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Mt Persis 5452ft (1662m)
West Ridge Trail
June 19, 2004
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Earlier this week I mentioned to Kim that with the longest day of the year coming up, we should plan to
take advantage of the extra daylight and do a long hike. So we looked through some guide books and decided
on Mt Persis, outside of Index on highway 2.
We followed the driving directions in Climbing Washington's Mountains and they were accurate up until it says "continue
to the trailhead where the road is blocked". The road is no longer blocked. So if you look at your odometer when you take this
last left at the fork, continue 0.8 miles and park at a wide junction where a spur road T's into the main road on the left.
If you continued 200ft on the main road you would see a waterfall and a small pool on your left.
At the trailhead we met another couple who were looking for the start of the trail. Since I had been here in winter a few years
ago with Michael, I had an idea of where it was. I also had a copy of Climbing Washington's Mountains and read the description to them.
Somehow my description didn't get communicated because instead of hiking up the spur road 1/2 mile, they started hiking up
a steep dirt hill which lead into dense undergrowth.
With our boots on, we headed up the road and wondered why we didn't just drive the exta 1/2 since the road was pretty descent. But when
got to the trail opening the road was still pretty narrow so there wouldn't be room to park. We scrambled up the dirt ramp
and dove into the dark shadows and soon found ourselves hiking steeply up high root steps. Our enthusiasm to be out hiking
was quickly squelched by the heat and bugs which were threatened to be suck into our mouths with each heaving breath. Since "99% of
happiness when hiking is just slowing up", we followed this advice and fell into an easy, maintainable pace.
Left dense trail and
Start at TH: 1:02pm
Arrive at Summit: 4:30pm (leisurely pace and breaks)
Left Summit: 5:15pm
Arrived at car: 7:30pm
Weather: Some t-clouds to the se but they moved south, and left beautiful weather
