Seven of us from the Mountaineers did an early morning Lollipop loop from Teneriffe Trailhead up to Mt. Si's Haystack and back down the Si trail to Cedar Flats and Roaring Creek. Total moving time was 5:20 for 10+ miles and 3100' elevation as a "Go Getter" CHS-2 hike for May.

The trail is in great shape - zero snow and great drainage. I hadn't done the new Si trail in over five years, preferring old Si for less traffic. We saw more people on Si than anywhere on Teneriffe. The gate was closed at 7 when I drove past to the bus turnaround for a mile warm-up, but when we all met at 7:30 it was open.

We heard far more bird species on Teneriffe trail system than on Si, which had me puzzled - is it because of proximity to I-90, the rain, more foot traffic, or ?? Not sure. We only had 18 species at the tail end of spring migration, whereas I had 29 species at Exit 47 just two days earlier. Maybe they're all going higher up to beat the heat. I didn't hear a single thrush or flycatcher whereas they were abundant at Pratt Lake Basin on 5/27. Wednesday's heat eluded us; we were in spitting rain and fog for almost the entire trip until we returned to the cars around 1:20.

Fun group and decent pace, 2.3 up for the first hour and 2.2 overall including a 20-minute break at the base of the Haystack for a windy, foggy snack break. Thankful for the large parking lot and stocked Portapotties.

#HikeTheState

I used a couple of my Teneriffe hiking tricks today. From the truck stop at Exit 34 you can see how much snow is at the top of Mount Teneriffe and where it starts. Judging from that and the last couple of trail reports I changed up my plans to Si.

Fortunately the DNR has put those handy maps at all the Mt Si NRCA trailheads. I'm a big fan of taking a photo or memorizing the map so I can change directions, which is exactly what happened today.

I started from the main Si parking lot. There were a few more folks on the Si trail than I wanted to share the hike with, so instead of Si, I cut over on the Roaring Creek trail to the Teneriffe Falls trail and went up to the falls. The falls were perfect today, and there were only a couple of other people up there. I came back on the connector and returned via the Talus Loop. Hike ended up around 8 miles and 2000'.

It's worth mentioning that the original Teneriffe Falls trail is pretty rocky starting about 2/3rds of the way up. You can avoid the majority of the rocks by going on up the official Mt Teneriffe trail to the new-ish Falls Connector, which is super smooth. The old trail has better views on the way up though.

Bugs are starting to come out, but no biting ones so far.

Si parking lot is full of super brutal potholes. Beware.

We started at the Mount Si trailhead and worked our way over to Teneriffe Falls. The falls are, unsurprisingly, raging this time of year.

I noticed a lot of unfamiliar social trails, mostly from impatient hikers cutting the switchbacks. Please try not to do this, though I understand it may not always be easy at this point to tell where the designated trail is.

Keep in mind that, as you ascend the Teneriffe Falls trail, you will encounter an impressive set of falls. Keep going up! The actual Teneriffe Falls are still another few minutes further uphill.

(Both people I was hiking with today told me they would have turned around at the first falls had I not informed them the real destination was still ahead. We saw another person on the trail who, I have strong reason to believe, saw those first falls and turned around.)

Today's hike was a case example of the changeable conditions on Si/Teneriffe in winter. I set out under blue skies at the Mount Si trailhead and a favorable weather report. By the time I got to Teneriffe Falls, it was snowing heavily. It's always good this time of year to pack spikes and rain gear on your North Bend hikes, even if they seem unnecessary.

A previous trip report had mentioned Teneriffe Falls being frozen and I wanted to check it out. I set out from the Si trailhead and went up the Talus Loop and Teneriffe Connector over to the Falls. The frozen falls are stunning. Very worth the trip. I returned via the Roaring Creek trail.

I ended up using spikes from the Si Trail / Talus junction. You might be able to get by without as it's mostly packed snow and not a lot of ice, but spikes or poles would make your experience a bit nicer. Being Monday, I had the falls to myself and only saw one other person after I left the Si trail.

I met up with a friend for a hike in North Bend and since we had two vehicles we did a one way hike starting at the Mount Teneriffe trailhead and ending at the Little Si trailhead. Our route was: Mount Teneriffe trail to Roaring Creek to Mount Si Trail to Douglas Fir to the lower half of the Boulder Garden loop, then down to the Little Si parking lot.

Total mileage on my iPhone and my friend’s Garmin watch was more than shown on the DNR website map. We had 6.2/6.5 versus 4.2 adding together the segments on the map. Elevation gain was about 950, mostly in 2 sections (600ish from Teneriffe trailhead to Roaring Creek and 320 in the half mile segment on the Mt Si trail). Elevation loss was more since Little Si trailhead is lower.

All of the trails were in good condition, snow free, with no fallen trees or other obstacles. There were a few stream crossings on the Mt Teneriffe trail but all were rock hop-able (though a bit slippery so I was glad to have poles). Also the big bridge on the Roaring Creek trail was very slick.

Parking was available at both lots around 10:15am and the port a potties in the Teneriffe lot were open and stocked.

Aside from the Mt Si section which was busy as we expected, trail traffic was very minimal on the other trails. We only saw a few other parties and enjoyed lots of quiet. A beautiful day to be out in the forest and always fun to be able to do a one way hike.