10/27, Sunday. Sunny and calm. 5 of us met at Northgate P&R and then went to pick up a 6th person. All plus a little dog piled in Michelle's "bus", took the ferry at Edmonds. It was less than half full. As we approached Kingston, the sun was rising. Good timing. We met our 7th hiker and his dog at Upper Big Quilcene TH. Started hiking towards Marmot Pass shortly ~9:10am. Elevation ~2470'.
Cold (~1°C) at the TH. The trail is in great shape, gradual incline, soft (dirt not rocks), no snow, nor mud. Some rocks when crossing a talus field. Only when close to the final meadow, there were a couple of short stretches that had black ice (very slippery). We waited for everyone at a small waterfall (40 min in), at Camp Mystery, at the talus field (1:40 in).
Reached the pass at 11:50 (~5.5 mile in, 6000'). We regrouped and had a long lunch facing east (where we came, view of Puget Sound and Glacier Peak) below the pass (for no wind).
Turn north and up a boot path towards Buckhorn Mountain. About 1 mile and 1000' go to. The first half is quite steep, then it levels out. The higher you go, the more mountains you see. 
After cresting the butte (see in the photo on the right), you descend before the last scramble to the top.The very top has a fat rock, but it's small. Can fit 4-5 people.
More room below this rock. View is incredible. Canadian mountains, Baker, Glacier Peak, Rainier, Adams, Helen, many Olympic peaks, and Puget Sound. We regrouped here, and enjoyed the view for half an hour.
Coming down after the scramble is fast. Towards the last mile, Raven, the dog, decided to chase something and ran up the hill, abandoning his owner. The rest of us hiked back to the parking lot, only then I heard what happened. We waited for ~1 hour, asking everyone who came out of the trail if they had seen a dog and a guy. Raven has a collar with GPS, and vibration. Finally they came out, all was well. Got on the 7:45pm ferry. This time quite full. Back at the P&R at 8:20pm, a a very busy parking lot.
