Tyler Peak June 2023

There's always an itch to get an early start on summer hiking here in Washington at the end of a long, dark, wet winter and a prolonged, rainy spring.  Unfortunately, the mountains don't often melt out until end of July in some places, with snow lingering in the high country until August depending on the location.  I spend a lot of time perusing WTA, AllTrails, SNOTEL, and some other local sites to get a handle on the current trail conditions.  This particular spring, we had a spate of warm weather that thawed winter's grip in the Olympics enough to allow us to access a trail we had only recently found by looking at some old trip reports of lesser used routes.  Located just Northwest of Mount Townsend, one of the most heavily traveled trails in the Buckhorn Wilderness, Tyler Peak receives at most, a fraction of the visitors.  Longing for some sweeping, panoramic views, we decided to head out for our first conditioning hike of the spring.  After navigating some automobile sized boulders on the forest road, we arrived at the trailhead at approximately 8 am.  The trail got right down to business, gaining 1000' per mile for the first 3.5 miles, first ascending into the fog shrouded forest.  So much for easing ourselves into hiking.  We took a couple of breaks in the forested section over the first couple of miles, passing a man, woman, and a dog who were also catching their breath.  After about two miles, we broke out of the forest and continued the non-stop ascent via numerous switchbacks revealing numerous peaks above the gradually relenting inversion.  We eventually climbed above treeline making our way toward the ridge's saddle, swapping grass for sedimentary rock.  The views continued to expand in every direction as we reached the ridge line.  We saw another couple heading for the actual peak with a dog, and knowing Birch's interactions with strangers and strange dogs, testing that on a summit built for two did not appeal to us, so we opted for another, unnamed outcropping just before the true summit trail.  I guess some people get really bent out of shape over summiting, but I don't really care.  The views from the actual summit were no different than from where we had lunch.  We took off our shoes and soaked in the abundant sunshine while keeping Birch from chasing chipmunks.  After about an hour, we decided it was time to descend.  Going down was worse than going up, and our knees, feet, and toes were feeling it by the time we arrived back at the car where we rewarded ourselves with all the snacks.