Mount Si

Last week we hiked up Mount Si, a little 4000 footer in the foothills of the Cascades. The doorstep to Snoqualmie Pass, which had about a foot or more of snow last weekend. We had cancelled this trip twice already and we were not cancelling again-rain or shine..or snow.

So, we drove out and started here-This is the trailhead.

But the trail looked more like this-

Very beautiful with big trees, ferns, and little waterfalls.

Then we hit climate change-

 

Yep, snow. But at least the dripping stopped when we hit snow level, about 1/2 way up.

The amazing thing was all the people running up and down the trail, and what they were wearing, which was a lot of shorts. Shorts! Even many of the non runners had shorts on. Wow. I had my flannely pants on with long underwear, a turtleneck with a tank liner and a wool sweater under my waterproof shell. Although I did take off the sweater until we hit the top. Still. If I could have taken a picture of some of those shorts I would have.

 

Dave, pushing up the last quarter mile.

And at the top-

I think the views are spectacular-when there are views. There are kind of views-a bit of a teaser I suppose. But even so I thought the walk was worth it and wonderful.

Best of the whole thing, though, was that Julie and I continued our “Knitting in the Wildnerness” series, part 2.

 

Are you kidding me? Imagine how impressed the other hikers, upon cresting the hill, were to see the dedication we had to our craft. Or they just thought we were a wee bit, um, strange. No, knitters cannot be defined. Stay tuned for part 3.

We also had a group shot on the way up. A hiker passed us and offered, and we couldn’t say no.

 

I got a mug shot of Dave.

I was trying to get him to do a regular smile, not so much.

These little birds, I call them Camp Robbers, were waiting for us at the top. Dave (S, not Dave M) said Look out because they’ll dive right at you to get food-and right then one dove right at me to get a taste of my peanut butter sammy.

 

They look so sweet-but not so much.

This one is still looking at my lunch.

And after a quick snack, back down we went, back through the weather in reverse. Until we were back out of the snow and down to bare ground.

Dave (M, not S) said it sure was weird to walk into snow, then be able to walk away from it.

I suppose he’s right, for him. But I’ve always known that secret-that you could go to snow in the winter-AND get away from it. Here, in the PNW.

A little bit of color in the woods.