Mount Washington was our first attempt at summiting a peak in the Cascades. It also proved to be our first successful summit! On the seventh of July, 2012 we summited Mount Washington (4,420 feet). This hike was extremely private, we only passed three or four other groups. This may have had something to do with our very early start. We were done hiking the 8.5 miles with more than 3,000 feet in elevation gain by 1:00 p.m. The Mount Washington hike featured on the WTA website has you stop 2 miles in at a viewpoint. We continued to the summit to add on four extra miles total and an additional 1620 feet in elevation gain.
I would say the additional mileage and elevation gain are definitely worth it if you’re up to it!
This was the first really clear day we’d gone on a hike on the western side of the Cascades and we were wowed at the summit by our first ever view of Mount Rainier. We had been living in WA for almost a month and had still yet to see it due to the clouds. The view was astonishing for us.
To know that that mountain had been lurking just out of sight is somewhat disconcerting. While the views were phenomenal the mosquitos were equally potent and we didn’t linger at the top for long.
We hoofed it down pretty quickly and rewarded ourselves for our first summit with a trip to McDonalds for some McFlurries!