Tag Archives: Matt Kerby Bellevue

Bandera Mountain Sunrise Hike, June 2017

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Bandera Mountain
Date: June 30, 2017
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Distance: 8 miles / 12.88 kilometers round-trip
Elevation Gain: 3,400 feet / 1,036 meters
Time: 5 to 6 hours
Location: Exit 45, I-90
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass Required
Trail Conditions: Dry to the top
Hiking With: Linna Freeman, Matt Kerby & Macho the Dog Wonder

My wife Linna made a lifetime goal of 100 sunrise hikes…after today we will only need 98 more! We met up with Matt Kerby at the local Home Depot at 2:00 a.m. and loaded everything into his new SUV. We started at the trail-head at 2:45 a.m. and reached the summit in 2 hours…which means we had actually had to wait for the sunrise for 30 minutes.

It was perfect weather through-out the morning, but the mosquitoes were so nasty it affected your movements. I put on my jacket so only my face was shown, I came down the mountain with only one bite. Matt ended up with a couple of welts on both sides of his forehead.

It’s a good feeling when you are descending down the mountain heading back to the car and it’s only seven in the morning and seeing people heading up wondering…what the hell.

Granite Mountain Sunrise Hike, May 2017

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Granite Mountain
Date: May 27, 2017
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Distance: 8.6 miles / 13.8 Kilometers round-trip
Elevation Gain: 3,800 feet / 1,158 meters
Time: 5 to 6 hours
Location: Exit 47, I-90
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass Required
Trail Conditions: Dry to Snow Packed
Hiking With: Mike Curry, Linna Freeman, Matt Kerby, Craig Schilling, Tao Song & Macho

Seven of us decided that getting up at 1:00 a.m. to summit Granite Mountain to see the sunrise would be worth it…and we were right. Our group consisted of Mike Curry, Matt Kerby, Craig Schilling, Tao Song and my wife Linna Freeman. This will be the first sunrise hike for most of us and probably the earliest start for a hike too.

I am not sure how we decided on Granite Mountain for a sunrise hike, but we all knew they would be a lot of snow on top left over from a very wet/snowy winter. After reading the WTA trip reports, the avalanche conditions were minimal and post holing wasn’t an issue. We had to be a bit more cautious on the snow when it started to open up on top, there were numerous foot trails going in different directions, but I have been up Granite so many times I had a good feel for our direction to the summit.

Matt Kerby reached the summit in time to snap some beautiful sunrise pictures, some of the photos posted will be his art. There were many groups coming up as we were descending and by the time we got back to the parking lot it was nearly full.
Craig and Tao invited us back to their house for breakfast. Of course when we got back home Linna and I took a long nap.

Mailbox Peak Hike, April 2017

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Mailbox Peak
Date: April 22, 2017
Difficulty: 9 out of 10
Distance: 5 miles round-trip
Elevation Gain: 4,000 feet
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: Mike Curry, Matt Kerby, Craig Schilling and my dog Macho

This will be the second time this year I conquered the Mailbox.

Mt. Baker Trip, March 2017

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Six of us spent a 3 day weekend in Glacier, Washington enjoying the Mt. Baker area and the vast open country for snowshoeing.

Rim To Rim Hike, September 2016

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Epic North Rim to South Rim hike all in one day with my wife Linna and 7 other good friends.

Mount Teneriffe Hike, June 2016

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Mount Teneriffe
Date: June 8, 2016
Difficulty: 8 out of 10
Distance: 11 miles / 17.7 Kilometers roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,840 feet / 1170 meters
Time: 5 to 6 hours
Location: Exit 32, I-90 Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: Matt Kerby and my wonderdog Macho

I wasted a day of vacation so I could wake up at 3:45 a.m. on a Wednesday and purposely trash my legs and pound my heart into submission while hiking Mount Teneriffe. This hike will kick your ass every time and maybe it’s the reason I only do it once a year. But if you are looking for a colossal work-out 30 minutes from Seattle with 360 views…then Mount Teneriffe is it.

My friend Matt Kerby joined me on this thigh burner hike, this was his first time and Mr. Teneriffe showed him what trails are made of. We took the short route up via the Kamikaze Falls then followed the ridgeline to the summit. To save on the knees we descended the long “old” logging road down. I guess I will have to quit calling it a logging road as of last year Department of Natural Resources actually created a trail by bringing the edges in with an excavator. They have done an exceptional job of creating a real trail from the 7 mile logging road.

We made good time to the summit and we didn’t have to share it either. In fact I was telling Matt that I never had to share this summit with anyone in the 10 years of hiking this mountain. You might see 1 or 2 people on Mt. Tenerife on a weekday, but one mile away you will see 20 to 30 on Mt. Si.

Granite Mountain Hike, June 2016

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Granite Mountain
Date: June 3, 2016
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Distance: 8.6 miles / 13.8 Kilometers roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,800 feet / 1,158 meters
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Exit 47, I-90
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass Required
Trail Conditions: Dry to some packed snow
Hiking With: Matt Kerby, Rick Massie and my wonderdog Macho

Granite Mountain has always been an essential hike for me and I have always told my wife Linna that I wanted my ashes tossed from this summit. Granite Mountain goo.gl/LdJsWz offers everything from dense forest cover, waterfall, open meadow, wild flowers, look-out tower, boulder scramble, late snow, long avalanche shoots and views to die for. Plus…the first mile of this hike is moderate so allows your legs to warm-up before you split off from the Pratt Lake trail and start some serious elevation gain.

I had the pleasure to introduce Granite Mountain to a newbie hiker and good friend of mine, Matt Kerby. I think Granite became his new favorite hike and I am sure he will be back very soon. Another friend and co-worker Rick Massie joined us on this glorious sunny Friday. We all met up at the trailhead at 5:30 a.m. to get an early start on the day, surprising though there was already six cars in the parking lot.

The summer route still had a lot of snow so we scrambled up the boulder field to the look-out tower. After a putting on a dry shirt and sucking down a Gu Energy Shot we descended the summer route in the snow. We pretty much had the trail and look-out tower to ourselves today.

Hex Mountain Snowshoe, March 2016

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Hex Mountain Snowshoe
Date: March 12, 2016
Difficulty: 6 out of 10
Distance: 7 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,600 feet
Time: 3 to 4 hours
Location: I-90 exit 80; Near Cle Elum Lake
Users Group: Hikers & Leashed Dogs Only
Permits: No Permits Required
Trail Conditions: Packed to Fresh Snow
Hiking with: Jim Darmiento, Linna Freeman, Matt Kerby and my dog Macho

Knowing that our Northwest snowshoeing season is ending soon it was time for another snowshoe experience and my wife Linna will not do the same mountain twice so I was tasked to find a new peak for us. Hex Mountain goo.gl/y5tL2N has been popping up on trip reports on Washington Trails Association and I thought it was time to mark this mountain off my list. Maybe I would have done this peak sooner if it was a bit closer to home, but 180 mile round trip is a lot of travel time and you’ll need to drive over the weather beaten Snoqualmie pass twice.

Our exploration party consisted of my lovely wife Linna and my good friends Jim Darmiento and Matt Kerby. None of us have attempted this trek before and we had a difficult time finding the trailhead but managed to find the right area to start. Well…we had to ask a few people after driving back and forth along Cle Elum Lake a couple of times.

Due to a lack of snow at the base of the mountain we packed in our snowshoes until we hit enough snow to put on our Tubbs Flex VRT 28 goo.gl/4U8DAP snowshoes. I must add a Freeman review about these snowshoes because I truly love these badass snow stompers. I am overwhelmed how easy it is to secure the Tubbs Flex to your boot, their patented Boa closure system is fast and easy to use which is extremely important when you are putting them on in freezing weather. The round control knob or Boa dial is large enough to use with thick gloves and the foam pad that wraps around your boot when you are turning the knob distributes the pressure of the binding equally across your boot. Not only is the Flex VRT is easy to put on, they are very comfortable to wear all day on all types of terrain. I own five pairs of various snowshoes and this season I am only wearing my Tubbs Flex VRT’s!

We really didn’t follow a trail up but blazed our own route to the summit…well we thought it was Hex peak. We hit some pretty steep terrain making our way to the top weaving through the trees. Maybe the distance and lack of fresh snow kept people way from this mountain because we only saw one other group of people…just as it should be. I am looking forward to this trek early next season with fresh heavy snow all the way to the base of the mountain.

We ended our day with lunch at the Roslyn Café in Roslyn, Washington.