About Attrition
A Seattle hiking journal that grew into a trail guide, one weekend at a time.
- Trails
- 122
- Trip reports
- 147
- Photos
- 6,510
- Reader reviews
- 948
- Hours on the trail
- 987
How it started
Attrition began as a way to keep track of weekend hikes. The first trip report here dates from 2001. Most of the hikes started from Seattle: east on I-90 toward Snoqualmie Pass, up the Mountain Loop Highway and US 2, around Mount Rainier, and out to the Olympics and the North Cascades. Now and then there was a longer drive to the canyon country of southern Utah, to Zion, Arches, Bryce and Canyonlands.
Every trip got a write-up: how to find the trailhead, what the trail was like, how long it took and what the weather did. Each one came with a card's worth of photos. Founder John Munyan wrote most of the early reports, and other hikers soon added their own.
What you'll find here
- Trail pages. Directions, distance, elevation gain, season, passes, whether dogs are allowed, a map, and every trip report for that trail, newest first.
- Trip reports. A dated account of one day on a trail, with the photos from it. Conditions change, so the date matters as much as the description.
- Photos. Visitors rate them, and the best ones rise to the top of Photos and onto the front page.
- Reviews. Short takes from people who hiked a trail, with their own difficulty and quality ratings.
The people who wrote back
The readers turned out to be the best part of the site. They wrote to say that a bridge had washed out a mile up the forest road, that a trail was 2.7 miles and not 6, and to bring bug spray for the horseflies. Some did a hike with kids aged six and eight. One group climbed in the dark to watch the Perseids. The most-discussed trails are Rattlesnake Ledge, Mt. Pilchuck and MailBox Peak.
“I can't stress enough how important the hike descriptions were for this hike. There [were] at least 4 different occasions we thought we were on the wrong [trail], only to come across something someone had described.”
“I hiked the Wonderland Trail in Sept of '75. Hope to do it again in '05. … Your pics are outstanding as is your site.”
“It is just as John says; very, very, beautiful. However the name of the Lake is Joan Lake, not Jane Lake. … PS - Keep up the good work John; Just don't exaggerate so much...”
Corrections have always been welcome, even when they come from the Forest Service. If a distance looks wrong or a road has closed, leave a review on the trail. It helps the next person more than anything else on the page.
Before you go
Many of these reports are years old. Since they were written, roads have washed out, trailheads have moved, and permit and pass rules have changed. Treat each report as a record of that day, not a promise about today.
- Check current road and trail conditions with the land manager before you leave. Trail pages list the links we have under “Elsewhere”, but some of them are old.
- Carry the Ten Essentials, tell someone where you're going, and turn around when the weather or snow says so. The mountain will still be there.
- Pack out what you pack in, stay on the trail, and leave the wildflowers for the next hiker.
- Distances and elevation gains are our best measurements, not survey data. Readers have caught a few.
Join in
Anyone can sign up. You can add a trail, write up your trip, upload your photos, and rate other people's reports and pictures. A moderator checks new members' posts before they appear, and regular contributors publish directly.