Directions: Take U.S. Route 2 to Skykomish. Close to milepost 49, turn left onto Beckler River Road No. 65. Continue about seven miles and turn right on Forest Service Road 6520 stay left when 6520 spurs off and continue to the end of the road and the trailhead.

Trail notes: Where to go, where to go. Well Bill had spied this trail and I saw no reason not to go here today since his pick was as good as the ones I had in mind. So off to Sunrise Mtn, Scorpion Mtn, and Lake Jane. The trail starts off on a logging road that hasn't seen any use in perhaps 15-20 years - you know me an my disdain for logging road hikes :-) Still this wasn't bad and relatively short lived. The logging road section takes about an hour and is relatively steep as logging roads go. The trail is fairly overgrown so on wet days expect to get wet - oh yeah this is on of those days...

So after making your way up the logging road you reach an established trail which travels East along the Johnson Ridge. The going is overall pretty easy, the underbrush pretty light and the trees filled with moss. From the looks of it this area receives about 8-10 feet of snow during the winter months. Would be a nice snowshoe but the access would be difficult if not impossible. That said the trail is mostly gentle with occasionally steep sections of trail, which collectively add up to the vertical posted here. The real change is about 2000, but hiking up and down and up and down to the lake and back add in the extra elevation.

As you walk through the forested section look for mushrooms, there are quite a few varieties. One I have never seen before was about the size of a basketball, and was the consistency of jello - don't ask. The other sites along the way are of Glacier Peak though on this day the viewing opportunities were limited due to considerable cloud cover.

About an hour or so in you will make you way up and over Sunrise Mountain which offers a couple ad hoc camping sites and juvenile trees small enough to make the view worth checking out from the high point. From here the trail descends steeply for a bit losing three to four hundred feet. Then the traverse is on for another 30-40 minutes before the up hill toward Scorpion Mountain begins.

The uphill from the saddle is really not that different from the route descended, relatively steep with forest cover and four or five hundred feet more in elevation. After about 30 minutes one breaks out of the trees and traverses a set of alpine meadows. From the trail one has a false sense of the Scorpion Mountains summit. Continuing the traverse yields a spur trail to the top of Scorpion Mtn. We opted to first go to Lake Jane

From the Scorpion Mtn Spur continue on about another half mile losing about 500 feet or so down to the lake taking about 15-20 minutes. During this time you pass what I believe is the nicest Alpine meadow on the hike and would make a very nice place to hang out for an afternoon/overnight in better weather. The trail leaving the meadows turns primitive, is overgrown and dicey in several sections. Nothing to get nervous about, but a place where you should take some care to not go tumbling down the hill.

Lake Jane is itself a nice set of lakes. Nothing too remarkable about them, but still a secluded place where you likely won't see many people. We only saw one other group this day and after passing them didn't see them again. At the least Lake Jane is a nice place to get out of the wind and rain and have lunch as we did. On a sunny day I would opt for Scorpion Mtn since no doubt the view is quite spectacular from there.

We returned up to the Scorpion Lake spur and then went to the top. Somewhere on our way up from the lake the rain turned into snow and wind picked up. Ah, summer snow - how weird, but that is Washington. If you had asked me in June what I though the weather there would be today I would have said 65-70 and Indian Summer pattern. Alas this isn't shaping up to be an Indian summer.

From Scorpion Mtn we returned back to the truck with no significant events to report. Overall I would say this hike is really quite nice, likely offers good views, alpine meadows and a shot at some solitude. So if you are looking to be alone in some alpine meadows you might just check out Scorpion Mtn.