With the above average temperatures and sun all week, I figured today would be a good day to reach the summit of Mt. Teneriffe via the old jeep road. It’s a 14 mile trudge and a daunting challenge in good weather and a difficult path when there’s snow. The road begins that the “school bus turnaround” at the end of the Mt. Si road and has a small parking area where a gate blocks access to the road. The road is nearly flat for the first mile before it begins pitching steeply upward. The road is wide but much less easier to hike due to the rocks and potholes that littler the way up.
With overcast skies with a dark cloud covering the summit of Teneriffe and Si, I set out around 2:45 PM, about 2 hours later than I had intended (not surprisingly, I couldn’t get my ass outta bed). I made good time though, reaching the medium sized waterfall that marks then end of the flat section in about 15 minutes. I was having a good day and had no problems with my fast pace up the steep parts. I am always amazed by the density of the forest that surrounds the road. Some sections are so dark that you can’t see beyond 20 feet or so even though there’s no brush. During a hike in March, I stepped into one of these sections (I normally don’t do this to spare the vegetation) and was genuinely spooked by how dark it was during the middle of the afternoon. Around 2,400 feet, I began to hear this whooooOOMP, whooooOOMP, whoooooOOMP sound coming from the woods. The noise was too low in frequency and volume to be coming from a bird but I don’t know of a mammal that makes this kind of sound (granted, I’m no zoologist). I (kinda) worried that it was some sort of mountain goat ((since they are known to be very aggressive if they feel threatened) mating call or warning signal and it bothered me that it stopped when I did. For an instant, I thought I was just imagining it until it started a brief second before I started moving again. I looked all around though and didn’t see anything. But the forest is dense enough to hide just about anything or anyone just a few feet in.
I hit some pretty deep snow at a tad over 3,400 feet that was solid enough that I could easily walk on it without snowshoes. Then the road leveled (FINALLY) and cleared until 3,850 feet where the snow was deep and soft enough for me to fall through with my right leg up to my crotch (which took forever to get out of) that made me think about turning around. At about 3,900 feet, I could go no further without any snow gear. If it had been colder, I could have probably traversed the snow without falling through but it just wasn’t worth it especially since I had started so late. So I hung my head and turned around.
The views weren’t that great and I only took my camera out twice. I didn’t see a single soul on the trail and despite being so close to North Bend and I-90, it felt very remote. 9.0 miles total with about 2,800 feet total elevation gain. I will be back and won’t be denied again.
You can see the few photos I managed to take in my Flickr photoset.
P.S. I’m not posting my GPS tracks or Mpasource .GPX files because it was a failed attempt. If you’d really like them, please drop me an e-mail and I’d be glad to send them.
