Soaked out on Dry Mountain

Sage wearing her hunter orange to stay safe during hunting season

The last chance to hike up Dry Mountain this year before the wild life gates shut was today.  Yes, there was some rain in the forecast, but I was hoping for some cloudy views at the top.

Well it rained and it rained and it rained.  There would be no view even if we made the trip up.  My rain coat and waterproof boots failed.  Phil’s raincoat failed and he did not have rain pants or waterproof boots.  The higher up we went the more slippery and the more windy it got.

We bagged it, bagged the trip, not the summit.

  Nice fall colors but too wet to get any good photos of them.

I’m now in the market for new rain coat. My REI brand eVent jacket is just not made as well as my first one was.  This is my third one, the second one was not as good either, I should not have bought the third one.

Sad that my boots started leaking.  They are good boots, just too old now I guess.  La Sportiva brand gortex, so expensive!  They seem to last for three years. 

All my Solomon boots barely lasted me one season and sometimes not even one hike before I started getting wet feet.

I don’t want to have to buy new boots, that will kill my budget for a month.  I might just try some snow seal on them for now.

I’m  thinking of getting my next rain jacket at Cabelas.  I’ve had two people recommend them and the price is right too.

6 miles with 1,900 feet elevation gain

Sage blending in thanks to her orange coat

I hope that the animal who took a bit of this poison black and white Russula is okay. Looks like a deer bite. Only one bite taken and probably spit out, this can't taste nice. I keyed this out to Russula albonigra.

I hope that the animal who took a bit of this poison black and white Russula is okay. Looks like a deer bite. Only one bite taken and probably spit out, this can't taste nice. I keyed this out to Russula albonigra.

Dry Mountain Scramble

Lichen porn

 After car troubles in the driveway and a couple of wrong turns in the mountains, we hit the trail at about 10:15 and started the road walk.  I’m pretty sure I saw a dung moss on the road walk but I need to work to ID it.  We took off our boots to cross Lebar Creek; I left my sandals on the shore for the return crossing.  The view from the saddle was ok; we could see Lake Cushman and noticed how much bigger it looks now that it has been raised 57 feet.

Ridgeline bushwhack

Then we began the bushwhack along the ridge.  There are still some orange flags up there, but they end well before the route leaves the woods.  As we headed up the slippery, rough meadow in waist high blueberry bushes my partner began to have some doubts.  In the meadow section we had to gain about 1,000 feet in just one half mile and with no trail.  I urged him on and managed to drag him up to the top.

We were both worried about getting a sun burn so he wore his rain jacket and I put my pants legs back on.  It was hot!  We were happy to finally make the ridge and then I was ecstatic to find a snow bank on the other side.    I flopped down in the snow to cool off and I put a snow ball in my hat.  I also filled my nearly empty water bottle with snow and made two snow balls to carry to the summit.

On the summit there were a lot of flowers and mosses and brightly colored crustose lichens.

The summit was nice and airy.  We went to the middle summit that is about 20 feet lower than the highest summit.  On the summit I really, really, enjoyed drinking ice water.  I also had fun bringing the moss and reindeer lichens back to life by dripping melted snow onto it.  We did not linger for too long on the summit as we were both in danger of getting sunburned.

The trip down was a bit faster.  I carried a snow ball in my hat and one in each pocket to keep me cool.  The snowballs worked quite well but my pants got soaked and never did really dry out.

We made it back down to the hummer at about 8:00pm.

About 6 miles with about 2,000 feet elevation gain.

Late for a trillium

New sign at rotting register

Going back down the meadow towards the ridge and trail

Nice refreshing snow

Looking back at the meadow we climbed

Lake Cushman from the saddle

Resting on the summit

Sun sets on dry Mountain and the meadow we traversed

Pano of the inner Olympic

On this hike I found the rare moss Tetraplodon mnioides I don't think it has been spotted in Mason County before and wonder if I should report this to the DNR or something.

Tetraplodon mniodes rare moss in an area that might become
part of the Wonder Mountain wilderness.

Tetraplodon mniodes

Tetraplodon mniodes leaf

Tetraplodon mniodes capsule

Tetraplodon mniodes spores at 1000X magnification

Dry Mountain



stuck behind forest service truck and S'Kallam tribal truck.

I was supposed to take it easy today and gradually regain my ankle strength, after taking two months off hiking and going through physical therapy. So, I picked dry creek trail from the south. It would be a short hike with solitude and a view. I was also hoping to find some mushrooms as it is nice and damp up there and fall is coming. In fact, I was dreaming of matsutake as I drove to the trail head. But alas, I did not find any mushrooms on the trail; I guess it’s still too early.

I drove over all the water bars in my faithful Jeep and parked at the trail head at about 11pm. On the way in I got stuck behind a forest service truck and a James town S’Klallam tribal truck. I wonder what they were doing clear up here?

When I opened the register to sign it I was surprised to see that half a dozen other folks had signed the register this summer. I’m used to my name being the only one on the list. When the wildlife gate closes next month, I’m sure I’ll have the trail all to myself again. Three groups listed their destination as Killen or Killen meadow or the meadow. I’ve never heard of the place.  But I think I might have found it.

Is this Killens meadow?  It looks like a campsite.

I started to hike and right away I hurt my ankle, so I was not too happy about that but then my ankle seemed to get better as I got warmed up. I need to remember to stretch my calves before I hike! I sprained it to the inside and near the heel but I kept on going. I wore boots on this hike to protect my bad ankle and I may just have to wear boots from now on. I feel so clumsy in boots but they do help to keep my ankle in the correct position.

I’ve never seen this end of the trail in the summer; I’ve only seen it in the winter. I was surprised to find all the alders fully leafed out and blocking the trail. By the time I got to Le bar creek my pants were soaked from the dew off all the alders. Le bar creek was so low that I was able to pebble hop it without taking my boots off. I’ve never been able to do that before.

Alder jungle

Lebar Creek lowest I have seen it

When I got near the old trail head I noticed something... Dry Mountain had no snow on it!  I’ve been wanting to bushwhack up Dry Mountain from the dry creek trail for some time now.  It looked hella sketchy to try it in the snow so I’ve been waiting for the snow to melt.

Dry Mountain with no snow

Ok so I was supposed to take it easy, but it was kind of a now or not until next fall thing, so I went for it. When I got to the trail proper I was surprised to find that trail work had been done. I know that the WTA worked on the North end of the trail up to the creek but I did not know of anyone working on the South end. Someone had been up there with a chain saw and the trail was completely logged out. Thank you, whoever you are!

Patches was happy that this log was gone, she used to really struggle to get over it

My normal stream that I use to tank up on water was dry. It’s a good sized stream so I had expected it to have some water in it. I had to settle for dredging up some muddy water filled with twigs. It looked yucky but it tasted just fine when made into tea.  Still I did not get enough to drink on this hike.

When I got to the pass it was time to leave the trail and follow the ridge up to the mountain. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that someone had flagged the route. This made me feel much better as I was heading off into unknown and off trail territory. The flags were good but while they lasted but then they stopped and there was no sign of a path at the last flag. I decided that last flag meant it was time to turn and head straight up the mountain. I was right, if I had gone past that flag I would have ended up at the base of a cliff and would had to of backtracked.


The climb up was hard as it was steep with 1,000 feet to gain in just ½ mile on no trail. I bushwhacked and vegetable belayed and stumbled into Pica holes and over rocks and finally made my way to the ridge.  I had to take quite a few restbreaks as I headed up and Patches was panting very hard.  I was worried she would overheat but she was fine.   Once I made it up to the ridge the going was still hard because it was in a forest and there was of course, no trail.

The fire near staircase?

While making the climb I nearly ran into a grouse. She was a brave grouse; she stood her ground ten feet from me and clucked at me.  I saw the grouse before  Patches did so I put her on  leash before she could see the grouse and chase it. But when I let her off the leash she back down 200 feet in elevation and flushed it out.

It was struggle but I finally I made it to a summit  and I got a great veiw as my reward.  The true summit  was about 10 feet higher than the summit I reached.  But it looked way to scary to summmit so I was happy stopping at a slightly lower summit.  As far as I’m concerned I climbed the mountain. I don’t think I have the technical skill to go up those last 10 feet and it would have been stupid to try it while hiking solo. I know my dog could not have done it too.

I'm learning how to  edit and take pictures of the mountain through the haze, it took alot of post editing to make it look like this.  The sky was perfect until blogger compressed it.

summit dog patches

The view was nice. I could see well into the Wonder Mountain Wilderness, I could see also see, Lake Cushman, Prospect Ridge, the great bend in the Hood Canal, Mount Rainer, South Mountain, the Skokomish River Valley, the Dry Creek Valley and some glacier capped mountains to the north.

Looking at the Wonder  Mountain Wilderness

I spent about an hour and a half up there sunbathing, eating lunch, drinking tea and taking pictures. While I was up there I think I heard a herd of deer or elk running away. I knew there was large animal nearby from the noises in the forest below me, but I was very surprised by the sudden loud ruckus in the woods, that was set off when Patches barked for my food.

traversing the ridge

I used my GPS track log to find my way back down the mountain and to avoid the cliffs. I hope I’m not so dependent on my GPS that I would get lost if it quit working. I butt slid for part of the trip down, bear grass is very slick and it felt good to travel while sitting down. I was worried about getting hurt on the way back down because it was so steep, but I was fine and my ankles behaved.

I got back down to my Jeep at about 4pm and drove home quickly because I was hungry and thirsty.  I had not pack enough food for such a strenuous hike. I iced my ankle as soon as I got home. I guess I’ll find out in a few days if I got away with this… At least Dry Mountain is off my to do list now. I don’t know for sure if I’d do it again. The view was nice but routefinding on such steep terrain was not fun.

This plant lives off a type of mushroom

Back down to Le Bar creek Patches cools her feet

google earth track log

one way track log for the trip down

Elevation profile log for the trip down see how I gained over half the elevation in the last 1/2 mile

Here are a few more pictures that I decided to add today:

wonder mountain wilderness pano

snag on dry mountain look back towards the dry creek trail

rock wall I had to skirt around to reach the summit

circle on left is near where I left the trail, line is my off trail route, circles on the right are the road I hiked up

About six miles with 2,000 feet elevation gain