From my first journey to the PNW back in August 2025. An absolutely stunning part of the US! 💚💙

I did the wonderland loop in 3 days starting from longmire. Got to south Mowich river camp night 1, 30.5 miles 8,700’ vert recorded.

I took the spray park alternate day 2 and ended the day at sunrise camp 26.2 miles 10,055 vert.

I finished day 3 at longmire at 10:30pm, 36 miles and 7,800’ vert.

I was a little sleep deprived driving in which didn’t help. The elevation gain had me feeling beat, but it was beautiful out. Trail in good shape mostly, rough in a few spots.

I've got pictures of you! I missed your proposal but got your walk off :)

If you DM i'll send you whatever I got. Congratulations!

My partner’s family is visiting from out of town and they want to see wildflowers this week, but I know from experience that Rainier can be a nightmare to get to during the summer. Are there any other hikes within a few hours of Seattle that have comparable wildflower views this time of year, and aren’t too difficult? We did Mount Ellinor last week and while it was stunning, it was definitely too steep for them.

Overnight at Louis Lake. We had the entire valley to ourselves. The weather was good, too hot if anything. Trail is in good condition. Only downside was the flies in the evening. Mosquitos were not bad.

Hope this type of post is allowed, but I'm looking for some advice on back-up plans. I have permits to backpack the Three Sisters Wilderness loop next week, but it's looking like it's going to be a smoked out mess from what I can see, so my group (4 total) are looking at potential back-up options that are within say 4-5 hours from Portland that might not be permit required spots. Somewhat flexible on that drive time also for good options that might be better from a smoke perspective.

We had been planning on spending up to 5 days on the loop, but not opposed to doing some shorter 1-3 day backpacking trip(s) and stringing together a bunch of day hikes to make our trip a good one, and hopefully see a lot of beautiful country. Open to stuff in Oregon or Washington, totally down to do dispersed camping, or whatever. Sucks because we've had this one on our list for a while, but really not psyched about breathing thick smoke for 5 days if we can avoid it. Thanks in advance for any insight.

Really don't wanna solo it.

Any tips on app/other sits for finding groups would be awesome.

I'm free first week of August/all of September.

Hope its ok to post this here.

Edit:

Age - 38

Experience - Hiked for a few years now. I prefer to backpack over just hiking/dayhiking. I like to do the hard ones hehe =)

Miles pre day - Whatever the group would want. For the Timberline trail at least 10miles per day. I'd be fine with more tho. I keep in very good shape.

I made a post a couple months back asking about what to pack on a roadtrip in July and ended up getting humbled on how much I was trying to pack in 10 days. Yall were right but we ended up cutting out Olympic National Park sadly and doing a loop through Mount Rainer and North Cascades. I wanted to share some pictures from my trip, my legs were definitely dead after all the hiking, east coast mountains could never compare! Also got super lucky to have such amazing weather the week I went! Mount Rainer was insane and pictures do NOT do it justice. Praying that I can visit the pnw soon again🙏

I'm planning on getting out towards Cascade Pass Trailhead around 11 the night before, sleeping in my truck and then hitting the trail around 4 or 430 AM. Is that allowed?

If not, are there any roads with dispersed camping options nearby?

A new outdoors column!

A great place to hike and backpack.

One of the best views in Washington IMO

Has anyone been up to Flower Dome north of Glacier Peak, or the surrounding area in the last month? Interested in doing a multi-night in the area and any info on conditions would be appreciated.

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/washington/flower-dome-via-buck-creek-trail

We have about a year of single-night backpacking trips under my belt, but this will be our first multi-night trip and certainly the trip with the steepest climbing. I'd like to run our plan by you and ask a couple of questions.

Logistics: Planning for a mid-week trip from Wednesday morning through Friday afternoon/evening (early August). We'll be using AllTrails for navigation - the "Dip Top Gap and Pea Soup Lake via Deception Pass Trail" route. We have a Northwest Forest Pass, and we're planning to do the free camping registration at the trailhead.

Gear:

• Kelty Discovery Trail 2 Three-Season Tent
• 20˚F sleeping bag
• ATEPA ultralight sleeping pad with R value of 6
• Water filtration system
• Toaks backpacking stove + 1.1L GSI Halulite boiler pot
• 100 g stove fuel
• Lighters
• Power banks
• Microspikes (I do not own crampons)
• Hiking poles
• Plenty of food
• Trowel + toilet paper (will pack out, LNT)
• Bear-safe canisters for food and trash
• Mosquito net hats
• Permethrin for clothes
• Sawyer picaridin lotion
• Sunblock
• Appropriate clothing w/ multiple layers

Route: Going to hike to Jade Lake on the first day and set up camp there. The next morning, will make the trek to Dip Top Gap and hopefully Dip Top Peak. Would love to spend night 2 at Dip Top Gap (I'm aware there are very few established sites there, but hoping that going on a weeknight will help), but willing to camp another night at Jade or go down to Marmot if necessary. A little worried the scramble from Jade to Dip Top will be too brutal to carry all our gear with us anyway. After night 2, planning to pack up and descend all the way back to the car.

Questions:

1. I'm seeing some different recommendations for how to get up to Pea Soup from Jade Lake - some people are saying to avoid the ice and the snowfield by going around the left side on the rocks, while others are saying to hit the ice dead on with some spikes because the uncovered rocks are so unstable. What do you guys recommend?
2. I am really hoping to summit Dip Top Peak, but this would be off-route and I read online that it requires some class 2 scrambling and features a 25-foot stretch of narrow knife-edge. A little anxious about safety, especially with a heavy pack. Has anyone navigated this successfully and confidently?
3. Based on the difficulty of the route from Jade Lake to Pea Soup, we're considering leaving our campsite set up at Jade Lake while we do a day hike up to the top. I heard on AllTrails that someone's hiking poles were stolen and I'm a little worried about our stuff. Has anyone had any issues with theft in these situations? I've never left my campsite unattended before. Obviously would bring our essentials and valuables with us in our day packs.

Thank you for taking the time to read and for any suggestions!

Dear the Internet,

30 months ago on December 8th 2023, my cousin Robert Rathvon was tragically killed in a hit and run in Poulsbo, Washington by an unknown person. Robert's death has impacted my entire family in ways that I will never be able to articulate. 

About one week after his death, I took to Reddit and posted about it as much as I could. The outpouring of support and sympathy floored myself, my family, and especially Roberts parents. 

Although it’s been 30 months with no answers as to who killed him, I refuse to give up the search or let his memory die. This is why I’ve begun a personal mission to climb as many peaks as I can in the state of Washington and taking a picture with his Crime Stoppers poster at the top. 

You guys were so helpful and your support renewed my faith in people after such an event that, to this day, hurts my soul. I will link a news article about him below if you are interested in learning more. We all want answers and we want this person found. If you have anything at all, even the smallest shred of evidence, please reach out to me or Crime Stoppers. 

I was planning on making my second attempt of Rainier this past week (7/16/26) but unfortunately, factors outside of my control squandered any progress being made on the peak. The climbing team I was with decided on switching to our Plan B mountain, Mount Adams, which we successfully summited on July 18, 2026. 

Rainier will have to wait till next summer…

https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/his-parents-want-answers-troopers-seeking-information-on-driver-who-left-man-for-dead-in-poulsbo

Additionally, here is a more recent interview I did with King 5 in May 2025.

Man climbs mountains to raise awareness of cousin's ongoing hit-and-run case

Also, here is the most recent interview with Robert's mother.

Family raises reward to $50K in search for driver in fatal Poulsbo hit-and-run case

Number 26. Mount Adams has been bagged. Rainier for Robert.

Thank you.

I'm looking into options for getting to some of the remote trailheads with closed roads. What types of wheeled vehicles would be allowed for getting to some of these? Ebikes? electric dirtbikes? Electric skateboards?

I don't want to break any rules/restrictions but I'd like to make access as easy as possible so I haven't used up too much energy by the time I get to the trailhead. I have a mountain bike.

Wording on the restrictions from USFS seem vague to me.

Hello all! I am planning to do the Chain Lakes Loop Trail this weekend as a day trip from Seattle. I have two questions for anyone who did this hike recently.

1. Do I need to bring trekking poles or microspikes? And would it be wise to bring a jacket as well, given the elevation?
2. Is it okay to get to Artist Point by 7.30 am and do the hike counter-clockwise per this sub's suggestion? Or am I likely to run into parking issues on Saturday?

TIA! Appreciate your advice.

We had some bad timing luck on cloud cover while scrambling in the Chiwaukums this weekend, but it made for some fun spooky looking pics!

Very unique waterfall. The water drains so fast from the falls that no river or stream is created. Proxy Falls