Kings Mountain, Tillamook State Forest

This past Saturday my mother and I headed into Tillamook State Forest with our eye on the summit of Kings Mountain just off Hwy 6. I wanted to do a bigger training day on Sunday when the weather was supposed to be better, but didn’t want to sit around and do nothing on Saturday. A little climbing and descending would be good for the legs. Also, I wanted to scout out Kings Mtn to see how much snow was still on the top because I was thinking about doing the Elk Mtn-King Mtn Traverse this upcoming weekend. I picked up my mom from Biscuits café (yes I slept in) and we headed out to the trailhead. My mom didn’t really know what was in store, but she’s a trooper so I wasn’t worried. I also brought along Rylee Dog. I figured that if I was in training then he should be in training as well so I brought along his pack and filled in with his medium weight load.

The trail basically goes straight up about 2,800ft to the summit which rests at 3,226ft. Neither of us had ever been to the summity of Kings so we weren’t sure how long it would take us. The forecast called for rain showers so we brought appropriate rain gear. I also brought snowshoes just in case it was really deep at the top, although we talked to a few other hikers in the parking lot who summitted, and they told us that snowshoes were unnecessary. So with that, we ditched the snowshoes and headed up.

It was really bright after coming out of the darkness of the forest canopy so we were both squinting

The trail is very steep in some sections so going was relatively slow at times. Ry, on the other hand, proceeded to run up and mountain the trail even with his heavier pack on. The weather stayed clear most of the day and we summitted around 3pm. The top 500ft of the trail still has too much snow on it for any trail running so I’ll have to find another run to do for this weekend. Probably somewhere in the Gorge as I need to get some elevation.  We got a little hail on the return back to the car, but other than that, the weather held off on us for the most part. Definitely was a good trip and I enjoyed spending some time with my mom. She kept up like a champ as I predicted. I’ll have to come out here later in the spring when the wildflowers are blooming and run the Elk-King traverse.

UNT

Bryan

Heading back down from the summit