Dirty Harry's Peak, Dirty Harry's Balcony — Saturday, Jun. 11, 2016

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

Overall 8.6mi RT 1190m ascent. Compared to the rounds of 90F weather that we've had, the last few days have been bearable. Thursday night saw a great deal of rain, bordering on thunderstorms, that continued through parts of Friday. Some slush remained on the trees and shrubs near the top of Dirty Harry's Peak, and the first round of rain passed through early, between 6am and 10am. Near the end of the hike, most of the precipitation was at slightly higher elevations (above 2000ft), and was probably falling from the higher atmospheric layer that was hovering around 32F. Those conditions meant that I got completely soaked. My leather hiking gloves were so saturated I was stopping to drain them; eventually it was difficult to keep my forearms warm, so I had to swap the gloves for my backup runners mittens. The Goretex jacket didn't fare much better, as rubbing up against trail-encroaching foliage was enough to keep cooling down any warmth that had built up. I didn't bother to put on rain pants or gaiters either, so my body was wet from the waist down, and the plants were wetting my socks and saturating my boots. I took the climber's trail to the balcony. Sadly, this may also be the last time I take that route for some time. It seems DNR+WTA have posted trail closures for the final section leading to the balcony, and are planning to turn it into the main trail, rerouting the bulk of the traffic off the existing Dirty Harry's trail, which is the old logging road. The rocky, stumbly, practically-a-river mess has been flattened quite a great deal, as they've already moved up a small digger; it was sitting near the balcony connector trail. The climber's trail, or "Birdhouse trail" can be hard to navigate in places, as there are a number of side trails to bouldering spots. It generally is a "nicer" trail, in that it's mostly a proper forest trail, and has some areas of "boulder staircases/paths". It's steeper in places and the footing is a bit questionable, particularly on a muddy day like today. The route certainly goes over several small hills, so some of the distance is spent losing altitude that you've already gained. Today's data suggest that this route, compared to the old road trail, is: 100m shorter distance overall, 160m shorter map-distance (two-dimensional), 110m greater ascent. (With the ongoing construction through next summer, it is not clear which routes will be viable.)