Miles: 7.6 miles RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 2010ft/5537ft
Map: Green Trails Mount Stuart No. 209 and Liberty No. 210
Favorite Eats After Hike: The Commonwealth, Basecamp Books & Bites, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
Hike Details:
Iron Bear Peak and Jester Mountain sit just a gap apart in the Teanaways and make for an early summer hike when the weather is grey on the west side of the Cascade Mountains. Views of the Stuart Range and Mount Rainier stand proudly on the horizon while spring Columbia lilies and balsamroot line the red rock of the trail as you climb.
My trip report: 5/11/2019
The road into the Iron Bear Creek trailhead was in really good shape up until the last few hundred yards. No more snow but there is a pretty good flow of water that had at a least one car parked before it. Shortly after, the road to the trail head turns up sharply on a more rutted road and everyone seems to park here although the road does continue another 500 feet or so to the actual parking lot for the trail head. Expect low hanging branches over and brush crowding the road.
We started a little after 10am and the day was already heating up. Luckily, this trail does afford enough patches of shade in between breaking out onto exposed slopes as it makes its way along the swales above the Iron Creek drainage and below Iron Bear Peak.
All the flowing water sources are in the first mile, the rest of the trail was dry. The first small patch of snow along the trail was at about 4400 feet and the first patch on the trail was at 5200 feet but minimal until you reach Iron Bear Peak itself. Not sure why other reports call it “unnamed peak”, GAIA was it clearly labeled as Iron Bear. It is considered the “false summit” of Jester.
We stopped briefly at the four way junction at Iron Bear Pass before taking the most right trail up along the ridge towards the summit. Avalanche lilies were out in force and make for tasty snacking.
We reached the summit of Iron Bear just before noon at 3.26 miles in and had lunch. Mount Stuart, Miller Peak, Three Brothers, The Temple, Colchuck, Sherpa, Navajo were on display and of course, Rainier stood proudly off in the distance.
After about 30 minutes of enjoying the views, we decided we had time to add Jester Mountain to our day. Dropping over the southeast side of Iron Bear by continuing on the Teanaway Ridge Trail, we soon discovered quite a bit of snow that made it worth pulling out navigation. Postholing was not horrible and we did fine in aggressive trailrunners and poles. We didn’t drop down too far but stayed with the ridge on the north side and soon broke out onto the ridge to continue. Snow was patchy from here on.
We hit the County Line Trail junction at about 3.6 miles and turned left. In another 1000 feet or so we turned up off trail to reach the summit of Jester at 5,540 feet and 3.8 miles in. There was a tiny register that unfortunately was water logged, we let it dry a bit in the sun. My friend was still able to find her name on it but some have faded to memory.
Our return trip was uneventful, passing more hikers heading up to enjoy the views.
Directions: From I-90 take exit 85. Go left to cross the freeway, and make a right onto 970, passing the Twin Pines Drive-In. Hwy 970 veers left. 9.4 miles past the Twin Pines Drive-In, turn left onto Hwy 97 and continue for 9.9 miles. Turn left onto FR 9714 for 2.7 miles to the end at the trailhead for Trail 1351. At the end of FR 9714 you will ford a stream just before you get to the trailhead. The last 200 yards of road is a bit dicey but you can park in several turnouts just before you get to the ford. The Iron Creek trailhead is three miles from Hwy 97. No fee is required to park there, but there is no toilet available this trailhead.
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