We have trying to do a hike every weekend to keep up our conditioning. Last weekend we hiked to Perry Creek. It was not steep compared to Mt. Pilchuck, but the rocky terrain made it tiring. We only went to the falls where you cross Perry Creek to start up the steep switch backs to Mt. Forgotten. It was about 4 miles to the falls and it took us about 3 hours. We had a lunch before heading back. What is also nice about Perry Creek is how close it is to our house. We left about 7:30am and we were on the trail by 9am. We were down by 2:30 and home by 4pm.

This weekend we decided to take a trip over to the peninsula and hike Mt. Townsend. It has been many years since we hiked Mt. Townsend – in fact 11 years! I had taken Monday off so G suggested spending the night in Pt Townsend and making it more of a mini-vacation.

We caught the 7:55am ferry. We got behind a slow car so we didn’t get to the trailhead until 9:30. The parking lot was already full! Very popular but everyone spread out so it wasn’t too busy on the trail.

The first mile or so switch backs up through Rhododendron filled forest. We hit it just right for the blooms.

After about a mile or so, the trail breaks out into the open and switch backs up tall wildflower slopes to Windy Camp and then up to the shorter rock gardens and vistas as you climb the last 1000 ft. Glorious views of Hood Canal and the Cascades.

Once you reach a saddle and you then have views off to Vancouver Island, Olympic Mountains and the actual summit is still a short climb. We choose to stay at the saddle which was almost 6,000 feet. We reached here about 12:30 and stayed about an hour before starting back down. It was a long hike down – it took about 2 hours but my legs were pretty tired. Roundtrip 8 miles and 2800ft gain.

We drove on out to Port Townsend where we stayed the night – more on that in the next post

Olympics from the top of Mt. Townsend

The actual top – we enjoyed it at the bottom.

Mt Rainier from Mt. Townsend

Some flowers seen along the trail