Best Winter Hikes in Kitsap County (When Everyone Else Stays Home) So here's a confession: I actually prefer hiking in winter. I know that makes me sound like some kind…
There's a certain kind of hush that settles into the mossy trails around Kitsap after about 5 p.m.—that golden, pine-scented quiet when the sun leans low behind the firs. Living here, I'm about 15 minutes from a dozen trailheads, which means my hiking boots live by the door, always muddy, always ready. After-work hikes have become my way to decompress, swapping fluorescent lights for forest shade. From Port Gamble Forest to Clear Creek Trail, these quick evening walks do wonders for the soul.
Okay so there's this thing that happens every single time I walk into an old-growth forest out here. The temperature drops maybe five degrees, the light changes—gets softer, greener somehow—and everything goes quiet in a way that's hard to describe if you haven't felt it. The air smells like wet cedar and earth and moss that's been there longer than your great-great-grandparents. If you've been wanting to check out old-growth but feel kind of intimidated, I get it. These places can feel... big? Important? But they're actually really accessible once you know a couple good spots to try.
So I've been putting off writing this post for like three months because every time I sit down to rank Kitsap's "best" hikes, I second-guess myself halfway through and delete…