Author: DJHikers

Carl and I did Rattlesnake Mountain/Sno Valley trail head to Grand Prospect this morning. Along the way we saw something we had never seen before – a (quasi) rainbow without the rain.

We both stopped to capture this rare phenomenon. The sun was peeking through the forest, intersecting a thin mist that was floating in the air. The combination made for a rainbow – a rainbow that seemed close enough to touch.

But my camera and camera skills were too weak to register this beautiful sight. Oh, well. We had a terrific day.

This January and February has been a wet, wet, wet fest. Few of us have been getting out regularly because of the constant downpour. But today is marvelous, sunny and cool, perfect hiking weather.

We saw few people on the way up (we left the trail head about 7:20 am) but on the way down we saw dozens of people and it seemed about half of them had at least one friendly dog. A great day.

Great way to start the day.

It felt great to be back on the trail this morning, after a month of rain, rain, rain. Actually, it is going to rain again tonight but this morning was a nice break so I took advantage and drove to the Tradition Plateau parking lot (the one close to the TMT and Tiger 3 trails) and headed up the Nook Trail.

I then headed down the Section Line, to the Powerline, to the Bus Trail, to the Around The Lake Trail and back to the parking lot. A nice way to start the day.

I will be looking for more opportunities to get out on the trails. Gotta do it.

Ken, Mike, Mark, David and I headed up the Teneriffe Falls trail just after 8am on New Year’s Day. Nice way to start the year.

David, who is 76, was having some trouble with his knees and needed to turn around short of the falls. I went back with him (I had driven the two of us in my car, Ken drove the rest) and we retired to the Starbuck’s at the North Bend Safeway, where Ken et. al. joined us presently.

Rather wet, a bit chilly, but it was all good.

Happy New Year!

Wendy and Ken hosted their annual party this past Saturday, 12/21, and we set up a hike for today.

We met at the E. Sunset Way parking lot and did a loop – Puget Power Connector, Puget Power, about 100 yards of the Adventure Trail to the Wetlands, to Bus Trail, Nook Trail, we then went down on Section Line and back to the car via Wetland/Puget Power.

About 5.25 miles, just over two hours. A fun hike.

And the forest on Tiger is beautiful, particularly on a cloudy day like today:

Merry Christmas/Happy Hannukah – just enjoy the season.

Derek and I planned to hit the trail in time to get up to one of the Rattlesnake Mountain ledges in time for sunrise. And we did.

We hit the middle ledge just before sunrise and decided to stay there, as there was no one else around. Derek suggested we try scrambling the little bit to the northern spur of the ledge, which we did, and got the kind of stunning view above.

The sun was just starting to peek over the mountains to the east:

Rattlesnake Lake is, right now, pathetically low. From where we were we could see no water at all:

It will be interesting to see how well it rebounds in the spring, with more rain and (mostly) lots of snow melt.

A great way to start Thanksgiving!

It was foggy this morning. I could see it, was driving through it, and the radio was warning about it. When I hiked upwards on Rattlesnake Mountain I got above it and snapped the photo above of the fog, which sort of looked like water seeping through the valley.

Nothing spectacular today, but it was a very nice day. No salamanders.

As I was getting ready to shove off from the car a guy came back from his hike (he was a sunrise chaser) with his two huge Newfoundland dogs. Beautiful, friendly pooches. It raised my mood. One of them was a bit chuffed from having done the hike, so he had to get a running start to climb up the ramp into the back of the guy’s vehicle.

But the pooch made it.

Fun morning.

No valid excuse for lack of hiking. I just got out of the habit while I was nursing my little injuries and I need to get back to it.

Derek motivated me, he has been off work lately due to neck problems (doctor cleared him to hike but not carry much weight) so we met up this morning and took off for Dirty Harry’s Balcony.

Nice day, great views.

On the way down we saw what we think is a little Salamander on the trail. A cute little guy:

Fun hike and it was definitely nice to get back out on the trail.

I went to the Exit 27 trail head for Rattlesnake Mountain and hiked from there to Grand Prospect.

Nice, cool day. I probably saw six people all day, including a few bikers. Their are a lot of bike trails on Rattlesnake Mountain, for example:

I love the forest east of Stan’s Overlook:

About 8 miles, very good workout, fun day.

Today was a day for taking photographs of objects that do not appear in the photograph.

The instant I turned onto the Cedar Butte Trail from the PTC Trail I saw a young deer on the Cedar Butte Trail. She moved off the trail but was perfectly visible. I slowly took out the camera to snap the picture and at the instant my finger hit the shutter she moved behind a tree:

On the way back to the car, just past the southern terminus of the Sno Valley Trail, I looked up to Rattlesnake Ledge and saw a couple of people peering over the edge. That can be dangerous, a young man died in 2018 when the ledge was icy. But my camera is not good enough to get the people up on the ledge in view:

My various injuries are mostly healed and the weather forecast looks good so perhaps I will finally be able to get out onto the trails more frequently and start getting back into good hiking shape.

Forgot to bring the camera – too bad, my wanderings this morning took my by Tradition Lake, which was looking nice with all the fall colors.

I went up Tiger 3 to the Talus Rocks Trail, that to the intersection with the Nook, then down the Section Line, the Power Line Trail, the Bus Trail to the Tradition Lake Trail, then back to the parking lot.

About 4.5 miles, a reasonably steep section on Tiger 3, and some elevation gain on the Talus Rocks Trail, but a fairly mild hike.

But fun!