Moolock Mountain and South Bessemer Mountain via logging roads

I parked my car at the Bessemer CCC Road-Trail Trailhead on the Middle Fork Road.

I rode my mountain bike up the Bessemer Road Connector Trail, went right on the CCC Road-Trail, and went left up the Bessemer Road-Trail (the map showed this as being gated, but I didn't see one). (The Bessemer Road Connector Trail and the Bessemer Road-Trail are both so more traveled than the CCC Road-Trail that it would be easy to not notice when you join or leave the CCC Road-Trail.) I rode my bike up the Bessemer Road-Trail until the 5th switchback (around 2,220') and locked my bike to a tree.

From there I went on foot to the intersection of the Bessemer Road-trail and the logging road to Moolock Mountain (around 3,120'). After a couple miles this logging road was barricaded and on the other side of the barricade was a footpath lined with boulders, this footpath was pretty neat and it continued almost to the end of the road. After crossing the ESE ridge of Moolock Mountain there were half a dozen chairs made out of stumps (did the loggers make these and the boulder-lined path?). I continued on to the end of the logging road, just S of Moolock Mountain, and then fought brush up the small ridge to the top of Moolock Mountain. (I should have traversed W to the boulder field and ascended the side of the boulder field. Better yet, I should have ascended the way I descended.)

The summit is a large pile of boulders with a film cannister summit register under a cairn, the only other party that signed the register was in June, maybe because there is no pencil. At this point I was soaked, chilly, the wind was driving the sleet diagonal, and fog obscured all but my immediate vicinity, so I didn't see much of anything at the summit and was only left with an impression that the views would be good on a nice day.

Because of the rotten visibility I almost descended down the ridge that leads to the North Fork Snoqualmie, fortunately I checked my compass before heading down and avoided what could have been a very bad mistake. The ridge down was very nice old growth, through the fog I thought I saw old growth and meadow on the N side of the ridge (is it really?). I dropped S off the ridge to the road-trail when the old growth ended right before a boulder field. This is a much better way to ascend or descend than the way I made my ascent. (When ascending the turn off of the trail and up the ridge is marked by a cairn on the N side of the road-trail).

I descended to Kiss Your Ass Goodbye Pass (just NW of the borrow pit, a road not shown on the map connects the borrow pit and the pass) and went up South Bessemer Mountain. The summit of South Bessemer Mountain looks like the end of a gravel road.

I descended via the Bessemer Road-Trail, I wish I had taken my bike up to the Moolock Mountain turnoff and cut half an hour off of this wet descent. On the CCC Road-Trail I saw my only people for the day: a half-dozen crazy mountain bikers coming from the Middle Fork Road. What were they thinking biking on a rotten day like this?

  • Date:
    2004/10/09
    Elevation gain:
    5,034 feet
    Trip type:
    mountain bike, hike, and scramble
    USGS quads:
    Lake Philippa, Mount Si
    In:
    Middle Fork Snoqualmie Drainage, North Fork Snoqualmie Drainage
    Car-to-car:
    7 hours 21 minutes
    • 15 minutes driving from Lower Queen Anne to intersection of I-90 & I-405
    • 26 minutes driving from intersection of I-90 & I-405 to Middle Fork Road
    • 16 minutes driving from Middle Fork Road to Bessemer CCC Road-Trail Trailhead
    • 21 minutes ascending via bicycle from Bessemer CCC Road-Trail Trailhead to Bessemer Road-Trail
    • 35 minutes ascending via bicycle from Bessemer Road-Trail to the 5th switchback at 2,220' (right after Green Mountain turnoff)
    • 39 minutes ascending from the 5th switchback at 2,220' (right after Green Mountain turnoff) to the turnoff to Moolock Mountain
    • 2 hours 17 minutes ascending from the turnoff to Moolock Mountain to Moolock Mountain
    • 1 hour 4 minutes descending from Moolock Mountain to Kiss Your Ass Goodbye Pass
    • 50 minutes ascending from Kiss Your Ass Goodbye Pass to South Bessemer Mountain
    • 44 minutes descending from South Bessemer Mountain to the turnoff to Moolock Mountain
    • 24 minutes descending from the turnoff to Moolock Mountain to the 5th switchback at 2,220' (right after Green Mountain turnoff)
    • 27 minutes descending via bicycle from the 5th switchback at 2,220' (right after Green Mountain turnoff) to Bessemer CCC Road-Trail Trailhead

    References

    • Copyright © 2024 Gabriel Deal.