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  On our latest hike we decided to take the old trail which is no longer maintained and much more difficult and technical than the newer trail.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.

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!

Trail Review: Ingalls Creek Trail - Part 2

Continued from Trail Review: Ingalls Creek Trail - Part 1

Suckers.

Nothing happened. The only injuries I sustained were the bug bites. Which, to be fair, I'm moderately allergic to, and they made my legs swell to the point of bruising, and that is definitely a new experience for me.

Here's a picture of my legs at the end of Day 4 (they actually continued to get worse until the following night).

Those rings around my ankles are not dirt, they are just swollen bug bite rings! As of today (4.5 days later) they are all bruised and awful. They don't itch anymore but it looks like I have lesions on my legs. Not. Nice. Anyway, back to the story...

Up until this point in the hike I would give Ingalls creek maybe an 8 out of 10 on picturesqueness. It was okay, but nothing particularly special. The sub-subalpine meadow where we set up camp at the end of day 2 was definitely pretty, but only enough to make it an 8 instead of a 7.

We decided to tidy up our camp, and have me just carry one backpack with as little as possible in it, and then on the way down stop at our campsite, have some lunch and rest up a bit before starting back down in earnest. This was absolutely the right decision and I would absolutely recommend doing that rather than trying to pack all your gear up and down.

First view of Day 3

So we started up towards Stuart Pass and the lake and it got increasingly gorgeous. The light on the mountains was stunning and it really showed off the depth and cragginess of the area. We hit this gorgeous meadow, and had to stop for quite a while. I really wanted to spend some time taking photos, but more than anything Chris had continued to feel bad, and it really came to a head on day 3, he actually puked a little ways up the trail and was feeling pretty bad, both physically and just in terms of morale.

We didn't end up going to the lake proper, half because we had a dog, dogs are not allowed at the lake so we would have had to go to it in shifts, and we honestly couldn't find it. There was really no signage directing us toward the lake, and the only trail aside from the one that lead up to Stuart pass seemed to peter out in the middle of the field. So we decided to take the trail that headed toward Stuart Pass to see if we could find the lake, or at least see it from the top. I think we probably would have been more inclined to do a bit more searching if Chris hadn't been feeling so bad and I hadn't been concerned about how long it was going to take us to get out.

Panoramic of the south end of the meadow

We never did find the lake, which I'm still a little bummed about.

Ingalls Peak

I won't be very sad about it because seriously that meadow was bananas! I wish I could spend the rest of my life there... If it wouldn't be illegal, and a complete bitch to get supplies to. I could swear I took pictures of Mt. Stuart, but I can't seem to find them, I thought Mt. Ingalls was more striking anyway, but it still would be nice to have them.

About half way up Stuart Pass, Chris looked at me and I could tell he was just done. He asked if we could turn around. I really wanted to see how much farther it was to the top so I left him in some shade and we each set a timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes more walking I was going to turn around and come back to him, no matter where I was, and if I wasn't back in 1 hour Chris would come find me. I took the dog with me, so that if I got hurt I could send him back to Chris.

Now, I would normally not ever, EVER, recommend doing this. It's not good to split up (think of every horror movie you ever saw). As it is, I have some reservations about Chris and I hiking just the two of us. If something happened to Chris I would have a very difficult time getting him out, regardless of the terrain, but I really didn't want our trip not to have an end.

That's Glacier Peak (we think)

Endings are wonderful things, especially when it comes to hiking. It completely boosts your morale,  and makes the trip back better, there are 3 ways it does this: 1) You typically get to see something beautiful 2) You have a sense of accomplishment, which is simple enough in concept but I can't overstate how important it is and 3) you know that from now on it is, quite literally (most of the time), all down hill.

I hiked for about 10 minutes and I was at the top. I took some pictures, and some deep breaths, turned around and went back down to Chris to try and get him up to the top. Which I did, and he felt better for it. I've very glad I did because these pictures (left, bottom) were definitely worth the slight risk. I think it definitely improved the rest of the day for Chris as well, which was good, because all told on day three we ended up hiking about 12 miles. It was especially difficult getting started again after striking camp.

One pooped pooch!

The rest of the trip out was uneventful. We were able to do the whole thing in about 72 hours total. I would (and very well might) absolutely do this again, and encourage anybody. I think it's a great multi-night trip. You could try and do it in 3 days and 2 nights, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are in good condition and don't let bugs and overgrowth discourage you.

Trail Review: Ingalls Creek Trail - Part 1

Ingalls Creek Trail - July 19-22nd

Lower Ingalls Creek

32 miles
4,544ft of elevation gain, highest point 6,500ft
East of Snoqualmie Pass; I-90 Corridor
Dog Friendly (except for Ingalls Lake)
Difficulty: Intermediate
Someday I am going to learn to carry a topo map, and I think if nothing else this trip will be the catalyst for me actually doing that. I'll get to that though...

So congratulations to me, this was my first multi-night backpacking trip and it was AWESOME.

The original plan was to go to Image Lake, however there was some concern about snow on the trail and the road being out 11 miles before the trailhead and we just did not want to have to deal with it. I realize that dilemma could have been solved by a simple call to the correct ranger station, but Chris and I hate the phone, so we went with a simpler back up plan. Ingalls Creek to Lake Ingalls and Stuart Pass.

Our first view of the mountains, wait a second is that.....

Ermahgerd, it's Mt. Doom!!!

We started out on the trail about midday which was a mistake. I think Chris and I have become totally spoiled by always hiking on the west side of the Cascades because no matter what time of year it is it really rarely gets hot. Ingalls Creek trail is on the Eastside and it might as well be a completely different state. It actually reminded me a lot of the Sierra Nevada: dry and scrubby with a lot of pine and fir trees. We had to stop fairly often to get water and cool off. We ended up stopping about 6.5 miles in at Falls Creek Campground.

This campground was wonderful for the first night because it was really well protected from light and heat exposure, which was really great since you never sleep too well the first night and it let us sleep in a little.

Day two was pretty rough, there had been a forest fire fairly recently so the next 4 miles were almost totally exposed and the brush started to get REALLY bad. Not far into the hike we had been warned by a couple we met that they had actually planned on going farther but turned around because the trail was so overgrown.

I don't know what it is about hiking that makes me think that everybody around me is a total wimp, but it does. Every time somebody warns me about trail conditions I just think to myself, well they're obviously big babies. To some extent I think I'm right, I mean, if I drive two hours to do some hiking, I'm going to do it. Unless it is actually impossible, not even dangerous, but IMPOSSIBLE, I will try. This was no different. When the couple we met told us about the overgrowth, I thought to myself, it's can't be THAT bad, besides I grew up in the woods, I'm used to trail blazing. Which is all true, what I forgot it how completely exhausting trailblazing and even walking on overgrown trails can be. Not to mention painful.

Here is how thick the brush was, I am in both of the pictures below, standing on the trail:

In the one on the right I simply just lifted the brush out of the way.... Yeah, pretty damn thick.


Between the brush, the heat, and Chris feeling kinda poorly we probably only did another 6-7 miles on day two. This was starting to get me worried, it meant that between days 3 and 4 we were going to have to do at least 18 miles, which would normally be completely fine, but I was definitely concerned about our pacing, especially since day 3 would also include some elevation gain.

We camped on the edge of this beautiful meadow with a bunch of pretty gorgeous views (up-right, left, bottom right) and had a spectacular view from our tent (Up-Left). Aside from our first view of the mountains while we were walking through the fire section, we had been in lowland and there hadn't really been much to see. So it was wonderful to get out in the meadows and sub-subalpine areas. There were also tons of wild flowers and blooming fire-weed that was out all over the place during day 2.

The only other remarkable thing about day 2 was that the bugs came out in force. I had brought bug spray with me, but these biting flies we're like "DEET? What do you think we are? PUSSIES?! NOMNOMNOMNOM."

I went to sleep and during the night I had this dream: I got badly hurt, to the point that Chris couldn't stretcher me out. He would have to leave me to get help, I kept telling him to go slow and not rush, so that he wouldn't hurt himself in the process. As soon as I finished telling him he sprinted away.

I didn't know then how prophetic that dream would be...

Link to Part 2!