I've had the pleasure of hiking both these mountains before, but it had been a while and I was looking forward to refreshing the experience and the awesome views from on top. These are two of the most hiked, easiest accessed, and awesomely rewarded views, hike peaks there are. The trail is only 2.4 miles to the top of Cascade from the trailhead, and another 1.4 there and back from the trail split to the summit of Porter. The weather was nice when my dad and I did this on 6/23/09. The temps were in the low 70's and was partly sunny with some hazy clouds hanging around. Black flies were definately out, as you would expect for this time of year in the 'dacks. The trail was wet and muddy in most places but not really anything bad or of hindrence other than the col between the two mountains. A few spots on the way to and back from Porter required some rock hopping and selective stepping to avoid boot high mud. There was a pretty good number of hiking parties on the trail today (a Tuesday), but I guess for these mountains any day could be busy. It was pretty amazing, as we approached the trail split for Porter we crossed a i'm guessing woman in her 80's, and then 5 minutes later a large family with several kids in the 2-3 year old range! Just goes to show that you can enjoy hiking at any age if you prepare and set your mind to it! This is a MUST hike for anyone thinking of getting into the hiking of the high peaks. It is relatively easy and the reward from the views on top are hard to beat!
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