This is my second time over the last year hiking to the summit of Mt. Townsend. This time was a wet and cold experience. It rained hard from the Trailhead and the first couple thousand feet of elevation and then the rain turned to snow and quite the blizzard at the summit. We persevered in the cold long enough to find the summit marker and then ran down the trail to get out of the snow and into the more protected area of the lower trail. No views this time! It was quite the white-out versus views of the Hood Canal, Seattle, The Straits of Juan de Fuca, and Mount Buckhorn on my last summit. While it was wet and rainy lower down, we appreciated the old growth Fir and Cedar trees, Rhododendrons, and various other native plants that were flowering during the hike. I look forward to seeing the Rhododendrons flower later in the summer.