Olympic National Forest - Mt. Zion

After my first hike in Olympic National Park (ONP) at Hurricane Ridge, I picked up a book in the visitor center gift shop, Best Easy Day Hikes - Olympic National Park.  It's a handy little Falcon Guide.  Both this guide and the Best Hikes with Kids - Western Washington & the Cascades list Mt. Zion as a challenging but rewarding day hike.  So it's been on my Washington Bucket List ever since.


I wasn't sure if my boys would be able to tackle this one.  The Best Hikes with Kids books has a 3-point difficulty rating scale and gave this one the most difficult of their three ratings.  Thanks to a friend's birthday party invitation, the opportunity arose for me to go tackle Mt. Zion on my own without the boys.

My hiking partner and I left Silverdale a little after 7 a.m. and arrived at the Quilcene Ranger Station just before they opened at 8 a.m. to get our annual pass (free to military).  On our way driving over, I was alarmed at how the Hood Canal Bridge was socked-in really dense fog.  I mean, we couldn't see a hundred yards in front of us as we drove across the bridge.  The forecast called for a sunny day, so I was hopeful it would burn off by the time we got up to the summit of Mt. Zion.  As we climbed into the mountains from the Quilcene Ranger Station, we drove out of the fog and into the bright sunlight at around 1,300 feet of elevation.

The roads aren't very well marked, and we encountered one family that was lost and asked us for directions.  If you don't have a GPS to show you where you are on the map, I recommend studying the map before you go so you can anticipate the turns.  The driving directions in both guide books and the WTA website were fair enough.

When you get to the trailhead, you'll know.  It's fairly obvious with a small parking lot, a picnic table, and a "privy" / men's and women's dual outhouse.  We departed the parking lot at 9:09 a.m.

The trail is fairly steep and does a lot of switchbacks up the hill, but at no point do you need any ropes or anything to get up the trail.  I was breathing hard all the way up.  For comparison, I logged almost exactly the same number of miles on this hike as the Hurricane Hill hike up at Hurricane Ridge (3.84 vs 3.86 miles), but this one came with an extra 555 feet of elevation gain (900 feet vs 1455 feet).

View northeast from the summit - solid fog.


The summit was a little anticlimactic.  As described in guide books, the view to the southwest toward the Olympics is obscured by trees.  Sadly, the fog didn't burn off, so our view to the northeast toward Port Townshend was a sea of white.

Trip Stats at the Summit

Both guide books I mentioned above only describe hiking to the summit.  I am thankful for the Washington Trails Association web page that described hiking an additional half mile southeast from the summit to a ledge with better views.

View from the rock ledge 0.5 miles SE of the summit.


Note there are three different trails heading off in different directions from the summit, so I broke out the compass and chose the trail that headed southeast.  Even then, that wasn't sufficient to get us to the ledge.  There was a fork in the trail where we had to make a decision.  We went LEFT and we got lucky.  That was the right path to get to the rocky ledge.  The view from the ledge was spectacular and worth the extra half mile hike.

Don't look down...

All the guides and reviews I've read about this hike say it is spectacular in July with all the rhododendrons in bloom.  I believe them.  There were rhodies everywhere.  Although the rhodies weren't in bloom, there were many other flowers along the trail, and I continue to be amazed with the new flowers I see every time I go hiking in Washington.  Here are some of the new flowers I saw on this hike:

Bunchberry - this was my favorite from this hike.  Very pretty.

Pearly Everlasting

Pipsissewa

These look sort of like foxglove, but they were laying flat on the ground instead of in tall stalks.  I can't find anything like it in my book of Pacific Northwest flowers.  Any help?

These purple stalks were EVERYWHERE.

I think it's Broadleaf Lupine.

 Twin Flower

There was a lot of this near the overlook.  I think it's Oceanspray.

Is this Scotchbroom?  There were small spots of it around the parking lot.  I've seen the walls of yellow on either side of the highways around Silverdale and heard that it is Scotchbroom, but I guess I've never gotten out of the car to go look at it close up.  Scotchbroom is the only thing I can match it to in my flower book.

Speaking of which, I really like this book a lot.  It's well organized and has decent pictures.

Overall, in spite of the disappointing view at the summit and logging a DNF on the geocache there, the view from the rocky ledge and the flowers along the way made it an excellent hike.  I'm very glad to have had this glorious Saturday to spend getting some exercise and enjoying the beauty of Olympic National Forest. 

Hike Stats:  When I'm searching for places to hike with my kids, I appreciate having some basic facts and figures about the hike for me to judge if it's doable with my kids.  With that in mind, I hope other parents considering this hike find the following information useful. Note:  This is hike #161 on page 402 of Best Hikes with Kids - Western Washington & The Cascades, and the book gives this hike the most strenuous rating on their 3-point scale.  I had seen pictures online of other families doing this hike with middle-school aged children, but I thought it best to leave my boys at home for this one.

• Date: 18 August 2012
• Time of Departure: Left house in Silverdale at 7 a.m. and arrived at the Quilcene Ranger Station to get my park pass right when they opened at 8 a.m.  Departed the trailhead at 9:09 a.m. 
• Time of Return: 12:31 p.m. back in car at trailhead.  Drove directly home with no stops, arrived home at 2 p.m. on the nose.
  
• Elapsed:  3 hours 22 minutes
• Moving Time (GPS):  1 hour 56 minutes 
• Stopped Time (GPS):  1 hour 26 minutes 
• Mileage (GPS): 3.86 miles
• Avg Speed (GPS):  2.0 mph
• Elevation Gain:  1455 feet
• Max Elevation:  4273 feet
  
• Weather:   Hood Canal was fogged in.  As we ascended into the mountains, we broke out into the sunlight around 1,300 feet or so.
• Winds:  < 5 mph W, but I didn't really notice even the slightest breeze while we were hiking.
• Air Temp: In Quilcene it was 57F climbing to 64F.  I was very comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts and was pretty sweaty when we got back to the car.
• Trail:  Well-defined hard-pack dirt trail.  No trail markers, and there were a few spots where there were forks in the trail and we guessed which way to keep going.  
• Crowds?  Not crowded, but not alone.  We encountered one family of 4 at the summit and a boyfriend/girlfriend couple who came RUNNING up the trail to the summit while we were there and RAN past us on our way back down.  Did I mention I was almost out of breath just WALKING up the trail???  Also on our way back down, we passed three other small groups on their way up the trail.  We were the first car in the parking lot that morning, but when we got back there were about 6 cars there.
• Hazards?  Some steep dropoffs.  I've heard to beware the mountain goats that can be aggressive in ONP, but we didn't see or hear of any on Mt. Zion.
  
• Geocaches?   Searched for the one geocache at the summit, but logged a DNF.
• Kit: T-shirt, shorts, hiking boots, flop hat, walking stick.  We were under the shade of trees most of the time and didn't need sun screen much.  There were a fair amount of flying bugs, but I didn't see any mosquitoes.
• Route:  There is a picnic table and a privy at the trailhead parking lot, but I did not see any sources of water.  Note!  You need a U.S. Forest Service Northwest Forest Pass or Interagency annual pass (i.e. a National Park Annual Pass) to display on your windshield in this parking lot.  None of our guide books told us that.  You can pick one up at the Quilcene Ranger Station.  Our guide books only mentioned hiking to the summit of Mt. Zion.  Thanks to the Washington Trails Association website, we read about hiking southeast a half mile past the summit to an area with a better view.  At the summit, there were three trails going off in different directions, so we used our compass to tell which one was headed southeast per the WTA description and took that trail.  Then, a little ways along, there was a pretty substantial fork in the trail, and both the left and right sides appeared well-traveled.  We chose the LEFT fork and got lucky.  We found the rocky shelf with the spectacular view.  
• Facilities:  There is a privy and picnic table at the trailhead, but no source of water that I saw.

(Almost) Bald Knob Hike

I've been wanting to go explore some of the trails around the Castle in the Clouds ever since I joined the Lakes Region Conservation Trust and received my waterproof trail map from them a couple of years ago.

I had originally planned to take the boys up to the Castle in the Clouds, park by the pond and hike out to Bald Knob along the Shannon Brook Trail.  However, I failed to take into consideration the business hours of the Castle in the Clouds and the fact that they close the gate down on Rt 171 at 4 p.m.  We got there just after 4 p.m. and just after they had closed the gate.  So instead of parking up at the pond, we parked at the small parking lot at the Shannon Brook trailhead just off of Rt. 171.

Welcome Kiosk and Trail Map
at Shannon Brook Trailhead off Rt. 171



Starting from down at Rt. 171 instead of up at the pond resulted in a shorter but steeper hike toward the top of Bald Knob. 

The trail is well-defined and marked with either paint or plastic markers on the trees.  Plus, they include mileages to the next trail or landmark.

There were some pretty nootka roses along the trail.

My boys and I hiked as far as the Bald Knob geocache, which is at a spot with a beautiful view south over Lake Winnipesaukee, including the Moultonborough Neck and Long Island.  I wanted to keep climbing to the top of Bald Knob, but the kids were tired and it was dinner time (we got started later than I had intended), so we headed back down to dinner.  Even so, it was an enjoyable hike and a good first exposure to the network of trails around the Castle in the Clouds.  I would like to go back and climb Turtleback someday, but I suspect I'll have to do that one without the boys.  Of note, LRCT has a hiker recognition patch you can earn by hiking all of the trails in the Castle in the Clouds property.  I'd like to earn that someday, too.

Hike Stats:  When I'm searching for places to hike with my kids, I appreciate having some basic facts and figures about the hike for me to judge if it's doable with my kids.  With that in mind, I hope other parents considering this hike find the following information useful.

• Date: 25 July 2012 
• Time of Departure: ~4:00 p.m.
  
• Time of Return: ~6:15 p.m.
  
• Elapsed:  2 hours 13 minutes
• Moving Time (GPS):  1 hr 23 minutes 
• Stopped Time (GPS):  50 minutes 
• Mileage (GPS): 2.57 miles (Note this is NOT the total mileage to the top of Bald Knob since we didn't make it all the way to the top.  This is the mileage to the geocache and back.)
• Avg Speed (GPS):  1.8 mph
• Elevation Gain:  1058 feet
• Max Elevation:  1511 feet
  
• Weather:   Sunny but breezy.
• Winds:  According to NH Weather, it was 5-10 mph W, but I didn't really notice even the slightest breeze while we were hiking.
• Air Temp: 75F (from NH Weather)
• Trail:  Well-defined and marked trail.  Hard pack dirt.
• Hazards?  Some poison ivy off the sides of the trails, but not much.
  
• Kit: T-shirts, shorts, boys wore regular sneakers.  I wore my hiking boots, but I would have been fine in sneakers.  We were under the shade of trees most of the time and didn't need sun screen nearly as much as we needed bug spray.  There were a lot of mosquitoes.
• Route:  At the trailhead parking lot on Rt 171 there is a kiosk with a trail map.  You can also buy the waterproof trail map from the Lakes Region Conservation Trust.  We went up the Shannon Brook Trail to the Bald Knob Cutoff Trail, but did not hike all the way to the top of Bald Knob.  There were no facilities available at the trailhead or anywhere along the trails we took.

Green Mountain Hike - Gold Creek Trail

Although the forecast called for showers, scattered showers, and more showers yesterday, all I saw was sun, partly sunny, and more sun.  It was a refreshing change!  I decided to take advantage of it and try a local hike that didn't involve a 3 hour drive.  Two separate people have recommended Green Mountain to me, so I headed down there to check it out yesterday afternoon.

Green Mountain is the second highest point on the Kitsap peninsula.  (Aside:  Don't ask me what the highest point is.  I haven't learned that one yet.)  In searching for information about it, all that came up in my Google search was a website that rhymes with rails and ends in dot com (I don't want to advertise for them).  It annoys me and sets off alarm bells in the back of my head when a website insists on having my credit card information before they will activate my "free trial."  Nope.  Not.  All stop.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200. 

I found in Google Maps that there was a Green Mountain State Forest.  There wasn't anything else on my schedule for the day, so I decided to just wander around down there and see what I found.  I happened upon the Gold Creek Trail Head, and there I found a small kiosk which identified it as part of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and had a large trail map posted.  Upon returning home, I found that you can access the DNR trail maps in pdf format at this website (the trail map of Green Mountain is here).  I talked to someone in the parking lot who had just finished the hike, and he said it was 2.5 miles to the top, so I decided to give it a try.

There is actually quite a network of trails criss-crossing the mountain (see the trail map).  The trails are well marked and mostly hard-pack dirt or gravel.  It's a well-used recreation area, too.  I passed 18 other hikers, 2 horses, 3 mountain bikes, and one noisy, smelly dirt bike (or rather, they passed me). 

Along the way up, there were some very nice cascading waterfalls like this.  The foliage is so different from Northern Virginia.  I felt like I was on another planet because I didn't recognize any of the plants or flowers.  I even bought a pocket guide to Washington State Trees & Flowers, but I still couldn't identify most of what I saw on the hike.

I think these might be a type of geranium.  They were only about the size of the tip of my finger.

This could be serviceberry or trailing raspberry.  I think it is trailing raspberry based on the shape of the green leaves underneath.  Did you notice who's guarding it?  I didn't even notice until I got home later and was looking at the pictures close up.

Here he is zoomed in.  Looks ferocious, doesn't he?

Does anyone know what he is?  I tried, but haven't been

able to put a positive ID on him yet.

Here he is from a different angle (again, I didn't notice this until I was looking at the pictures at home).

These look a little like buttercups, but I'm used to buttercups pointing up like a cup, not sideways and not with space between the petals like these.

I think this is salmonberry.

Not sure what this one is, but it sure is pretty.  

Aside from the flowers, the view along the way up the trail was peaceful and awe-inspiring.

 The view from the top was extraordinary and well worth the hike up. That's Seattle off in the distance.

I used my sons' technique at distance photography, and this was the result.  (Taken by holding my camera up to the binoculars. :-) ).

Stats from the Gold Creek Trail parking lot up to the vista.

For some odd reason, on the way back down, I got the song, "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me," stuck in my head.

That's Gold Creek by the way.

End of hike statistics back in the parking lot.

What a great way to spend an afternoon!  It was good to get out, enjoy the fresh air and the beauty of nature.  It sure reminded me of hikes with my family like the Sugarloaf hike, and it made me miss my family.  This hike was totally doable with small children.  In fact, I passed two families on the trail - each a mom and a dad with two young kids.  I look forward to bringing my family to see Green Mountain when they arrive here in a couple of weeks.

Gold Creek Trail Hike Overview:

Distance:  5 miles

Elevation gain:  1,054 feet

Start Time: 1433

Moving Time:  2 hours 7 minutes

Stopped Time:  52 minutes

Finish Time:  1733

Weather:  Approx. 55F, light breeze

Facilities:  Outhouse in the parking lot at the trail head.  Outhouse in the parking lot near the vista.  No water or other facilities.  No trash cans either, so unfortunately there were bits of litter here and there.  I regret I didn't bring my Camelbak this time, because I carry spare trash bags to pick up litter along the way.

Pests:  Aside from the one noisy and smelly dirtbike that passed me on the trail going up?  There were a few bugs flying around my head at the top of the mountain, but they weren't overly annoying.  I didn't notice in situ, but when I got home I discovered I had about 5 bug bites on the backs of my hands.  I probably have some on my neck that I can't see or haven't otherwise noticed.  Next time, use bug spray.

Geocaching:  There are a few around this area.  I looked for the geocache at the top of the mountain, but had to log a DNF.  Maybe my boys will help me find it next time.

Ragged Island Hike

The boys and I took the boat over to Ragged Island on Lake Winnipesaukee to search for a geocache there.  We were really glad we went for two reasons.

First, we arrived there and found out it is one of the properties owned and managed by the Lakes Region Conservation Trust (LRCT).  There are very nice, well-maintained boat docks at the south end of the island.  There's a welcome kiosk with information about the history of the island.  The best part though was the laminated nature guide you could borrow from the kiosk as you walked the island.  There is a half-mile loop trail around the island with a dozen posts where you stop and read that section of the nature guide, and it explains to you what trees or plants you can see or what types of animals you are likely to encounter around the island.  It was very well done.

Boat Docks at south end of Ragged Island

Welcome Kiosk

Nature Guide

The trail is well-defined hard-pack dirt covered in pine needles.

YB on the Ragged Island shoreline

This used to be the governor of NH's cottage back in the mid-1800s.

Second, the geocache on Ragged Island was AWESOME.  It tied with a geocache in Hawaii for our favorite geocache.  It required a good amount of teamwork between me and the boys.  I never would  have found it without them.

I picked up the nature guide and just followed the guide figuring we would eventually find the geocache as we followed the nature walk.  As it turns out, the nature walk takes you on a clockwise circuit of the island, and the geocache takes you on a counter-clockwise circuit of the island.  We finished the first clockwise loop of the island doing the nature walk and started the geocache hunt going back in the counter-clockwise direction.  Then my wonderful wife called my cell to say there was a thunderstorm coming on the weather radar, so the boys and I got back in the boat and went home for the day.  My eldest son and I returned a few days later in order to finish the geocache, and it basically required a complete loop of the island in the opposite direction as the nature walk.

But that's OKAY because we had a great time BOTH times walking Ragged Island.

Sorry no pics or GPS track for this hike, but I don't want to spoil the hunt for anyone else going to search for the Ragged Island geocache.  Suffice to say, it was awesome and I highly recommend it.  My eldest really enjoyed it, too.  However, I recommend doing the nature guide walk in reverse order so you can do both the nature walk and the geocache at the same time.