August 24 - Green Mountain Lookout

Green Mountain Trail

Total Miles: 8.5
Elevation Gain: 3,300 feet
Highlights: Historic fire lookout, wildflowers, expansive views, tarns, meadows, berries
More information: http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/green-mountain

The trek to Green Mountain Lookout was on the list of hikes I wanted to tackle last year during Hike-A-Thon.  In fact, I was scheduled to go up to the lookout as a volunteer Green Mountain Steward over Labor Day weekend, but the weather called for severe thunderstorms, heavy rain, and temperatures in the 30s so that trip was a no-go.  

Since last year's trip was a bust, I made it a priority to get to the lookout this summer, and yesterday was the day.  The drive to the trailhead was long and rough, taking much longer than I expected.  However, the trail itself was less steep than I anticipated.  I was mentally prepared for the entire trail to be really steep from the get-go, so I was pleasantly surprised when it was not.   

The trail starts out climbing gently through the forest before breaking out of the trees onto a huge meadow-filled slope.  Here the trail was getting seriously overgrown, and some of the vegetation was up to my shoulders, but the trail still wasn't very steep.  Instead, the trail made long, sweeping switchbacks up through the meadows that, unfortunately, were past peak wildflower stage.  

Fall has already arrived along some sections of the trail.

After a couple of miles, the trail drops down a bit into a basin with a couple of tarns and campsites as well as lots of ripe blueberries.  I forced myself to take a break here and eat a snack.  I rarely take breaks when hiking, but I knew the last mile to the lookout was going to be steep so I needed to fuel up.

The lookout tower is on the top of the ridge at the very center, 1300 feet above my break spot.

The final mile to the lookout climbs 1,300 feet in about 1 mile.  The trail was incredibly dusty because of the dry weather this summer and fully exposed to the sun.  Today was party cloudy with a nice breeze which made for perfect climbing weather.  Hiking this trail on a hot day would be brutal.  

A few wildflowers were still blooming, but most were going to seed like this Western Anemone (or as I like to call it "The Lorax Flower"

After passing a bear hunter and a family of grouse, I made it to the summit ridge. 

Grouse family

Approaching the lookout

Even closer

Made it! (sitting on the lookout steps looking out at the ridge I just came up)

I had the lookout deck all to myself (The lookout tower itself is locked shut because it houses Forest service radio equipment.) while I ate lunch and watched the clouds float by. At one point, I was basically in a cloud.

Within 10 minutes of descending from the lookout, I passed three other groups of people headed up.  They were the only other people I saw all day, and I was lucky to be ahead of them on trail so I didn't have to share the lookout with anyone.

On the way down, I passed another grouse sitting on a dead branch as still as it possibly could as it tried to fool me into thinking it wasn't really there.  I wasn't fooled.

Grouse on a branch

As I continued down, the clouds cleared a little bit, so I got a better view of the surrounding mountains, but Glacier Peak remained hidden all day.  I'll just have to come back another time to see the full 360-degree views.

Looking down into the Suiattle River valley

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