Fuzzy Top has an elevation of 1760 feet, but the trail only starts about 0.7 miles from the summit. It was a bit of a drive to get there, though. I had to drive 16 miles into the heart of Capitol Forest via logging roads. The C-Line cuts through the center of the state forest, curving around and around winding roads, taking away the bulk of an otherwise steep climb. Once you turn onto the D-1000 line, you can see a spectacular view, despite the vast clear cutting of the forest. Next turn takes you to the D-1500 line, which is a gravel mess, causing me to drive approximately 5 to 10 mph, in fear of wrecking a tire (I drive a CR-V, so I’m probably fine, but I still baby my car.)
The trailhead of Fuzzy Top appears out of nowhere on the left hand side of D-1500, with about one parking space available. Luckily, no one else was parked, so we got out and hit the trail.
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The trail is relatively flat, but then starts going gently downhill. We were confused because we thought we were heading up a summit, but the trail is clearly marked…until…
There is a break out of the trees, the clear cutting line. If we had looked to the left, the sign points to the rest of the trail, heading up, but is also slightly overgrown. So we headed straight. The “trail” was littered with branches and a gravel pit, making choosing between sliding down the gravel and off the side of the mountain or tripping and falling over the branches and down the side of the mountain a rather difficult one, but we persevered. Eventually we came across this view.
It’s hard to see in the picture (thanks, camera phone), but you can see Mount Saint Helens, Mount Adams, and Mount Rainier all in the distance. It was stunning.
Eventually, the trail became even more tree littered and we decided to turn back, figuring either the trail had been poorly maintained or we’d, in fact, completely lost our way.
Which we quickly learned was the case when we finally saw the damn sign pointing left.
Back up the hill we went, into dense forest cover.
At the summit of Fuzzy Top you can’t see any views at all, because there are so many trees. From a distance, Fuzzy Top is so “tree-full” that it looks fuzzy, hence the name. There are a few wooden benches, but no views, which is apparently common for many of the peaks in Capitol Forest. I snapped a picture of the sign and headed back down.
