Category Archives: Moderate Hikes

Mt. Si, February 2011

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Mt. Si
Date: February 11, 2011
Difficulty: 6 out of 10
Distance: 8 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,400 Feet
Time: 3 to 4 hours
Location: Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: No Permits Required
Trail Conditions: Dry to the top
Hiking with: my wonder dog Macho

Another Friday, another hike day; I didn’t get up real early this morning so I got a late start.  On my way to the Mt. Si trial, I was listening to NPR and they announced this morning Hosni Mubarak finally resigned as President from Egypt after 18 days of protests.  The whole world has been watching the protests and waiting for the outcome for the past couple of weeks, so it was exciting news to start my hike with.

The parking lot only had maybe 12 to 15 cars, which some days you could see easily see over 50.  Macho and I started around 12:30 p.m. and casually made our way to the top before 2:30 p.m.  I forgot to bring Macho’s food along, so I ended up giving my beef pouch that I smuggled from China on my last trip to him.  On the way down, my right knee area was throbbing with pain, so I broke out my trusty first aid kit and took a couple of ibuprofens.  After the hike, I grabbed a towel and rinsed Macho in the creek before putting him into his car kennel.  Before I made it home, I stopped for a beer and a cup of Jambalaya soup at North Bend Bar & Grille.

Kamikaze Falls, February 2011

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Kamikazi Falls
Date: February 5, 2010
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Distance: 5 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 1,500 ft.
Time: 2 to 3 hours
Location: Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: None Required
Trail Conditions: Dry up to Kamakazi Falls
Hiking with: Linna Freeman & Macho

Linna and I decided to get Macho out for some fresh air, so we decided to hike up Kamikaze Falls.  This will be the first big hike for Macho since he had his cast off and this will be my first hike since my knee specialist told me I needed a knee replacment two days ago. We got to the trailhead around noon and I was totally surprised by the amount of cars there were in the parking lot; five years ago, you would be lucky to see another car….even on a weekend. With a casual pace, we made it to the falls in 1 1/2 hours.  With the warm weather, the falls were raging with all the snow melt.

Pratt Mountain, December 2010

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Pratt Mountain (snowshoe)
Date: December 30, 2010
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Distance: 9.5 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,200′
Time: 6 to 8 hours
Location: I-90 Exit 47, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass Required
Hiking with: Lance Leasure

With all the snow in the mountains, there are only a few small trails out there without any snow and those trails don’t have much elevation gain or view.  So, if you want to hike a respectable trail, you will need snowshoes.  I wanted to get in one more hike before my holiday was depleted and had the yearning to snowshoe Pratt Mountain.  I picked up my friend Lance Leasure and we stopped at Starbucks on before heading to the Pratt Trailhead at Exit 47.

It was a beautiful sunny day, but very cold for the Puget Sound area, it was a chilly 27 degrees starting off.  The parking lot was filled with snow, but…luckily there was a small area plowed for parking.  We put on our gators, but decided to put the snowshoes on when we really needed them.  The trail started off with 4 to 6 inches of powdered snow and slowly got deeper (http://bit.ly/eC9un0).  About 2 1/2 miles on the Pratt Lake trail we decided it was time for the snowshoes.  Even with snowshoes, we were still sinking down over 2 feet.  Running out of time, we turned back approximately 3.1 miles from the trailhead ( right before the view point of Olallie Lake).  Even though we didn’t summit Pratt, there will be plenty of snow this season to attempt it again in snowshoes for the next 4 months.

Granite Mountain Hike, May 2009

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Granite Mountain
Date: May 9, 2009
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Distance: 8 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,900′
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: I-90 Exit 47, Washington
Users Group: Hikers Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass Required
Hiking with: Lance Leasure, Alex Drew & Dr. Robert McElroy

This was a tough hike

Denny Creek Trail, August 13, 2010

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Denny Creek Trail
Date: August 13, 2010
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Distance: 9 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,300 ft
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: I-90 exit 47
Users Group: Hikers & Leashed Dogs Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass Required
Hiking with: Jim Darmiento & Dr. Robert McElroy

This was the first time I had two good friends of mine finally coming together for the same hike.

Mt. Si & Teneriffe Loop, December 3, 2009

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Mt. Si & Teneriffe Loop

Date: December 3, 2009 

Difficulty: 6 out of 10

Distance: 9 ½ miles roundtrip

Elevation Gain: 3,200

Time: 4 to 5 hours

Location: Near North Bend, Washington

Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only

Permits: No Permits Required

Trail Conditions: Dry to the top, hard packed snow from Mt. Si to Tenerife road

Hiking With: Mike Curry

 

Mike and I started the Mt. Si trail around 9:00 a.m. on a very chilly North Bend morning; temperatures around 32 degrees.  There was only a few cars in the parking lot, unlike your typical busy summer weekend day for Mt. Si.  The trail was clear and dry up to Haystack; the saddle between Mt. Si and the Tenerife road was hard packed snow.  It was hard enough that you didn’t need snowshoes and soft enough that you had some traction.  Once we traversed over to Tenerife road, there was still hard packed snow for another ½ mile descending down.  We ended the day at North Bend Bar & Grille for a bowl of Jambalaya soup and a Guinness beer.

Granite Mountain, November 2008

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Granite Mountain
Date: November 14, 2008
Difficulty:  6 out of 10
Distance: 8 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,900′
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: I-90, Exit 47
Users Group: Hikers Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass Required
Hiking with: Mike Curry & Steve Schnurr

Granite Mountain is a staple hike.

Source Lake, November 2009

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Source Lake Trail
Date: November 22, 2009
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Distance: 6 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 700 ft
Time: 3 to 4 hours
Location: I-90 exit 52; Alpental Ski Area
Users Group: Hikers & Leashed Dogs Only
Permits: None Required
Trail Conditions: 12” to 20” of fresh fluffy snow
Hiking with: Linna Freeman, Evangeline Yu & Dr. Robert McElroy

We met at our usual Starbucks, exit 17  to decide on what hike would suit everyone.  It was raining all morning, so…we decided to hike Source Lake at I-90 exit 52 at Snoqualmie Pass.  The rain kept coming down and it finally started to change to snow at the pass; as much as I love the rain….I would rather put my gear on in the snow than the rain any day.  Finally snowing now, we exited at 52 and drove pass Alpental Ski area to the last parking lot.   

After putting on the gators and MSR snowshoes we started our snow adventure.  It started deep and just got deeper; we were the first ones on the trail, which meant fresh deep snow.  We followed the main snowshoe trail for a couple of miles and finally started to pick-up some elevation as we got closer to Source Lake.  This is where we started blazing our own trail, at times we were going through snow waist deep high.  After hitting the 3,800 foot level, Dr. Rob and I took turns breaking the trial; even with snowshoes on, we were sinking down over our knees.  Linna and Evangeline were loving life with Rob and I compressing the trail to manageable 6 to 10 inches of snow.  

Staying at the 3,800 foot level, we weren’t on the main trail…but just North enough to get around it and head for the east side.  We had to be a little careful crossing the creek that feeds into Source Lake; there were some mini size crevasse that we had to cross.  After getting on the East side, we couldn’t find the trail at first, so we trudged our way up in search for the trail back to Snow Lake trailhead.  We didn’t find it at first, so we angled our way Southeast through the trees until we hit the avalanche prone area.  Even though the chance of an avalanche was low, we crossed this area with care.  After carefully crossing the open area, we found the trail and we were on our way home.

Denny Creek Trail, November 2009

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Denny Creek Trail
Date: November 13, 2009
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Distance: 9 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,300 ft
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: I-90 exit 47
Users Group: Hikers & Leashed Dogs Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass Required
Hiking with: Dr. Robert McElroy

Since they called for rain most of the day in Seattle and snow level dropping down to 1000 feet in the Cascades, Rob and I wanted to start our hike in the snow and avoid getting out of the car in rain.  So, we decided to head Commonwealth Basin on exit 52 at Snoqualmie Pass, but due to a traffic accident after exit 47 that shut down I-90, we decided to snowshoe the Denny Creek.  The road leading into Denny Creek trailhead was snow covered with 6 inches of snow and luckily we got passed early on by a large dually truck that made tracks for us.  Turning into the parking lot we got stuck and were just spinning our tires, so I got out and pushed to give Rob’s car some momentum.  We found some bare ground underneath a tree and parked the car  facing out toward the road for the end of the hike.

The snow was still coming down when we started hiking and never did stop for any small breaks during the hike.  Underneath the tree canopy, the trail started off with 3 to 4 inches of snow that increased as we ascended.  It was obvious that we were the first ones on the trail; it was all fresh snow below us.  By the time we hit Horseshoe Falls, snow depth was between 10 to 14 inches of fluffy snow.  About a quarter mile after the large rock field, the snow was getting deeper, so we decided to put on our snowshoes.  Even with snowshoes, the fluffy snow was up to our knees.  We took turns leading to break trail; actually Rob did most of the work though.  After tromping through the thick snow for 2 ½ hours, we decided to turn back, right before Hemlock Pass.  Due to the high stepping through the snow, my thighs cramped up on the way down….I was instantly paralyzed trying to relax my cramps.

Eagle Peak, September 2009

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Eagle Peak
Date: September 20, 2009
Difficulty: 6 out of 10
Distance: 7.2 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,955
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near Longmire, Washington
Users Group: Hikers Only
Permits: $10 per car access fee
Hiking with: Linna Freeman, Patricia Chow & Garth Heuchert

After finishing an easy hike yesterday (Comet Falls) and today was going to be sunny warm day, we needed a hike with a colossal view; this is where Eagle Peak comes in.  This hike should only be done on a sunny day, the Mt. Rainier views are to die for.  This hike also deserves a little picnic on top so you spend time resting and absorbing the enormous views.