i was disappointed to find Tinkham Road rutted out from the start beyond the capabilities of my sedan. Now for the backup plan: Roaring Ridge.
I parked North of road 9070 at the winter "trailhead-ish" next to the sewage plant. Road 9070 or the Cold Creek X-Country ski trail was freshly groomed with manufactured ski tracks on both sides, makes me wish I had a ski setup. I turned left off the groomed road before crossing Cold Creek and donned snowshoes for the direct ascent before the next major drainage.

Orange paint around most of the large trees above the road suggest a timber harvest soon to come. The paint stopped sharply as we crossed the sharp boundary line of the last logging here. Above the tree line Keechelus Ridge and the frozen lake below it sat under a low cloud ceiling, the only significant view I would get all day.

I could see the wide open gully NW of the summit from below, but chose a more direct route up lee slopes to the South.  What little time this saved was wasted when I continued up to the false summit before I realized where I was. There were a few sets of snomobile tracks at the lookout site that came and went from the East. The foundation blocks were completely buried under snow.

The ridge walk to Point 4902 was pretty straightforward. I'm glad that Auto is smart enough to stay in my snowshoe tracks in the powder, as this made it easy to keep him safely away from the countless heavy cornices along the way. The topo map accurately portrays the north face as incredibly steep. I surveyed several potential descent routes, and I think I chose the safest one on the way out. A light snow began as we rested at the top.


Point 4902 probably has a decent view through the trees, but I saw nothing but white. the clouds cleared above Cottonwood Lake enough for a hazy picture as I passed by on the decent. The only part of my descent route that I would have changed would be to have stayed to the East of a steep avalanche chute that was solid thanks to recent movement, but made the dog pretty nervous.  I saw a tiny patch of blue sky as we crossed the bridge over Cold Creek. It promptly closed up and began to rain, which continued until we reached the car.

I saw nobody between leaving and returning to road 9070, which was busy with X-Country skiers. Snow conditions ranged from 6" of soft powder to a solid icy crust.


~10 miles round trip
~3200' elevation gain
3 hours to lookout site
3 hours back to car via Pt. 4902

The Oyster Dome and Blanchard Hill aka Chuckanut Mountain

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The wife and I drove up North today for a training hike and some views, and a new summit for me. I've noted the Chuckanut Mountains several times while reading trip reports and researching hikes. Located South of Bellingham right along the sound, there are many miles of trail between several different parks in the area open to varying combinations of hikers, horses and mountain bikes.

The route we chose starts from Highway 11 where it intersects with the Pacific Northwest Trail, which travels from the far NW corner of the Olympic Penninsula to the Rocky Mountains in Montana, between roads, trails and ferries. After a 1 1/2 hour drive from Renton we were more than ready to get moving. There is not much parking available on the side of the highway, enough room for 10-20 vehicles max. The first section of trail switchbacks up steep slopes toward Samish Overlook where Para-gliders and Hang-gliders launch off the cliffs. One could cut at least 2 miles and 1000' of climbing by parking in the lot at the Overlook. Discovery Pass required.

We passed the turnoff for Samish Overlook, planning on looping through it from Max's Shortcut Trail after visiting Lily Lake giving the dense clouds and fog time to clear. The trail to the Bat Caves was closed recently to prevent disturbing the nature. Bummer, but fair enough. The trail to the Oyster Dome is not marked, and it is kind of hard to see it at the start.  We found a campsite complete with a fire pit at the summit. The rock at the viewpoint was insanely slick, even where it was clearly dry from the sun. Views were incredible of the Olympics, dozens of islands in the Sound, and even some distant Canadian peaks. I dropped down below for a look at the big wall and could see huge cracks below (maybe part of the caves).

We encountered some snow on the trail en route to Lily Lake, which was frozen over and covered in powder. It would have been very peaceful if not for a couple folks who seemed to find it necessary to yell back and forth around the camping area.  The sun caught the Northern edge of the lake, creating a creepy fog that lingered while we snacked, and until I returned from the short bushwhack to the main summit of what the locals call Blanchard Hill. We did not see a sign for Max's Shortcut, but found the trail itself rather easily. We were passed by a few mountain bikers on their way down, as well as a few hikers on their way up.

The trail was clear of trees to the Oyster dome. We climbed over several blowdowns, and encountered about a mile of patchy snow on the trail from there to Lily Lake and on Max's Shortcut. It seems like we never covered more than a quarter mile without a creek crossing, except for the switchbacks below Samish Overlook.


~10 miles round trip
~3200 ft elevation gain
2 hours to Oyster Dome
45 minutes to main Summit
2 hours down

Greenway Mountain and Points 4304 and 4320 via Hall's Point Trail

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Today was another late start due to work getting canceled at the last minute. I have been thinking about visiting Greenway Mountain near Mt Washington and Change Peak for months, waiting for snow to make the off-trail sections less painful for the dogs and humans involved. Several other factors made this an ideal day for the trip, including a relatively low avalanche danger forecast and a short drive to the trailhead (45 minutes from Seattle) to compensate for the late start.
With and roads covering most of the routes and a complete lack of necessary travel on South facing slopes, this would even make a good destination during moderate avy danger, though I would not recommend approaching from the Hall Point trail during such conditions. I also would not take a dog above Hall Point under any conditions as it would require significant added road-walking mileage, elevation loss, and/or bushwhacking in order to avoid loose, rough 30-degree-plus terrain with some exposure. The Great Wall Trail is a much more dog friendly route and adds less than 2 miles to the trip.


From exit 38 I parked at the gated road east of Hall Creek, crossed under an old railroad bridge and followed the Zig Zag Trail up to the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, where the unofficial Hall's Point trail has two obvious starting points. The one further to the West next to Change Creek starts with a short scramble assisted by some fixed webbing. The dog-friendly entrance is behind a short section of railing to the East.

We made great time up the windy gully despite the trail being mostly covered in ice and compacted snow. About a mile from the John Wayne Pioneer Trail a boot path branches off towards what I thought was Halls Point. Automahn had a bit of trouble crossing a sharp and narrow section of ridge on the way out. Views were unobstructed from McClellan Butte to Mount Si, but continuing past the turnoff and up the ridge I found a sign pointing to Hall Point, still ahead. The snow at this point (about 2500') was about 2 feet deep and mostly firm below a few inches of powder in open areas, and about 6" of cascade concrete under canopy.

I strapped on my snowshoes before crossing the first apparent road around 3500'. Auto had some difficulty with the steepness of the ridge above, which looked like it only got worse, so we dropped back and followed the road toward the south. After losing about 200' of elevation we started through thinly spaced trees directly up the slope to the West. Across the next road up, the slope became steeper and trees gave way to massive stumps, mostly buried in the snow. With increased exposure the snow became harder and my snowshoes seemed to barely penetrate the surface. At this point I regretted leaving my ice axe behind, and decided it would have been much smarter to have continued further south into the protection of the forest before beginning the ascent. Either way, up was the safest option from where we sat so up we went to the road at the top of the ridge at 4100'.

The road brought us nearly to the summit of Greenway Mountain. The sky was mostly overcast around 10,000', covering the top of Tahoma but leaving the rest of the Cascades in clear view. Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan sat in the saddle between Mount Teneriffe and Green Mountain. Chester Morse Lake and the start of the Cedar River were in full view. I had a great vantage point on the two small peaks on the ridge to Mount Washington, each with about 200' of prominence.

Other than the short bushwhacks to the two small summits, the rest of our descent was on roads or trails. We could have saved a mile or two on the way out by dropping down towards Change Creek and exiting via the Hall's Point Trail, but being unfamiliar with the route and with the sun setting soon, we made our way out via the Great Wall and Mount Washington Trails. I somehow managed to make a wrong turn following mostly buried tracks along the road, but luckily realized my mistake before having to backtrack too far.

Compact snow and ice covered most of the trails below 3000'. We passed 3 hikers on their way in on the Mount Washington Trail, the only souls I had seen all day. I planned on taking the John Wayne all the way back to the Zig Zag Trail above my car, but frigid winds at the start of the bridge over Change Creek sent us down early on the Change Creek Trail. Compact snow and ice covered most of the trails below 3000'

~12 miles round trip
~5000' elevation gain
4 hours up to Greenway Mountain
3 hours down