What a beautiful day for a hike! We decided to hike a portion of the PCT just out of Carson, WA near the Wind River Hwy. We actually started on a side street called Little Soda Springs Rd. as you can see from the map at the end of the TR. The access point we chose is poorly marked with a simple post and PCT emblem.
We travelled east from the road and started climbing up the PCT on a gentle grade. We passed a couple of small streams and had only a couple of views outside the canopy!
And another semi-obstructed view of Sedum Ridge (which is a great loop hike).
We kept travelling on the PCT until we reached the intersection with the Bunker Hill #145 trail.
We turned right at this junction and started the continuous climb toward the Bunker Hill summit. On the way you can see many old growth trees!
When we got close to the top we were greeted by a bit of snow.
Turning left we ran into foundation blocks for what probably was a fire lookout, or so I assume?
We walked straight, past the foundation blocks, and found ourselves bushwacking north along the ridge on the summit. It appeared that we could have kept going downhill if we stayed on the left side of the ridge. However, I headed toward the right side of the ridge and stopped at some rocks near a dropoff.
We turned around and headed back south along the ridge until we hit what I believe to be the true summit. There is a rock outcropping there and a sheer dropoff. The summit is also the only place we have found a good view of the surrounding mountains, and it is looking east!
The hike up Bunker Hill is about 1mile each way from the PCT. After enjoying the view we hiked back down Bunker Hill and continued east on the PCT toward Sedum Ridge. There is a nice view of Bunker Hill from a field after exiting the forest!
We reached a gravel forest road, just after the field, and instead of continuing on the PCT we turned right to head toward the Whistle Punk Trail #59. The TH for the Whistle Punk TH is just a few blocks down the gravel road and there is a big sign with a parking lot. We continued past the parking lot to the TH sign.
The Whistle Punk Trail is a very interesting interpretive trail that takes you through an old logging operation that was conducted here in the 1920's! Many of the remnants of this old logging operation are still located just off the trail for viewing. The sign explained the Whistle Punk as " Although the Whistle Punk was usually the novice on a logger crew, he saved lives by blowing a whistle that shrieked a warning of "Danger!" to his fellow workers".
We went down the Whistle Punk trail toward the northwest end to a wooden deck that overlooked a marsh.
Continuing on the loop we crossed a portion of the marsh on a wooden walkway.
And then headed back to the Whistle Punk TH.
The Whistle Punk Trail actually has a couple of loop opportunities and this was just the one we chose today.
We then headed back down the gravel road to the PCT and back to our car. All in all it was an excellent day and hike and we only saw 3 couples the entire day! The entire hike was about 9.4 miles.
