I had hoped earlier in the week that I could make a summit attempt of Melted Mt. 4257' which is just SW of Baring off of HY 2. I had some things to do in the early afternoon that would preclude me any chance of reaching Melted Summit. Since I didn't know the area I thought I would at least do some exploring. Complicating things was that I was forced to drive my everyday car which is not suited to be hauling a dog and smelly gear. Undaunted I did the best I could do mitigate having the dog in the car. As usual I didn't reread a previous trip report and I spent my usual too much time finding my jump off point. I left HY 2 on the East end of Baring and soon reached the one lane bridge over the Skykomish. I wondered if my low clearance car would not high center on the twin raised support beams in the middle of the bridge. I very gingerly started onto the bridge and just hoped that the beams would not be any higher along the span of the bridge. I had visions of high centering in the middle of the bridge, seems like only something that I could accomplish. Thankfully across the bridge I parked at the first spot I could not wanting to push my luck any further.
I suited up and made my way West on the road. There are plenty of houses and it seems that there isn't a shortage of No Trespassing Signs. The road was plowed it was spitting some slushy snow. Soon I reached a road closed sign with a good road continuing. Barring me from the road that I wanted were two smaller dogs intent on taking a piece out of my dog. With one hand I held the collar of Bosco and with my other hand I had to ward off the marauding dogs with my hiking pole. I was very thankful for remembering to pack it. To make things even more fun a homeowner stormed in my direction asking if I could read? In my haste of trying to ward off the dogs I neglected to see the large no trespassing sign barring further travel. Part of me wanted to reply to the homeowner is a similar tone to the way he was talking to me. In the end I decided a warm fuzzy response was probably a safer bet. After the dogs where shooed away and the man was satisfied with my hasty retreat I did indeed retreat. The walk was too short back to the car. I did some exploring further up HY 2. I am not sure I was on the correct road to access the route that I had read about in a trip report of Melted Mt. Either access has changed or the report I had read had conveniently left out the part about access issues.
