Hiking Mt Townsend (via Big Quilcene TH, 7.7 miles with 3200 ft elev gain), Sun, 3-23-2014
Finally, we had a beautiful weekend (Fri, Sat, & Sun) after several wet weekends. Les had time to hike, so we decided to hike Mt Townsend via Bon Jon Pass where we hiked March last year. Craig joined us for the hike. I met Craig on my first hike with PWC to Tunnel Creek in 2010, and we hiked several times together since. Where we were driving, Craig mentioned people hiking Mt Townsend last week via the regular and most popular route, Big Quilcene Trailhead. We were not sure if we could get to the trailhead but decided to try. It was great that Les' 4x4 made 1 mile short of the trailhead. The road and the routes to the summit were mostly covered by snow. We were prepared with microspikes, snowshoes, and Ice axe. We put on the microspikes just above the trailhead.
Les noticed some people hiked the day before looking at the trailhead sign in sheet. We pretty much followed the boot tracks as much as we could. The boot tracks were to the avalanche chute. It was quite steep 2/3 way up and icy. I fell and injured my right shoulder while self-arresting by digging in with hands and feet. I should have taken out my ice axe and ready for the worse condition. It was an important lessons learned. Both Les and Craig already had ice axes out and ready. From there, I pretty hiked up and down with left hand only while my right hand was in resting condition.
My last hike was 1 Feb (to Camp Muir) which was close to 2 months but I felt really great and strong. Now, I need to rest and recuperate my right shoulder for the 4 days of kayak trip in late April.