Granite Mountain
Trip Date: July 4, 2018
Distance: 8.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 3654 ft
Fees/Permits: Northwest Forest Pass
GPX: View my Gaia GPS track here
Trip Songs: Literally every song from every musical ever. And Lady Gaga covers.
You know you’ve found yourself with good people when they allow you to persuade them to wake up at 2am for a 4am hike on the one day they have off in the middle of the week.
I knew I needed to squeeze in a few more training hikes leading up to my Shuksan climb coming up this weekend, so what better way to take advantage of a day off in the middle of the week? Originally I had wanted to do Camp Muir (need to figure out how to squeeze in some July turns, ya know?) but then we settled on Mailbox Peak (again) and then the day before, Anita threw out Granite Mountain as an option.
I hadn’t done Granite Mountain before and we’d heard the views were good….so why not?
At 4:22am, Rochelle and I pulled into the parking lot of Granite Mountain and met up with Anita and her Airbnb guest Dane. We made our introductions, bemoaned about how early it was in the morning and set off on the trail.
The trail was pretty nice and gradual for the majority of the way — well maintained, packed dirt. We had great conversations on the way up, learning about each other. Near the summit there was a short section that requires a bit of a scramble and boy was it windy when we got to the lookout (which was locked, by the way).
As we headed back down, Anita and Dane serenaded us with a bunch of tunes and a beautiful rendition of The Sound of Music.
And my favorite part of this hike? We were back in town in time for lunch.