It's a fun little hike… a heavily used, rocky trail to a panoramic view from an old fire lookout. Between some traffic heading to Lake Stevens, being stuck behind a slow truck on Mountain Loop Highway, a few potholes and my share of washboard, I didn't get to the trailhead until 6:15.
I was the last one on the trail and I passed 8-9 people headed back to their cars. I had the summit to myself to watch the sunset. The sun was a brilliant orange-red as it dropped behind the Olympic Peninsula. I had nice views of Three Fingers and several other nearby peaks… I could see Glacier Peak in the distance and Puget Sound and Whidby Island were obvious. Rainier and Baker were hiding behind clouds and haze. There are some cool scrambling opportunities in the area, but I didn't have time to explore.
After hanging out for awhile the skeeters decided to come after me, so it was time to go. Man this is a late year for those little guys. I ran about half way down to minimize the need for my headlamp. I caught the last guy I passed on my way up, and we swapped stories the rest of the trip to the car. Good times…
I had two d'oh moments on this hike.
1) I left the camera battery in the charger plugged into the wall at home. No pictures.
2) Who needs proper footwear? I hiked/ran in oversized tennis shoes wearing wool socks with some embedded sand that didn't get completely washed out from a previous beach hike. Sloppy shoes + hot socks + no liners + sand + rocky trail = hamburger feet. I don't recommend it.
In the absense of pictures of my own, I stole a few from the web:
Mt. Pilchuck Lookout - (http://www.summitpost.org/image/1322/15 ... er-as.html)
Sunset from the Pilchuck Trail - (http://www.summitpost.org/image/116261/ ... unset.html)
Here's a few interesting links on Mt. Pilchuck for those not familiar with the area:
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... chuck.html - Summitpost page on Mt. Pilchuck
http://www.hyak.net/lost/10.html - Information on a defunct ski area on the mountain
