2/25 Saturday. Fog in the morning. 11 of us + 1 birthday dog met at Sunset TC at 8am. After 2 stops, we started hiking around 10am. Almost blue sky when we started, but soon we walked into the clouds and onto snow. Snow was powdery, and making everything pretty. However, more often than I'd like, snow on branches fell onto me, some times straight down my neck.
After half an hour on the logging road, open vista due to trees were logged, we met up with 2 others in the group who live in Seaside. These two and a couple of us was here just 2 weeks ago. No snow then. The higher you are, more coast line you see, beyond Nehalem Bay to the south, and Ecola to the north. Another half an hour later, we headed into the woods. Stopped briefly at this hut (there's a couple of plank inside, low, but above ground.
Eventually, no more roads or trail. We headed up, a bit of bushwhacking. The old timer saved their track on GPS, so we were able to (slightly different route) to reach the top. Rock top just large enough to fit all of us. It's facing east, overlooking a thick soup of clouds! On a clear day (for example 2 weeks ago), you could see Rainier, St Helens, and Adams!
On the way back, we side tracked to a bluff. It was below the clouds, so very good view. Plus lots of green moss on the ground, adding color to this almost black and white day. Yes, minor scrambling is involved. Not too bad, just a little slippery today. According to Craig, the organizer, we hiked about 9 miles, ~2800' ascent. We hit snow at ~850' and ran into about 6 inches of snow around the peak (~2800'). According to Sullivan, it's 6 miles, 1750'.
