The weather for the Fourth of July weekend wasn’t looking too great for western Washington. The saying “summer doesn’t start until July 5th" had never been truer. With that said, it looked like there was an option to squeeze in a short overnight before the weather rolled in and Townsend Mountain fit the bill. Townsend (not to be confused with the much more popular peak of the same name in the Olympics) is a relatively obscure peak in the Wild Sky Wilderness in the vicinity of Eagle Lake and Merchant. It promised great up-close views of Baring, Merchant, and Gunn, and seemed like a fun route.
Katie and I got a late start up National Forest Development Road 6024, heading up the bumpy gravel road a few miles to the Barclay Lake Trailhead. The road and trailhead get a lot of traffic because of the popular Barclay Lake trail, so even though the road is rough it is manageable in just about any car.
We didn’t get started until around 4 pm, knowing we just had a short distance to go to camp at the lake. This hike went quick, passing through beautiful, lush woods and only gaining about 500 feet over 2 miles. I was a little worried about finding a camping spot, because this was a holiday weekend and such a family-friendly spot. Thankfully, I think in part because it was a Friday and because of the questionable forecast for the weekend, we were able to find a nice spot with good lake access. We got to work setting up our tent underneath the impressive shadow of Mount Baring, which rises something like 3500 feet straight up from the lake.
It was a great place to sit on a log and watch the sunset on the face of Baring as we enjoyed some boxed wine. It was so nice to be on a summer backpacking trip for the first time this season! The weather was great in the evening, and I was hoping it would stay that way all day the next day.
The next morning dawned a little bit cloudy, but I was still optimistic it would stay ok for the day. I caught the muted sunrise hitting Baring and then pumped some water in preparation for our hike that day. Some people have mentioned that the trail up from Eagle Lake is abandoned and choked with blowdowns, or simply could not find it at all. We did not find this to be the case, it was pretty clearly marked with a ribbon at the very far end of the lake where the toilet is located. The first part of the trail was indeed covered in old trees crisscrossing the path, but those quickly got much better, and it was shockingly good trail from there all the way up to Stone Lake. There were occasional great views of Baring when the trail would break out of the trees, but it was mostly in dense woods.
Stone Lake was a glorified pond at the pass before we headed into the Eagle Lake basin. It was pretty despite its small size and stagnancy, though, and offered us our first view of Townsend in the distance.
From here we were walking on pretty consistent snow to Eagle Lake. Snowshoes were not necessary, although an occasional posthole was made as we crossed the flat valley floor towards the lake. Eagle Lake itself was a very pretty spot, almost entirely melted out and backed by the rugged flanks of Merchant Peak. We located an amazing cabin I had heard mention of on the southeast side of the lake. It was remarkably well built, with glass windows and seems to be used by fishermen. I’d be curious to know more about the history of this cabin. This spot also gave a great perspective on the route up Townsend, it looked like the entire face was snow free!
After relaxing at the cabin for a bit, it was time to get to business and climb the 1500 vertical feet up to reach the ridgeline of Townsend. I’ve heard horror stories about this slope, with people losing the boot path and straying into a slide alder nightmare. Because of this, I was a little worried about finding the right way through the thick brush that chokes this hillside, knowing it could get terrible quickly were we to lose it.
To start, we rounded the north-east side of the lake, working our way through sloppy spring snow and some occasional runoff streams. We were aiming for an obvious open rock field that we had seen from across the lake at the cabin. When we reached this rock field it was just as convenient as it had looked when scoping out the route. It allowed us to gain a bunch of elevation quickly on solid boulders, no brush could even get close to us! I feared the worst for when we exited the boulder field, but to my surprise we walked right on to a pretty obvious path, marked occasionally with ribbons or cairns. My hopes kept getting higher as we followed it up and just never went away or died off. There was one kind of tricky part around 4300’ where the trail banked climber’s left and entered a dry streambed. It is there as long as you are being vigilant but might be easy to miss. Once in the streambed, it was only about 100 more vertical feet before we broke out of the trees and brush for good, which was a great feeling.
From this point, we just picked whatever route looked the best for us. The terrain was made up of big sloping rocks that almost made a natural staircase. Some care was needed on a few sections that had some loose kitty litter scree but overall was a fun class 2+ romp up to the ridge.
Katie was content with her effort and the view (which was great) and opted to stay at this spot on the ridge crest while I dashed for the summit.
This ridge was super fun and relatively easy. After a bit of scrambling and dealing with some short trees, I reached a broad open ridge that was runnable. It felt so great to stretch my legs and move unencumbered on snow-free terrain with spectacular views all around me. The summit block (or what I thought was the summit block) began to steepen and my pace slowed as I began the climb. I gained about 200 feet before realizing that the obvious high point I had thought was the summit was actually a lower point on a longer ridge. The real summit wasn’t too much further though, so it wasn’t as demoralizing as it could have been. I cut off the first high point on some boulders and traversed over to the true summit, doing some light scrambling to hit the high point! I loved the view of Baring, Merchant and Gunn as I suspected I would.
After taking it all in, I dashed back the way I came, trying to get back to Katie as fast as possible. Once I was back with her, we reversed course all the way down to the lake, taking care on some of the downward sloping rock and being sure to not wander off the trail down low. Before we knew it, we were back at Eagle Lake. The weather had held off and had actually been shockingly great all day, and it looked like it would continue that way, so spirits were high after a great climb.
We made it back to Barclay Lake after a tough downhill stretch, with the blowdowns coming at the very end, adding insult to injury. Nevertheless, we made it down safely and returned to camp worn out but happy. Next thing I knew, we were both fast asleep in our still set up tent and didn’t wake up for an hour plus. It was easily one of the most epic tent naps I’ve ever had.
After awakening ourselves from our post-nap stupor, we packed up and hiked out the 2 miles back to the cars. The weather was great for us all trip and just started to cloud up more significantly as we hiked out. I couldn’t have asked for a better start to our Fourth of July weekend!
Final Stats: 12.36 miles / 3,993 feet of gain
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