Ken O' Bonn: May 2025

Kind of a silly post, but this is for my benefit to share some of my favorite trails and to bookmark links for trail conditions / directions

FAVORITE TRAILS by area

HANSEN RIDGE

Hansen Ridge
Carter Creek Trail (part of Hansen Ridge)
Upper 5510 RD - Gated (part of Hansen Ridge)
NF-510 (part of Hansen Ridge, connector to Harris Creek and Harris Lake trails).
Harris Lake Trail (part of Hansen Ridge, the end)
5510 (Road to Hansen Ridge, to avoid driving thru potholes. Best to park at Annette Lk).
5510-510 (Spur to Hansen Ridge, a favorite of mine, poorly maintained)
Hansen Ridge Site listing by WTA, others are TrailForks
Little Saint Helens (hiking trail as spur to Hansen)
Hansen Ridge (AllTrails)

HARRIS CREEK

The Harris Creek trail is composed of 3 trails linked together as below, located in North Bend, WA.

McLellan Butte Trail

MOUNT SAINT HELENS

Trail #234 Ape Canyon - Forest Service, lower TH / Gifford Pinchot National Forest | Trailhead: Ape Canyon | Forest Service / Gifford Pinchot National Forest | Forest Road 83 | Forest Service
Ape Canyon TH, upper
Lower Smith Creek
Upper Smith Creek
Smith Creek Trail #225 - Trailforks
Marble Mountain Sno Park - location for SHIFT event
June Lake Snotel - Snow conditions
Friends of Ape Canyon - Facebook site
Friends of Coldwater - Facebook site
SHIFT - Facebook site - annual event for trail work
SHIFT 2022 - Event invite for this year's work, Aug 19-21, 2022
Volcanic 50 - Running race starts at Marble Mountain Sno Park. Aug 06-07, 2022. See also Volcanic 50 Web site.
Smith Creek Loop (Ape Canyon) - voice over trail reviews. 13:21-14:00. I get to listen to someone complain about sub-section of trail I've been clearing for 11 of the last 12 years as of 2019 when it was filmed. Video would be more dramatic if he had filmed it a month prior, before I put 3 days of volunteer work into it - you would be climbing over this maybe 50 times.

Strongly disagree with his assessment of the climb out of Smith to Ape, he needs to give me credit for my hard work on the trail instead of complaining about the need for trail work. Also, it is much better to take the forest road instead of the road. Frankly, it is a silly thing to complain about, otherwise I endorse this video aside for the other parts of it.

July 21, 2019. Date of VOTR video, after I did 17 hours trail work.
Saturday June 02, 2019. 5 hours.
Saturday June 15, 2019. 6 hours.
Sat Jun 22, 2019. 6 hours

ALPINE BALDY

Directions: Take Highway 2 to Skykomish. 1.9 miles after passing the ranger station, take a left turn on FR 6066 (a sign indicates this road). When you see the sign, immediately slow down and prepare to turn--the turn comes up very quickly. There is a fork 1.8 miles up FR 6066. Bear right, uphill. It will be 6.6 miles total to the trailhead. Keywords: Using your phone for GPS, you may want to map it to "Jennifer Dunn Trailhead" or "Beckler Peak Trailhead". Alpine Baldy and Beckler share same parking lot.