This was to be the first time my buddy Jake's girlfriend Ariel would join us for a hike, and Monahan Mountain seemed like an easy enough hike for the occasion. There is an old road that runs nearly to the summit starting from Cabin Creek Road, with a fairly modest incline most of the way. The route lies within the property of a tree farm. A sign at the trailhead reads "no trespassing, stay on trail." The trail is really just an old road, but they do have signs with arrows marking most of the junctions along the way to point you toward the top.

When we arrived at the trailhead we were greeted with much more snow than we'd expected. At that moment I really wished I'd brought my snowshoes. Oh well. Jake and Ariel didn't have a pair either, so off we went one slow, sinking step at a time. The upside to the snow was enjoying an insane amount of animal tracks along the hike. I mean they were everywhere. We heard what I'm guessing was a pack of coyotes howling and yelping as well. We definitely saw plenty of their tracks and scat. We also saw tracks from rabbits and plenty of other small critters we were unable to identify. Not to mention some huge prints I'm guessing belonged to an elk. If moose were more common around here I would believe they belonged to a moose. But hey, I hear their numbers are on the rise in Washington.

If you look at a satellite imagery map you can easily spot the road that will take you nearly to the summit. However, even though we knew the route of the road we still managed to lose it on our way up. The road starts out heading southeast. At the first junction you want to head south. Our mistake was that we turned south just a few hundred feet early, onto a lesser traveled road, not yet realizing there would be signage marking the "official" route (sorry tree farm). The road did soon curve to the west and got us to the power lines we were heading for. Unfortunately, our mistake caused us to cross under the power lines further west than we'd intended, missing the point where the correct road crosses under the power lines before beginning to climb.

There was a maze of roads to pick from, but we opted for a road that skirted along the base of the mountain until we got around a cliffy section of the NW ridge. At this point we headed south to ascend the side of the ridge. Once on top of the ridge we followed it SE until we ended up crossing the road we had planned on taking to the top in the first place. We debating continuing along the ridge or opting to take the road, but ultimately left the decision up to Ariel. After 2 miles of sinking a foot in the snow with every step and our off trail excursion, she was feeling pretty spent and didn't hesitate to choose the road.

It wasn't long before we were nearing the summit, but Ariel was at her limit. I've gotta give her a hand, though. Our route had taken us nearly 4 miles so far through some very soft and deep snow, and even I was getting a pretty damn good workout. Her and Jake decided to start heading back down while I continued the last 1/2 a mile or so to the summit.

At the last switchback in the road you cross over from the north side to the south side of the ridge. At this point it's pretty easy travel along the top of the ridge and your best bet is to leave the road here. If you continue to the end of the road you'll only get a steeper, thicker bushwack to the summit. The trees are more sparse on the south side of the summit allowing for some decent views. There is no view whatsoever to the north, but you do get plenty of views to the north from the road on the way up. I didn't hang around long, knowing that I had some ground to cover to catch Jake and Ariel.

On the way down I opted to cut a switchback in the road (sorry again, tree farm) quickly dropping me 400 feet in elevation and saving me at least a half mile. Now caught up with Jake and Ariel we were on our way. We managed to stick to the correct route the rest of the way and before we knew it we were enjoying some Mountain High Hamburgers!