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I haven’t hiked since last Thursday. It has been rainy and very windy around here. The rain doesn’t stop me but the wind does. Last Thursday the wind was just starting up and I heard a tree come crashing down not far from where I was. Really, the forest is not the safest place to be when the wind is howling.

I did my normal Section Line conditioning hike today, and there were a few large blow downs, such as the one above. In the photo it looks easy, but in fact it was a bit tough because the branches underneath it made it tough to go under, and it was large enough that I had to do a bit of climbing to get over. Naturally, I am glad I was not hiking there when it fell.

In spite of all the rain Round Lake was looking like a puddle:

This confirms for me that this little lake formed and is filled by the snow melt, not by the rain. In either case, it was nice to get out again. This weekend is supposed to be decent and as of now, Derek and I are scheduled to get out again, perhaps back to Quartz Mountain for another attempt, this time starting from the other end.

After the difficult hike on Sunday with Derek I did Little Si today, including the Boulder Garden Loop. It was about 5.4 miles and a bit less than 2K elevation gain (lots of ups and downs), a good workout and, of course, lots of fun.

I usually avoid this hike because of the crowds but I figured if I went early on a weekday it wouldn’t be so bad. I did see maybe a dozen people on the way down but, having started at headlamp time, I was ahead of the throngs. It is a nice hike because it divides naturally into distinct sections.

The first .3 miles, right out of the lot, is steep. At that point I took the Boulder Garden side trail (and this is the trail that leads to the Old Si trail) and that trail is moderately steep for about a mile; if then goes down very steeply for .5 mile. I have taken it in the opposite direction a couple of times to get the extra-steep ‘up’ mileage in but today I settled for moderately steep up and steep going down.

At the end of the Boulder Garden Loop you are back on the Little Si trail and it is not steep at all for almost a mile. But the last .4 or so is steep again until you come to the top, and the nice views, as above and like this, a view of Rattlesnake Mountain:

Just below the summit of Little Si is a view point, looking up at Mount Si:

The track:

Derek and I planned to hike to Quartz Ridge, although we were not exactly sure where it was and how we would recognize it when we got there. But we knew the direction to go and took off.

We wound up (I am pretty sure) going past Quartz Ridge, up and up and up the side of Quartz Mountain. As you can see from the rocky picture below, at a certain point we were not dealing with what anyone would call a trail, we were just heading up. Straight up. There were a few pink flagging tapes in the lower branches of trees for us to follow. We left a few ourselves, and glad we did because coming down it was very easy to stray from the path we took on the way up.

I called it for the “up” at 3,700 feet but Derek grabbed the Garmin and went up to 3,900 feet. As you can see from the track, we were heading in the direction of the East Peak of Quartz Mountain but in the field we were not quite sure where we were.

We started at the Middle Fork parking lot, crossed FR56 and headed up the CCC Road, created in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. We were only on that for about .5 mile and there was the unofficial trail to the site of the former Nordrum Lookout.

It was a lookout from the 1930’s to the 1950’s – it was used for spotting planes during WWII – but the trees, which had been clear cut, grew up and there is no longer a view from Nordrum Lookout. All that is left is a few strands of cable and the four corner foundation pieces.

From there we followed an older trip report and went down a gully, up the other side and ‘up’ was the direction for the entire rest of the way. I believe the fabled Quartz Ledge was a spot we hit at about 2,550 feet. It had a good view point and sort of resembled a ledge. Here is the view:

There was more or less a trail up to the ledge, but from there it was strictly bushwhacking and the occasional pink tape. But that’s OK, we loved it. This was an awesome hike, we had a super time and we might come back some day – like when the snow is gone (this place will be covered with snow soon enough) and see if we can make it all the way to the summit of Quartz Mountain. At least, we know it will be a terrific workout and fun to try. It was 5.6 miles but felt like more than a dozen.

The track:

I hiked the Rattlesnake Mountain trail from the Exit 32 trail head up to the Upper Ledge. I generally avoid this trail because it is so popular. On a summer weekend, it is literally like being in downtown Seattle, if downtown Seattle was a lot hillier (and it is hilly enough).

But the trail is really nice – upgrade during the Covid shutdown last year – and it is a very good workout. I took a chance today that if I started early (I left the car at 7:15 am) and went past the most crowded spot, Rattlesnake Ledge (the lowest of three ledges) I would luck out. And I did.

I saw one person on the way up and maybe 6 or 7 on the way down. Nice!

Great views from the ledge, looking down towards the lake and to a nearby splash of color:

Here is the track; it was about 5.2 miles, 1,7000 feet of elevation gain, a fun way to start the day.

I like this hike, it is about 6.5 miles (all the way to Debbie’s View) round-trip and maybe 2k elevation gain but it has a gate and the gate doesn’t open until about 6am. Rather late for me for the week because I like to avoid the traffic. The weekends have less traffic on the roads but more traffic on the trails but what the heck. I started up the trail this morning at 6:30. Mine was the first car in the lot. How nice! What an energetic fellow am I!

But not so much – just as I was starting up the trail I saw a headlamp of a trail runner coming down. Since there was no other car in the lot, this guy obviously started at the other end of the mountain (like on SE May Valley Road) and had gone all the way over (about 6 miles) by 6:30. Sheesh.

And a few minutes later there he was, going back the other way. So this guy’s idea of a good workout was to run 12 miles up and down a mountain. Respect.

As I suspected, the trail was crowded with people going up as I was going down.

All I did was the 6.5 miles but it was enough. The view at Debbie’s View was not so great – no sign of Rainier – as it has been a grey day.

But there is some color this time of year along the trail:

Here is the track. A fun morning, as always.

Track

I have driven by the Fragrance Lake trailhead, which is located just off Chuckanut Drive a few miles south of Bellingham, many times. Every time, in fact, that we have driven up to the Fairhaven neighborhood of Bellingham. I always told myself I would check it out and today I did.

It turns out to be a decent, but not great hike. About 4.25 miles, including a .2 mile out-and-back viewpoint (of the Puget Sound, looking towards the southern spit of Canada):

A beautiful day, workout enough and when I was done I drove up to Fairhaven and walked around. It was by then about 9:30 on a weekday morning, the place was not at all busy and I enjoyed exploring this neighborhood. When I have gone up there with Jan, on hot summer days on the weekend, the place is as jammed as any touristy place can be. But today – not so much.

The track:

The hike today was only 4.3 miles, compared to 8 miles on Tuesday, but the hike to J’s Landing (and I hit Hall Point on the way down) is much tougher because the section from PTC Trail to Hall Point spur is very steep. It is a grind for anyone, let alone an old guy like me.

But it is a super workout with terrific views. I saw exactly one person on the trail and, on the PTC going back down, four rock climbers in two teams of two. For sure, rock climbers are completely focused on what they are doing. It is interesting to watch. I took no photos because I feared that the click of the camera might be distracting. They were all roped up but still, you can see they would really rather not fall off the rock.

This section of trail is typical of the trail I was on – the Change Creek Trail – but in the photo it looks really benign. In fact, it is a narrow trail on the edge of a very steep drop off. Not quite a cliff, but if you went over head-first, you might not get up:

Other sections of this trail are mellow:

The track:

The name ‘Grand Prospect’ does sound rather grand but it is just a view point on the west/middle/north side of Rattlesnake Mountain. Starting from the Snoqualmie Point lot it is 4 miles up to Grand Prospect, and half of that is almost totally within a beautiful 2nd growth forest. This is one of my favorite hikes.

I started up the trail this morning about 5:45 am, headlamp time again. Now that the sun is coming up later and later, I was on the trail for more than an hour before I was able to safely remove the headlamp. But that’s OK, it is kind of spooky being in the forest in the dark.

However, on the way down, I startled a huge buck elk that had been standing on the trail. Fortunately, rather than being angry at the pathetic trespassing human the elk was properly disgusted. He took off running. And I am glad he did.

I only saw a very few people the entire time.

The view above is interesting and if you move the camera down you get a great view of the I-90 Exit 31 roundabout (have to look carefully):

All in all a very fun morning and a great workout.

No big deal, another conditioning hike on Tiger Mountain. I was feeling a little sick on Saturday due to my having gotten my Pfizer/Covid booster shot on Friday. Sunday was a bit drizzly but I was able to get out early enough that I escaped the rain. As soon as I fired up my car’s engine the drops started. Sometimes you get lucky.

This week is starting out wet, I’ll play it by ear.

Talapus Lake

There sure are a lot of lakes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness:

And I visited two of them today, Olallie Lake and Talapus Lake.

These lakes are very popular on the weekends and people usually (as I did once before) get to them via the trail head accessed via Exit 45. However, today I went to the Pratt Lake trail head at Exit 47, the one I used a few weeks ago for Granite Mountain.

I passed the Granite Mountain trail junction and kept going for a bit more than a mile. I then hung a left and made it to Olallie Lake. I backtracked and went down the Talapus Lake trail for another mile and then I went back.

Total hike was about 9.3 miles. Very nice. I saw only one person until I passed the Granite Mountain trail junction on the way down – plenty of folks going up to Granite today. Since I started in the dark with a headlamp at 6am, I was finishing as they were starting.

The track: