No camera today – doh! – but the falls look about the same as they did the last time we did this one.
Met Ken at the Park n Ride just after 8:30 and we were on the trail by 9, back at the car by 11. Nice workout, weather decent, just a short patch of ice near the IHT.
This retirement business is sweet!
Did Stan’s Overlook today with Ken. The trail had a couple of icy patches and a bit of snow. No doubt it would have gotten deeper had we gone on but Ken is recovering from some knee damage so we just went to Stan’s.
Fun day, much better than sitting on the couch.
Beautiful President’s Day hike, the standard Section Line but this time I took a different route back, through the Talus Rocks Trail:
Back via Wetlands and this time, I took a left at the signed trail intersection that says ‘.2 miles to Puget Power Trail’ (right). I went left and found out where a particular left turn, early in the Adventure Trail goes.
So about 6.5 miles, beautiful day, good workout.
Update 2/21/18 – did this hike again but this time with the Garmin. Unfortunately, it screwed up again; even though I cleared the current trip and the current track the file included the trip to the trail head. Bummer.
But here it is:
https://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/djhiker/section-line-2-21-2018#.Wo3-EXxG2po
UPDATE 3/3/2018 – Did this hike again today, from the Section Line direction. Beautiful sunny day.
UPDATE: 3/6/2018 – Did this in fairly standard order, Adventure Trail, etc. with Ken, Greg, Carl. One little twist, at the steep section Nook/Section intersection we went up for maybe .25 mile or so just for the extra workout. Back down via Wetland Trail, total time only about 2.5 hours. No break all the way to the end of the Section Line.
UPDATE: 3/14/2018 – Did the standard direction to Section Line only (no Talus Rocks) on Monday 3/12 prior to babysitting Camden. Plan to get out tomorrow, 3/15, and will be doing a 16-mile Tiger hike with Derek and possibly Ryan on Saturday.
More trouble with WordPress following their latest upgrade. Hopefully working now.
I hiked Rattlesnake Mountain/Stan’s Overlook on Thursday, 2/8 with Ken:
On Saturday, while most of the Saturday hiking crew was training for the Chilly Hilly bike ride around Bainbridge Island, Carl and I and Carl’s friend Steve hiked up to West Tiger 3 via the steepest trail on the mountain.
The signs on this trail just say ‘unmaintained’. Based on the map it could be an extension of the Nook Trail or the Section Line Trail – whatever – but it takes you from 1100 feet to 2400 feet in .8 mile.
A fun couple of hikes, I am looking forward to more next week.
Very nice hike today, comfortable weather. Mid-40’s, a little misty but not too bad.
Did Twin Falls with Greg, Ken, Mark, Mike and Carl. We got to the IHT and Greg, Ken and Mark went up Mt. Washington trail about .4 mile (or so I guess from their report) while Mike and Carl and I went east on the IHT about 1/3 mile or so – I have a new pair of binoculars I wanted to test by focusing on the mountains to the north but it was just too cloudy to see much.
Oh, well, we are planning another hike on Tuesday, perhaps it will be better viewing then.
Lots of water these days, the river and the falls are spectacular:
I figured to be hiking more often after retirement but I didn’t get out at all last week. I am changing that formula as of today.
I met Carl and Mike this morning at the Park ‘n Ride and we drove up to the upper Rattlesnake Lake parking lot. As usual, this one was empty.
Carl had knee surgery a few weeks ago and is in rehab mode so we did a family-friendly hike, east on IHT, Christmas Lake, then up to the Cedar River Watershed Education Center. Mike had never visited and he was impressed. It truly is a wonderful place to visit.
Not sure how long, just a bit more than 4 miles I am sure, and tons of fun. Just a great time.
I forgot my camera today – oh, well! – but there was nothing particularly photogenic anyway.
I met Mark and Ken at the E Sunset Way parking lot/trail head. Our plan was to go this route to Poo Poo Point but when we hit the spot where the trail splits, right to Poo Poo, left to Section Line, we went left since Mark had never been on the Section Line from that direction.
We extended it by doing the Talus Loop trail to Tiger 3, then down to Bus Line, etc. etc. back to Puget Power.
A nice workout, about 6.5 miles, we are planning a Tuesday hike as well. Now that so many of us are retired, well, why not?
As usual when I purposely leave my camera behind (I don’t have a camera phone) some great photo op appears and I have to skip it. Today, I saw a huge woodpecker pecking wood not far from the trail and he wasn’t bothered by my presence. Would have made a great shot.
Anyway, I am not going to add a new trip report for every Section Line hike I do; I will just bookmark this one and update it as I do it.
This is the hike from E. Sunset Way: connector trail to Puget Power Trail, to Adventure Trail to High School Trail to Section Line trail (this is the workout of this hike, about .8 mile of fairly steep and steady climbing) down the Nook Trail to the Bus Trail.
Today, instead of taking the Bus Trail to the Bonneville Powerline Trail back to Puget Power, I took the Around The Lake trail back to the Puget Power trail.
There are plenty of variations, but the hike is 2 hours 15 minutes give or take and a nice mid-week workout.
UPDATE – 2/13/2018 – did this today with a little twist at the end. Went down to Bus Trail, took it to its western terminus at the Bonneville Power trail, then took the Wetlands Trail, passing by Round Lake, which is a very nice little lake just west of Tradition Lake.
UPDATE: 2/23/2018 – Did a reverse-direction variation this morning, early (6:40 leaving car) because of babysitting duties. Started Adventure Trail but quickly went left up the Wetlands trail and went up rather than down the Nook Trail.
After a few close encounters with the pre-opening mountain bike trail in 2016 I finally got to hike the official trail today.
Before it opened you had to look for a muddy spot on the IHT about 2 miles from the parking lot and bushwhack up to the under-construction trail but now that it is open the trail head could hardly be more obvious:
As of now, this trail goes east and intersects the Mt. Washington trail at the pond, then goes across the northern face at that level (probably about 3400 feet) and then down to just south of what the Olallie map calls Change Lake, aka The Pond.
Last summer Carl and I accidentally found the current eastern terminus; within a year they expect it to go to McClellan Butte.
A good hiking trail but for the mountain bikers among us, this trail seems to be top rate. Three bikers passed me as I was hiking back west, and I asked them how they liked the trail. I got a great five-word review: “Beautiful. Well maintained. Drains well.”
Here are a couple of typical trail views:
I only went part-way and then turned around but a near-term goal is to hike it to near the eastern terminus, split off at the pond shortcut and go back down via Change Creek trail and IHT.
On the way back I detoured off the IHT down the Christmas Lake trail, a little-used trail and way more interesting than the IHT. It borders the northern shore of Christmas Lake most of the way, and just where you leave that section of the trail to head west, there is a nice view of this obscure little lake:
About 7.6 miles total, sure beat working!
Ken, Mark, Greg and I hiked Twin Falls today. We went from the Exit 34 trail head to the IHT, then east to the Mount Washington trail head, and up that trail to the first waterfall.
Nice hike, kind of wet today but not too bad.
The falls are pretty intense lately:
My first hike as a retired geezer, as my last day working was Thursday the 11th.
I am predicting a busy hiking 2018 and, I hope, a road trip east.