Stateline Lookout

Stateline Lookout (Off Hwy 28, near Crystal Bay CA) -

Distance: 1 mi / 2.2 km (Round Trip)

Elevation Gain: ~500 ft.

Highest Elevation: ~6831 ft. / 2082.2 m.

Dogs: Allowed

Difficulty: Easy

I originally picked out this hike because we needed something easy and short to do with Chris' Mom when she visited us back in October.

Can't Say I was disappointed...

Most of the hikes we do in California come from my copy of Foghorn Outdoors: California Hiking by Tom Stienstra and Ann Marie Brown. I had the Foghorn for Washington and Oregon and loved it, so when we moved I gifted my copy to Katie and naturally picked this up as a replacement (you should too). Aside from the occasional issue with directions and mileage these books are outstanding. They have spot on ratings for difficulty and beauty, and have pretty much all the relevant information you need as far as permits, location etc.

The Stateline entry caught my eye for a couple of reasons: the ratings and mileage were exactly what I was looking for, and when I read the first few sentences of the description I was all in.

"For years we avoided this trail because we thought it was just a tourist attraction, located at the lookout tower that straddles the Nevada and California state line. It turns out that we were the dumb tourists, because this little trail is great." (Pg. 222)

You basically hike up an old access road, but don't worry, the pay off is so good you might cry. This is a great spot to hike up to and eat some lunch if you're tooling around the northern end of Tahoe. There's some cool plaques with cultural information about the area, including timber, mining etc.

But I have to say my eyes were otherwise occupied...
 

Tahoe Rim Trail (Northern End) Meadows to Diamond Peak

Northern Tahoe Rim Trail: Tahoe Meadows to Diamond Peak - September 1st, 2014

Tahoe National Forest

Distance: 11.8 mi / 18.99 km (Round Trip)

Highest Elevation: 8945 ft. / 2726.6 m.

Dogs: Allowed

Difficulty: Moderate

After the glory that was Marlette lake, Chris and I were keen to get back up into the mountains before school started. After a little research we settled on starting at Tahoe Meadows and hiking on a northern section of the Tahoe Rim Trail to Diamond Peak and back. 

This hike was really, heart stoppingly, beautiful. You start in this gorgeous alpine meadow right behind Mt. Rose. There are quite nice paths through here and if you're in the mood for something easy, or just a quick leg stretcher, this is a great place to do it! There are some raised boardwalks through parts of the meadow, and then you start up through the forest. This bit is a little repetitive, though it's still beautiful Sierra pine forest. But then you break through those trees and Lake Tahoe is spread out before you, like the big beautiful bitch that she is. 

From here you're basically on the rim trail and it's just an endless parade of glorious views and beautiful forest. 

We ran into relatively few other hikers, though there were some surly mountain bikers. The Tahoe Rim trail is open to hikers constantly, but bikers are only allowed on even days (the 2nd, 4th, 6th etc. of every month). This was Labor day weekend, and this particular biker was fairly incensed that there were so many hikers (there weren't) and that they (the bikers)

weren't even supposed to be there. Basically he was talking to his friend really loudly, and it went something like this:

"I don't even care, it's like the last three day weekend of the year, and they get two days of it?! No fucking fair! I won't put up with it! They take up the whole fucking trail and it's not right. Why don't bikers gets a day to themselves...." and so on.

After a bit the hikers and bikers start to thin out and you run into fewer and fewer people. At one point you have a view of the Washoe Valley to the east, including Washoe lake. It's a bit pale after the sapphire madness of Tahoe, but still a very cool view. We stopped at Diamond Peak, which is a ski resort during the winter. We had lunch at the top of the highest chair lift and played fetch with Jaxx for a bit. 

The only other notable thing about this trip was the heat. It was hot as hell and for a good portion of the hike there is very little shade. Make sure you bring lots of sunscreen and water. We were all completely exhausted by the time we got back.

2nd Nevada Hike, Marlette Lake

Marlette Lake - August 8th, 2014

Lake Tahoe State Park - Incline Village, Nevada

Distance: 8.8 mi / 14.2 km (Round Trip)

Elevation Gain: 1,200 ft. / 426.7 m.

Highest Elevation: 9,400 ft. / 2865.1 m.

Dogs: Allowed

Difficulty: Moderate

Fee: $10.00/vehicle

We mentioned in the second to last post that our first experience hiking in the desert was kind of a mixed bag.  Also, it is pertinent to this post to mention that after a few weeks in the ugly valley part of the desert in which Reno and Sparks proper reside, Allison and I were both missing the lush environment that we had become accustomed to in the PNW. We both were having some misgivings, in that respect, about our decision to relocate to the freaking high desert.  Those feelings were happening up until the day we embarked on our first adventure to Lake Tahoe.  For those of you who have never gotten a chance to experience it in person, let me tell you that Lake Tahoe is an indescribable natural phenomena which is as immense as it is beautiful.  It was also our saving grace, keeping both of us from spiraling into a situational outdoorsman's depression.

Panoramic of Marlette Lake (click to enlarge)

Now I'd like to share a few interesting facts about Lake Tahoe.  #1. Lake Tahoe definitely has a huge sea monster living in its depths.  I know this because at maximum depth of 1,645 ft. it is the second deepest lake in the United States, and I also happen to know that any lake that large and deep has to come with a sea monster.  #2.  It is not only deep, but it is also huge, surface area wise, with a surface area just shy of 200 square miles.  #3.  It is high.  The lake itself sits at 6,225 ft above sea level and is surrounded by mountains that top out at 10,981 ft. above sea level.  All of these features combine to create a region where you can't look in any direction from anywhere even close to the lake without seeing an absolutely stunning view.  

Chris, Allison, Jan & Jaxxon

With that said, we were thrilled when our friend, Jan suggested that we take a short 45 minute field trip from her house in Sparks, NV up to Lake Tahoe St. Park to hike one of her favorite hikes in the area, Marlette Lake.  Now, while Marlette lake is a mere speck of a lake compared to Tahoe, it is also very very pretty.  

Being that the beginning of the Marlette Lake hike sits at a sizable 8,200 ft. of elevation with the hike's highest point being at ~9400 ft., and given the fact that the highest peak Allison and I summited in the PNW during the summer 2014 hiking season topped out at ~5000 ft. above sea level, we were both unsure of how our bodies were going to handle exertion at this elevation.  Luckily, as we had mentioned in the second to last post, we had been making a concerted effort to walk for 45-90 minutes almost everyday of the week to help get acclimated.  Honestly, I think that expenditure of time ended up really paying off.  Don't get me wrong, the Marlette Lake hike wasn't like strolling through Central Park drinking a latte, but even though we were both huffing and puffing during the 1,200 ft. of elevation gain, I can't imagine how much worse it would have been if we hadn't decided to do our training walks.

Here are the bikers I was talking about

The hike starts at one of the Lake Tahoe State Park's ranger stations right off of Highway 28.  There are several ways to get to Marlette lake, but we decided to leave the car in the parking lot of the rangers station and begin the hike from there.  The hike is out and back on the same trail, with the mid point of the trail being the lake itself.  The trail system in most of Lake Tahoe is shared between hikers, cyclists & horseback riders.  This combination can be somewhat infuriating, especially on particularly popular trails.  What it usually means if you are a hiker is you end up having to move off the trail multiple times throughout your hike to avoid getting in a collision with bikers who may or may not be following proper trail etiquette of alerting you of their presences vocally or with a bell and giving you the right of way.  While this was also the case with the Marlette Lake trail, it was also designed so that a little after the beginning of the trail, the path splits in two trails, one which is designated as hikers only.  This made for an overall much more pleasant hiking experience for the four of us.  

After being treated with beautiful terrestrial views through the first half of the hike, we arrived at the lake.  At this point in the day it was almost perfectly clear except for some brilliant white clouds in the sky.  This caused the water to be a brilliant blue which was especially cool when contrasted with the greens and reddish browns of the surrounding Sierra Nevada landscape.  Jan had packed us all of the fixings for some really upscale sandwiches.  After about ten minutes of meticulously constructing mine, I fumbled and I dropped my sandwich which exploded as it hit the ground, covering all of these awesome ingredients with a fine, inedible layer of tiny pebbles.  Needless to say, this was one of the most heartbreaking, earth shattering experiences I have ever suffered during a hike.  Luckily, I was able to salvage some of the materials and augment what was left with some leftover fixings the rest of the group didn't want.  Jaxxon also didn't mind eating a few little rocks and some dirt and ended up getting a nice little snack himself.

The day was so nice and the water was warm enough, so Allison decided to take a dip.  It was pretty neat to be at a lake that high up and be able to spend any amount of time in it comfortably.  That would never happen in Washington!  After her dip we explored the bank of the lake a little further and then began the journey back.  By the time we turned to head home, it had started sprinkling.  About half of the way back to the car we started hearing thunder in the distance which continued and became more frequent for the duration of the hike.  This was pretty much okay for everyone except Jaxxon who, believe it or not, is deathly afraid of thunder.  So, every time there was a thunder clap, Jaxxon would explode with barks and growls.  Needless to say, this situation, which happened every 200 or so feet for the rest of the hike wasn't really so nice for the rest of us.  Luckily we got to the car and avoided any real precipitation.

Overall it was a really great hike and really deeply influenced our feelings towards our new home in a really positive way.  We have since grown to really like even the uglier parts of our new climate and hiking region and we also continue to be pleasantly surprised by the stunning places we continue to find as we further explore the region. 

Harrison Grind (Adventures in British Columbia)

The Group at Harrison Lake

Harrison Grind - April 19th, 2014         Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia
Kilometers: 6.9k round trip
Elevation Gain: 620m
Dogs Allowed

Allison at the 2010 Olympic Torch in Vancouver

Earlier this year our friends Jesse and Angela won a free condo stay in a small resort town called Harrison Hot Springs in British Columbia. I had never been to Canada despite living only two hours away from there for the better part of a decade, so we were really excited to take them up on their offer to join them. We were able to cram a bunch of activities into our quick weekend including visiting Vancouver, eating at Tim Horton’s and even a hike.

Harrison Hot Springs is a small resort community located on a beautiful lake that is surrounded by mountains on all sides and kind of looks like a fjord. Allison and I were really excited to discover that we could walk from our condo right to the trailhead of an awesome mountain hike. On Saturday morning Allison and I put together our hiking gear and headed out to the mountain as the rest of our group went off to the spa.

Allison: There was actually a bit of disagreement here between us and our group, we were really pushing for our friends to come hiking with us (in hindsight it was good that they didn't, spoiler!). Jesse said “I can hike anywhere, I want to go to a spa.”

Wait. WUT.

You can hike anywhere but you want to go sit inside while some faceless person rubs on you? I mean I can see the appeal, but you can, in fact, literally do that ANYWHERE, whereas you can hike many places, but not a single one will be the same. However, I digress, back to Chris...

The Harrison Grind’s name is a spin off of the name of one of the most popular hikes in Vancouver called the Grouse Grind, and while the Harrison Grind trail is not quite the torture test that the Grouse Grind is, it still offered us with a challenging (especially hung over) and rewarding hike.

We left our condo and took a short half-mile walk to the trailhead. The first half-mile of the hike was very steep and took us up a gravel service road to Harrison’s water tower.

From the water tower the path continued up a trail that followed a power line through a boulder field.

Here we got our first view of the mountains, which was spectacular even though we were only ¼ of the way through the hike. Not long after that the trial entered a very lush and beautiful section of the forest that reminded me of Jurassic Park. In fact, we even saw a cool rock that looked a lot like a T-Rex.

It also began raining, which wasn’t really a big surprise being that we were still in the Pacific Northwest, we donned our rain gear and pushed on.

Allison: I had however forgot to pack my hiking boots, so my feet were suuuuper squishy about 20 minutes into the hike. But, Goonies never say die!

Can you see the T-Rex?

After literally scrambling our way up the side of the mountain for another half an hour we ran into a fellow hiker and had a very Canadian hiking experience.

Now, there are rules of etiquette, whether spoken or not, that govern just about every social situation. This includes hiking. For instance, when you are in a hiking group that is headed back down from a summit with a difficult and/or grueling ascent, it is common courtesy when encountering another group who is struggling on their way up the same summit to lie to them about one or more of the facts surrounding the rest of their journey to the top. In the United States the conversations usually go something like this:

Scenario #1
Other Group: How much further do you think it is to the top?
Your Group: Probably about ¾ or a mile.
Reality: You are so happy to be coming down that you haven’t been paying
attention and have no idea. It could have been 5 miles… actually it probably was.

Scenario #2
Other Group: How much further do you think it is to the top
Your Group: You’re almost there! It’s just around the corner!!
Reality: You are completely sadistic, there are at least two more miles.

Scenario #3
Other Group: How much further do you think it is to the top?
Your Group: Still a few more miles.
Reality: You want them to be pleasantly surprised when the summit is just around
the corner. This is the most unlikely of the three scenarios.

As a ‘Murican, upon your first visit to Canada you will quickly realize that Canadians are, well, very stereotypically Canadian. You will quickly learn that the word sooorry is much more versatile than you once imagined. You will be told sooorry for any reason imaginable: A waitress, for instance might be sooorry for taking your order, or someone passing you on the street might be sooory because they are passing you on the street. They are very friendly and very apologetic for no reason. About is pronounced aboot and Tim Horton’s, a popular doughnut chain, is one of the most important and talked about national treasures.

About halfway up our hike we met an older Canadian gentleman on his way down the mountain and proceeded to stop and have a conversation which included all of the Canadian features mentioned above. He was also a strict observer of hiking etiquette. It went something like this.

Canadian Gentleman: Hello, eh, Soory did ya knooo aboot the Tim Horton’s they got at the top?
Chris & Allison: No, we didn’t
Canadian Gentleman: Ooh yaaa, well you fooolks enjoy your hike, eh.
Reality: There was no Tim Horton’s on the summit of the mountain, curse you Canadian gentleman for filling our thoughts with Honey Crullers!!!

After another hour or two of hiking we reached the summit hoping to get an amazing view of the valley. While the view was still really beautiful, we couldn’t see many of the surrounding mountains because they were all covered in mist. Being that it was windy, wet and cold we snapped some pictures and did an about face and headed down the mountain. Overall the hike was quite steep and we ended up having to do some precarious scrambling over wet and slippery rocks and trees which were much more treacherous on the way down. Luckily we both came out of it unscathed. With good stories to tell our spa friends about the natural beauty of the
place we were visiting.

Mt. Si via Boulder Garden Loop and Old Si Trail

Mt. Si - April 27th, 2014

Mileage: 8.4 miles

Elevation Gain: 3150 feet

Snoqualmie Pass - North Bend Area

Dog Friendly

Difficulty: Intermediate

Pass Required: WA Discover Pass

The pacific Northwest is a paradise for anyone who likes the outdoors.  From many locations in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia you can hop in your car any day of the year and have relatively fast access to an enormousness amount of different landscapes and biodiversity including snow capped mountains, the pacific ocean and sound, deciduous rain-forests and desert. 

One of the few problems you encounter in this region is snow in the mountains...  Snow that stays way into the summer months in many of the regions we like to hike.  I'm sure if you grew up or spent any time in a mountainous region, you probably wouldn't be surprised to run into a trail that was impassable because of snow coverage in July, but having grown up in the South, I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that I have to worry about snow in the summer.

Because of the snow, many of our favorite mountain hikes don't open up until very late in summer, which means we are left with very limited options when we want to do a hike with any elevation gain.  One of these options is Mt. Si which is mostly clear of snow, except at the very top, quite early in the season.  This was the third time I've taken the hiking group up Mt. Si already this season.  Luckily, there are three different ascent options for this particular mountain.  On our latest hike we decided to take the old trail which is no longer maintained and much more difficult and technical than the newer trail.

The old trail ended up being difficult enough that about halfway through the hike, I was starting to wonder if I was going to scare some of the members of the hiking group away from future hikes!  This was the second consecutive hike we did that weekend and most of the members who attended the first hike at Rattlesnake Ledge also came to this hike.  As a result, some of the members who haven't been hiking as much this season, as well as some who have, were completely exhausted by around mile 3.  The weather was also challenging on everyone's moral.  It started raining almost immediately after we arrived at the trail-head and the rain proceeded to turn into snow as the temperature dropped below freezing  at about 3000 ft.

Luckily everything ended up being OK in the end. We took lots of breaks, had some food and slowed the pace down significantly and everyone was able to make it to the summit in one piece.  Everyone was so tired by the time we reached the summit that we made a group decision to take the newer, well maintained trail on the way down.  The only downside of this option was that by taking this trail we would arrive at a parking lot that was 2 miles away from where our vehicles were parked.  We decided I would either walk to get one of the cars or hitchhike.  I ended up walking which increased my total mileage for the day to 10.4.  Lets just say I slept like a baby that night!

Overall it was a very difficult, but still very enjoyable hike.  I was quite pleased with the reactions of everyone I hiked with after we were talking about the hike a few days later.  The group consensus was that we need to train more rather than do easier hikes, a sentiment that mirrored what I was thinking.

Deception Pass State Park Redux

Location: Whidbey and Fidalgo Island
Difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (couple of short steep sections)
Dogs Allowed: Yes
Mileage: Variable
Passes: Discovery Pass for Day Use,
Season: Year round, but I recommend off-season

So we went back out to Whidbey Island and this time we brought friends. We had such a nice time camping out there last year and were so ready to have our first camping trip of the season it seemed like a great fit. The weather was not as cooperative this year, but we still had fun. I won't go over all the stuff we did, since we did a pretty similar set of hikes. In fact: here's a link to our original post. So read that if you want.

Mostly what I'm going to talk about are the differences, and some things unique to this trip.

1st: big difference Jaxx did not run away in the middle of the night. So thank goodness for that. He did fake that he was completely paralyzed when I put his coat on in the morning and proceeded to walk in backwards circles, which I really ought to take a video of cause it's HILARIOUS. He had everybody in camp just cracking up.

Instead of the Lower Loop campground (near Cranberry Lake), we camped at Bowman Bay. UPGRADE. This campground is way awesome. The views are gorgeous. You're a quick walk out to the point, and an even quicker walk to Bowman Beach. There are great views of Bowman Bay, whereas the Lower Loop your best chance for a view is looking into the forest and you're much more likely to have a view of somebody else's camp. The map is a little misleading cause it makes it look like the sites themselves are much more spaced out, they're not, don't believe it. The campground is much more open as well, which allows for views but don't expect a ton of privacy.

As I mentioned earlier, the weather was not entirely cooperative. It sprinkled off and on during the day and was pretty wet and rainy in the evening. Because the weather was kind of nasty we sort of invaded this little picnic shelter place. Technically this place is by reservation only, but since it's the off-season and we were pretty quiet nobody told us to leave, and we were there from maybe 4-5pm till about 10:30. We made pie-iron pizzas and s'mores, the pie-irons were awesome! And 3 people out of our group (who weren't raised in America and are consequently not huge fatties) had never had s'mores so that was pretty exciting. There are two keys to good s'mores: HoneyMaid graham crackers, off brand is not acceptable, they don't taste right. Good chocolate, my personal favorite is to get the Ghirardelli dark chocolate and caramel dudes cause that's just a delicious combination. Nick played guitar and we sang some songs and told ghost stories.

Around 9:45 a very nice gentleman came down to let us know we were not supposed to be there, but since there was no demand and we hadn't been making a ruckus he just asked that we be out and have the place straightened up by 11 pm.

The only not so good thing that happened on the trip was that Jaxx got kind of sick at the very end of the the hike on Sunday. Hey kept on throwing up, I carried him for a bit, but I ended up sitting with him while the others walked the last mile or so to get the car.

Overall it was a very good weekend. I love doing stuff like this and I especially enjoy it when it's combined with hanging out with awesome people. The whole weekend was perfectly capped off by getting some really god-damned delicious burger. On the way north on Hwy 2 there's this little shack with a sign advertising oysters and other sea food. It's right across a small road from a fire station and holy god is it delicious. I got a crab burger and Chris got the Big Kahuna Burger (beef patty, fried spam, pineapple and an onion ring). Everything was awesome. I'm a little bummed I didn't get the chance to try their milkshakes. Next time!

St. Edward State Park

St. Edward State Park - April 9th, 2014

Multiple Trails, Combined Mileage: 3.5 miles

Elevation Gain: 400 feet

Kirkland, WA

Dog Friendly

Difficulty: Easy

Pass Required: WA Discover Pass

Saint Edward Seminary

Saint Edward State Park is a 316-acre park on the Northeast bank of Lake Washington.  It stratles the the cities of Kenmore and Kirkland and is only a 20 minute drive from Seattle making it the closest state park to the city.  There are around 10 different trails that can be connected with a resulting total distance of around 6 miles.  Katie, Koko, Catherine and I decided to do a combination of trails that make a circle around the perimeter of the park for a total of 3.5 miles.  It was a very easy training hike compared to the one Katie and I have been doing most recently.

Saint Edward is a really beautiful park full of lush ferns, banking the multiple streams that run through the park, a pretty sizable canopy and pretty beach on Lake Washington.  The perimeter trail also has a sizable amount of elevation loss and gain which is somewhat unexpected just because of the short length of the trail.  The park also encloses Bastyr University, which is a fully functional 4 year university.  There is also some really cool architecture.  The above picture is of the coolest building in the park, Saint Edward Seminary, which was recently added to the national historic register.  

Overall the hike was uneventful and short, but it was still good to get out, get some exercise, hang with friends and spend some time in nature.

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.  

Tiger Mountain: West Tiger #3

West Tiger 3 - March 23rd, 2014
Mileage: 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 2100 feet
Issaquah Alps: I-90 Corridor
Dog Friendly
Difficulty: Intermediate

As we began to hike Tiger Mountain we had many questions, most of which we initially kept to ourselves. It's hard to talk and breathe heavily at the same time... However after about 3/4 of a mile our muscles were warmed up and we could speak again. Why the hell is it called Tiger Mountain? There are no tigers, to my knowledge Tiger is not a Native American word, nor is it a popular surname. So why? The other two popular hiking areas in the Issaquah Alps (Soaring Eagle and Cougar Mountain) both have appropriate Pacific Northwest Names? So who fell down on the job with Tiger Mountain? What's more did they just suffer from the most stupendous lack of creativity ever? Not only did they give it some arbitrary animal name, but they actually named THREE mountains that! This is how I imagine the dialogue:

Nameless Bureaucrat #1: Hmmmm how about an animal?
Nameless Bureaucrat #2: Well you've already used Eagle, Cougar, Rattlesnake is just up the way a little bit, what animal do you propose?
Nameless Bureaucrat #1: Well my daughter likes tigers....
Nameless Bureaucrat #2: But sir there's actually 3 mountains!!
Nameless Bureaucrat #1: Damn it man! I'm an ideas guy! I'm not practical sort it out yourself!!
Door slams
Nameless Bureaucrat #2: Fuck it. I'll just number them.

And that is the completely realistic, definitely NOT completely fabricated story of the naming of Tiger Mountain!

Aside from the inane naming (say that 3 times fast!) we really enjoyed this hike. We had some later engagements so we did this hike pretty early in the day, which was nice for a couple of reasons. 1) Fewer people, by all accounts West Tiger 3 is pretty crowded, so I'm guessing (especially later in the season) do this hike early. 2) There is something awesome about summitting a mountain early (even if it's just a small one) you feel very accomplished and you've still got the rest of the day to gorge on nasty food! Hey you earned it!

Overall the trail itself is in very good condition. The grade isn't terribly steep, but it does pretty much start out going up with no real warm up (the virtues of which I've expounded on before). Maybe if you park at the lower parking lot that would help and then you could avoid the horrendous pot-holes on the road up to the upper parking area.

My biggest problem with West Tiger #3 is the lack of payoff. You do a fair amount of work 2100 ft of elevation gain in a little over two miles is no slouch. Despite what WTA says though, the soaring views of Issaquah, Lake Sammamish and paragliders off of Poo Poo Point just really aren't visible through the tree tops. You get glimpses and you keep thinking it'll open up, but it doesn't. For better views in the area I would say Mt. Si, Poo Poo Point, Rattlesnake ledge (if you can bear the crowds), are all better options.


Overall I think this is a pretty good hike as long as you are enjoying the hike itself and not looking for a reward. The grade is decent, the trail in nice condition and the interior pretty. But if you want views go elsewhere.

Thanks to our friend Daniel for the pictures. Our memory card got fried!

Poo Poo Point via Chirico Trail

Poo Poo Point via Chirico Trail - March 20th, 2014

Mileage: 3.6

Elevation: +1700 ft

Issaquah Alps

Dog Friendly

Difficulty: Medium

It amuses me to no end the forest service allowed a five year old to name this trail. Probably the best part of the fact that is is call Poo Poo Point is the complete lack of explanation about the origin of the name.  Don't let the name fool you, though. Regardless of the childish name, there is nothing childish about gaining 1700 feet of elevation gain in just under 1.8 miles.  Imagine walking up normal height stairs now multiple this by 3,600 and enjoy. While this may sound pretty daunting, the trail builders did an amazing job grading the switch backs on the trail.  They seem to alternate between one steep switch back and one gentle switch back, which gives your legs a much needed rest without having to stop completely.  

At about 1.6 miles into the first part of the hike you emerge from the woods into a perfectly open meadow with a beautiful 180 degree view of the valley below.  We were lucky enough to arrive here just before sunset on a clear day and could see for many miles.  The trail continues another .2 miles to end at Poo Poo Point itself.  This also has a really nice 180 degree view facing the opposite direction.  This point is a popular launch location for para gliders and we were lucky enough to summit just as one was taking off.  

Our friend Nick brought along a musical instrument and picked around on it while the sunset.  After taking a much earned break we strapped on headlamps and started the descent which took about half the time as the ascent had.  We arrived at the car just before it was completely dark.  

I would recommend Poo Poo Point to anyone who is in moderate physical shape and would like a challenging, yet doable training hike to increase their uphill endurance.  It also has a pretty great payoff for the amount of work.  We will be doing this hike as a training hike, once a week throughout the summer 2014 season.

WTA Link