My party of two hiked a nice lollipop loop today from the Mount Si Trailhead. Overall about 11.5 miles in 7 hrs, with 4000' of elevation gain.

ROUTE: We started up the regular Mount Si Trail, then took the Douglas Fir Trail to the next junction (North's Road), where we cut up to the Mount Si Old Trail. We followed the old trail to the top, then passed the Haystack and took the Si-Teneriffe connector over to the Mount Teneriffe Trail. We followed this down to the next junction and took a side trip to visit Teneriffe Falls. Returning to the Mount Teneriffe Trail, we continued down to the Roaring Creek Trail, which we then followed back to the Mount Si Trail and down to the car.

Teneriffe Falls is running pretty good now, and there is no snow at the falls.

TH: Nothing much to report, there are plenty of potholes in the parking lot. Plenty of people hiking the area today, there were around 20 cars in the parking lot when we started at 8:30.

BLOWDOWNS: Most of the trails had plenty of small branches on them, but we didn't encounter many serious blowdowns. The main exception was on the North's Road Trail - at least 20-30 blowdowns here, but fortunately almost all are step-overs.

SNOW: Started at about 3000' on the Mount Si Old Trail. There was about 5-6" of snow in the summit areas of Mount Si and through most of the connector trail toward Teneriffe. Snow gradually lessened on our way down the Teneriffe Trail, until it disappeared completely at about 2800'. Most of the snow was new and we laid in the first set of tracks across the connector trail this morning.

GEAR: Gaiters were helpful in the deeper snow on the Si-Teneriffe Connector, but you could get by without them now that the trail has been tracked out a bit. Spikes were not strictly needed, except to climb over the boulders at the south-facing Mount Si viewpoint. But that was mainly because the snow was new and providing good traction. It will get more slippery as it gets tracked out, so spikes are definitely recommended. Snowshoes would have been overkill today.

Teneriffe Falls is amazing right now. It has tons of flow from the recent rain, without too many obstacles or anything left over from the storm. 

I drove into North Bend from Exit 32 and all the roads were open and normal. I started up from the Si parking lot because of they don't lock the gate like with the Teneriffe parking lot. The Si lot was about half full.

The Si trail up to the Talus/Roaring Creek cutoff had quite a few folks, but less than I'd expect on such a sunny, warm day. There were a few places with water running down the trail, but easy to get past.

The Talus Loop Trail was in fantastic shape - no storm impact and nothing too muddy or wet. The only challenge came at the creek crossing right near the junction with the Teneriffe Mountain Trail. It was long-ish without any real stepping stones. (Pic 4)

I took the Falls Connector over. This had two brushy blowdowns. One I was mostly able to push off the trail, the other will take someone with a handsaw to deal with. It's not hard to get through though.

The main Falls Trail had some debris from the storm, but was mostly fine. The water is high still everywhere you can see the creek.

At the main falls the water level is just high enough that it's probably wisest to stay on the near side of the falls right now, although I did see two people cross with quite a bit of effort. Since there was sun and a lot of spray, the falls were making rainbows (pic 3). You'll get wet standing anywhere near the falls right now.

I went back on the Connector and down to the Roaring Creek Trail. Between the Talus Loop Trail and Roaring Creek there was a lot of water on the trail and a really significant blowdown with three trees that will take a chainsaw crew to clear. There's a social trail up and over this. The Roaring Creek trail was also free of mud and a beautiful forest walk, as always. This is one of my favorite trail segments on Si/Teneriffe.

Any snow that was on any of the peaks around North Bend, the Middle Fork or low I-90 appears to have been washed away from the storm.  

Today, I parked at the Mount Si Trailhead because I wanted to visit Teneriffe Falls again, but from this trailhead to see if it would help me make up some time.

I began the hike with the downpour of rain as well as strong winds, which kinda make this hike with elevation kinda difficult, but I was able to tug inside some trees when the wind drift hit.

I first approached the Talus Loop and Roaring Creek intersection and was thinking that maybe this is the sector that was get me over to Teneriffe Falls. About a half mile into the Roaring Creek Trail, I decided against it, turned around and continued up the Mount Si Trail (I later learned on my way back that if I had took the Talus Loop (on the left), and then the Mount Teneriffe Trail (to the right after 0.7 miles), it would have taken me to the Teneriffe Falls Connector (less than mile from there); to me it beats the boulder rock climbs before you get to the switchbacks if you parked at the Teneriffe Falls small parking lot, but that elevator is brutal.

So, once I got back to the Mount Si Trail, I chatted with some hikers as they were coming down and inquired if this route had a Teneriffe Falls junction, but no one knew. As I continued to hike, I ran into another hiker and he stated that the Falls are not in this direction, it's actually about 1.5 miles east of here. 

Now, that I'm in a conundrum, I had to decide if I wanted to keep going to the Mount Si Summit, which was only 2 miles further, or head back to my car. My decision was made for me because moments later, I started to hear animal noises in the tree lines to my front, left, and to my right. Then in the shadows I saw 3 silhouettes and what I now know were cougars, so I backtracked down the trail, somehow hit the junction to Mount Teneriffe.

I started hiking in that direction, and ran into a nice couple, the husband and I conversed about our hikes and he told me, that had I continued to hike up to Mount Si, there was actually a junction to Teneriffe Falls and it would involve just a descent down to the Teneriffe Falls Connector Trail and it would have shave off my time. Luckily, he informed me that the Teneriffe Falls Connector Trail could also be hit from the direction that I'm going and it'll only be about 15 - 20 minutes and he was right. 

Unfortunately, as this was only my 2nd trip here and 1st coming from the Mount Si trailhead. It basically just took me across the bridge and to the elevation switchbacks to Teneriffe Falls. By that time, it was approaching 3pm and sunset was 4:15pm. Had I continued to hike to Teneriffe Falls, it would have been dark on my way back and I had already experienced this the first time.

So, I hike back along the Teneriffe Falls Connector, made that left, descended down for another half mile, hit the Talus Loop junction (0.1 miles) from that point, then the Mount Si Trailhead parking lot was only 1.4 miles from there (about 0.7 miles along the Talus Loop, then take the left at the Mount Si Trail sign junction (will be on your right), and you're 0.7 miles to the parking lot (all downhill).

Please be careful out there and just know, you can always avenge a hike later. Be wise and live to fight another day.

Peace and Blessings 😎 🫡

Arrrived at the Mount Si trailhead on a Friday around 11am.  When I stopped for gas in North Bend, Mount Si was in the sunshine so I was optimistic that it would be a sunny hike.  But this was not to be.   The clouds rolled in almost as soon as I parked.  With that in mind, I decided to head toward Teneriffe Falls instead of looking for views.  After climbing the initial section of the Mount Si trail, I took a right on the Roaring Creek trail – one of my favorites in this area – and continued along the Mount Teneriffe trail to connect to the Teneriffe Falls trail.  This was a relaxing stroll with rolling terrain, several wooden bridges, and a number of relatively easy creek crossings.   The small waterfalls at the bridge crossings were lovely with the high water flow. 

Along the way I spotted a recently-brushed, unmarked trail on the right-hand side and decided to do some exploring.  It turns out that this lengthy side trail doesn’t really go anywhere – but it’s probably a great path for trail runners.

Back on the Teneriffe Falls trail after my unsuccessful two-mile detour, I was reminded about how rocky this trail is – especially on the lower switchbacks.   The terrain is steep, but the switchbacks definitely make the ascent more tolerable.  The views from the trail today were cloud-filled and more limited than usual, but the falls were roaring from this week’s rain. 

For the descent, I decided to take the Teneriffe Falls connector trail to rejoin the Mount Teneriffe trail.  The connector trail is quite pleasant and, as an added bonus, it lets you avoid about half of the rocky switchbacks.    For the last segment before rejoining the Mount Si trail, I took a right on the Talus Loop connector and then a left turn on the lower spur of the Talus Loop trail.  Unlike the upper spur, it does not offer any views but it does pass just below the lower edge of the talus field where the rocks are heavily laden with moss.

Just before reaching the parking area, I took the short detour to check out the Creek Side Loop Trail.   This is an extremely short trail but today it was covered with colorful leaves and lined with beautiful ferns.  It’s definitely worth a few extra steps even after a long hike!

9.5 miles, 4 hours, 2,500 feet elevation gain

Note: Trail conditions for Mt Teneriffe Trail are only for up to the Roaring Creek intersection so I can’t speak to trail conditions beyond that point.

With a short window of time today I thought I would check out some waterfalls after the recent atmospheric rivers. I hiked an out and back on the Mt Teneriffe to Roaring Creek trails, up to the intersection with the Mt Si trail.

And the 3 falls along the way were indeed lovely. But it was the surprising amount of fall foliage remaining that stole the show! With the rays of sunlight breaking through the forest canopy and illuminating the golden leaves and green moss, it was truly magical.

There were quite a few cars when I arrived at 11:15am but plenty of parking still available. There doesn’t seem to be a gate closing time posted anymore, which was always a concern with this parking lot in the short daylight seasons. Now it just says no overnight camping in the parking lot. Restrooms were open and had TP but bring your own hand sanitizer.

The trails were in great condition, especially after two stormy weekends. No down trees or big branches, and not really even any mud. As usual there were quite a few places where water was flowing over the trail - all crossings except one had strategically placed rocks. (Which were slippery but not difficult to cross with some care.) And the one that didn’t was shallow enough to easily walk through in boots or trail runners.

Trail traffic was moderate up to the turnoff for Teneriffe Falls, after that I saw a few hikers and a handful of trail runners, then no one on the Roaring Creek trail past the bridge and waterfall.