Mount Si- North Bend

Today’s adventure was to finally hike one of the most popular trails in the area, Mt Si.  Justus joined Cedar and I for this strenuous hike- 8 mi round trip and over 3000 ft of elevation gain.  Towering over the town of North Bend, Mt Si offers beautiful views of the surrounding peaks and valleys.  Or so I’m told.  It didn’t clear up today until we were home again.  Still it was a really nice trail!  Almost all of it went through thick forest.  There were some pretty big Douglas firs along the way too.  One had a sign saying it was over 300 yrs old. 

After climbing steadily for miles we came out in a jumble of boulders dotted with people and dogs, taking a break after the hike.  Now and then the view would clear a bit and we could see North Bend, I-90 and the Snoqualmie River. 

 Despite the clouds, I really enjoyed the rocky summit of Mt. Si.  The actual summit is a huge stack of rock called the Haystack, which is several hundred feet higher. It’s a scramble best left to people who know more about rock climbing.  I like rocks (wanted to be a geologist) so had fun looking at the different formations we were walking over and around.

Opportunistic critters populated the jumble of rocks as well, happy to swoop or scurry in to nab a bite of hikers’ lunches.  I saw Douglas squirrels, chipmunks, gray jays and Stellar jays. 

It was a long, fun day, a great workout and well worth the effort.

Heather Lake - still too cold for a swim

My sister, Rose, and her gorgeous dog, Odin, came to visit this week and I took a day off so we could get in a hike.  We picked Heather Lake because I knew there was a lot of water and snow still for Odin to play in.

The last bit of the hike was buried in snow still, which I knew, but I didn't know how difficult it would be to tell exactly which trail across the snow to follow.  I think we meandered a little, as did whoever left the footprints we were following, but we knew where we wanted to end up, and came out right by the little boardwalk bridge over Heather Creek.  There are some logs jammed up there and I thought it would be fun to walk out on them to take a couple pictures.

Adventure Dog decided to follow.  He enjoys walking on logs anyway.  Unfortunately, he also decided that the solid appearance of some reeds covering the water next to the log would be a good thing to stand on.  Rose shouted that he'd fallen in about the time I started to hear splashing.  He was doing an inefficient doggy paddle trying to get back onto the log with no success.  I made a couple of grabs and finally hauled in a soggy doggy.  With all the snow around it was a bit cold, so I was trying to dry him off a little when I heard another splash.  Odin had seen Cedar go in and went in in the exact same spot to "check out the swimming hole."  The look on his face when he realized it was deeper, colder, and harder to get out of then he thought was pretty priceless.  Rose leaped out onto the log to pull him in (all 130 lbs of him) and dropped his leash in the water, which started floating downstream.  I saw that with Odin's lunging she was managing to get him out, so I made a dive for the bridge and tried to catch the leash as it came out the other side.  I missed by about a half inch.  I was pretty sure it was a goner, but then it abruptly ended its career as a boat and sank to the bottom.  I grabbed a trekking pole and after a couple tries managed to fish it out.  Of course, 2 of the very few people we saw on the trail happened to emerge onto the boardwalk at the beginning of this and now they were standing there trying not to laugh, we were standing there feeling a bit embarrassed, and the dogs were standing there looking sheepish and cold.  We retreated elsewhere for our lunch.

The rest of the hike was uneventful and pretty.  I think it was one Adventure Dog and I will remember and laugh about for a long time.  : )

Deception Falls - Leavenworth - Lake Wenatchee

I had Friday off and Cedar and I were going to meet my sister and his cousin Odin at dog camp!  Lots of great people and fun dogs running around a camp on Lake Wenatchee playing games, hiking and enjoying the beautiful weekend.
I got packed quicker than I thought and had plenty of time, so I stopped by this little roadside nature trail at Deception Falls.  The half mile nature walk was lovely, crossing a crystal clear stream and following along the Tye River before the overlook at the falls.  If you are pressed for time you can go straight to the falls, but the signage is great and a lot of work has been put into this little trail.

After that, I drove into Leavenworth and spent an hour there.  Adventure Dog and I were entertained by a couple dancing to accordian music and an outdoor art fair in addition to the regular Bavarian themed storefronts.  We found a pet supply place called A Paw Above that sold tiny lederhosen for dogs.  Luckily for Cedar, they didn't have his size.  I was particularly happy with a food stand that sold a variety of sausages (including veggiewurst) and dogs were welcome.  There was a nice outdoor courtyard to eat in that had a statue of an accordian player with a dog at his feet.  I was amused that there was a live accordian player actually performing in the courtyard with his black lab asleep at his feet.  Cedar hates bagpipes, but seems to be OK with accordians.  He did bark rather rudely at the lab though.

Dog camp was a blast.  Cedar and Odin both played games, met other dogs, and waded in Wenatchee Lake. 

The camp was about a mile from a short hike, Hidden Lake.  Altogether from camp and back it was probably about a 4 mile roundtrip hike, but if you drove straight to the trailhead it's under 2 miles round trip. We got up Saturday and Sunday morning at 6am to hike to it.

Adventure Dog was so wiped out after 3 straight days of having fun he couldn't jump into the car on the way home and could barely get onto the couch.  He spent the rest of the day, all night, and most of today sleeping.  What a terrific weekend!!

Mailbox Peak - Success!

Mailbox Peak is a serious hike.  The 1^st time I tried it, I only made it 2/3 of the way up.  Climbing steeply for nearly the entire way, its quick switchbacks, thigh-burning incline, and rock and tree root steps make it a tricky and challenging trek.  I have never seen another trail with this sign at the beginning.

Yes, that muddy slope of twisty tree roots is part of the trail above!  Cedar would run ahead and then look down to see if Justus and I were going to make it. 

Justus’ glasses kept fogging up, so he put them in his pocket.  They didn’t stay there though.  Kind hikers behind us found them and put them up where we would find them again.  Can we have those spectacles back, Mr. Tree?

After trudging up through the trees, it was nice to step out into the sunshine.  There were some clouds, but for the Northwest, the views were pretty great! 

Next came a snowy stretch with steps kicked in by all the climbers before us.  Some people chose to scramble up the rock slope.  We took the snow steps up and the rocks down.  The picture of the snowy trail was taken from the top looking down.  Where it disappears is just where it was vertical so couldn’t be seen from this angle.

Looking up, we could see we still had a ways to go and it felt like we were scaling the side of a cliff it was so unrelentingly steep.

Once we could see the mailbox we charged for it, but unfortunately that was farther than our legs could carry us at that speed after the long climb and we had to slow back down to a trudge for the last 50 feet or so.  We signed the mailbox (the notebook inside was sodden) and ate our lunch on the summit, soaking in the sun, the views, and the camaraderie of all the satisfied climbers around us.  Adventure Dog tried to bum extra lunch from them. 

What a hike!

Ashland Lakes - Mountain Loop Hwy

Having been on other trails recently at similar elevations, I was surprised to see patches of snow even at the trailhead.  Areas of snow continued on up the trail, growing thicker and covering more of the trail the further up I went.  The trail belonged almost entirely to Cedar and I.  One person was ahead of us that we never saw, a woman and her dog passed us at one point and on the way out a family was heading in.  That was it in 5 miles.  So peaceful.

Where the snow had melted off, the misty forest was full of emerald green mosses and marshy areas blooming with bright yellow skunk cabbage. 

Cool little plank boardwalks run along much of this trail.  In some places, little round tree segments create steps across wet areas.  Where the wood is slippery a lot of it has been covered with mesh to help hikers stay upright. 

Beaver Plant Lake was the 1^st of the three lakes.  It had a tiny boardwalk along one edge with a little bench to sit on and look out at the mist rising off the lake.  It was so peaceful up there.  No sound but birdsong and water dripping from everything.  A pair of Barrow’s goldeneye cruised around in the still silver water.

I went on and the snow got worse.  It isn’t really snow of course this time of year, nor ice.  It is that dense slush somewhere in between, deceptively melting out from the bottom up.  I did a lot of post-holing and went through more snow than my feet wanted to handle with the barefoot shoes I was wearing.  I only got as far as Upper Ashland Lake, which was still mostly covered with a layer of ice and snow.  The boardwalk around this lake was buried more than it showed, so I found a clear spot to have lunch and then headed back.

I was nearly back when I saw this funny lump of moss that looked like a headhunter had dropped it’s prize in the woods.  The moss was a different shade of green and stuck straight up like muppet hair.

I’d like to do this hike again too, and this time make it to the other Ashland lake and further to Twin Falls Lake.  I wouldn’t have been able to make Twin Falls this time anyway, as the trail was closed beyond the Ashland Lakes.