Sun 2/8 – Mt Si, first time this year

I’m too greedy to actually buy a full day pass for just mediocre snow and clouds, besides I’m too impatient to get in waiting lines to ski on weekends.
To up the ante a bit, I picked Mt Si. Nice and balmy February hike (no wonder there’s not much snow). For teasers, the last half mile had some snow/ice cover. View was soso, high cloud ceiling with some sun spots. Warmed up on good hot Assam tea (complete with sugar and milk) before heading down. Enjoyed the company and chat with Jim (a local hiker I met on the way up) for most of the descent.
Sorry, no pics, light wasn’t great, plus the camera battery was almost discharged.

Besides the overdue physical excercise, I now realize how therapeutical those hikes can be, a welcome stress relief from helping Lisa with her battle with cancer.

Stats:

Distance:	8mi / 13km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	3400ft / 1020m
High point:	3980ft / 1194m
Hiking time:	2:05 up, 1:20 down
Weather:	mostly cloudy, 40 at TH

Hikers:
David

Sun 2/1 West Tiger 3 – starting the new season

Snow is getting rare again, I’ve been getting lazy: time to restart my hiking again to get some much needed exercise again. No big effort to get going, that’s what Tiger mountain is really good for. And for a Sunday, the trail was not as crowded that I was afraid it would be.

Stats:

Distance:	6mi / 9.6km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	2170ft / 650m
High point:	2522ft / 757m
Hiking time:	65min up, 45min down
Weather:	cloudy, 40 at TH

Hikers:
David

Sat/Sun 8/23-24 Recon to Three Fingers Lookout

Siew Moi, Norm and I volunteered for a reconnaissance tour up to Three Fingers Lookout to assess snow damage it has sustained from last winter. This September, Everett Mountaineers will organize a work party to repair and maintain the lookout.

Wed/Thu 8/13-14 Mt Pilchuck Lookout painting

Yet another Pilchuck work party, this time to scrape, prime and paint catwalk railings, shutters and shutter supports. Lisa and I joined Norm from the Everett Mountaineers. Plan was to hike in early Wed morning, work all day and stay overnight and for Lisa and me to hike out in early Thu morning.
The previous work party had already primed some of the supports and shutters. We lowered the east and west shutters and then scraped the railing, with the spontaneous and friendly help of another hiking couple.

8/2 – 8/5 Wonderland Trail

Fellow trail maniac Marjan and I joined a group of Microsoft hikers to raise money for WNPF and to backpack ~1/3 of the Wonderland trail, from Mowich Lake to Sunrise.

Wed 7/30 West Tiger cable line trail

This is the final practice hike before the Wonderland Trail hike. I decide to go for speed instead of weight: packed with just a light daypack I try speeding up the cable line trail, the diretissima to West #3.

Stats:

Distance:	5mi / 8.1km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	2170ft / 650m
High point:	2522ft / 757m
Hiking time:	45min up, 30min down
Weather:	cloudy, 60 at TH

Hikers:
David

Sat 7/26 Mt Pilchuck Lookout work party

Everett Mountaineers maintain the Pilchuck Lookout and together with Craig from MSClimb, they organized a work party to carry up material and do some emergency repair on the lookout’s cat walk, railing and cable stays.
Sat had a great turnout of hikers (more than 20 people) carrying tools and materials up to the lookout (thank god the National Guard already flew up the lumber, would have been clumsy to carry 2x8s on a pack…). Got to the TH by ~8:30, hiked up with Arthur from the Everett Mountaineers, with ~25lbs of tools. Trail was in much better shape than 3 weeks ago, but still large snowfields above ~4500ft. Arthur and I spent some time creating cairns to guide the following hikers across the snow fields.
I stayed up at the lookout for 6-7 hours to repair the currently closed catwalk around the lookout: first I ripped up a good part of the porch decking and replaced some of the rotten 2×8 joists, placed fresh vertical posts so that the porch won’t bounce anymore and rebuilt the broken railing (it got crushed by the snow load). Fun to balance out on the rock, above some nice verticals, and swing saw and hammer. It was a pleasure to remove the “emergency closure” sign at the end of the day!
On Sat the group was a bit short of crafty people, the other 3-4 “worker bees” redid the steel cables that anchor the lookout to the rock and started replacing some of the broken glass.

Stats:

Distance:	6mi / 9.6km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	2224ft / 667m
High point:	5324ft / 1597m
Hiking time:	1:30 in up, 50min down
Weather:	sunny, 70 at TH

Hikers:
David

Wed 7/23 Rattlesnake Mtn – Grand Prospect

It’s getting close to our Wonderland trail; this week we chose a medium length of ~9mi roundtrip with some altitude: Grand Prospect, the northern-most set of the illuminated radio-towers one can see driving west on I-90, right past North Bend.
First stop and aperitif after roughly 50 minutes at Stan’s Overlook. Refreshed, we tackle the remaining ~2/3 up through denser and older forest to the radio towers. We got a quick glance at the sun set over the Olympics shortly before we reach the Grand Prospect.

Stats:

Distance:	9mi / 24.4km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	2080ft / 624m
High point:	3060ft / 918m
Hiking time:	2:50hrs up, 1:45hrs down
Weather:	partially cloudy, 60 at TH

Hikers:
Marjan, David

Sat/Sun 7/19-20 Backpacking to Spider Gap

A backpacking trip that almost transplanted me back to good ole Switzerland: Spider Meadow has a very alpine look, with an open meadow down in the valley, flowers and marmots galore, surrounded by rugged mountains on either side and waterfalls pouring off the cliffs. Big difference to hiking in the Swiss Alps: here in the National Forest, one can readily camp in the backcountry. I even found a camp site made in heaven, more below.

Thu 7/17 – Mt Si, fast lane

This week’s hike to Si I chose to go light & fast: small daypack, 2 qt camelbak water bladder and some granola bars.
From the trailhead up tothe Snoqualmie view point took me 95minutes, including playing photographer for a bunch of UW students at the 3.5mi viewpoint. Subtracting the ~15minutes of breaks along the ascend, this makes for a 80min actual travel time, averaging 3 miles per hour.
Descend was exactly one hour, with mostly jogging and only misstepping once in the dark, but no damage (sheepish grin). Unfortunatly, the jog down had me lose my Swiss army knive

Stats:

Distance:	8mi / 13km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	3400ft / 1020m
High point:	3980ft / 1194m
Hiking time:	1:35 up, 1hr down
Weather:	sunny, 70 at TH

Hikers:
David

Sat/Sun 7/12-13 Backpacking Boulder River

We picked Boulder River trail as our first gear-check backpacking trip. Weighed down with 30-35lbs packs, we hiked a mostly comfortable trail follows Boulder River with plenty of ups and downs. Final altitude gain was only 400ft. At the end of the trail, we barely couldn’t find a free camp site among the 6-8 sites available. Right next to the river, we snatched the last site, fitting one tent. A large boulder next to it served as balcony, kitchen and dining room.

The Mountain House freeze-dried dinners are quick to cook but can be on the salty side; certainly the Beef Stroganoff was, the Oriental-style chicken was better.

Nighttime temperatures were moderate in the 50s and dry, so tent and sleeping bags were comfy.

Getting there:
From the Darrington Ranger Station, take State Route 530 west for 8.2 miles to the French Creek Road #2010 (miles post #41). Turn left (south) onto road #2010 and follow for 3.7 miles to the trailhead.

Stats:

Trail/map:	MBS NF #734 / Green Trails #77 & #110
Distance:	8mi / 12.8km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	400ft / 120m
High point:	1400ft / 420m
Hiking time:	~2:30hr in, 2:30hr out
Weather:	sunny, 75 at TH

Hikers:
Marjan, David

Wed 7/09 – Mailbox Peak, first attempt

I was crazy enough to go Mailbox Peak this week, but I also exercised a lesson of mountaineering humbleness when I turned around ~150ft beneath the summit as I ran out of time (I set myself 9pm as turnaround time to not get too deep into the dark on descent). So score is now: Mailbox: 1 – David: 0
I have only one word for this mountain: relentless. I likely pushed too hard with the 35+ lbs on my back and I also got to the trailhead rather late (almost 7pm) due to leaving work late and traffic. But I’ll try again later this summer, the view is indeed gorgeous even from below the summit.

Stats:

Distance:	5mi / 8km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	4000ft / 1200m
High point:	4841ft / 1452m
Hiking time:	2:30hr up, 1:50hr down
Weather:	sunny, 75 at TH

Hikers:
David

Sun 7/6 – Mt. Pilchuck

Yet another winter trip (but, isn’t it July…?):
Mt Pilchuck’s forest service road to the trailhead had just been cleared from snow less than 2 weeks ago and a snowy trail greeted me right at the trailhead. Most tracks lead directly up the much steeper direttisima (winter trail?), but I wanted to follow the regular trail, more to the west. With some search and bushwhacking (sure glad I had map and GPS with me…) After some searching I did find the regular trail leading up through wonderful old-growth forest. Above the tree line, the tracks in the snow got very thin again but a quarter mile of traverse merged me into the more popular winter trail. Sure glad I had my ice ax with me today. Passed some skiers and happily made the scramble all the way to the lookout. My optimistic hope that the sun would burn away the clouds didn’t materialize, so I could only guess and take very few peeks at what the view from the former forest service fire watch tower could be like.
Descend was really quick and great exercise for my thigh muscles: lots of glissading, and snow walking with big strides. Ice ax recommended, though.
Did I mention I love driving up & down lonely gravel forest roads with my 4×4? Flying over potholes is more fun than driving through them

Stats:

Distance:	6mi / 9.6km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	2224ft / 667m
High point:	5324ft / 1597m
Hiking time:	1:10hr up, 40min down
Weather:	cloudy, foggy 55 at TH

Hikers:
David

Wed 7/2 – West Tiger 3

This was by far the shortest stay on the Tiger summit we ever did: lightning was closing in on us (1-2 mi away), so we quickly turned around at the summit to not risk getting caught in the thunderstorm.
Back at the bottom, we walked along the trail to Tradition Lake to find a spot for our delayed picnic. Besides our usuals, Shabnam brought along a sampler of Chateau Erfani 2007: Her selfmade wine, albeit still young, has a great color and wonderful and round taste.

Stats:

Distance:	5mi / 8.1km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	2170ft / 650m
High point:	2522ft / 757m
Hiking time:	1:05hr up, 50min down
Weather:	thunderstorm, 70 at TH

Hikers:
Shabnam, David

Wed 6/25 – Mount Si again

Wonderful summer day, but hazy horizon with Mt. Rainier sporting its own cloud collar. We had an amazing fast mile average (24min) for the middle part, but on the top mile my 35lbs load did win and we were back to slower speeds.
We enjoyed the gorgeous view over Snoqualmie valley, cheese, salami, fruit, wine and each others company on the summit until sunset. On the way down we discussed the “essentials” we’d need for the Wonderland trail: italian espresso cooker, champagne in cans, … that backpacking trip promises to be lots of fun

Stats:

Distance:	8mi / 13km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	3400ft / 1020m
High point:	3980ft / 1194m
Hiking time:	2:00 up, 2hrs down
Weather:	sunny, 75 at TH

Hikers:
Marjan, David

Sat 6/21 – Annette Lake, is it really summer yet?

It appears that Annette Lake has not received the “it’s summer now” memo: Started at the trailhead in a balmy 70+ degrees and crossed through the old-growth forest with plenty of spring-like mosses and busy creeks. But as we crossed ~3000ft, we ended up in deep winter, hiking over deep and closed snow cover! The lake itself is mostly frozen, with only small water spots. Crossing the steep screes at the top was a bit pushing it: Trail is not visible with only marginal tracks, so lots of kicking steps and being careful to keep balance.
And carrying 30lbs + on the back appeared to give me really good traction on the snow , but I sure was glad to dump the 2gals of water at the lake (what fool would carry water to a lake….)

Stats:

Distance:	7.8mi / 12.5km roundtrip
Elevation gain:	1900ft / 570m
High point:	3600ft / 1080
Hiking time:	2:30 up, 2:15hrs down
Weather:	cloudy, 70 at TH, maybe 40 at the lake

Hikers:
Marjan, Paris, David