We started at the Exit 34 trail head and hiked up to the other end, the junction with the Iron Horse Trail:
Junction with Iron Horse Trail
Trail had some snow most of the way but not too deep:
The Trail
This is only about 4 miles, less than 1K elevation gain, but a fun little hike to do mid-week in the snow. This is a very popular family-friendly hike because it is not all that long, or steep, and the falls are great:
The Other Twin
The trail is just north and west of our favorite Mt. Washington hike, and at some points you can see the towering neighborhood peaks:
For some reason I cannot upload photos right now; will try to add photos if I can fix this. 12/12: fixed with help from WP FixIt, they found a bum plug-in.
Rattlesnake Mountain
Short post: met up with Ken, Mike, Mark, David and Greg and we trekked in the deep snow up the Mt. Washington trail. We turned around (except for David and Mark, who went another 20 minutes) at the pond because the going was so strenuous.
But fun, and totally beautiful in the wintry snow, as will be apparent if I can get photos uploaded.
Through the snowy treesTry climbing these rocksIcicles
Today I met Mark and Ken at the Exit 22 Park and Ride and Ken drove us to the Ira Springs Trail Head where we planned to hike to Mason Lake.
No snow yet at street level (forecast looks snowy all next week, though) but around 3,000 feet or thereabouts (I didn’t bring my Garmin today) we started to see enough snow to put on the traction devices and by the time we hit the Bandera/Mason Lake trail junction it was somewhere between a foot and two feet deep. But packed most of the way, so not bad.
Low Clouds and Grey DaySlow Going
The people in the photo above were ahead of us going down, I thought a picture with humans would provide a little perspective.
I did this same hike in October with George del Campo and today, with the snow, it was noticeably more strenuous. But the views in the alpine forest are awesome:
Beautiful Snowy Alpine Woods
A fun hike, I know from experience this is a 7 mile round trip, about 2,400 feet of elevation gain. Just about 3.5 hours.
As I say, I didn’t bring the Garmin, because I have done this enough times, but here is what the hike looks like on Google Earth:
Google Earth image of Mason Lake hike
We may do Mt. Washington next weekend. It is a nice place to hike when there is a lot of snow, because it is mostly free of avalanche danger.
I got to babysit Finley and Camden yesterday afternoon so it has been a really nice 24 hours for lucky old me.
Derek and I did a moderate (7.2 miles, 4.5 hours, 2,900 feet of elevation gain) hike today. We met at 6 at the Poo Poo Point trail parking lot, left my car there and drove to the Cable Line Trail Head.
You can see on the visualization below we took a complicated route up to Tiger 2 summit, and we started on the famous Cable Line trail. I was just at Tiger 2 a few weeks ago with the Saturday crew, but we came from a different direction.
Tiger 2 Summit
We took an unmaintained trail down from the Tiger 2 summit and finally hooked up with Poo Poo Point. This is a popular spot for paragliders.
Launching Pads
And it has an interesting view of Issaquah and the surrounding lakes and lower mountains:
Derek at Poo Poo Point
After the hike we went to Derek and Jill’s place in Snoqualmie for a delicious Thanksgiving brunch. Delicious french toast made from croissants – voila!
I expect to hike in the snow on Saturday to Mason Lake – probably at least a foot up there by now and it should be fun.
I met up with Greg, Mark and David at the Exit 22 Park and Ride. The forecast was for lots of rain and it was drizzling a bit. We hatched a plan on the spot.
Someone had noticed that the High Point Exit, Exit 20, was massively crowded, as if some kind of event was going on. And, sure enough, a Google search reveals a half and full marathon event in the area today. So High Point was out but I suggested we try the E. Sunset Way trail head and so we headed there.
We took the connector trail up to Puget Power, the Adventure Trail to High School trail, and then the Poo Poo Point trail.
About 3.5 miles from the car there is a trail junction with a sign indicating that Poo Poo Point is .5 miles away. But we turned around, since Greg was getting some very nasty blisters on his heels.
He is going to Mexico in a few weeks to climb two tough mountains and he is trying to break in some serious mountaineering boots. The result today was blisters. He was able to get down OK since most of the weight going down is on your toes, and Mark broke out a couple of moleskins.
So, it was about 7 miles, at a nice clip. Not many views, since we were in the forest the entire time, but I happen to like being in the forest. It seems to peaceful.
And we hardly got wet, except from sweat.
Maybe 2200 feet of elevation gain altogether (some ups and downs along the way) and a very fun hike.
Off work today, I guess I was lazy, I wound up driving to Duvall and parking near the Snoqualmie Valley Trail and walking on that nice, level trail.
Along the way I noticed a bench set to memoralize one Dean Gibbs, who walked that trail until the last of his 91 years on earth, and made little statues for his grandkids from railroad spikes – you can see one on top of the little plaque.
He sounds like my kind of guy.
Anyway, plenty of photo ops.
The TrailRural viewLooking south along the trailsheds and a barnI like the blue barrelthe landscape is moist
I saw this sign indicating a ‘Beaver Deceiver’:
Still not sure exactly what this is
I Googled it up and found information but it seemed a bit vague to me. Basically, beaver deceivers are ways of re-directing beaver behavior from behavior humans don’t like to behavior humans can tolerate. And without hurting the beaver, unless it hurts their feelings to be deceived.
This trail runs along the Snoqualmie River which, today, is not all that high. But it often floods and here is how high it has gotten during the past: (the 1% indicates how high the water would be during a 100-year flood):
Flood Levels!
It is a pleasant walk in a rural area. You see things like this:
It is this kind of area
And, looking in the direction of the arrow:
The Trees
Voila!
I parked near the Duvall Police Department and, before the walk, stopped in at the local Duvall Coffeehouse for a cup of coffee. Historic? Well, it is a river town so it has some history.
Duvall
Anyway, no elevation gain to speak of, about 9.5 mile walk on a pre-Thanksgiving day.
I didn’t bring camera or Garmin today, this was always planned to be a shortish hike on a rainy day. We (myself, Mark, David, Mike) parked just north of the Rattlesnake Lake parking lot in a side road and crossed the street to go up the old Rattlesnake Trail.
This is the route we took a few weeks ago when we did a traverse. This time, due to some time constraints we went up to the upper ledge, then decided to go 15 minutes more and turn around.
Not much of a view today, it was socked in. We got wet but it was not a continual downpour. We all had waterproof jackets and hats and rain pants anyway, so all we got was just a bit overheated.
This old trail is steep, it gets you up to the first ledge in about 1/2 the distance. It is nice workout.
We estimate about 6 miles round trip, maybe 2K elevation gain, less than 3 hours.
Nice hike today with Ken, Mark and Greg. Fun group. We did a loop in which we went up to West Tiger 1 summit, then down, then up to Tiger 2, then back to where we started at the Tiger 1/2 gate.
Not a massively scenic route, it is mostly through the forest, but at the Tiger 1 summit there is a nice view.
Looking northwest from Tiger 1 summitSlight view of RainierGetting ready for a brief summit break
The first time I was up here, last year with Derek, they had logged a big section near the summit and the trees were all over the trail. Getting through was very tough. At least they have sawed through the trees and the going is much easier. But the place is still ugly:
Infamous Tiger 1 clear cut
7.5 miles, 2,840 feet of elevation, three and a quarter hours, nice workout!
This hike is just about at the far edge of my physical abilities right now. When I retire and get to hike several times a week I will be in better shape. But this is a tough hike.
We started up the trail at 5:35 am in headlamps. With only the headlamps to illuminate the trail we made our way up the moderate, wide, well-kept main Teneriffe trail to the junction with the Teneriffe Falls trail.
That trail is fine for awhile, but the closer you get to the falls the steeper it gets. You have to clamber up and over rocks and roots – very tough.
At about 2,800 feet what we call the Kamikaze Trail begins in earnest. From that point to the summit, at 4,780 feet, it is a bit less than a mile. My calves were killing me it is so steep.
But we made it to the summit and the views were surprisingly good. The surprise comes from the fact that once again the forecast was for rain but it didn’t rain a bit. And we could see our surroundings at the summit, and again when we were descending, which we did via the main trail.
Mountains galoreLooking backOn the trail
Derek and I love to get scenic views of the hikes we do. South, across the freeway, was Rattlesnake Lake and Rattlesnake Mountain.
Rattlesnake Lake and Mountain
10.7 miles, 4,193 feet of elevation gain (in about 3.7 miles), almost six and a half hours. A nice hike with plenty of workout.
Weather forecast was slightly dismal today, supposed to rain so George del Campo and I both had our hiking-in-the-rain gear with us. But it was gorgeously sunny the whole way. We lucked out today.
This is a nice hike, not extreme but solidly in the medium-tough category. It is fairly flat for the first 1.6 miles on the Ira Springs Memorial Trail but then it gets steep for 1.3 miles. You go up to about 4,300 feet fairly quickly.
George hiking upwards at 4250′
Just past where this photo was taken the trail goes down to Mason Lake.
Mason Lake looking northwest
This is where Derek and I are going to go with the inflatable kayak. How much fun would it be to kayak around this beautiful alpine lake?
I love the wonderful southern and western views during breaks through the trees and then when you get up above most of the trees:
McClellan Butte and other mountains southMount Rainier peaking out
We took our time hiking up but got back down in 90 minutes. 4 hours 40 minutes, just over 2,300 feet of elevation gain, 7 miles round trip.
George and Barb are heading back south in a couple of weeks so maybe we can do some more hiking next year. George is 75 and wouldn’t we like to be so fit when we get there?
