John Guilford's Hikes

White Chuck Bench on 2025-11-18

Date: 2025-11-18

Location: White Chuck Bench

People: (including myself): Happy Hikers

			  	Alt.	Miles
Trailhead:		9:10	1100	0
East Trailhead:		12:45	1550	7 (8.3 GPS)	
Trailhead:		3:50	1100	14 (15.5 GPS)

This trail goes along a bench above the north side of the White Chuck river between White Chuck and Mt. Pugh. Parts of it go along an old roadway.

The trail is mostly relatively flat with some ups and down, especially nearer the east end. The day was gray with a touch of drizzle.

We saw numerous mushrooms and had side streams to cross. Some of these had bridges, while others involved rock hopping or navigating logs placed across the streams.

When we got to the east end of the trail, I was surprised to find another trailhead along with a latrine. I hadn't realized a FS road (White Chuck road/NF 23) led to that end. That road has a washout, is closed, and is impassible by cars, though there is an ad hoc path around the washout that seems passable by a good 4wd with high clearance.

At the far end, a rain squall moved through. We had a quick lunch. The hike to the far end took longer than we'd hoped, and we had some concern about getting back to the trailhead before dark. Due to that, we decided to return via the road rather than retracing our path on the trail. With the road we'd have about a mile to backtrack from the mountain loop highway to the original trailhead, but the road wasn't as twisty so the total distance was about the same as the trail. However, the road made for significantly faster travel.

On the hike back, the skies started clearing a bit and we got some patches of blue showing through (sometimes with some mist falling at the same time).

We got out with plenty of daylight left, but I think the choice to use the road back had been a wise one.

On the drive home, we were rewarded by a stunning view of White Horse mountain that was backlit by the setting sun.