~20km / 1349m elevation
Ever since I biked through this area five years ago I’ve wanted to check out the mountains here and today I got that chance. We got to the trailhead around 8:45 and went north via Alan’s GPX track. The trail was generally easy to follow and is traceable from what you see on GaiaGPS without much thinking.
The trail starts out in a very lush forest along Norrish Creek before starting up the mountain at a relatively aggressive incline until about 350m. At this point, the trail meanders around the side of Little Nicomen before joining the first in a series of old, but perfectly usable, logging roads. There were bear prints and poop everywhere so we were on the lookout. From here, the old FSRs gradually become more overgrown before ending at ~620m elevation. The trail then heads aggressively uphill while also forcing some light bushwalking up an old cutblock. Breaking through the top of the cutblock around ~750m, the trail heads back into the forest while keeping the same pitch until around 900m, when it starts to relax.
There is a false summit just west of the actual summit. While the trail was generally obvious until 1200m, use caution as it’s easy to get thrown off and into bushes. There’s a significant amount of underbrush and alder between the false summit, the real summit, and the viewpoints to the east. Luckily, it’s short enough you can basically step over it. Best of all, there’s little snow left. Worst of all, it was absolutely crawling with bugs, which got worse until the summit. Bring a bug headnet and bug spray. Even with that, they were aggressive.
The way down demands all the same precautions as any steep trail would - beware of any loose rock, watch foot placement, and be aware of how to fall safely if need be. We took the turnoff to Little Nicomen and met some ATVers before heading down the trail to the “Nut Shack” which was interesting, complete with a guest book and fantastic view. You may even be able to spot the cabin from the train crossing over Norrish Creek below.
We went for a nice walk down by the creek at the end.
Car to car: 6.5 hrs