"I conquered Thompson Point the other day. It's been on my list, but it's such a long walk. Fortunately there is a new trailhead at the "Big Bridge" on the Middle Fork Road, about 2 miles beyond the Mailbox trailhead. Unfortunately it has a sign saying "Area Closed". Fortunately, I "misread" the sign and went through anyway. This cuts off a couple of miles. At 3940 ft there is an old road that goes left up to the summit. I went further east onto the Mt Defiance Trail. The contrast is stunning. It's a winding, clear path through gorgeous, deep woods. By contrast, the first 4 miles are just overgrown old dirt road. At 4200 ft I cut left up the ridge to the summit; it's a nice little bushwhack. I came down via the dirt roads. To the NE is a rough ridge heading up to Revolution Peak and Russian Butte beyond. To the W is another ridge going to Zorro Ridge and Little Comrade. Both look do-able, though Little Comrade may be technical climbing with ropes, and I read that Russian Butte can be scrambled, but it takes substantial time to get up and down. There's a cool building near the top of Thompson, slowly falling into disrepair. 4300 ft gain, 14 miles, 8:15 hours." — markgarrett • Nov 10, 2016

"Reaching summits in the Washington Cascades this time of year can be difficult without snowshoes, and since I still don't have a pair I have been taking advantage of NWhikers as well as the WTA site in order to plan my ascents in the tracks of recent snowshoe trips, with varying success. Yesterday I managed to bag Thompson Point thanks to trail-breaking by a few NWhikers on Sunday. Thanks puzzlr, Mugs, and RichP!!! I may not have made it without your help. I have to second puzzlr's praise for the beautiful trail work by Charles Murray that transformed this dreary old logging road, it was a pleasure to hike! I started out from the gate at 8 am, where the excavator was parked, seemingly a few hundred feet from the trails completion. There are dozens of small creek crossings, many with delicately placed rock gardens and stepping stones. I was surprised to see the bridge over granite creek demolished, with a large log crossing in it's place. Snow cover made it difficult tell how far past the bridge the trail work went, but there seemed to be a fairy seamless transition between new trail and over-grown road. Snow began to appear just past the bridge, and was steady within a mile..." — Jeb • Dec 13, 2012