I had to improvise today. My plan was to check out the McClellan Butte trail and file a trip report on the Washington Trails Association website (wta.org). This trail is mostly off-limits in the winter, up to early summer in fact. In the winter the avalanche danger is super high. By the time the avalanche danger is gone the deep, deep snow on the east side of the mountain piles up in the five avalanche chutes, forming snow bridges. At some point the bridges become unstable, so good luck making progress, unless you can drop down below the snow and try to make it up the other side.
Anyway, I was going to check out the conditions. But when I pulled into the McClellan Butte parking lot there were two very suspicious-looking vehicles parked there, clearly having stayed the night, and so I turned around and left. There have been numerous trashed cars at trailheads in the area (a scandal amongst the local hiking community) so I headed back west to exit 38.
I parked by the NF9021 service road, hiked up to the PTC and then back down to the car, via an unofficial boot path.
Only about 3.5 miles, I was a bit disappointed. I have been cutting back on my mountain hikes due to the cost of gas and this seemed almost like a waste.
The view south to Chester Peak was looking good, due to all the beautiful clouds:
Chester Peak
I do love the Mine Creek Trestle:
Track below.
