Month: March 2019

Derek wanted to hike today and he wanted to do something relatively mild because his knee has been acting up and that was just fine with me because I was sick all week (for the second week in a row) and not only did I not hike, I didn’t even do my normal hilly neighborhood walks.

So he suggested nearby Taylor Mountain and it was great. We don’t know the mountain well enough to form a big plan and there are lots of service roads and trails (many of them shared with horses) so we basically just wandered around, with numerous ups and downs for a total of 7.83 miles and 2,365 feet of elevation gain, both fairly respectable numbers. Take a look at our all-over-the-place track, snipped from Google Earth:

Basically we started and ended on the far left (west) at the parking lot. Going out we took a left, into the forest, and wandered around various trails (it looks like spaghetti) and came back down via a service road, the track on the bottom (south). It was really good fun.

I enjoyed this sign, which is one of the least enlightening trail signs I have ever seen:

That’s kind of like pulling up to an intersection and the street sign says ‘street’.

Anyway, Derek’s appearance was brought to us by Jan, AKA ‘Granny’ who was happy to hang out with Finley and Camden while we went out to play. Jill was at work (someone has to be productive, I guess).

A great day, I am hoping my nasty cold is in the past and I can resume my normal spring schedule: hike, hike, and hike some more.

Logistics are important. Jill and Finley are at a Girl Scout camp for the weekend and Derek had planned for his mother to babysit Camden so Derek and I could do a long hike.

But the babysitting did not happen so we downsized the hike and took Camden along. Fun!

We parked near Rattlesnake Lake and went by Christmas Lake to the PTC (Palouse-to-Cascades Trail) for a short jog up to the Cedar Butte trail.

We took the steep way up and the more moderate way down. We saw lots of mountain goat scat (they imported some from the Olympics) along the Cedar Butte trail and, on the way, back, we saw evidence of Beaver Activity:

Slightly cloudy day, not a great view from the top of Cedar Butte:

We had a great time, went about 4.6 miles in 2 hours 20 minutes, not a bad pace, particularly for Derek who was lugging a really big load pretty much the entire way.

Here is an image of our track:

I have had a sterling weekend – I got to babysit Camden on Friday (we saw part of the new Lego movie – Cam did not have the patience to sit through the whole thing), hike on Saturday, have dinner with Brittany Saturday night and join Derek and Cam for another hike today.

Lucky me!

Did a typical Tiger Mountain conditioning hike today, with Mark, Greg and Ken. They went farther than I did – at the junction with the Nook Trail they went up a ways (this is the ultra-steep trail that goes directly up to the summit of Tiger #3) and I turned around.

We met up for coffee afterwards.

I cut my hike short to save my legs for tomorrow – Derek and I are going to go somewhere, we will figure it out in the morning.

Have been sick with a nasty cold all week so this was my first hike since last Sunday. Mark and Ken have also been sick, and Jan tells me the hospital where she works is jammed to the rafters with patients, many of them with a vicious ‘flu that has broken out.

How many people are killed by influenza every year (and recall the devastating pandemic following WWI that killed about 50M world-wide) with no breathless media commentary?

Oh, well, human psychology is beyond my pay grade, but I continue to get my ‘flu shot every year and I wish everyone did.

I didn’t hike this week, mainly due to my distaste for crowded freeways so I was extra happy to start St. Patrick’s Day with my typical conditioning hike – Adventure Trail, Section Line, etc.

At the top of the little connector trail (short but very steep) that takes you from the E. Sunset Way parking lot up to the Puget Power Trail is a view point. I typically stop there for a minute to check out the view, which is of the City of Issaquah, and parts of Sammamish, and you can sometimes see all the way to the snow-capped Olympic Mountains in the west.

When I was on Tiger Mountain a couple of weeks ago I had to put on the spikes because it was still very snowy and icy. Today, up to 1100 feet, at the junction of the Section Line and Nook Trail Connector, no spikes needed. Spring has almost sprung.

I figure by next week I should be able to leave the house for hikes early enough to avoid sitting in line for 10 minutes to get on the freeway, and then sitting in stop-and-go traffic for another 20 minutes to clear the area.

All that snow and ice that has melted has to go somewhere and what hasn’t evaporated back to the sky has filled the mountain’s creeks and lakes. Round Lake is a lake again:

Looking forward to Spring. Reminds me of good old Charles Algernon Swinburne, he of the purple prose, who wrote (if I recall):

When the hounds of springs are on winter’s traces

The mother of months in meadow and plain

Fill the shadows and windy places

With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain….

Derek and I did a great hike today – Jan (Granny) stayed over night Saturday night and hung out with the kids (Jill works weekends) while Derek and I got to go out and play.

We were kicking around ideas for where to go and settled on the Olallie Bike Trail. This is a good time to check it out, since there are no bikes on the trail these days. For obvious reasons.

The hike was just over 8 miles, much of it in either spikes or snow shoes. Lots of snow up there. And lots of beauty along the trail:

We had a really great time and hope to start getting out together more often – our Ireland hiking trip is coming up in the first week of September and my! how time flies! Here is an image of our track, which started and finished near Rattlesnake Lake:

I was scheduled to meet a friend in Renton for lunch so I figured I would hike Squak Mountain from the May Valley Road side, since it is easy to get into Renton from there.

I went up the main trail, which was pretty much snow-free until about 2 miles in (1400 feet elevation) when I encountered a trail with very packed-down snow and, since it was morning and cold, it was icy. So I put on the spikes to and from the Bullitt Fireplace.

The hike was 5.44 miles according to my Garmin. I saw about four people and two dogs the entire time. A nice way to start the day, and lunch with Bruce Stobie was excellent.

Today I hiked in the same general area I hiked yesterday, but from the reverse direction, taking my usual route from E Sunset Way. About .5 mile into the Section Line the trail got icy so I had to put on the spikes. Those things are awesome; they make hiking in icy conditions fairly easy.

As usual when I hike solo I was able to stop and look around and enjoy the view. At one point I noticed the ridges that go straight up to the top of the mountain (West Tiger #3 is the nearest peak from where I stopped). Bushwhacking straight up would be doable and fun but, if not illegal, definitely discouraged.

I am looking forward to the day when the ice is gone (although the snowy woods are beautiful) and I can expand my roaming to even more interesting territory.

I was scheduled to babysit in Snoqualmie today at 10am, so I figured I would have time for a hike on Tiger Mountain, which is about 5 miles west of Snoqualmie.

I actually got there earlier than I needed to, hit the trail at 6:45 – went up Nook to Section Line, to Bus Trail, to the Around The Lake Trail because I wanted to see if Tradition Lake is looking good. It is, as you can see above.

In the meantime, I admit I just love the forest. This little stream was making beautiful music:

I will be back out there tomorrow morning, we are supposed to have several sunny days in a row. Hooray!