Alpine Scramble - McClellan Butte

Trip Report

We gathered at 9am at the Dirty Harry's Balcony Trailhead (47.43113, -121.63247) to consolidate into two cars for the drive along NF-9020 to the Upper trailhead (47.40897, -121.60261). Here's a little map showing all the relevant segments. The green on the left is SE Homestead Valley Rd coming off of Exit 38 as you arrive from Seattle. Purple  is the drive along NF-9020 to the Upper Trailhead. Blue is the regular hike from McClellan Butte TH to the Upper TH, which is the segment we opted to skip. Red is the scramble from the Upper TH to the summit.

The drive along NF-9020 (purple) is only a few miles, but takes some 20 minutes. Lots of deep potholes, some large rocks and roots sticking out, and some water to fjord. Only suitable for high-clearance vehicles. We parked at a small pullout within a minute or so of walking distance  of the trailhead that was only large enough for 2-3 cars.

The trail was pretty pleasant, not too steep or rocky. Time passed by quickly. We found a lot of mushrooms on the trail. Here are some.

We had a mushroom expert Lenna in the group. Lenna's love for mushrooms was infectious, and soon enough we were all looking for mushrooms. Looking for mushrooms and watching where you step seems nontrivial.

Here's a lesson in mushroom anatomy for you. Mama mushrom has the distinctive white stripe around the rim and a darker hat. Baby mushroom doesn't.

Aside from the mushrooms, we found some fall colors.

The trail was shaded by the trees pretty much all the way to the summit block, with only an occasional gap in the trees.

The first view point was not until right before the summit block:

And here's the summit block:

Here's the exposure to the right. Some in the group felt this was intimidating and quite at their limit (but everyone made it up and down with flying colors).

We opted to ditch packs at the base of the summit block, eat lunch, and rest before tackling the steep terrain to reduce the risk of stumbling due to fatigue or weight of the pack shifting around.

Up we go:

Somewhat steep and scary on the way up:

But, here's some photographic evidence that everyone made it in no time:

The summit is a flat spot with a bunch of rocks.

There's a summit register:

Heading back down from the summit:

As expected, getting down was a bit more challenging, but aside from a bit of excitement that we came here for, we encountered no issues.

More mushrooms on the way out. Llena collected a full bag:

The mushrooms went into a mushroom soup. Here's a picture of the soup sent to us by Lenna a couple of days later:

A great mellow hike on a bonus weekend  of nice dry weather. Not many of those left this season.

Map