Beckler Peak 7.6.14
I wanted to get out into the mountains at least one day this weekend. We decided on Sunday and followed the weather forecast of non-rainy areas to highway 2. After searching through the hikes listed on the Washington Trails Association website we decided on Beckler Peak. There were a couple recent trip reports from the previous two days and the conditions seemed decent. It sounded like a good, not too strenuous, hike - just over 2200' of elevation gain over about 7.5 miles. Sara and I left Seattle about 7:45am and stopped in Sultan for breakfast along the way. We followed the descriptions we had found to locate forest service road 6066. We started up, slowly making upwards progress as I tried to dodge the potholes the best I could. The middle few miles of the road were in good condition, but the top was riddled with potholes again. It is a narrow single lane road, without places for turning out when passing a car in various sections. Luckily we didn't meet anyone on the 6.6 miles up.
We pulled into a mostly empty parking lot with a couple of other cars. I registered at the trailhead, sunscreened, and we hit the trail about 10:15a. The trail follows an old logging road, now decommissioned and slowly being taken back over by mother nature. The trail following the old tire tracks was nice. We had a few little stream crossings along the way and saw lots of yellow flowers.
Little water crossing along the old logging road
Trail along the old logging road, lots of little flowers blooming along the side
A little over a mile brings you past the first switchback and onto the real trail. A very nice dirt trail leads you up the rest of the way to the summit. It mostly snakes through the old growth forest, with several switchbacks. I was wearing my hiking boots again, trying to break them in. Sara found a little clear cut area so I stopped there to tape my left heel while she enjoyed the views.
View from our rest stop in the clearing
Taping my left heel, I did the right one later
A bit farther up when I found a nice downed tree along the trail, I stopped again to tape the other heel. The trees were bright green with new leaves and needles. Unfortunately the mosquitos were also out and didn't want to leave me alone.
Trail through the trees
The switchbacks continued up the mountain and we encountered our first snow patches just above 4500'. There were less than 10 and mostly fairly short. The snow was firm and easy to cross. There was one larger section of snow still, but after that it was dirt trail to the top.
Most of the snow patches were similar in size to this
The trees started thinning as we neared the summit. There is essentially a big rock staircase leading to the second to last switchback before the summit.
Rock stairs
We met two small groups of people here just starting down. A short traverse brings you to the last corner and a few rocks to climb up to reach the summit. We had a pretty good view up there of the mountains surrounding us in all directions. There were clouds but for the most part they were just above the peaks.
Sara on the summit of Beckler Peak
Panorama from the summit
Mountain views to the south
The north cascades were a bit more gray though as it looked like it was raining that direction. As much as I had wanted to head up there, I think it's good we didn't. We found Skykomish down in the valley below us and watched a little plane take off from the local airfield. After taking pictures and some lunch, we started down. We were surprised to pass so many people on the way down. I felt lucky to have had such a quiet hike up and lunch on the summit. Everyone we passed was pleasant though.
Peeking through the trees at the surrounding mountains as we hiked down
We made steady progress back down the trail and made it to the car in just under four hours from when we left. The parking lot was full now and due to it's size, made backing out of my spot a little more challenging. We started down the forest service road again only meeting two cars, luckily where there was some space to get off to the side. Unfortunately we hadn't considered the holiday traffic we might encounter and almost four hours after we left the trailhead we finally made it back to Seattle. Overall, Beckler Peak was a great little hike with some fantastic mountain views. It was nice to get back out in the mountains and enjoy a mostly sunny day.
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Beckler Peak just east of Skykomish along highway 2
Started from 2800' and followed the old logging road for over a mile, just beyond the first switchback