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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!

David Malcolm and I planned a snow shoe hike on the Annette Lake trail but not only was the road to the trail head closed (expected) but due to snow equipment just off the freeway we couldn’t park anywhere.

So we drove a few miles west and parked just off the freeway at Exit 42 to see how far we could go on the McClellan Butte trail.

We didn’t get very far, but David went farther than I did. The snow shoeing was really challenging. The snow was 3 to 4 feet deep and slightly gooey. Very heavy stuff. Even with the shoes we sank more than a foot and with every step, the weight of the shoes plus the snow made movement quite difficult.

Plus, since I am not an expert snow shoer, I continually stepped on my own shoes (easy to do when the front shoe slides when planted and your rear shoe lands on the front one.) Every time it happened the pinned shoe came off and I fell into the deep snow.

I plead age, but when you are wearing snow shoes, and a heavy backpack, and have just sunk into four feet of snow, it is tough getting back up and then getting the shoe back on.

But I don’t want to make it sound like a Death March. It was a great workout and, overall, a lot of fun.

Snowy woods are beautiful, and the peaks to the north are stunning:

The forest is so awesome in winter!

A great outing. David and I were both suffering from a bit of cabin fever. All the lowland snow in the past couple of weeks has made it tough to get to the mountains. Even today we passed at least several dozen semis pulled over to the side of the freeway, chaining up to get over the pass.

Fun day and I was glad to get in a decent workout for a change.

Last night into this morning we had our fourth snow storm in the past week and so I had to shovel the driveway, sidewalk, and steps for the fourth time in the past week. Ouch.

And today was the worst. The latest addition was about 7″ and it was wet and heavy. My back is feeling it after 2.5 hours this morning moving the stuff around.

At a certain point it felt like I would never be done but if you just keep shoveling it is finally over. For this round. Decent workout but not as good or as fun as hiking. No hikes in the past week as getting to the trails is a challenge.

The neighborhood looks nice but everyone fears falling trees.

Not sure when this is going to end. I plan to snow shoe to the grocery store tomorrow morning. I will bring my (large) backpacking backpack to haul the stuff back. I hope at least one of the local stores is open.

What a splendid day for a hike. Not just my opinion, on the way down the trail was packed with large numbers of people doing what we were doing.

We started with Greg, Ken, Mark, Mike and Carl but Greg and Ken (who is doing a bike event tomorrow and wanted to save his legs) turned around at about 2.2 miles up, the first horse fence past Stan’s Overlook.

Mark, Mike and Carl and I continued on to Grand Junction:

Another nice day, fun hike, great company and super workout. If you count a week as Sunday – Saturday I got in four this week. I like that.

Ken and Mike and I hiked up Margaret’s Way, to West Peak, and then up to the Bullitt Fireplace.

No track today, I stupidly – very stupidly – left my Garmin on the roof of my car after the hike (after glancing at it to see we went 7.1 miles) and now it is gone.

I already have a new one, a smaller and cheaper one and this time for sure I will be more careful.

Nice workout, fun hike.

We did a loop today (sort of): up the Nook Trail to the Section Line to the summit of West Tiger #3 (the western-most of Tiger Mountain’s six distinct peaks) then looped around the east end of Tiger #2 to that summit and then back to #3, then down the way we came up.

It was me, Ken, Greg, David and Mike today, although, because I am slower than them I started about 20 minutes ahead of them. Turns out we both made it to #3’s summit in about 90 minutes.

As always, I love love love being in the forest:

The spot above is just below the junction between the Cable Line Trail and the Section Line Trail, about fifty yards from the Tiger #3 summit. The sign on the left says ‘Unmaintained Trail’.

We did about 5.2 miles, here is a shot of the track:

A fun hike and a great workout, since the Section Line trail is way steep.