Mt. Si

Mt. Si - March 30th, 2014

Mileage: 8 miles

Elevation Gain: 3150 feet

Snoqualmie Pass - North Bend Area

Dog Friendly

Difficulty: Intermediate
Pass Required: WA Discover Pass

The WTA entry from Mt. Si reads as follows, "Mount Si should be experienced at least once by every hiker. In fact, a significant number of Puget Sound residents do just one hike per year, and these annual hikers almost invariably turn to Mount Si every time."  The author is definitely correct in this statement, and there is a really good reason why this is the case.  Well the hike up to the summit of Mt. Si isn't for the faint of heart or the out of shape, the payoff is an absolutely unforgettable view which includes the Upper Snoqualmie Valley, the Puget Sound basin, Downtown Seattle and Bellevue.  

I hosted the event through our online hiking group called Allison Pushes People Up Mountains (APPUM).  We had a strong turnout with 7 of the 30 members showing up for the hike.  We were initially planning to summit Mt. Si via Teneriffe Road Trail which is the longer/less steep cousin of Mt. Si Trail. It apparently has a much better view combined with much fewer people.  Well the later ended up being true, the much fewer people part was not true.  We got to the Teneriffe Road parking lot only to find it completely full.  

The parking lots for both Teneriffe and Mt. Si's trail have no overflow parking and tow away zones extend for several miles each way on the road by their parking lots.  So, we decided to turn around and drive to the Mt. Si trailhead and summit the mountain via this route.  I had promised the party that we would be summiting via Teneriffe because it was an easy hike and I didn't want to scare people off from attending future hikes because of the difficulty of Mt. Si trail.  So, several of my hikers were a bit apprehensive when they learned that we were in fact going to do Mt. Si trail afterall.

The really difficult part of the trail is the first half mile.  The trail immediately starts uphill and continues relentlessly until you reach the top of the mountain.  The reason the first half mile is hard is because you've just gotten out of the car after sitting for about an hour to commute out to the hike and your cold muscles are not exactly thrilled to go from still to a good percentage of their maximum capacity.  So, we slowly trudged through the first half mile with many rest breaks.  We ended up losing Amber around the first half mile to do hip trouble.  She had to have a hip replacement a couple of years ago, and going uphill isn't always doable.  After we got warmed up, our pace quickened and we began taking fewer breaks.  We ended up making it up to the summit in 3.5 hrs, which is a pretty good clip for that sort of elevation gain, especially considering our slow start.

Three of the seven hikers that were with us for this hike are originally from countries other than the United States.  Daniel and his brother Jaime are originally from Mexico and live and work in the US and the third, Koko, is a foreign exchange student from the Netherlands.  The three of them go on many of our outdoor adventures and it is really fun to be able to share the amazing natural beauty of our country with people from other countries, and Mt. Si did not let us down.  It was a bit overcast all day, but we were able to see about half of the view for about a minute or two when we arrived at the summit and before it was completely obscured by clouds.  The last quarter mile of the hike was covered in snow.  We were able to navigate it with only a few minor slips, but I could have really used a set of micro spikes (sets of small spikes which are worn over normal tennis shoes or boots), which I'll be purchasing next season.  After getting to the summit, we took some more pictures, had a bite to eat and then quickly got uncomfortably cold because of the wind chill and headed back down the mountain.  

Katie and David decided it would be a good idea to feed some of the wildlife.  I'm completely against this as it leads to a slew of problems, which I won't go on a tirade about that here.  Having said that, it was still cool to see birds fly up and sit in their hands while they ate the trail mix they were offering.

The hike back down the mountain took another two hours.  Our buddy Nick serenaded us with his ukulele while we descended the mountain.  We all had rubbery legs by the end of the hike.  Overall, it was a great day spent with great friends.