The Washington State Hiking Podcast

Best November Hikes in Washington State

• Jennie Thwing Flaming and Craig Romano • Episode 36

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Jennie Flaming:

Welcome to The Washington State hiking podcast. I'm your host. Jennie Thwing Flaming,

Craig Romano:

and I'm your co host, Craig Romano,

Jennie Flaming:

Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely, seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun and inclusive. Hey, everyone. Jennie here, so Craig and I are going to be talking about November hiking today, which is kind of a special month, and we'll talk more about that in a moment. But before we get into the episode, I wanted to make sure that we answer a question that we got from wind chime. Thank you, wind chime, for your question over the summer, we are back in the Lego studio here in late October, Craig and I have been mostly our separate ways for the last few months, and so we're going to be working through our questions and just a reminder that we love hearing from you. You can either send a text through the show notes, and you can also leave a voicemail for us on speak pipe. Those are both in the show notes, and

Craig Romano:

we will, we will definitely yes, and we're going to be in the studio a little now, because yes, it's, it's it's wet. It's sweat season now, yeah,

Jennie Flaming:

and in the spring, because of all the field work that both Craig and I do you know, we get every you know, this year, we got everything recorded at the by the end of May for the summer, and so we'll probably be doing that this next year as well. So, but over the winter, we are going to be doing more frequent recording sessions. So wind chimes, question,

Unknown:

hey, Jennie and Craig. I love the podcast. It's nice to have somebody talking about Washington. I can. I've been a hiker here in the area for a long time, North Cascades, and now I'm down by Crystal Mount Rainier. So getting a lot of I can done, I do some overnight trips and always look always would rather do like a loop than a mountain back. So I'm wondering if you guys have any ideas of good loop trips of between 30 to 80 miles that are lesser known, not just like the Wonderland or, you know, the Timberline and that kind of stuff. So anyways, keep up the good work. Thanks for the podcast

Jennie Flaming:

was about loop hikes, and so I know that we are getting into the season where some of the awesome loop hikes are a little more limited by the weather and wind chime. You actually inspired us to do a whole episode about this in the spring, so that's going to be coming. So Craig, tell us maybe one teaser idea, so wind chime doesn't have to wait forever.

Craig Romano:

Yeah, so that wind chime specifically was mentioning longer distances. And, you know, I'm an ultra runner, so I definitely know what you you're at. I love doing loops much so than the mountain backs. And in my backpacking Washington book, which which most of the distance are between 16 and 50 miles, that sounds exactly what you're looking for. I have lots of loops in there and and it's a statewide book, 70 different different hikes in there. Again, it's perfect for backpacking. That's what it's written for. But it's also it's used a lot by Ultra lot by ultra runners, again, looking for those, particularly those 20, 3040, mile loops. So one that comes in mine, and I believe you're you live closer to Mount Rainier. So it's not, this is not a terribly far drive to get down, but the trapper Creek wilderness, which is outside the Columbia River Gorge, oh yeah, not too far from Vancouver, Washington. It's actually one of my favorite places in the state. It's interesting. Go there on any, any given day, and you're going to see, you know, 10 Oregon or, you know, five or 10 Oregon plates. There no Washington plates. Seems like people in Oregon know more about it. It's a compact little wilderness area. The trails down there tend to stay snow free a lot longer. I've done long loop hikes in there in November, and likewise, you can get in there may and sometimes years. Yeah. So one of my favorite loops, it's in my book, is you go up Trapper Creek, which is all old growth, spectacular, beautiful growth forest. You're starting from a low elevation, and there's elk in the area. If you go, you know, in September, there's lots of huckleberries there. And you can do several different loops. You can come down off of observation peak, Howe ridge. It's ton wonderful views. Or you can go down into the Bourbon Creek area. And both those views, both those areas, give them views. You're going to be looking at a lot of volcanoes. You're going to be looking right at Mount Adams, Mount St Helens, Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson. It is just a spectacular hike. I never get tired of it. If you've never been there, I think you'll really enjoy it. So if we get some dry, dry, sunny weather coming up, I will just caution you if it's really, really rainy, and during rainy periods that a couple of creek crossings can get challenging, so do not do this after we've had, you know, three. Four inches of rain in that area. But if it's staying pretty dry and it's pretty sunny, this is definitely a November loop, you can do

Jennie Flaming:

awesome. That's great. Craig. And I also wanted to let everybody know that in episode 12, which was May 15, we talked about the trapper Creek wilderness. And I just want to make another plug for Craig's book. Great. I also have this book, and I also love loop hikes and so, yeah, the link for that will be in the show notes. Okay, so Craig November.

Craig Romano:

November is one of those months, you know, it's it's interesting. It's dreary. You know, I grew up in New Hampshire. It's dreary there. It's dreary in Washington, the daylight is, you know, there is not much. It's usually gray. It's usually rainy. But here's the interesting thing, and it's either a good thing or a bad thing. I've noticed a trend in the last 10 years of warmer, sunnier November days. We never had them in the past. I remember when I first moved out here in 1989 maybe one day, November fell into that department, but we're getting more of them now with the climate change. But the other thing that's interesting about November, even without those warm or sunny days depending there are years that the snow level still is staying high up till December. So sometimes, you know, typically, what happens here is, we'll get some snow in the mountains in October and everything, then it warms up again. Yeah. So with that said, you know, there's, there's the typical hikes you can do year round, but there's still, if you're lucky, we had some warming periods. And the other thing too, you got to remember things you things, you know, northern slope, you want the southern slope, or the sun's because come November, there's parts of the mountain there aren't seeing the sun. They're gonna see the sun until, until April. So with that southern exposure, and the snow levels haven't yet hit, we haven't been getting too much snow yet. There are still lots of opportunities. In the beginning of I've done some, some really cool stuff, like, yeah, you know, Eagle peak in the tattoos range, yeah, in the first week in November. Yeah, without snow. And this is purely without snow. I've done mount Dickerman. Anyway, I should say so some of these things that I've done that's, you know, it's a big mountain. One of the advantages, too, and this is really important, is that not only these These trails are saying it's not free, but you're starting from a low elevation. And why is it a big deal? Well, you're going to good workout, but it also means the roads not going to be icy, right? No, either, because that's the thing. Some of these areas still might be open, fine, but, but that forest road, again, there might be a sheet of ice because it's in the shade, yep. So again, factors you've got to look at, yeah, but on a low elevation start on a southern exposure, both those peaks I just told you about are southern exposure. I've been up those in November. So those are the things to look at. And

Jennie Flaming:

one thing I'll just mention about that too. You know, one of the reasons why we're doing an episode, especially about November, is because some years or one day in November, maybe you can do a higher Alpine hike, but the next year, on that same day, there could be three feet of snow there. So I just want to make a plug for the Washington Trails Association trip reports, because that's a crowd sourced place where you can look and see, oh, someone. And you know, that's not a substitute for evaluating the conditions for yourself and checking the weather forecast, but it can give you a clue as to kind of what the most recent conditions have been on that hike.

Craig Romano:

And definitely, even though, if you're looking you know, for snow, free air, prepare, I mean, plan again, and usually November, for the most part, you're not going to hit hardcore snow conditions, but there's always a good chance you're gonna get the top there's gonna be a couple inches, or a foot, or, again, even on the way up, if it darts into a shaded area, just give me some residual snowing. Or the weather can change. Well, your weather and change. So definitely, you know, you want to plan whether it means having some micro spikes, trekking poles, of course, and things, and certainly the clothing at this point, you know? Well, it's November, even more. So it's getting colder repair. But the thing, I think it can trip up a lot of people, especially after we set the clocks. Yes,

Jennie Flaming:

sunset out to our 30s

Craig Romano:

is coming really soon. Yeah. So if you're one of those people is used to hitting the trail of 10, don't do it. Yeah? Get out there at seven

Jennie Flaming:

in the morning, which is gonna be, well, it depends on them. Well, shorter, yeah? But

Craig Romano:

if you're planning on doing something like Mount Dickerman, you're not gonna want to start that at 10 or 11 o'clock. You're gonna you want to hit that. And you gotta have a headlamp. You gotta have that lamb. You want to start in the darkness. And I would rather start my hike in the dark, yeah? Then come out, you know. So the light, you know. So again, definitely plan on that, and give yourself plenty of wiggle room on that. You know. Don't cut it short. So,

Jennie Flaming:

and that's one thing about November that's very predictable, the amount of daylight and the sunset time. It is not subject to change, consistent

Craig Romano:

and even, again, even in areas, you know, down in the Columbia River Gorge, have been in there areas that are still not, you know, big willingness areas, yeah, I've been caught off guard. Sometimes it's like, oh my god, that sunlight is going fast, and you're, you know, 567, miles from the trailhead. It's that's when trail running definitely helps. But, you know, and speaking, I should put this plug in as a runner. I started using but certainly hike one of the better things that I that I take better than a headlamp, you know, it's better than a headlamp, but a waste lamp,

Unknown:

oh yeah,

Craig Romano:

I use those. And the great thing about there's a company out of Idaho, aspire, they make they started by trail running companies, trail runners, and you wear it around your waist. It's very, very light. You charge it up. Doesn't need batteries, so you can charge it so it's beautiful there. And this thing shines out a light. If you see that, it looks, it looks like you're a motorcycle on the trail. The lights incredible. So what do I love about it? Because I've had to run in the dark, you know, I'm doing some of these ultras. First of all, as opposed to your head, your head's moving left to right, Your waist is stable, so that's shining that light straight ahead. It's lower to the ground, so you see everything. Now, I need glasses to drive at night. I can run at night with this light, without glasses. Wow. See all the, yeah, all the shadows, right? Yeah. So, if you're planning and night and we should do, matter of fact, we should do a program on night hiking, because there's some really cool things about night hiking, look into getting a waste lamp. Ideally, I will have a waste lamp and a headlamp, and you are gonna light up that forest, you know, you're gonna be able to see things. So yeah, and have your extra batteries and all that. So don't be afraid of the dark. That goes back to our spooky hut. Yeah, don't be afraid of the dark. Embrace it, but, but as everything prepare, right? There's no such thing as bad weather. It's bad clothing choices. It's just making bad so you can go out and hike and enjoy November and enjoy that early, early morning or evening hikes. As long as you have the lighting, you'll see things. I mean, the critters are out. I mean, the stars, yeah, it could be a great time out there. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming:

I agree. Cool. Okay, so, and you know, kind of speaking generally about November, I feel like I agree with you that you can still do some cool Alpine hikes if you get lucky with the weather and the snow conditions, you can't count on being able to do that in November. But kind of the three kind of categories of hikes that I feel like are great for November is again, sometimes Eastern Washington and Central Washington, less rain there. So sometimes it gets very windy in the winter, it gets much colder than it does in western Washington, but you know, you can bundle up and tandem Canyon near Yakima is one that I've really enjoyed in the winter, or not in the well, also in the winter. But I was thinking of November specifically, when I had a job where I went all over Washington. That was one that I did on a day off in November. Have done a couple times since then.

Craig Romano:

I've done the kettle River Range in ferry County in November also. And sometimes, again, there might not be any snow, or there might be a little bit of snow, and what again, over there tends you're not going to get as much. So you don't have to worry about the November, the big drifts and everything. But it's definitely colder over there. I mean, it's more of a continental climate over there. It's going to be colder. Be prepared for that. But the great thing about November in the kettles, if you get in there too, is that the Western larches are still holding on, still yellow, yeah. And so you could still, if you're still, you haven't got your larch fill from the ALPA, and unlike maple pass and Blue Lake, you're not going to be surrounded by a bazillion people. You're right. Probably going to be out there by yourself, yep. However, here's the other warning. You're in, you're in hunting country. Okay? Deer hunting is very, very popular in eastern Washington. So when you hike in November, especially, be sure you're wearing orange. So, so if you do encounter lots of times, the only people I have encountered in the blues and in the kettles late near are just hunters the hikers out there, yeah. So when you say

Jennie Flaming:

the blues, you met the Blue Mountain south in stern Washington, another

Craig Romano:

great area with Western larches. Yes, very dry area. It's hotter than hell in the summertime. November can be really cool in that area. But again, you just remember the daylight so you could still get in some of those mountains. You know, southeastern and northeastern Washington are great, great areas. Just beautiful areas in general, to be out there, the wildly start seeing the wildlife changes, the migrations, you know, the deer and everything. Things are getting ready for the for the the incoming winter,

Jennie Flaming:

cool. Okay, so let's talk about some others. What are some other you know, I think of like beaches and forests, if you're. If we're having more winter like conditions on the west side. What are some of your your favorite November hikes? Think

Craig Romano:

of the valleys. So again, in the big mountains, think of the valleys, places like the carbon river. You know, carbon River is a great hike in November. And again, it's a great place to get away from the crowds. You can hike to all the way to the I've hiked all the way to the glacier in November, you can go up to, up to Green Lake sometimes. And

Jennie Flaming:

this is the north side of Mount Rainier National Park. Again, you've got

Craig Romano:

a paved road to get there. You're low, so you don't have to, you know, that's that's a good concern. Susan Creek, down in the south cascades another it's pretty low. It's a great one to do in November. A Trapper Creek, as I mentioned earlier, green water, the green water on the north side of Mount Rainier in the National Forest. Paved road to get in there. That's another good one I've been in in November. The gray wolf over in the Olympic Peninsula, the duck a bush starting really, really low there. Great. So some of these, these River, Boulder river over near Darrington. These are wilderness hikes. Boulder river goes in the boulder river wilderness, but you're staying low, yeah? And that's the beauty. And the older

Jennie Flaming:

river is, is a wonderful especially

Craig Romano:

in November, because of the waterfalls, yeah? So embrace the rain, yep. Because boulder River in August, isn't that spectacular, those those waterfalls are trickles, yeah? In November, December, the water is coming down off these cliffs as well. It's gorgeous. It's a hike you can usually do year round, even when it does snow, it's just gonna be some wet, sloppy snow in there. It doesn't hang around because you're pretty low. So these are areas that I would definitely if you want more of a wilderness as a back country, as opposed to the foothills or the coast, which, again, are great November hikes. Yep, I love the islands again. November. Going out to the San Juans in November, you'll have them to yourself. Yep, tourists aren't going out there, yeah, that time of year. Yep. And the Columbia River Gorge, same thing. People tend to go out to places like kaidou because the flowers with November things are pretty brown, so there's not a lot of people that. But you know what's cool about November? You know, it's Oak Forest. And oak forest are,

Jennie Flaming:

there are some beautiful colors in the gorge. Well, November, yeah, the ashes Turn,

Craig Romano:

turn beautiful. The Oaks don't really get my but the Oaks produce acorns, yeah? Which are the, you know, the food co op for so many so you see a lot of critters, yeah, getting ready for wild turkeys. Which a great theme for November, right? Wild turkeys. Yeah, all over and saying the blue, the blues, the wild turkeys are all over the place, out there. So if you're looking for a Thanksgiving theme hike, there you go. Yeah. So love

Jennie Flaming:

it, um, you know one, one other thing, since you mentioned the boulder River and waterfalls in general, November is a pretty great month for waterfall hikes. It just started, yep, yep, and including even one like Coal Creek falls in like Cougar Mountain Park, which

Craig Romano:

is in belvie. Right. Coal Creek is gorgeous in the winter time, that

Jennie Flaming:

waterfall dries up in the summer, but in November, the water starts flowing again. It's a very approachable hike if you live in the sort of Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue area is really nice, yeah. And also the really popular waterfall hikes like Twin Falls, Wallace falls, State Park, Wallace is wonderful in November. Is a great time to go there, way less crowded, especially

Craig Romano:

if you do it on a rainy day, yeah, yeah. But, you

Jennie Flaming:

know, you got to be ready for rain, yeah, be prepared. You know, really related to that, um, one thing I kind of wanted to mention before we wrap up talking about November is just weather, right? Like, like you were saying Craig, you know, we definitely do occasionally have a nice November day. There's not always deep snow in the mountains. Also, the last week of November is the rainiest week of the year in western Washington. So that is when, and the last week of kind of like late November through mid December, is when we have the majority of our severe winter storms, and not necessarily the ones with snow that get a lot of media attention. I'm talking about the destructive storms that cause power outages and sometimes landslides, taking out roads, bringing trees down. Really need to be careful about changing conditions, and I personally really pay I always pay attention to the weather forecast, but starting in mid November, I am really careful, especially about big wind and rain storms so that I don't got stuck somewhere.

Craig Romano:

Jen, that's really good. You brought that up because, you know, we're having a very intense hurricane season. We look at that, we think, Oh, we're immune to that kind of stuff, and we certainly, but there's been some serious wind storms here, and the last thing you want to be is up a trailhead. 20 miles per row where a big windstorm comes in and has just down 10 old growth trees on that road. Don't count on getting your vehicle out of there anytime soon. There was a case. I remember the whole river when it flowed. There was a lot of people that their cars were stuck icicle. There was a case in the icicle, same thing. So stay out of the woods on those when it's dangerous and the roads are damn the trees are coming down, to be to be aware of that on a positive note you're talking about, you know, November, so one of my traditions I do every November, because spectacular, and she's around Thanksgiving, and it I head up to to BC, okay, so that's bear with me. It's still Washington hiking, and I do

Jennie Flaming:

our neighbor. You can talk about Oregon and BC and Idaho sensory

Craig Romano:

here. So I go to Surrey, up to mud Bay, boundary Bay, and here's a shameless plug my brand new urban trails Vancouver, British Columbia book is coming out next year. It's a few months. So I have this hike in there. It's one of my absolute favorite hikes. It's an 11 mile trail that goes along boundary Bay. Yeah, perfectly flat. Fantastic file. So here's what I love about November, when I do late November, 1 of all, it's the migration, unbelievable, the amount of birds that are in boundary Bay. So if you're a burner and some years, I mean, the bald eagles, snowy owls, the dunlins, the sandpipers. It is incredible, yeah. So that's cool in itself. But what makes it spectacular is when you're on the British Columbia side and you're looking across boundary Bay, what is your backdrop? It's Mount Baker, yeah. And you get out there four o'clock and the ALP, and glow starts going on. It is unbelievable. You've got Mount Baker across the way. You're looking south, think, and you see the San Juan Islands. They're not south of you. And you've got the point Rob point Roberts Peninsula. It's a swasson Peninsula. It is one of my absolute favorite I do it all the time in November. It's a

Jennie Flaming:

wonderful, wonderful trail. I totally agree with you about that, and it is wide and flat, so that makes it really accessible for and you can go into a wheelchair, absolutely. And you can, you know, you said it's a my 11 miles long. But you also could just walk out there for up 100 feet. You'll

Craig Romano:

have to just get four accesses to

Jennie Flaming:

it. You choose, kind of choose your own adventure out there, I agree. There's some

Craig Romano:

sculptures out there. And when you go in November, there will guarantee be lots of people out there with very expensive camera equipment and scopes, because pictures of birds, they're looking for short, eared owls, and there's all kinds of cool stuff you're going to see out there. So if you're a bird geek, put this on your list. And late November is the time, because they're all arriving. Yeah, it's a great time to

Jennie Flaming:

be there. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Well, happy November, everybody see you next time. Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Washington State hiking podcast. Hey,

Craig Romano:

do you have questions for Jennie and I to answer in future episodes? If so, the link right below the tip jar lets you leave a voice memo for us. We'd love to hear from you. And if

Jennie Flaming:

you are enjoying this ad free podcast, please help support it by contributing to our tip jar. You don't need an account, and there's no commitment. It's the first link in the show notes. We also have links in the show notes to our work, both Craig's books, my website, if you would like to support us further and

Craig Romano:

again, thanks again for joining us, and we look forward to the next episode.

Unknown:

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Jennie Thwing Flaming

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Craig Romano

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