Epic Hikes of Washington State - Mt. Walker

 

Mt. Walker

Date Hiked: August 3rd, 2025

Trail Hiked: Mount Walker Loop

Distance Hiked: 8.1 miles

Elevation Gain: 2126 ft. 

Duration: 3h 14m

 

With the previous day's hike traversing a hidden gem in the Seattle Metro, this conversely took me to the Olympic National Forest in the other direction from base. Cougar was a return trip, Walker was a first-timer, not just for the mountain itself, but being the first time I'd ever hiked anywhere near there. Cougar was bright and sunny, this fog was "the owls are not what they seem." Cougar is now a graveyard of memories I wish I could Eternal Sunshine from my overactive brain, Walker is... a sign of the potential further hikes I could've done if my focus had been otherwise. Life is weird.

 

Mt. Walker is certainly not the hardest hike in the area. Even on a foggy day, I could see other mountains that were probably a tougher climb, but given that my first real mountain summit was a week prior, I felt it might be a good idea to start with ones in the two or three thousand foot range and maybe work up to the Rainiers and Bakers of the world? Weird thought, I don't know, maybe I'm onto something. 

 

With the heavy layers of fog covering the canopy, the dew on the greens and ferns felt particularly flavored to the Pacific Northwest, which would be obvious had this summer I spent there not been overwhelmingly sunny and dry. The ascent is immediate but not ridiculous, and I only saw two or three other people the whole time, at least before I got to the top. It's probably not fair to Mt. Walker to judge it against the majesty of Mt. Si, but again, not much from which to draw at this point, in that Mt. Walker was a reasonably hard climb but not the more arduous sections of incline that Si challenged me with. 

 

I am certain that the views from Walker's top are considerable. When I reached it, not only did I see climbers and other tourists taking in the Pyramidhead-esque surroundings (benefits of there being a way to drive to the top), but there were also a lot of signs and placards explaining to me what all these gorgeous icons in the landscape were and how awesome it was to be there. Akin to my (first) trip to Great River Bluffs State Park bragging about the breathtaking views, I'm sure they're fantastic... if I could've actually seen them. 

 

One option to return back was to go the way I came, and the other was allegedly a loop, and I suppose technically it was. However, rather than a trail, AllTrails decided the road was the fun way to go down, and while it started slowly revealing more layers of the surrounding Olympic National Forest, I didn't enjoy  dodging those who took the motorized way to the top. Not that I have anything against trail tourists, but... okay maybe I do just a little bit, particularly against their vehicles being near me. 

 

It is what it is, and foggy Mt. Walker's good. 

Minnesota State Parks Revisited: Sakatah Lake State Park

 

Sakatah Lake State Park

Date Hiked: December 20th, 2025, December 23rd, 2025

Trail Hiked: Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail - SLSP to Morristown, SLSP to Halfway to Elysian Lake

Distance Hiked: 9.0 miles, 8.8 miles

Elevation Gain: 269 ft., 289 ft.

Duration: 3:21:28, 3:11:40

Funny enough, it was also winter when I revisited Sakatah Lake State Park. This time around though, it was covered with ice, snow, and cold, as opposed to the initial Hiking Club trek, which was only visited by the air raid siren in the fog. 

Does this really count as the longest trail in Sakatah Lake State Park? Technically I suppose, it does go through it, but with the Singing Hills Trail also being a Geocaching Power Trail, it became an adventure that also led to my first Hundred Percenting of a moderate distance trail (25 miles or more), with several others in the process as I hike and double back its segments. 

The fourth and fifth of ten installments of Hundred Percenting (technically twice, given the double back each time) led me to begin at Sakatah Hills State Park, and while it didn't fulfill the idea of seeing how different the park was during a season other than winter, it's my damn travelogue and I'll do what I want with it. 

The trees were great protection from the icy Arctic winds, but those quickly gave way to the prairie chill that anyone from the Upper Midwest knows quite well this time of year. During this entire ten-part series, I only encountered other hikers at each end. By the time I was finishing up, I saw more snowmobilers than walkers, which probably says more about me than it should. Any other time of year, I'd likely have cyclists blowing by me, so it worked out nicely to revisit this park during the winter. 

If one is looking for scenery, elevation gain, or epic views, this is not the first or hundredth trail I'd recommend. While with a ride and decent weather I could finish this trail in two days, the winter and ice added a level to it much like doing the Hiking Club in the cold months, plus the added solitude and lack of interruptions as I kept creeping into the trees to look for Geocaches. Those things can be tough to open in such temperatures, and the ones that aren't in a tree might as well not even be bothered with the snow going up to my thigh at points. But, I still hiked from Faribault to Mankato, and nobody can say I didn't. 

Sakatah Lake State Park is perfectly fine for what it is. Sitting in dense forest, near a lake, relatively close to the Twin Cities, and near several small towns that create a bit of infrastructure which even the SHT could learn from. It doesn't have the excitement of any of the crescent trails in the state, but it's a hike through several towns I'd likely never have heard of otherwise, a state park in the middle, and hundreds of potential Geocaching finds, even if a significant amount of them are too wet to sign. 

My perspective on this state park hasn't changed, which isn't even necessarily a bad thing. It is what it is. 

Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail - 100 Percent Completed

Hike 1

Date Hiked: November 24th, 2025

Distance Hiked: 5.5 miles

Trailhead to Wells Lake

Hike 2

Date Hiked: November 27th, 2025

Distance Hiked: 10.5 miles

Wells Lake to Warsaw

Hike 3

Date Hiked: December 17th, 2025

Distance Hiked: 6.1 miles

Warsaw to Morristown

Hike 4

See Above

Hike 5

See Above

Hike 6

Date Hiked: December 24th, 2025

Distance Hiked: 9.4 miles

Elysian Lake to Halfway Pt.

Hike 7

Date Hiked: December 26th, 2025

Distance Hiked: 7.9 miles

Elysian Lake to Halfway to Madison Lake

Hike 8

Date Hiked: January 2nd, 2026

Distance Hiked: 5.4 miles

Madison Lake to Halfway Pt.

Hike 9

Date Hiked: January 3rd, 2026

Distance Hiked: 9.6 miles

Eagle Lake to Madison Lake

Hike 10

Date Hiked: January 4th, 2026

Distance Hiked: 9.9 miles

Mankato to Eagle Lake

Epic Hikes of Washington State - Cougar Mountain

 

Cougar Mountain

Date Hiked: August 2nd, 2025

Trail Hiked: Whitaker Peak and Shy Bear Loop Trail to Doughty Falls

Distance Hiked: 9.5 miles

Elevation Gain: 2162 ft. 

Duration: 3h 49m

This mountain is a graveyard of memories for me, and it has nothing to do with the trail itself. 

I didn't know when I was doing this hike that it would (likely) be the last time I ever set foot on these grounds. At the time I was traversing these heights, it was a return to conquer something upon which I'd given up at a time of much lesser endurance than I now possessed. It was a place of sentiment, the subject of many stories, and one where something (once) significant took place that helped shape several years of my life. 

Now, to reflect on it, it is one of morose, of buried emotions that lay dormant amongst the tombstones with names fading into the obscurity of the past. Writing about it is one last journey through moss and a canopy of trees upon which my eyes will never gaze again, and that is a shame because this is a beautiful place within decent proximity to the metro area. 

When my hiking prowess was much closer to the novice level, at a time where I didn't even think to bring a water bottle or proper footwear, I explored this place with Redacted without realizing just how far up we went. The screams of a barred owl only heightened the mystique of this place that created the illusion of isolation despite being mere minutes away from the main drag in Renton. Funny enough, this was my second choice of a location for adventure on this pristine Saturday August morning, after an attempt to revisit the Melmont Ghost Town trail was unsuccessful due to trail closure. Thus, going from Bremerton to Carbonado was a waste of time, and Cougar Mountain ended up being as close to a sentimental callback as the former was intended to be. I'll write about Melmont another time, once I can conjure its similarly dead place in my soul. 

Having completed the summit of Mt. Si a mere week earlier, the immediate slope upward didn't seem as difficult as it had four years prior. But, the trail gives no illusions of gentle ascent, for once one leaves their car in the tiny parking lot (assuming one even finds a spot), the upward climb begins immediately and doesn't let up for a while. Cougar Mountain is a mere third of the height of Si, but confronting that incline first thing into the hike definitely gets the output juices going within the first few minutes of arrival. 

The giant rocks with mossy coats give way to shadowy cavern-like crevices, making it appropriate to throw on some Howard Shore and imagine one is descending into the hidden paradise of Rivendell. How one can be so close to a main road and experience such calming silence is as Washingtonian as one can get in such endeavors, but after a few hundred feet of hanging out with corvids and waterfalls, it's easy to forget the surrounding activity. 

It's beautiful. I hate it now. 

Minnesota State Parks Revisited: Glacial Lakes State Park

Glacial Lakes State Park

Date Hiked: February 3rd, 2026

Trail Hiked: Kettle Lakes Loop

Distance Hiked: 8.2 miles

Elevation Gain: 673 ft.

Duration: 3h 5m

The last time I visited Glacial Lakes State Park was revelatory, and not just because I got an excuse to drop a Kara Thrace reference. In those four seasons during one hike, I experienced a beacon of sunshine from within, where the true self for which I’d been searching finally started breaking through the stratus clouds of the soul. I heard the perfect song, “Fall in Love” by Lazer Club, and I danced along the ancient hills, ripping my shirt off and screaming to the vast horizon that I was finally there.

One year later, I yearned for a similar experience. 

It was only 16 degrees, and yet I didn’t need a coat. The trail was covered by snow and yet I didn’t need my spikes. The park was empty and yet I didn’t feel alone. Having wonderful new friends and a true sense of community despite living history in my city for the second time in six years, the disasters of 2025 were present but not overwhelming me with their aftershocks. It was time to put a capstone on my relationship with this park, as it knew what I needed once. Perhaps the muse lightning in its blissful, non-actual-electricness would strike a second, merciful time. 

Where the Hiking Club trail featured multiple types of terrain, the Kettle Lakes Loop traversed the vastness of the surrounding landscape. Rolling hills despite being in the prairie, ascents and descents with surprising intensity, it felt like the perfection of frozen solitude, the time loop allowing an encore to the prior hike but with a year’s worth of heartbreak and growth alike to fill the in-between. The spaces where routine and response once enlivened predictable yet anticipated mutuality, I now pushed along the vague sense of a trail underneath the drifts purely for my own fulfillment. Sometimes it’s okay to do what you need for no one’s benefit but your own, and I in no way whatsoever claim otherwise for this adventure. This was for me, and I needed something, but I wouldn’t know what until it happened. 

Then, it did.

I let the sax and sky drums of Lazer Club transmit the posthumous beams of a shattered past, with several names now etched into the tombstone of what once was. Then, it was up to the algorithm from the root of that song to find me in this peace. 

Never could I have predicted Bodine Monet’s voice to pierce my snow cocoon of solitude, and yet as I pushed up the steepest hill of the sojourn, there she was.

I wanna drive the highway through the night, I wanna take you somewhere no one finds, I wanna make mistakes that won’t feel right, I wanna chase the hate I’d give my life, for all the love you’d give me, I’m taking it far like a reckless car.

 

Glacial Lakes State Park, once again, was exactly where I needed to be, and that voice scored the soundtrack of my infinity. Thank you, Bodine Monet.

 

 

Superior Hiking Trail #3-2 - Castle Danger to Gooseberry Falls State Park

Happy 100th post to me, thanks for reading! 

Superior Hiking Trail

Map 3 - Section 2

Castle Danger to Gooseberry Falls State Park

Date Hiked - May 11th, 2025

Miles - 14.2

Elevation Gain - 925 ft. 

This marks the point where I stopped trying to Hundred Percent the trail in complete sequential order.

I made no attempts to hide my disappointment with the majority of Map 2. Three hours of driving, no ridesharing available, only to end up wandering through brown grass, ticks, swamps, and not much else, I was on the precipice of abandoning the concept entirely. Therefore, skipping ahead a bit (and returning to do 3-1 at a different time), this reinvigorated my enthusiasm for the trail itself, even if the lack of ridesharing outside of Duluth caused this to be a much longer hike than intended. This would lead me to traverse other sections of this trail with a few hiking friends, or at the very least, bring other people to the North Shore with me who could hang out in the city and then come get me at the appropriate time. Though, due to life circumstances and proximity issues, the continuation of my progress would come at a much later date, as if the series of hikes in Washington didn't already indicate as such. 

Immediately this section starts with climbing up some giant-ass rocks to a lovely aerial view of the Gitchee Gumee. This is what was missing from the majority of Map 2, as the name implies some proximity to the lake itself, but a snowmobile trail through the trees considerably off the shore didn't provide nearly as much. The view from Mike's Rock far exceeds the expectations of such a name. I'm sure Mike is lovely, but in my head, I picture some guy standing on a boulder claiming it as his because he touched it first. 

The descent into the area of the Gooseberry River is a challenge of its own. Even in mid-May, a lot of the dead leaves from the ere winter still carpet the majority of the trail, and can make for an unexpected, involuntary launch down a jagged Slip'N'Slide if one isn't careful. While I wasn't expecting to run into many people on Map 2, the weather, the rising temperatures, and the proximity to Memorial Day had me a little more (pleasantly) surprised at my trek of solitude as the trail wound its way toward one of the most popular parks in the state. Once the river starts to bend, one has a choice of continuing on the main trail or taking a rather comparatively lengthy spur toward Gooseberry Falls State Park. Given that Lyft wasn't pinging anything and there would still be the hike back to the car to consider, I opted to journey the three miles to the visitor's center. I thought maybe being near such a touristy area might change my fortune, but I suppose nobody's taking a Lyft to Gooseberry when it already doubles as a rest area. 

I didn't even know there was a Fifth Falls farther up (down?) the trail, and it's considerably wider than the more famous and visited lower sections. That alone was worth the return trip.

Minnesota State Parks Revisited: Great River Bluffs State Park

 

Great River Bluffs State Park

Date Hiked: October 13th, 2025

Trail Hiked: Great River Bluffs Trail, King's Bluff Loop, Sugar Loaf to Garvin Heights Trail

Distance Hiked: 9.9 miles

Elevation Gain: 1368 ft.

Duration: 4:03:20

The last time I visited this park, the allegedly glorious views from the eponymous bluffs were nothing more than a Pyramidhead haven of the void, which to be fair was plenty appropriate for how I was doing at that time in my life. Imagine my relative delight when I headed back to the Winona area on the revisiting quest and the visibility was quite the opposite! 

One really can't go wrong on the crescent of this state. While there are plenty of gems throughout the rest of the state, some of which I've ranked pretty high, the North Shore and the bluffs along the river road are easily the most consistently good. So much so that in addition to hiking the longest trail in this state park (which, among long trails in Minnesota State Parks, isn't that long), I also decided to stop on down in Winona proper to climb on up to Sugar Loaf, head over toward Garvin Heights, and make a blufftastic day out of it. 

The fall of 2025 was extremely kind toward fools like me, even though I'm someone who will hike in anything above -30. The autumn leaves are lovely, though being from the northeast it's hard to compare to New England, which is likely why the Gilmore Girls binge comes around that time with the season. But, the weather stayed pretty consistently mild until the middle of December for the most part, and as the bugs, ticks, and bears started going away along with the throngs of tourists, I was lucky enough to see state parks like this one without a scarf over my face, thus causing my breath to freeze on my sunglasses. What more could one ask for?

I noted before, but this park is a bit of a pain to get to, including trekking over some roads that would make even the fine citizens of Flint give some side-eye. For what it is, it's beautiful and a nice way to spend a clear autumn afternoon, but given how much wondrous nature and Appalachian-esque terrain is available, it leaves a little to be desired. Maybe I was spoiled by growing up in the aforementioned mountains or spending time on the Superior Hiking Trail close to this time, but I felt like it could be so much more than it is. Great River Bluffs, to me, inspires thoughts of steep climbs and difficulty-pushing hikes, but most of the trails there are already on top of the bluffs. Which is fine, I'm not knocking the access to glorious aerial views, but if I'm gonna travel several hours to hike on some bluffs, I want some sick elevation gain out of it. Thus, I also hiked another trail that starts from the bottom and allows for some leaftastic pushes up the sides of these ridges. 

Great River Bluffs State Park is beautiful and remote, and I'm in no way knocking going to visit or spending time exploring its trails. But, it could be even better. 

Minnesota State Parks Revisited: Banning State Park

 

Banning State Park

Date Hiked: October 6th, 2025

Trail Hiked: Quarry, Hell's Gate, Wolf Creek, Cartway, Cut Off, Skunk Cabbage

Distance Hiked: 8.2 miles

Elevation Gain: 420 ft.

Duration: 2:49:00

 

Banning State Park is pretty cool, but much like Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, the best the park has to offer is pretty much contained in the Hiking Club trail. 

That's not to say it's necessarily a bad thing. I ranked Banning pretty high up on the list of Hiking Club trails, but exploring the longest trail in this park was mostly a retread of what I'd already seen in much colder context. The above waterfalls were the only noteworthy exception to this rule, and that was merely going down farther than the Hiking Club trail looped back. Very beautiful secluded falls, don't get me wrong, but not really high on the list of reasons to make visits somewhat regular. Granted, Banning State Park has proximity to the 35, which is a major convenience for such things, especially if my fellow completionists can appreciate the Hell that is getting to Lake Bronson State Park from the Twin Cities, but alas. When one can spend a little more time to get to Jay Cooke State Park and everything along the shore, this is a great pick for "I only feel like driving 90 minutes today." 

This opinion may also have something to do with the latter half of the hike. 

Again, much like Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, what could basically be considered the perimeter route wanders off into the woods on a trail that's far less maintained and not exactly what one might call scenic. Not that it has to be, and at least I didn't run into Joshua the "Holy shit that's a giant" Bear, but I'm also not a fan of dodging thorny vines smacking me in the face like I owed them money, At least it was October so the bugs weren't as awful? Gotta appreciate the small mercies. 

October wasn't exactly late August in terms of how much my 2025 could repeatedly and exponentially go fuck itself, but I wasn't having a great time either. In fact, I was a short time away from someone pulling the greatest reverse disappearance accusation I've ever seen, but fortunately getting my shit together and doing stuff like this has steadied my mental health more than I ever thought was possible. I'm not gonna pretend that as of this writing, my life is in the best place it's ever been, but it's definitely the steadiest. 

I can now hike for hours without feeling an internal spiral that caused ridiculous and impulsive decisions. I can now hike for hours without having a compulsion to torment myself. I can now hike for hours without feeling a growing void within my stomach causing me to fear the inevitable. For the most part, I just am, I just exist. I just go cool places and see cool shit. This place has some of that, even if I've seen most of it before. Not a bad way to spend a day. 

Banning is worth the visit, but I don't feel I saw anything new on this hike.