2019-02-02 Mount Higgins Snowshoe

Distance: 13.4 mi. (5.6 with bikes)
Elevation Gain: 4800 ft.

I had been wanting to do Mount Higgins for several years thanks to being a shameless peakbagger, and Craig kept pushing it off for some reason… But I finally got him to agree on a bad-weather winter day! Yes! The catch was that we would need mountain bikes, which meant we’d need to borrow two for Rachael and me. And it was 6 PM the day before our intended trip. But thanks to Laura and Andy lending their mountain bikes while they rode road bikes on the Alaskan Way Viaduct (R.I.P. viaduct), we were able to make it happen!!!

Rachael is excited for this silly adventure!

We left Seattle at 6:30 AM and parked on “C-Post Road” off Route 530, now gated off 2.8 miles from the trailhead. Mount Higgins was once a popular day hike before the private road was closed due to misuse. There’s a gravelly parking area beside the gate and our car wasn’t bothered there, but it definitely seemed a bit questionable. We pulled out our bikes and loaded our snowshoes and trekking poles onto our packs (you want many pointy metal things attached to you while biking, right?). We carried our bikes around the gate and then rode/walked our bikes uphill to the trailhead. We arrived at the now unmarked trailhead at 9:15 AM, about an hour after we started.

The old trailhead parking lot is very mossy

Craig brought a machete due to several trip reports mentioning overgrowth, but actually the trail was already well cleared. Plus, Craig’s cheap machete broke after about 15 minutes. But he got some fun out of it while it lasted, and then some extra training weight.

The trail went consistently uphill through 1.6 miles of forest before reaching Dicks Creek. I suspect that this creek crossing is a nonissue most times of the year, but between recent rain and snowmelt it was flowing pretty well. It was also actively raining, so all the rocks and logs crossing the creek were maximum slippery. Craig managed to rock hop across in his mountaineering boots, while Rachael and I scooched up a large log.

The trail hasn’t seen many visitors lately…very mossy

Soon after the creek crossing, we hit patches of snow at about 3,500 feet. Our feet soon began punching through the snow, so we decided to put on snowshoes, although we still had a lot of intermittent dirt, roots, and creek crossings between us and the summit. The trail was really in surprisingly good shape, with only a handful of blowdowns to navigate. We reached the marshy meadows below Mount Higgins which looked too flooded to cross, so we went around to the right (south). By 4,200 feet, the snow was finally consistent, deep, and heavy as cement. After much difficulty, we made it up the final 650 feet to the old lookout site. We were getting rained on the entire day, and the summit had no views. But we bagged the peak!

We had climbed the mountain slowly and knew that we had to make up time on the descent. The snow was a little slippery but not too bad in snowshoes, and we made quick progress downhill. Crossing Dicks Creek once again created some excitement. Things went smoothly the rest of the way, and the rain finally stopped. After a wobbly start to our downhill bike ride, we got into the groove of things and had a super fun coast back to the car while getting absolutely covered in mud splatters. If you, too, would like to tackle three sports in one day, this trip is a winner!