We thought we were in shape.
We were wrong.
The plan had been to get up and down the infamous hill outside of North Bend in around four hours, but it did end up taking just a bit longer than that. Carpooling to the trailhead, Dean, Mark, Beetle and I started up the gated road in a slight mist. The weather forecast wasn’t spectacular, but it was nice enough that we didn’t need to Gore-Tex™ up quite yet. The pace was fairly slow to start out with, but only because that’s as fast as we could go. The trail was almost instantly steep once we left the logging road, and didn’t relent until we reached the summit two hours later in a strong wind and enveloped in fog.
Happy 30th Birthday to me…
Early start – slight drizzle – steep, then steeper – snow field – false summits – wind, fog – summit! – back down – jelly legs – mark bites it – whupped
Perfect weather – Dean, Mark, Marty, Seth – gear problems – route finding – ice axe instruction –
An early morning trip up Guye Peak, a 5168-foot chunk of rock in Washington’s Cascade mountains. Approximately 2000 feet of elevation gain over a mile and a half (in the summer it’s a bit longer). Up and down in 3 hours. Great way to start the weekend – we we beat the rain back and I even had time to mow the lawn and catch Ian’s baseball game…
With all these training hikes happening, plus a stretch of good weather, it just made sense to get the families out and do something everyone could have fun on. The Mathews and Beetle and us rolled up Little Si and topped it off with a treat of chocolate and strawberries, thanks to Dean’s JetBoil™ stove. It was a nice little surprise to a mostly epic-free morning, with all the kids arriving on top breathing and nearly dry and not bleeding. Ian hiked the whole way by himself, which was a first. Ben put in a good effort, but ended up on my shoulders for most of the way back.
Dean and I took Junior, a roofer from Brazil up to the top of Mount Si… I called the boys and had them run out to the backyard and then used the mirror on my compass to send a few flashes down their way… They were pretty tickled…