This upcoming December, I will be relocating to Fort Lewis, Washington. I really need to get back into the mountains and am curious of anyone knows of any good trails on or near the base. I will be working full time and there are restrictions that make it hard for me to travel to trails away from base. Any ideas help, Thanks!!

Yes .... I worked there in the 1980's ....

It pays to have a bicycle. Some good trails in the proximity are Point Defiance Park to the north, Anderson Island to the west and Nisqually River Delta
to the south.

I also had a car, so ended up going to Mount Rainier quite a bit.

There are 95 small named hills within Fort Lewis. 80 percent of these hills are accessible most of the time (with a good network of roads and tracks) if you get the proper yearly permit to hike in the area they are in. The areas that contain them are not always open due to military exercises. A large group of hills are in a region bounded by firing ranges. This region is open in the autumn for hunting if you have a permit for it (you might have to be a member of a local hunting club).

I have done about 80 of these hills (and have a lifetime goal of getting them all). Send me a PM if you want information on how to get a permit, etc.

The bushwhacking is terrible to reach the summits of some of these but the tracks make for pleasant strolling and they are fun orienteering exercises. Smartphones with GPS-topo have made this a little less involved. They are good things to do in the winter months.

Map (as a starting point): http://www.acme.com/mapper/?ll=47.06293,-122.63909&z=14&t=T

The listing of these hills:
Fort Lewis Quad: http://howbert.com/cgi-bin/peaklist.pl?quadname=Fort%20Lewis
Nisqually Quad: http://howbert.com/cgi-bin/peaklist.pl?quadname=Nisqually
Steilacoom Quad: http://howbert.com/cgi-bin/peaklist.pl?quadname=Steilacoom
Spanaway Quad: http://howbert.com/cgi-bin/peaklist.pl?quadname=Spanaway

Paul