We hiked to Williams Peak by way of Ford Mountain.

Note that there is a sign at the base of the Ford Mountain Road that access is not permitted from 6am to 6pm due to active logging/hauling so your best bet is to arrive early. You definitely would not want to meet a logging truck coming down that road as it's very slippery/muddy right now and you also would likely be blocked by heavy machinery part-way up where they are working. I'd suggest that you may need 4WD at the moment, especially if there has been recent rain and if they are still running logging trucks. It appeared to us that there was no activity on the weekend (even though the sign was still up and it did not indicate Monday to Friday.) I've asked the forestry folks for clarification since it's annoying to have access to the Ford Mountain trailhead blocked for most of the day on weekends for no reason.

The trail to Ford Mountain is in good shape and has seen some recent work. We walked the last 1km of rough road before the official trailhead but an F150 made it to the very end of the road.

Between Ford Mountain and the junction with the Williams Ridge trail, the path can be a little tricky to follow and we got mixed up a few times.

We crossed the bowl and found the correct gully with the aid of cairns and flagging. Once in the gully, it was a steep grunt up a heather covered slope that took us all the way to the very top.

A few snow patches above 2000m. It definitely felt like fall up there.

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That B&W shot of the ridge is mint!!

Was there any water on the ridge?
I plan to do an overnighter on the ridge for photography.
Nice photos BTW

Haven't been recently, but there was no water on the ridge when I was there last September. However there are three tarns on the North side of the ridge that aren't too far out of the way... see screenshot of my gps track. With some searching I found a half-decent bivy spot near the middle one on some Heather. But probably better to grab water at the first one and camp back on the ridge.

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Some nice pics.

So cool dramatic looking pictures. you got emotion and attitude.

Nice

K

I like the pics too, well done

Thanks All.

tidelander: I think danielj has the best answer. There may have been a swampy section or two in the forest on the ridge but your best bet is the tarns once the trail gets into the sub-alpine. I didn't see any water in the bowl. The snow patches were very high so that isn't an option yet but it may be soon. There was one tiny tarn that was right beside the trail on the ridge in the sub alpine. You will obviously want to be prepared to filter and treat that water pretty well.