Hiking in the ‘hood – 5/30/2015 (updated 6/1/2015)

20 Miles of Trails near Derek's house
20 Miles of Trails near Derek’s house

On the one hand, Derek, Jill and Finley definitely live in a city, the city of Snoqualmie.  It has its own Champions Tour event (the Boeing Classic), a nice downtown, an older section of town with a railroad and on and on.

It is civilization.

But the view from their balcony shows how close they are to the Issaquah Alps, although yesterday the best view was obscured by the morning marine layer.  You can see a corner of a mountain in this view:

View from Derek and Jill's balcony
View from Derek and Jill’s balcony

Saturday the 30th we had time constraints so all we did was walk out his door about 7am and did an almost 3 hour hike.  There are so many trails in their neighborhood that it may be tough to choose a route, just like it can be hard to pick your food from a crowded menu.

The views are excellent no matter where you turn:

Lush fairly young forest
Lush fairly young forest
Thick saplings
Thick saplings
Valley view
Valley view

Pretty nice, eh?

We figure we did about 8.5 miles yesterday in about 2 hours and 45 minutes.  We figured this was a training exercise, so instead of pacing ourselves on the steep portions we just powered ahead the entire way.

It was fun.

And we planned our next two hikes.

Next Thursday, June 4, we are going to honor the fact that the new baby’s birth is imminent and that Derek sure needs to be accessible if Jill starts going into labor, so we are “just” going to do another version of the Mount Washington hike.  This time we will, at some point, do the Great Wall trail, but explore a new trail by hiking the Change Creek trail that intersects the Great Wall.

And next Saturday, June 6, we are planning a 31-mile Tiger Mountain/12 peak trek.  At no point will we be too terribly far from the car so it is doable within the exciting baby-watch embrace.

UPDATE 6/1: Derek informs me that yesterday he and Finley and some of her Girl Scout pals hiked 4 miles on Cougar Mountain, with 1,200 feet of elevation gain, and Fin hiked every step!  Kudos to Fin for a great performance.  She may earn a nice reward if she can join us to do Cedar Butte which is, come to think of it, probably easier than what she did on Cougar.

Mt. Si via back door and Mt. Teneriffe – 5/25/2015

disc at summit
Disc at summit

This time we made it to the summit of Mt. Teneriffe, but not via Kamikaze Trail.  We did, however, discover where that trail intersects the main trail, and we chatted briefly with another hiker who had just ascended via that route.  We also explored it from the top for a little way down and decided that, as we thought, it would be a nice way to ascend but we will descend via the main trail.

We got to the Mt. Teneriffe trail head just a bit after 6AM.  We were the first car there.  We went up the main trail, passed the sign for Teneriffe/Kamikaze falls and continued to the Mt. Si summit – just below the haystack.

Derek went a ways up the Haystack but wisely decided to defer the final ascent to another time:

Derek on the Haystack
Derek on the Haystack

As for me, I will let the young and the trained climb the haystack.  It is out of my league.

The trail itself for most of the way is in excellent and recently upgraded shape:

Nice trail
Nice trail

We hiked down from Mt. Si and then across an interesting spur and up to the summit of Teneriffe.  It is a great peak.  Like many of the mountains around here you have to scramble to make it to the very top but this one is doable even for old guys like me:

Final Teneriffe scramble
Final Teneriffe scramble

And the view from the top is awesome!

Mt. Teneriffe summit
Mt Teneriffe summit

Derek at the summit

Derek at the summit

Our maps said we hiked about 15.8 miles, our GPS put it closer to 14.8 miles.  We had thought about extending it to 18 but time was not on our side.

We are planning a 31-miler on Tiger Mountain, tentatively set for Sunday, June 7.  We figure about 17 hours on that one, as it goes up and down 6 mountains twice each.  Fun!  We may do something shorter but steeper between now and then as an extra training workout for our legs.

Looking forward to the big one and to the imminent arrival of Derek and Jill’s new son,  Finley’s baby brother on or about June 16.

5/17/2015 – Cedar Butte and Sallal Point trail

Iron Horse Sign
Where are you going today?

I was back at the upper Rattlesnake Lake parking lot today with a plan to investigate Cedar Butte and Sallal Point.  Plan accomplished but my explorations today revealed quite a few more trails to explore.

You gotta love this place!

Cedar Butte is a fairly benign (2 mile round trip, 800 ft elevation gain) prominence about a mile down the Iron Horse trail from this sign.  I wanted to explore this to see if it is as family-friendly as it seems from the written descriptions.  I think it is a hike we can do with Jan and Jill and Fin (and ultimately, the little guy who is due to arrive on or about June 16).

It definitely is family-friendly but I don’t think I actually found the summit.  I was wandering around looking for a rumored new trail from Cedar Butte to Mt. Washington and I went up and down and around a couple of times and found myself mysteriously back on the Iron Horse trail.  I looped around without realizing it and rather than start over, I decided to re-explore this nice little trail some other time.

So I took off towards Mt. Washington, which is about 1.7 miles past the western trail head for Twin Falls (see sign above).  Sallal Point intersects the Mt. Washington trail about 1.5 miles from the trail head:

sign
Sign for Sallal Point trail

Derek and I have seen this sign many times and always wondered what it is.

Well, what it is is a nice trail for sure.  Derek has the Garmin (he is figuring out how to use it) so I figured I would just stay on the main Sallal Point trail, which I did, but I noticed three tantalizing trails heading up (towards the right) from the main trail.  I am sure we can investigate these at our leisure.

They are steep, and I do mean straight up!

The trail I was on seemed to run out after a healthy little scramble:

The end
This is where I ran out of Sallal Point trail

 

So I unwrapped the trekking poles to help me down and back-tracked to Iron Horse again.  What a nice trail the Iron Horse is.  You see horses:

Horses
And there are plenty of non-iron horses on the trail

And bikers:

Bikers
Iron Horse is great for bikers

And, just go a little ways off-trail and you can see evidence that other creatures share this environment:

Bear shit
“… in the woods”

My Boeing On The Move pedometer registered 33, 325 steps from car back to car, and adding up the dots on the map I figure about 15 miles today.

Not too drastic, far from extreme elevation gain (but just try the first 1.5 miles of Mt. Washington, it is a good conditioning hike), but very worth it.

There are numerous trails and mysterious paths intersecting Iron Horse and I will check out as many as I possibly can.  One little path led to a little stream smack next to old railroad rails:

Nice little waterfall
Just off trail

 

Iron
Iron just off Iron Horse Trail

 

Next weekend I will be on a golf weekend in eastern Washington, returning Sunday,  but Derek and I are planning a hike on Memorial Day.

And Derek: by the way, I believe that Mailbox Peak road is open from 3:30 PM Friday to 7:00 AM Monday so maybe we can test our legs and cardio fitness on Mailbox really early some Saturday or Sunday.

5/12/2015 – Kamikaze (Teneriffe) Falls

Fin in front
Finley’s birthday presentation

After the hike we had the extreme pleasure of visiting Finley’s kindergarten class to attend her birthday presentation – her sixth birthday was yesterday, May 11, 2015.  Happy Birthday Fin!

But the hike itself can only get mixed reviews.

On the one hand, we got to see an impressive waterfall close up:

Kamikaze Falls
Kamikaze Falls

And from different angles:

Kamikaze Falls
Another view of Kamikaze Falls

The good news about the hike is that we did get to do some very challenging sections, as for instance climbing up the side of the falls:

Falls
Interesting trip up the falls

Ultimately, though, we arrived at a bit of an impasse.  We could see something faintly resembling a trail on a spine that appeared to lead to the summit of Mount Teneriffe, perhaps 2,000 feet above us.  Very rocky and steep but it did look like something we could ascend.

However, descending, given the time constraint (we did NOT want to miss Fin’s presentation) seemed a bit iffy.  We decided to go back down and try to figure out a way down from the summit for a future hike.

More looking at the map and GPS (which is newly arrived and not easy to figure out) led us to believe that we definitely could have summited along that spiny unmaintained trail, and that there is an alternative way down.

Tomorrow, 5/13, Derek is going to investigate a trail we sampled on the way down to see if it does in fact lead to Teneriffe’s summit.  If it does, we are in business and will re-trace our path one of these days, but next time to the summit.

In the meantime, the hike had its very nice magical moments:

Rainy Day
Sometimes a rainy day shows itself off

And this:

Typical Kamikaze Trail condition
Typical Kamikaze Trail condition

Much of this trail looks like that.  It’s a fun trail, and we will be back.

And if Derek makes it to the summit tomorrow, look for a photo from up there, a great 360 view for miles around.

Any day that is capped off with a visit to Fin’s class is a memorable day indeed.

5/7/2015 Great Wall to Mt. WA summit (once again)

Mailbox
Mailbox Peak from Mt. Washington

Our plan today was to hike Mailbox Peak (there it is) but the road to the trail head was under construction and a very nice but very firm highway worker told us to scram.

So we came up with a quick plan B.  We went four miles farther east on I-90 and, once again, found ourselves in the parking lot from which most hikes up Mount Washington are launched.  And we decided to do the Great Wall trail again, but this time make the final turn correctly.

Which we did.

Sunny day
Sunny day on a shady trail

70 degrees, perfectly sunny, absolutely perfect weather.  And when you are hiking through a forest, the sunny weather creates some awesome interplays of sun and shade.

Check out the final sentence in the 2nd episode of Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ and multiply it by several miles and you will get the idea.

Speaking of forest, it has its own attractions:

woods
The woods have their own beauty

View after view makes it difficult to choose a winner but this one is pretty nice: (good eye, Derek!)

great view
Behold the view

The Great Wall is an exceedingly impressive wall of rocks and trees:

lone tree
lone tree

Every time you get a nice view of Mt. Rainier from the summit of this mountain the view is different.  Infinitely interesting:

Mt Rainier
Mount Rainier looks different every day

Looking at the map and adding the distances as best as we can we figure our hike today was about 12 miles.   And we did it in about 4:45 – not exactly running, but given the elevation gain (about 3300 or 3400 feet) not bad.

Our next hike is scheduled for Tuesday, May 12 and we are aiming at Mount Teneriffe.  With just a little luck we will have the Garmin eTrex 20 I ordered last week and we will be able to map our route and gather all the statistics – groovy!

UPDATE 5/10/2015 (Happy Mother’s Day)

Removed video link 5/11, just too much hassle.

 

 

 

Great Wall Again – 4/29/2015

It is my fault, not Derek’s.  We did not reach the Mt. Washington summit.  At the last opportunity to take a wrong turn I steered us wrong.  And I had to be home by 4PM (we hit the trail at 9:10 AM, and it is a long drive home on a weekday afternoon) so when we figured out what we should have done it was too late to do it right.

Getting to the summit via Great Wall is for next time.

But what a fun day anyway.  10 miles round trip, nice and steep much of the way and those views!  Every day is different.  No snow yesterday and I was amazed that so much snow can melt in only 2 days.  There were misty clouds floating around that really gave the scene a wonderful touch:

Along the Great Wall
Mysterious sky

Walking along the ‘great wall’ section of the Great Wall trail inspires a little focus, because you wonder if this is the moment when some of those rocks and boulders decide to take the path of least resistance, give up the fight, and roll downhill?

The rocky great wall
Good news: easy trail Bad news: what if those rocks decide to tumble?

But it is all too easy to let your attention drift from the mountain above to the mountains nearby:

Clearcut areas
Naked slashes on a neighboring mountain

Of course, it only LOOKS like we are in the middle of nowwhere.  At some points you can shift perspective entirely:

Truck stop
Looking down – in every sense of the term – on civilization

But Derek has a wonderful way to find great photos and, as Jan said last night, he has a real talent for framing them.  I love this picture of some lonesome trees:

lonesome trees
Lonesome trees

We are planning on the notoriously steep Mailbox Peak hike next Thursday.  We have not finalized our plans for the weekend but it looks like Granny and Grampy are going to get a friendly visitor for the weekend, so no hike until next week.

Looking forward to testing our legs on Mailbox Peak (and yes, someone put an actual mailbox on the summit and we will put the picture right here).

Mt. Washington via Great Wall (and Steve) 4/26/2015

Steve
Steve at the summit

Many thanks to Steve who was able to re-route me and get me to the Mt. Washington summit.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

My plan today was to hike Mt. Washington again but this time via a route that Derek and I had noticed, the Great Wall trail:

Great Wall
This way to the Great Wall

The trail is awesome with views, on average, much better that the main trail.  For example:

Great view
Typical sublime view

A couple of sections of the trail are closely bordered by what I would categorize as, well, as great walls:

Great Wall
Part of the actual Great Wall

I was following footprints.  There was so much snow, and I did not know the way, so the “trail” for me was footprints from someone a few days previously who had blazed the way:

Footprints
My map

Ultimately the footprints just stopped and doubled-back.  Uh oh!  But I pushed on (and on and on) and finally got to a rocky outcrop just below a summit.  It was a summit but not the one I was looking for.  That’s when I turned around and decided to back-track to the main trail and go up to the summit from there.

But, luckily for me, I ran into Steve, who showed me the correct route.  This is a marvelous trail, and it gets ultra-steep right at the end.  But well worth it for the views on the top:

Mt. Ranier
Mt. Rainier from Mt. Washington summit

And:

Great Wall view
Great Wall view

And:

View
Mt. WA view

I was hoping to do this route and get back to the car in 5 hours, because I am only going to have 5 hours to hike on Wednesday.  I think this route is a bit long for 5 hours but – this hike is great via both trails, we could do the main trail up and down (perhaps that jog to the right at the pond for a switch) in 5 hours no sweat.

Looking forward to Wednesday and thanks again to Steve!  Without Steve I would have failed in my mission of getting to the summit via Great Wall

McClellan Butte on Shakespeare’s birthday

We were in his 'hood
This guy was checking us out

How fitting we would encounter a mountain goat on Shakespeare’s birthday, as one of his great insults (from Henry V) is: “Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat….”

We saw the goat on the way down.  He kept moving around to get a better view of us so we decided to leave him to his own devices.

It was a great day to hike, perfect weather and views to begin with:

Great view
Is this great or what?

McClellan Butte has some very steep sections and we were not hiking fast:

steep trail
If you look closely you can see one of us way up the trail; this is called ‘steep’

We saw a really cool little lake that is shaped like a salmon:

Salmon Pond
This pond looks like a salmon

The trail has many very nice sections:

Trail view
Typical view of the trail

We did not do the famous “scramble” at the top.  The scramble is a final rock pile of 200 or 300 feet that looks like it would be very doable except for one thing, namely, if you slip you die.  We skipped it:

No way
Final scramble – we skipped this one

 

But we got close and the view from here is amazing:

Nice summit view
Looking down from the top

All in all, this is a very steep and very tough hike and we loved every minute.  We will definitely do it again when the snow is gone to see if we can improve upon our round-trip time of 6 hours.

Mountain view
It’s a beautiful day in the Issaquah Alps neighborhood

We have hikes scheduled for this Sunday, the 26th and Wednesday the 29th.  Should be fun!

2,133 miles to Chicago – Mt. Washington 4/18/2015

Nice to know the distance
2133 miles to Chicago via the old Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Paul-Pacific Railroad

(click on any photo to enlarge and use the ‘back’ button to return)

I would at least entertain the possibility that I overdid it just a little bit today, but it wasn’t all my fault.

Derek is on call this weekend so I wanted to plan a solo hike.  I needed a hike with a trail on which I couldn’t get lost, and I wanted to train for the next hike we have planned (a steep one, McClellan Butte next Thursday, the 23rd) so what the heck.

I parked near Rattlesnake Lake, which is supposed to be about a 5 mile hike down the Iron Horse Trail to the Mt. Washington trailhead.  Iron Horse is the former route of the Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Paul-Pacific railroad, and dead flat for many miles.  It is a sub-trail of the John Wayne trail – a trail that is far longer than The Duke’s military service.

Anyway, I hiked Mt. Washington a few weeks ago with Derek and we did it the normal way, parking near the trailhead and walking down Iron Horse from west to east maybe 100 yards to the second little trail on the left.

Derek knew what he was looking for and it was easy.  Alas, this morning, walking from east to west I missed the little trailhead and went an extra mile before I realized I was a dunderhead.

So what I planned as 10 miles round trip on Iron Horse plus 8 miles up and down Mt. Washington wound up being 12 miles on Iron Horse plus Mt. Washington for a total hike today of 20 miles.

It actually wasn’t that bad and I am raring to go for Thursday’s challenge.

From the Mt. Washington trailhead to the top was 2:15 minutes, an hour faster than Derek and I did it before.  I have learned the lesson of walking slowly when it gets steep, just trudge along, get into a Zen-like state of one foot after the other.  It wasn’t so bad, 4 hours and 10 minutes round trip.

Just hiking along Iron Horse is nice.  It is dead level, but about 1100 feet elevation, with a north view (your left as you walk towards Mt. Washington) that is beautiful.  For example, check out this perspective on the previously hiked and blogged Mt. Si and Little Si:

A different view of Si
Little Si on the left, Mt. Si on top

There are some tough sections of the trail on the way up:

Sometimes the trail is rocky
I call this “trail”

 

Things are also looking very good about halfway up:

What we are talking about
The ‘hood

I had a couple of friends at the very top, two birds I tried to photograph as they ate the bread I shared (they have been fed before and know the drill).  They were pretty quick and hard to photograph with our less-than-professional camera:

Hungry Birds
Trying to get a picture of one of the birds who was begging for food (I gave the two of them some bread)

Here is the view from the toppermost-of-the-poppermost:

Not bad!
View from Mt. Washington summit

And here are a couple of nice views from just below the summit, where the view is less constricted:

Wow!
Amazing view from just below the Mt. Washington summit

And:

Great view
Beautiful view just below Mt. Washington summit

What is the difference between a ‘beautiful’ view and an ‘amazing’ view? – you tell me.

I made it back to the car about 8 hours after I pushed off and immediately fell back to earth.  The Rattlesnake Lake area is popular to put it mildly.  For a mile or more there were cars parked bumper-to-bumper just off both lanes of the narrow two-lane highway, with people hiking on the road.  It took me 15 minutes in the car to go about a mile, which is my pace on Iron Horse.

Then, the freeway back home was gridlocked thanks to some construction and concomitant lane closures.

Oh, well.  These hikes are wonderful mini-vacations from modern life and every moment is precious.

And those mileage-to-Chicago signs are a reminder of just how far Jan and I have traveled from home.

Little Si 4/9/2015 with Derek and Finley

What a great day!

Little Si is possibly the most popular hike in the area.  Relatively speaking it is a gentle hike – Little Si is the little brother of Mount Si – but it is far from flat, and is challenging enough that the hike to the top is terrific exercise.

Particularly for Derek, who carried Fin on his back the whole way.

 

A boulder in the boulder garden
A boulder in the boulder garden

 

Typical forest scene
Typical forest scene
The summit is in sight
The summit is in sight
On top!
On top!
Grampy and Fin made it to the top as well
Grampy and Fin made it to the top as well
Little Si's big brother
Little Si’s big brother
We hiked across this one and are going to do it again soon
We hiked across this one and are going to do it again soon

We went from bottom to top (with a detour through the Boulder Garden) and back down in just over 3 hours.  From there we went to the local excellent Mexican Restaurant (Ana’s, for the record) and from there up to a nearby playground because Derek and Grampy wanted to play.

A wonderful day – we have many more hikes we want to do, and our next planned hike is a week from Sunday, the 19th, while Jill, Brittany, Finley, Granny Janny and many others celebrate the little new guy who is coming in June.