Duncan Hill

Duncan Hill (7,819ft)

Near the summit

14 miles, 4,400ft gain

Lily and I slept at the Cottonwood trailhead Friday night and it got pretty chilly, down to 20F. I think this is the coldest Lily has ever experienced and she had to crawl in the sleeping bag. We started hiking around 8am Saturday morning up the Entiat River trail, which was snow free. Last time I’d been here in December 2020 I’d snowmobiled in and skied Pinnacle Peak with Fred, but travel this time was much easier.

Luckily the trail had been logged out in August and we made fast progress. We took the side trail 1435 up to the right and hit patchy snow around 4,500ft. This was Lily’s first time seeing snow, and she seemed unphased. I would sink in but she remained on top of the crust. We soon encountered deer tracks on the trail, which made it much more difficult for Lily. So I bundled her up in a sweatshirt and packed her in my backpack with her head sticking out. I think she liked that, since she showed no resistance and made no effort to squirm out.

View from the top

Lily on the summit

The snow got deeper and I regretted not bringing snowshoes or skis. Around 6,000ft I let her out to take a break and she tried hiking again. This time the snow was powdery and much deeper than her legs. She still tried to keep up, but I soon gave her a ride back in the pack. I had slow and difficult trailbreaking from there, going straight up instead of bothering with the trail.

By 1:30pm I reached the summit, and was surprised to see an antenna and solar panel up there. Views were great to the surrounding peaks like Mt Maude, Glacier Peak, and Emerald. It was kind of windy so we dropped back to the trees to take a break. Lily got lots of treats for being a trooper. She especially liked the salami and cheese.

I plunge stepped back down much more quickly, and once we dropped below 4000 Lily had to walk on her own again. We made it back to the car by 5pm and back to Seattle that night.

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