Bandera Mtn - August 15th 2008

Today we headed to exit 45 off of I-90 and the Ira Spring Trail to Bandera Mountain. I brought an extra litre of water in anticipation of a very hot day and by end of the hike I was glad I did! Even though it was 7:45 in the morning when we arrived at the trailhead, you could already feel the heat building. I was shedding layers and had barely gotten out of the car.

The trail starts off as an old forest service road and starts climbing almost immediately. While much of this three mile section of trail is under the trees, quite a bit of sun broke through and there were plenty of sections where it opened up and we were in full sun. And there were many excelent vantage spots for a great view of the Snoqualmie Valley. Since I was already sweating and breathing hard, I decided to not try to take pictures on the way up the trail - I knew I'd have an opportunity to do so on the way back down. So I concentrated on getting up the trail to the "junction." Let me pause a moment to mention the bugs. I sprayed myself with bug spray at the trail head, but not well enough! We fought off black biting flies, gnats and mosquitos the entire way. Every time I stopped, I reapplied the bug spray. Mental note to myself: Next hike, spray clothes all over at home before leaving because bugs will bite you through your clothes!

The three miles to the junction were tiring in this heat and a steady climb. We reached the junction where some of us would take the lefthand trail to Mason Lake and some of us would go to the right and head up the scramble to Bandera. A scramble, it turns out, is exactly what its name implies. You have to scramble over rocks and up the steep hill, virtually straight up (no switchbacks here). It was amazing to look up the hill and see all the hikers pockmarking the side of the hill. There's no real trail, just a footpath and you look for the best way up. I'm not sure what time it was when we reached the scramble, but there's virtually no tree cover so we were in full sun while climbing.

Good hiking boots and trekking poles are a must for the scramble. The trekking poles are worth their weight in gold! They help you balance as you step up onto rocks higher than your knee (hoping your daypack doesn't pull you over backwards!) rather than having to get down on all fours!

We finally reached the top and had spectacular panoramic views of Mt. Rainier, the valley and on the other side of Bandera, Mason Lake. Looking down at the lake we could see the other team that had chosen that route - swimming in the middle of the lake! The lake looked so inviting, but standing on top of Bandera Mtn, I knew I wasn't going to be able to take a dip myself anytime soon. We rested at the top eating some lunch and taking pictures before heading back down the scramble. After the trek up the hill, I was expecting the way down to be even harder due to the steepness. But trusting my poles and boots, I made my way down only having to fall back onto my butt once! (Did I say that it was hot and buggy out?). After a slow scramble down we made it to the junction again. Some of us were going to go back down to the trailhead and some were going to head down to Mason Lake.

I knew that I wanted to cool off in that lake, so I headed to the lake. We had some small gain in elevation for a short way, but then it was down hill and after I guess a half mile or so we were at the lake. Everyone got into the lake as soon as they could. I cannot tell you how good it felt to take off my boots and sit down on a rock in that lake! It was well into the 90's by this time (the car gauge said 94 when we left the trailhead) and that lake water was nice and cool. We hung out for about an hour before heading back to the trailhead. As we left Mason Lake my 3 litre hydropack ran out of water - luckily I had brought an extra litre of water. Makes for a heavier daypack, but a real life-saver on such a hot day.

The 3.5 or so miles back to the trailhead took us back into tree cover which was nice. Note to self: Buy a sun hat for these hikes! By the time we got back to the parking lot, it was about 3-ish. We got out of our boots and shucked our packs and dove into the air-conditioned car as quickly as possible!
I'm exhausted tonight from the hike, have at least 25 or so bug bites and sunburned my shoulders and face. But it was an awesome hike! I'll edit the post once I have the mileage and elevation gain.

I hear that we may be doing Snow Lake and beyond next weekend. I am going to cover myself in bug spray and sun screen for that one!

Pictures featured: (1) The Bandera Group on the scramble back down the mountain. (2) The view of Mason Lake from the top of Bandera. (3) The view of Bandera from Mason Lake.

Twin Falls - Iron Horse Trail - August 10th, 2008

Saturday the 9th was our team hike to Pratt Lake, but I missed it due to not feeling well. At this stage of training I want to get in as much time on the trail as possible, so I was really disappointed.

But come Sunday, I was feeling better and us, The Benda's, and our friends The Winkle's and The Smith's decided to hit the trail. After Mt. Si, I thought everyone could use a gentler, shorter hike, and I thought everyone would like to see the falls, so we headed to Twin Falls. We headed out at about 11am and although it looked like rain, the clouds held off and we had a nice day on the trail.

It's about 1.5 miles to the top of the trail and gains about 500 feet in elevation. There were lots of hikers out on Twin Falls today. Many of the view spots were crowded with families and groups resting and eating lunch. So we stopped only long enough to check the view of the falls before headed on up the trail.

The Twin Falls Trail connects to the John Wayne Trail / Iron Horse State Park and once we got to the junction, we headed east along the John Wayne Trail. This trail is an old railroad turned rail trail - you can read more about how it became a trail here: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/101499/iron14.html. They've taken out all the tracks (you can see old railroad ties at Ragnor if you head west from Twin Falls, and there are rusty remnants of the train tracks all along the trail) and you have a nice wide trail that's easy to walk with friends. The trail goes all the way to Idaho, but today we just walked to Mine Creek and back. This is a nice easy stroll with many points to see fabulous views of the valley. The most challenging part of this trail is keeping your ears open for bike bells. This is a popular trail for bicyclists and we saw several large groups along the way. We came upon Deception Crags and decided to sit there for a few minutes eating some lunch while we watched the rock climbers.

We continued on eastward and crossed two railroad trestles - Change Creek and the Hall Creek. When we came to the third trestle, I think it was Mine Creek (I'll double-check and edit if needed) we decided to turn back. Our goal was to get back down the Twin Falls Trail and then head over to Snoqualmie and check out the Falls there. At Snoqualmie Falls we headed down to lower viewing aread, adding another 500 feet in elevation gain and 1 mile to our hiking total for the day.

We capped off our day in Snoqualmie at the Snoqualmie Falls Brew Pub then headed home. Like the last time, everyone is anxious for our next hike!

All told I'm calculating that we hiked about 10 miles with at least 1500 (still figuring out this figure) feet gain in cumulative elevation. Not a bad day's trek!

Pictures: (1) The kids on the Twin Falls Trail. (2) The bridge / old railroad trestles at Mine Creek with our group out in the middles of the span.

Mount Si - August 3, 2008

This weekend was an "OYO" or On-Your-Own hike. Our Hike For Discovery Team hikes three Saturdays out of the month together, and then one weekend is designated as OYO. I wanted to get a good hike in, so I decided to go to Mount Si on Sunday with my husband Don and our kids, Clayton and Faith; our friends, theWinkles, which included Paul, Francie, Zack, Jake, Snoopy and Charlie, and their friend Odasson.

We waited until about Noon to take off as we didn't want to get stuck in any SeaFair traffic. I was worried that this would put us on a really crowded trail, but it wasn't bad at all, even though the parking lot at the Trailhead was full. We headed up the trail and Don and I quickly fell to the back with Faith. Francie and Jake had the dogs and they along with Odasson took the lead. That left Paul, Zack and Clayton in the middle.

Mount Si climbs steadily and steeply along it's 4 mile trail up the mountain. This hike is a workout for any adult, so for Faith it was pretty tough. She alternated between running up the hill to then being too tired to carry on as we neared the top. The trail doesn't change much in appearance as you climb, so there's not much reward for a 6 year old along the way. Good thing Don packed the licorice! Faith and all of us pushed on until finally we reached the summit of Mount Si. We stopped right at the craggy base (could have moved a little further along the trail towards haystack) and recuperated. Everyone was tired and hungry, but the view more than made up for the hard work getting up the trail.

After eating we explored the rocks a little and got a fabulous view from both sides of the mountain. We soon headed back down the trail, moving at a pretty fast pace. By the time we reached the bottom we were all glad to take our boots off! Not a bad day of hiking! We hiked 8 miles with a cumulative elevation gain of 3200 feet. And although tired, everyone was anxious to plan the next hike!

Wallace Falls - July 26, 2008

This week I have added a new name to those I am hiking for - Steve Knight. His wife Holly has been a big supporter of mine, coordinating a raffle at work and spreading the word about my fundraising efforts to her friends and family. In memory of her husband Steve, Holly shared this with me, "Steve had a short battle with lung cancer. (he never smoked) He was diagnosed around the first of May and we lost him the 2nd of August. But in that short time, Steve wanted to try everything possible to fight that battle. Not for himself, but for his kids and those in the future who may have to endure the battle themselves.. “he would tell all the doc’s and any one who was a student to try your tests. Poke and prod me, I’ll take what ever you can dish out, lets learn something from this!!" I am honored to hike in memory of Steve.

Of all the hikes so far, Wallace Falls is maybe my most favorite for beautiful scenery. The drive there was lovely as well though a little farther than we've gone to date. Wallace Falls State Park is in Gold Bar and so we headed north instead of east this time and it took just over an hour to get there. It was fun to see a couple of hot air balloons floating over the fields and I was really hoping we'd have a viewing spot on the trail to see them, but the trail was in a different direction.

However, I forgot about the hot air balloons once we got on the trail. We hiked along Wallace Falls and there are several viewing spots along the trail to stop and see the falls. I think there are at least three sets of falls - small falls, middle falls and big falls. On some parts of the trail it was like climbing a set of stairs. Once we got to the big falls, we continued on along an old forest road to Wallace Lake. We stopped there for lunch before continuing on the forest road and then circling back around to the trail. The weather was fabulous and when all was said and done, we had hiked 10.8 miles, gaining 2100 feel in cumulative elevation in six hours.

Our hike leaders advised us that Wallace Falls is the last of our "gear-break-in" hikes. From here on out we're trying to get us much trail time and elevation in as we can. We have just one month before our big event hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park and every moment on the trail will help prepare us for the big weekend. I can't wait!