[MangyMarmot]

I took advantage of a good weather forecast to do a quick after work trip to Rooster Mountain. The trip started with the usual middle fork pothole slalom. The first half mile or so follows the Taylor River. Then, you turn left up the Quartz Creek Road. This road is in fairly good shape. There are a number of blow-downs, but no washouts or any serious damage to the road. After a couple of miles you come to a fork. The lower (left) fork continues up Quartz Creek to Lake Blethen. The upper (right) fork switchbacks up Rooster Mountain. This road is now just a trail. Much to my surprise, this trail is in good shape also. I was expecting more of a bushwhack. It's easy going until about 3600 ft. The snow starts here, and it gets bushy, but still no navigation problems.

Looking West up the Quartz Creek Valley

Rooster mountain from the basin. Top in the clouds. At about 4000 ft, the road goes through the basin. The basin is still mostly snow-filled, but there are some bare spots now. Here is where I left the road and headed for the ridge. The ridge has quite a few bare spots. I would say the snow cover is about 65%. The ridge leads you very close to the summit. The final summit rock ridge is now-free.

Summit ridge. No view due to clouds. As luck would have it, the summit was inside a cloud, so there wasn't much to see. Since it was well past my turn around time, I didn't linger long. I more or less followed my tracks back to the trail, and got to the trailhead before it was completely dark.

Sunset from Quartz Creek Road. Ice axe and microspikes came in handy. Crampons were not needed the way I went, but they may be useful for a more direct assault up steeper snow. I saw only one other hiker. I ran into him shortly after leaving the trailhead. He was coming back from Rooster, and gave me some useful tips.

[RichP]

Nice. I'm hoping to do this one before all the snow is gone.

[Navy salad]

I was planning to do this hike yesterday, but the gps directions I was using (from the day hikes series) were seriously in error and I neglected to write down the directions very well. I had read in the "Hikes with my brother" web site that the trail was mostly overgrown and completely obliterated beyond a certain point -- is this no longer true? As I later understood, you start from the same trail head as used for Snoqualmie lake, right?