Mount Lincoln Trail

Although designated a way trail, this route is better than 
that; it is well laid out, but climbs steeply about half 
way up the side of Mount Lincoln, a craggy peak composed of 
basalt. However, the logs lying across the trail have not 
been cut out in recent years, and the path is brushy in 
places due to lack of maintenance.

The trail is characterized by long traverses. One negative 
note: when logging activity occurs in the national forest, 
across the valley, the hiker hears the constant grinding of 
trucks going up the road. The comparatively small area of 
national forest land in the North Fork watershed above Lake 
Cushman should have been included in the national park to 
avoid sound pollution (logging noise) and visual pollution 
(clearcuts). The boundary line between park and forest was 
not drawn logically; instead of following the divide 
between the watersheds, it utilizes section lines that 
disregard the topography.

The trail begins (1100 ft/335 m) on the North Fork 
Skokomish Trail, 2.4-mi/3.9 km beyond Staircase Ranger 
Station, in a stand of old firs. At first it winds uphill 
gradually, and the forest is a mixture of fir and hemlock, 
with dead trees standing like ghosts among the living ones. 
As it climbs above the bottomlands, the trail steepens, and 
the brush is not so thick.

After about a half mile the trail begins to switchback up 
the mountainside. One can see, through the trees, the peaks 
across the Skokomish, and the sound of the river comes up 
faintly from below. The path climbs relentlessly upward, 
and after crossing a small stream (1.7 mi/2.7 km)—the only 
water on the route— the now rocky path makes six 
switchbacks in rapid succession, and then crosses a rounded 
ridge. The trees are mostly western hemlock at this 
altitude, and the only sounds that break the silence are 
the murmur of the distant river and perhaps the croaking of 
a raven. When the sun shines brightly, it casts beautiful 
glints on the crowns of the hemlocks below.

Eventually the trail comes out into the edge of an old burn 
(2.3 mi/3.7 km), where young trees grow in dense, almost 
impenetrable thickets. Here one can see Wonder Mountain and 
Lightning Peak, as well as the clearcuts in the national 
forest. At this point the route becomes a steep, hard-to-
follow way trail that goes straight up the hill. The 
scramble path winds among rock outcrops, and one has to 
force passage through a tangle of boulders, vine maple, and 
fire-blackened logs. The slope then eases somewhat, and the 
trail, such as it is, disappears in a jungle of vine maple, 
burned logs, bleached snags, young evergreens, ferns, and 
huckleberry (2.6 mi/4.2 km; 3400 ft/1036 m).

The determined mountaineer can forge through this chaos to 
the higher, open slopes—but to what purpose? The basaltic 
crags of Mount Lincoln are several miles distant and half a 
mile higher—and they can be climbed more easily via the 
Flapjack Lakes Trail.