Saturday, August 4, 2012

Noble Knob

We just hit this lovely hike on August 3rd.  It's been on our wish list for quite some time now.  We went the longer hike on the rougher road.  Now, I think a lot of people really over react when it comes to road conditions. Was it good? No, but it's a FOREST road, so we don't expect it to be great.  Would we drive up it if it was muddy?  No, we are more sensible than that.  But we do have a 4WD truck that's in good shape and we take our time.  There are hair pin turns, but they are wide enough to get up with little to no problems.  I never had it in 4WD just 2WD low.  When the road it good, it's good. Where it's bad, it's bad.  Just don't go tearing up and down it and be aware of other drivers.  Good sense.  That's my soap box time...let's get to the review.

It's on forest road 7174 on the left.  I clocked it as 31 miles from the light right after the rangers station leaving Enumclaw.  It's only named the forest road, so do not look for a sign that says Corral Pass Road.  If you get the National park you have gone 1.5 miles too far.  We got to the trail head about 9:45.  We started up by the hitching posts.  This will be a little tricky footing and steep until you get up to the trail.  If you want to start from the actually trail head, you will find it by the picnic table and trash cans further in.  We came back this way. The hike actually had a little more oompf than we thought it would and we were very pleased.  There were a few slippery spots, so you may want poles from time to time.  We mostly followed the main trail, but made a few side trips to get better views from time to time.  We made it to the Knob in 2 hours with the side trips.  The bugs at the top of the Knob were pretty brutal and we didn't stop very long as even with bug spray we were getting chewed up.  Make sure you have plenty of water, there is no water source here.  A few trickles in the first mile that the dogs got to enjoy on the way back. Great views, lots of wild flowers and good company!  Oh and NO BEARS!  Just lots of spider webs that we had to dodge or go under.  The webs were across the trail like crazy!

















2 comments:

  1. Noble Knob is my favorite hike (both for easy views and for sentimental reasons), but we've always gone the easy route from Corral Pass. The road up there is pretty bad, but it sounds like 7140 is much worse!

    We camped on the Knob last weekend and the mozzies were so bad that our dog had an allergic reaction and his face puffed up!

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  2. I can't imagine trying to stay up there for more than 30 minutes! We even had bug spray and felt like it was just a seasoning for them! Hope your dog is okay!

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