Page Type Page Type: Mountain/Rock
Location Lat/Lon: 47.79876°N / 121.39279°W
Additional Information County: Snohomish
Activities Activities: Scrambling
Additional Information Elevation: 5936 ft / 1809 m
Sign the Climber's Log

Overview

Townsend Mountain (not to be confused with Mount Townsend in the Olympics) is located in the Wild Sky area of the North Cascades, near Merchant Peak and Mount Baring. It is a gentle-sloped mountain, except for the northeast slope and has a long ridge running NW to SE.
Townsend Ridge

Route Description

Drive US Highway 2 to milepost 42 in the town of Baring. Turn north onto 632nd Place NE (Barclay Creek Road), which is directly across from “Der Baring Store.” Cross the railroad tracks and continue for 4.3 miles on FS Road #6024 to the trailhead.

Follow this trail to the lake, and continue around the lake to the opposite end and you should see a faint path which continues along Barclay Creek for a bit and then heads steeply uphill to the northeast. This trail leads to Stone Lake, then passes through Paradise Meadow to Eagle Lake.
Eagle LakeEagle Lake


Go around the right side of Eagle Lake for a short distance then head straight uphill to the NE aiming for the 5360' saddle on the ridge. There is a lot of brush here in the summer. Partway up it opens up and there is some steep rock, but it can be negotiated fairly easily. Once atop the ridge, head E along the ridge crest to the high point.

Note: I climbed this peak as a traverse from Merchant Peak which is also possible, but not very easy. I wrote a trip report here.

Red Tape

NW Forest Pass is required to park at Barclay Lake trailhead.
Eagle Lake & Mt. BaringEagle Lake & Mt Baring

Additions and CorrectionsPost an Addition or Correction

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Cascade Scrambler

Cascade Scrambler - Feb 28, 2009 2:47 pm - Voted 10/10

Road is now gnarly in places

At 2.6 miles from SR2, FS6024 gets pretty rough. I *did* see a minivan farther up the road, but I wouldn't suggest taking anything less than a truck or something with four wheel drive. The road is fairly washed out for about .1 mile, and there is a nice small gorge forming in the middle of the road that will undoubtedly get worse this spring.

Andy Dewey

Andy Dewey - Mar 18, 2009 9:58 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Road is now gnarly in places

Thanks for the info, I updated the page.

Cascade Scrambler

Cascade Scrambler - Jul 26, 2009 1:22 am - Voted 10/10

Re: Road is now gnarly in places

Just drove up the road today- they've thinned out the trees along the road, and graded the road. It's now completely passable by all passenger cars.

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Children

Children

Children refers to the set of objects that logically fall under a given object. For example, the Aconcagua mountain page is a child of the 'Aconcagua Group' and the 'Seven Summits.' The Aconcagua mountain itself has many routes, photos, and trip reports as children.