I-90 Corridor

Annette Lake (off I-90, Denny Creek exit)

June 4, 2000

Okay. I don't know exactly what my problem was with this stupid hike... but it really got on my nerves. And I, of course, then got on Paul's nerves... This is the first hike on the GottaGo page that we've actually done. We were going to attack Eagle Peak today, but it's a good thing we didn't. It would have been awfully miserable.

The hike itself really wasn't too bad... it's actually a pretty easy one (3.5 miles, 1700 ft of elevation gain). By all normal measurements it's a goober hike.

We got to the trailhead around 8 and got started pretty quickly. At the trailhead is also where the Ashael Curtis Nature Trail Loop begins/ends. The first sad thing of the hike was about a half mile into it we got "lapped" by a group of 4 hikers... well actually, they just breezed by us like we were standing still. I was rather surprised because I had thought we were going at a pretty good pace. Oh well. We're just goobers. That was the point at which I began to think that so many hikes on weekends in a row was a bad idea. (Yay Columbia Gorge next weekend! Road Trip!) So anyway, you get to the Iron Horse Trail and have the following option... this reminds me of the signs in the Wizard of Oz.
Sadly, my mood deteriorated from there. Knee. Snow. People. The weather was nice, just the attitude was bad, body was tired. It was very windy at the lake... and there was a really cool set of waterfalls on the far side of the lake. You can probably get over there (or at least close) but there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground and the water was cold. So for now I got to photograph from afar. You can see there's one huge one on the left then two smaller ones to the right. These falls were definitely the highlight of the day.

Oh, yeah, and the trip down was fun too... stopping every 20 feet or so to stop and wait for the uphill hikers to pass. I had never been on such a crowded trail.

When we were just about back at the trailhead, there were two things that REALLY bugged me. One: there was a plastic bag at the base of a stump tied off like it contained a diaper or dog shit or the like. It was so close to the trailhead the goober hikers must not have wanted to carry it all the way up the mountain just to carry it back down again, so instead just left it there. They'll probably forget to pick it up on the way down. YUCK!! Two: The bottom of the trail runs right along a pretty good sized creek. Well. There were these two goobers trampling through the brush, stepping on trees along the creek not more than 15 feet from the trail. Why would they do this, I asked myself. After we reached the car, they apparently had found the trail and come down to the trailhead again... one of the guys was carrying a fishing pole. A FISHING POLE. Uh. Uh. No. That's just wrong.

See ya later... :)

 

Bandera Mountain (off I-90, exit for FS road 9030)

May 29, 2000

We are sure having a hard time finding non-snow-covered, places-that-we-wanna-hike-to, nice-weather hikes. The biggest problem is that most of the places that I really wanna go are still covered with snow, and will likely be impassable until at least August. The other problem is that the weather sucks. What can I say? It's spring in the Northwest.

Yay! Waterfall! >>>>

We chose Bandera for today because a trail report said it was basically snow-free... and it was. But today... of all days... of course during Memorial Day weekend... it was cloudy. Not just cloudy... but foggy, can't see 50 ft away from you kind of cloudy. Hoping that we could get above the clouds, we trudged up. The first part of this trail isn't too bad--a steep, abandoned road. At the end of that it just goes up. No switchbacks, just straight up the slope. I was constantly looking out into the vastness of fog trying to see SOMETHING! Twice, I saw something... some mountains across the way... can you see them? Frickin' twice. And, to top it all off... before I could even get my camera out and on, the clouds blew by and took my views away. It was rather frustrating to say the least.
As we neared the ridge, a ribbon of blue sky. Hopes were high with anticipation of the 360 degree views that awaited us as we got above the clouds into the sunshine. Well, thank god I took a picture of this. Just like the phantom mountains across the way (but a little bit slower to disappear), a minute or so later the ribbon was gone and we were once again left with grey nothingness all around.

We got to the peak... which of the peaks we're not really sure because we couldn't see where the other peaks were to use for reference... and ate some lunch. We were promptly joined by a couple of birds. SOMEONE (and I won't mention any names) was a SUCKER and gave the birds little pieces of an Odwalla bar (an organic soft granola bar kind of thing). The two birds had a very well practiced routine and both we and they caught on pretty quick about how it was going to work... I've never had a wild bird actually come and sit on my hand before... it was very cute and nice. :)

 

Franklin Falls (off I-90, near the Denny Creek)

June 25, 2002

I took a few hours this beautiful summer evening
to visit the falls again with the girls...

it's nice to know it's a place they now remember...
just like I remember from my childhood. :)

We were short on time, so we took the shortcut.

It was getting a bit chilly, especially in the sloppy
wet gusts of wind breezing off the falls.

November 17, 2001

No pictures... sorry. You can scroll down if you want to see this beautiful falls.

This was just a quick visit to introduce Paul to my childhood friend, Franklin Falls. He liked it. Yay!

 

May 12, 2000

I took off on a Friday afternoon/evening... leaving the house at about 5... to make a run for the mountains with the kids. We got to the trailhead at about 6, and reached the falls at 7 (1 mile trail). As I kind of planned on, I carried Kylie on the way up, and she walked the way down. I was rather surprised at the amount of snow lingering on the trail and surrounding forest. Off to the left of the falls, you can see a mini-glacier... really just a leftover snow pile... oh well, simple pleasures.

Once we reached the falls, we snacked on animal cookies and carrots (yummy!!). It was a bit cold with the wind coming down the falls.

 

Granite Mountain (off I-90)

August 8, 2002

It's a Thursday afternoon, and I know I'm not going to have a chance to go hiking this weekend (see Kalaloch Camping), so I decided to head up to my old friend Granite to see if I could make it to the top before it got too late. (the answer is no)

I had planned to leave work at 3, but didn't get out of there til 4, so didn't hit the trailhead until 5. I resolved that at 8:00 I would stop wherever I was and turn-around. I didn't want to get stuck in the dark (even though I do carry a flashlight).

I made pretty quick time all the way up. It was was getting cooler and the bugs were going nighty-night. If you stopped too long, the flies caught up, but not so bad you couldn't stop and catch your breath.

Can you find the lookout in the picture on the right? It's in there.
At 7:15 I reached the tarns, climbed a bit further, then decided in 30-45 minutes I wasn't going to reach the lookout, the view was nice from where I was, so I found a rock and sat down to enjoy Mt. Rainier and my bowl of watermelon. Okay, so this is where all the bugs were... they found me, and quickly. Not wanting to be bothered, I began my descent, while finishing off the watermelon (note to self: hiking and eating don't play well together).

 

June 18, 2000

I came up here last November but didn't make it too far due to difficult snow conditions... like the fact that I couldn't see my footsteps 10 feet behind me on a trail I had never been on before... bad news. So anyway... I just had to come back and conquer... :)

The days leading up to this Sunday had been absolutely gorgeous... so I figured it would be a good day to do Granite and get the views I knew were there. Well, as it somehow always seems to happen, the weather turned crappy... just for the one day. I still know the views are there... I'll just have to go another time to see them.

I was very surprised how not-sore I was after this hike... we blazed up it (3 hours, including dealing with snow--4.4 miles 3800 ft or so of elevation). Damn mntn... at least I was able to make it to the top, I suppose.

 

Mardee Lake (off I-90, on the eastside of the Summit)

December 29, 2001

Guess who got snowshoes for Christmas? Yep! That'd be me!!

I was going to head up I-90 earlier in the week, but between my vacation-induced laziness, football on tv, work to do, and someone who wanted to go with me the first time I used the new gear, it didn't happen.

The weather today wasn't the greatest, overcast, but it wasn't precipitating. That's always a northwest bonus.

We headed up a closed road, took an off-trail detour and went over to Mardee Lake. The area is certainly nothing special in terms of what I would normally think of as a 'hike', but this is different. Snow really makes even I-90 a decent area, and even relatively flat trails offer a good workout.

This is the first of many short snowshoeing romps off I-90.

McClellan Butte (off I-90)

December 26, 1999

My friend turned me onto this trail. The first time we did it together it was so wet and muddy and miserable, that we didn't get to the top… that was in November. So, here I am… trying to get further than the last time… and… well… it didn't happen. The weather was gorgeous, but this time it was the snow that kept me from reaching the top, or even getting as far as I did the previous time. The views were great and I climbed up an avalanche gully about 75 feet or so so that I could sit on a rock and eat lunch. I probably wouldn't have been so bold and stupid if I hadn't witnessed a fatal roll-over accident on I-90 on my way up to the trail that morning.

 

>>>>>Lunch Spot!!

 

 

Meany Lodge

January 23-24, 2004

What a 'fun' trip. Bleah.

 So... here we came back again... with Stacia's girl scout troop... this time to spend the night.

We had such a great time last year, and the Mountaineers are cool... so I helped with the planning and arranging of the trip. We were to meet at the school at 4:30 on Friday.

I had a very busy day on Friday and was running around the whole time. I finally left my house at about 3:25 or so, had to drop something off for my mom to fax, then off to pick up the girls at 4:15. All was fine and good until I realized I forgot the sleeping bags. D'OH!! (funny thing is I did the same thing last weekend, but didn't remember until it was too late) So I had to go back home and get them. Got to the girls' dad's house right on time, but they weren't packed. Well... they were kinda packed. We were getting everything in order when Stacia just started freakin out. omg. I was supposed to bring a couple of things from my house, that she asked me about in the car the night before (that I had said you need to call me when I'm home, because I don't have any way to remember at the moment). Then there was also something else... so life was just miserable for my little princess. We finally got out of there, but the attitude continued. I told her that we weren't going. I would tell the other moms that we were having some 'issues' and we couldn't go. We got to the parking lot, amazingly, right on time. I left the girls in the car for awhile and went out to talk with the rest of the folks. It was obvious to me that my attendance was needed, so I went back to our car and had a talk with Stacia. Finally, at a little after 5:00 we pulled out of there. Nice thing was that I didn't have to drive. :)

 

 

January 18, 2003

Stacia's girl scout troop made reservations to go snowshoeing around the Meany Lodge in the Kachess Lake area just past Snoqualmie Pass. It's a Mountaineers lodge and there were a bunch of people there, not just the troop. I came along and brought Kylie too.

There was lots of stuff to do beside snowshoeing.

Kylie liked the sledding.  :)

 

Stacia was the only girl scout who snowshoed the entire 3.5 miles out (everyone else took the CAT). Way to go!!

 

Melakwa Lake

May 31, 2003

There was still quite a bit of snow everywhere, but Melakwa Lake was one of those I-90 hikes that my dad had told me about a while back and one of the big reasons I started my regular jaunts to Denny Creek in 2000. Melakwa Lake is on the same trail as Denny Creek Flats, just much further up.
<<<<<<< Keekwalee Falls is always a nice sideshow attraction.
We got to the ridge, where the beaten track in the snow disappeared. We searched around a bit, then found a nice spot for lunch overlooking the lake deep in the valley below. Going down a good distance to a lake is not my idea of fun at the end of a hike, especially in the snow. The view from the ridge was nice enough, don't you think?

 

Mt. Si (off I-90 at North Bend)

January 15, 2001 (MLK Jr. Holiday)

Woo-hoo! The first hike of the season!

There was only one other car in the parking lot when we headed up! at Si! That's a miracle, too!

East along I-90 South towards Mt. Rainier

Southwest across I-90 to Rattlesnake Mtn. and down on North Bend.

  

 

 

December 31, 1999

This was the first time I'd been to Si in more than 15 years... it was a very welcome homecoming and was very different and less miserable than I had remembered it for all those years.

 

Olallie Lake

May 18, 2002

Happy 22nd Anniversary of Mt. St. Helens Eruption!

Kay... we headed out this day because we hadn't been out in waaay toooo long. We were hoping to make it to the lake, but no such luck. The cutoff trail to Olallie and Talapus Lakes from the Pratt Lake trail had not yet been made.

So, we picked a clear spot for lunch and rested our out-of-shape bodies.

Before long we were joined by 2 grey-jays and we couldn't help ourselves.

 

I couldn't help myself on the purdy woodland waterfall!

 

Rattlesnake Mountain East

March 4, 2001

I never thought I would say this... but Rattlesnake West (the way I normally go) is better than this way. Today was very windy, cloudy and there was a lot of snow. It was cold, too. It didn't seem like anyone had been up there on foot in a while either, we got to blaze our own path... granted, most of it was on gravel roads.

I took some pictures of the towers, but they're not anything special enough to post and take up my precious on-line storage.

 

Rattlesnake Mountain (off I-90 at North Bend, across the highway from Mt. Si)

August 18, 2005

Hard to believe it's been almost three years since I got personal with the Rattlesnake Ledges. A quick Thursday hike this time.

The weather was hot today, almost 80 in the city, but a nice breeze was blowing up the mountain from North Bend.

45 minutes or so up, a nice relaxing sit on a cliff, and a nice job down. I think this was partially a new trail from the last time I went up. Door to door just under 1:45.

So nice to be up in the mountains again.  :)

 

August 30, 2002

Just enough time for a quick Friday afternoon before a long weekend hike to Rattlesnake. It's hard to believe it's been more than 2 years since I've been up to the ledges.

The weather was okay, nothing special certainly... cloudy, warm but not really, nice breeze, etc.

40 minutes up... we huffed it. 40 minutes chatting at the first ledge before descending.

It was a nice evening. :) Thanks Sporty Squid!

 

April 30, 2000

Okay... so I was pretty much a wimp in April... too much lounging around in bed, sleeping in... oh, well... now I'm just all rested up. :)

In stark contrast to my last visit to Rattlesnake (see Jan. 8, 2000 below), this day was very nice and sunny... I even got a bit of a burn (well, maybe just the start of one) on my nose, cheeks, and shoulders. I don't know what was up with my boots today, but by the time we got to the second ledge, I had a blister the size of a quarter on my heel... and it only got worse from there. Anyway... let's start from the beginning.

Okay, so this sign maybe really super stupid, but all I could see were visions of human speed bumps being christened.

  
The mountain was really cool... blue sky and everything, and the lake was veeerrryy low... just compare it to the last time...

 

January 8, 2000

This hike was upon the recommendation of a friend, until he mentioned it, I didn't even know that it existed… I was going to go here last weekend, but because I would have been killed had I gone without him my first time up Rattlesnake, I waited until he could join me. It's a nice steep hike from the beginning. This day is was VERY windy <<yeah, wind!>> and the low-lying clouds were moving quickly.

 

Snoqualmie Falls (off SR 202)

June 18, 2001

Just a quick afternoon trip to the falls... so the girls could test out their new hiking boots and we could have a picnic on the rocks. It was a gorgeous day and the picnic was really nummy!

March 6, 2000

Snoqualmie Falls is cool. That's about all I can say about it. I've come to see it more times than I can remember... at least 30 or 40 times over the past 25+ years...

 

Snoqualmie Pass

January 9, 2004

My friend was visiting from California... and he wanted to try skiing... so we did. It was fun, he learned real quick and we only totally crashed once... of course it was on the last run of the day. LOL

 

Once the lights turned on, everything glowed orange... it was eerie lookin'.

 

November 20, 2003

It's been a long week. Yeah, it's only Thursday, but still. :)

It snowed in town earlier this week, and we continue to see rain mixed with snow on occasion. Supposed to snow again tonight... I guess we'll see. Oh, before, when it snowed in town... the snow on the colored leaves was soo pretty. I wish I would have taken a picture.   :(  Oh well... I'll look for my next opportunity.

 
Okay... I soo love winter. Donned the studs and headed up to play in the snow. I went up I-90, and started seeing snow around the hwy 18 interchange, although there wasn't really that much snow until you go through that turn/pass past North Bend. I took the Denny Creek exit and headed towards Franklin Falls. I didn't get to the trailhead though, as I decided to play it safe and stop just before the bridge. Then I went out and played.  :)

 
There were two things about this excursion that made me happy.

One, there was this dog. Kay... I'm totally not a dog person, but he/she/it was great. He belongs to the last house on the road. As I went by the house, he stood in the middle of the street in a thou-shalt-not-pass stance. Not vicious or anything... just stupid. Dumb Dog. lol. Lump. lol. Anyway. He finally let me pass and I went on my way. Okay, so after I parked by the bridge, here comes the dog. He wanted to go for a walk. He kept me company. It was nice to have some company.

Two, the snow on the trees. There was this one stretch of road where as I drove down it snow fell gracefully off the trees, making it extra snowy and powdery. hmmm :)

 

Can't wait to go out again! Maybe the sun'll even come out.

 

 

Talapus Lake (off I-90, under Bandera Mountain)

April 2, 2000

Well, I think this is the last snow hike for me this year... messed up my knee... going to the dr... I just LOVE docturs. NOT! Oh, well. I was amazed driving up there how much snow there wasn't... Barely visible patches on Rattlesnake and Si... almost nothing until you really got up there... LOTS of bare rock! Yay!!

Ok, so this hike is supposed to be a great one for kids... so the only time to go is when there's snow... and, consequently, not a lot of people. The road was snowed over, so we couldn't drive to the trailhead... wouldn't ya know it, the most difficult part of the hike was before we reached the trailhead...

I can't imagine the road to the trail filled with cars and mini-vans... it's just a simple, pot-hole-filled one-lane gravel forest service road... scary enough with only one car... oh well. Good thing it was just me.

The lake... covered with snow and ice... standing at the exit creek, looking upstream through the saddle between Bandera Mtn on the left and Pratt Mtn on the right.
Okay... look at this and tell me what you see...

See somethin'?

Well, I was walking down the trail on the way down and I saw this... I walked by and stopped... walked back and looked again... it's a root... partially exposed from its cold grave... bwah, ha, ha... :)