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.
This looks like some serious elevation gain. Way more than what I wimper about. Lol. Nice view. It's weird, but the first picture of Justus looks like he's standing in front of a fake Hollywood scene almost. Or maybe it's just me. It's a great picture, it just looks like a backdrop or a green screen. Pretty cool that it isn't!
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