(edit, video added)
This was a very fun trip and I hope to do it again next year. As a member of the Peninsula Wilderness Club (Bremerton area club) for almost a year now, I still had not gone on any outings with them. This all changed on this Sunday as 3 other members and myself did the "Koski" Loop. This loop is un-officially named after one of the members that first suggested this hike to the club. The hike starts at the Tubal Cain trailhead then veers off onto the Tull Canyon trail going to its end and eventually going off trail at its end climbing up to the col or saddle between Hawk Peak and Mount Worthington. Once on the ridge or col, travel northeast on the ridge until you reach the top of Hawk Peak. After summiting Hawk Peak, make your way down towards Silver Lake which is visible from the ridge onto a faint boot path which is also visible from the ridge and through a large scree field until you reach the lake. Once you are at the lake, head on to the Silver Lake trail and follow it up the ridge between Welch Peak and Mount Townsend. For a quick summit bear right or south for an easy scramble to the top of Welch Peak. After Welch, head back down the ridge to regain the Silver Lake Trail and continue until you reach the Mount Townsend Trail. Take a left or west, going uphill towards Mount Townsend following trail until you get to summit. From summit going north, trail becomes the Little Quilcene Trail. Continue downhill to a junction veering left and staying on ridge. This trail is also known as the Dirty Face Ridge Trail (but officially the Little Quilcene Trail). Follow steep downhill trail until you reach the trailhead at road. A short walk downhill returns you to the start of the the hike.
Total miles for trip, 15 or 17 depending on who you ask (My GPS recorded almost 15 miles). Elevation - Just over a mile at around 5400 feet.
Things to see along the way.
Abandoned Manganes mines of Tull Canyon.
B-17 Bomber wreckage at Tull Canyon.
Makeshift Campsites utilizing old plane wreckage that only Les Stroud himself would be proud of.
Remains of a log cabin and mine artifacts at Tull Canyon. (you have to look around a bit for these)
Hawk Peak
Silver Lakes
Welch Peaks
Mount Townsend
Me, Paul, Julie and Doug at B-17 wreckage in Tull Canyon.
Very nice route -- I've done Townsend a couple times but want to do the other two also. This would be a great way to get them both. I'm always glad to learn of good loop hikes.
That looks like a really fun loop. How long did it take aproximately?
Thank you for posting the report and for the pictures.
I hear it is also possible to run the ridge between Hawk Peak and Welch Peaks for some people anyway.
Trip Report
I have not tried it myself but hope to at least take a look at it some day.
"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
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"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
Puzzler: Its not as epic as your Needles trip, but does make for a nice long day hike.
Reststep: This was one of my favorite loops I've done. I talked to a guy at Silver Lake who said he had run the ridge as you describe. It sounded like a lot of scrambling but not impossible. We started about 8:45 and got back to the car around 6:30. Thats with a 20 minute stop on Hawk, 20 minutes on Townsend and about 45 minutes eating our lunch and fighting mosquitos at the lake. The hardest part of this loop is gaining all that altitude going up Hawk, losing it going down to the lake and turning around gaining it again going up Welch just to lose more again going down to meet up with the Townsend Trail. Don't let it stop you though, this trip was a lot of fun.
Thanks for the info Tag Man.
Another option to avoid some of that elevation gain would be to take the Silver Creek trail out. This would mean walking about a mile down the road back to the car however.
"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
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"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
Tagman, thanks for the TR and the very interesting loop suggestion. Sounds like you had a great day!
From Welsh Peaks, did you drop back down to the jct with Silver Lakes trail and then scramble up to Townsend along the ridge or did you drop down further and take the east Townsend trail to the summit?
.....leaving me wanting to return over and over in what ever capacity that may be, even if one day my knees are too old and I can only see the mountains from my porch.
Jason Hummel
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.....leaving me wanting to return over and over in what ever capacity that may be, even if one day my knees are too old and I can only see the mountains from my porch.
Jason Hummel
Goats: By the time we were done with Welch, we were all pretty tired and I think more scrambling was the last thing any of us wanted to do at that point, but I'm sure it can be done. We were all pretty happy to be on good trail even though this meant dropping down more than I liked. I looked at it like this, By that time I had already gained 4500 or so feet, a couple hundred more wasn't going to kill me. I do want to walk that ridge sometime though
Reststep: I didn't even know that trail was there until our hike last weekend. This would have for sure made an easier loop, but then we would have missed Welch and Townsend. It kind of felt like doing 2 big hikes in one day.
I hear ya! Glad it didn't kill ya. Though sometimes another 200 feet feels like it is going to be the death of me.
This TR has really piqued my interest and I think I'm going to do it. Except skip the Welch Peaks as I've alreadly been herded that way before.
I'm wondering though, in your opinion, how scrambly is the descent from the saddle of Mtn. WA and Hawk Peak to the lake versus the scramble down from Welch Peaks. Is it Welsh or Welch or Welches or Welshs. I can't remember.
.....leaving me wanting to return over and over in what ever capacity that may be, even if one day my knees are too old and I can only see the mountains from my porch.
Jason Hummel
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.....leaving me wanting to return over and over in what ever capacity that may be, even if one day my knees are too old and I can only see the mountains from my porch.
Jason Hummel
Goats: The route I took down from Hawk is through a scree slope varying from car sized boulders down to the size of gravel that will get in your shoes. I would mostly describe it as boulder hopping where the hike down Welch is on a ridge and is definitely more of a scramble. As to the name? Well I always thought it was Welch but I guess I could be wrong. I've seen it spelled both ways.
HJT: There are lots of flat spots up near the end of Tull. We even discussed how nice it would be to camp there sometime during our hike. About that photo, I took about 5 minutes of video of that cloud trying its best to roll over that saddle. I'm working on doing a little video of it sped up, I think it will look cool.
Nice loop and an impressive day trip!
I wonder what it would take to make it a "clean" loop, ie no backtracking from Welch. How rough is the terrain along the traverse to Townsend?
Without judgement what would we do? We would be forced to look at ourselves...
-Death
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Without judgement what would we do? We would be forced to look at ourselves...
-Death
Dane: I guess I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean just heading up Townsend without doing the Welch side trip or doing a ridge scramble all the way from Hawk or maybe a scramble up the Townsend ridge from Welch? I'm not sure. The climb up and down Hawk is pretty straight forward as I'm sure you know, (I read your report from last year) but I thought the Welch scramble sucked. Maybe I was just tired. When I was at Silver Lake I kept thinking of your uss downmat picture and wishing I had my old Thermarest with me.
Oops my mistake Tag Man...I was confused as to where Welch Peak was.
I bet a traverse along the ridge crest from Hawk to Townsend could be done; the terrain isn't too bad from Hawk to the saddle south of Silver Lake.
Without judgement what would we do? We would be forced to look at ourselves...
-Death
0
Without judgement what would we do? We would be forced to look at ourselves...
-Death
I have done the ridge to Mt. Townsend from the Welch Peaks, Mt. Townsend saddle a few times. Most of it is a boot beaten path with nothing technical.
It is fun to descend Mt. Townsend that way and intersect with the Silver Lakes trail. There are some camp spots along there also.
"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
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"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
By Koski loop I assume you are talking about somebody named Kevin. It sounds like something he would come up with. Was up there last Monday, beautiful place.
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Reststep: This was one of my favorite loops I've done. I talked to a guy at Silver Lake who said he had run the ridge as you describe. It sounded like a lot of scrambling but not impossible. We started about 8:45 and got back to the car around 6:30. Thats with a 20 minute stop on Hawk, 20 minutes on Townsend and about 45 minutes eating our lunch and fighting mosquitos at the lake. 
The hardest part of this loop is gaining all that altitude going up Hawk, losing it going down to the lake and turning around gaining it again going up Welch just to lose more again going down to meet up with the Townsend Trail. Don't let it stop you though, this trip was a lot of fun.
From Welsh Peaks, did you drop back down to the jct with Silver Lakes trail and then scramble up to Townsend along the ridge or did you drop down further and take the east Townsend trail to the summit?
Reststep: I didn't even know that trail was there until our hike last weekend. This would have for sure made an easier loop, but then we would have missed Welch and Townsend. It kind of felt like doing 2 big hikes in one day. 
I hear ya! Glad it didn't kill ya. 
This TR has really piqued my interest and I think I'm going to do it. Except skip the Welch Peaks as I've alreadly been herded that way before.
I'm wondering though, in your opinion, how scrambly is the descent from the saddle of Mtn. WA and Hawk Peak to the lake versus the scramble down from Welch Peaks. Is it Welsh or Welch or Welches or Welshs. 
I can't remember.
