I picked this hike primarily because I knew the trail head parking lot would be in full sun and I am so done with being cold!  Arriving at 9:30 I was indeed met by glorious warm sunshine and had my pick of all the parking spaces.  Porta-potties clean and stocked, bring your own sanitizer.

I fashioned a loop trying to stay on the sunny side of things.  Up the Mount Ten road-trail then across Roaring Creek to the Mount Si main line, up to Snag Flats then back down and around the Talus loop, then back across Roaring Creek etc etc.  Initially the trail was snow free, trail side snow showed up at the first junction up to the falls.  The first three bridges of the Mount Ten road-trail had snow and ice but the actual trail was clear all the way over to the Mount Si main line.  Snow showed up for real on the trail somewhere between the Doug Fir intersection and Snag Flats.  It was compacted but my momentum was so slow I had to put my spikes on to make the steeper grade/steps.  Snag Flats was gorgeous with full snow coverage.  Backtracking I wasn't sure what I would find on the Talus loop.  It's a rougher trail for sure so I kept my spikes on until I reached the rock overlook where the snow disappeared.  I stopped here for a snack enjoying the view and more wonderful warm sun.  Then without spikes I was fine traversing the on again off again snow patches of the descending loop.  The trail was still easy to follow, although I was startled by a couple of bigger snow/ice bombs.

I really like hiking this loop as there are lots of creeks to cross (easy+bridges) and waterfalls on the Teneriffe side of things.  Mileage was around 6 or so and elevation comes out about 1400 feet.  Very quiet trails today.  Three people on the Mount Si side and two couples on the Teneriffe, no one in the middle.

When I arrived at the 188 stall Mt. Teneriffe parking lot there were only 3 other cars parked. With the recent heavy rains, I thought it would be a good day to check out the waterfalls on the lower slopes of Mt. Teneriffe. The last time I had hiked this trail was five years ago. The DNR had turned the old logging road into a trail back in 2015. Some of the work was done with a large track hoe. When I got to the junction with the Teneriffe Falls Trail I headed up it on another old DNR road that is now the trail. After gaining some elevation the trail makes a turn to the left and heads west, first going back down hill, crossing a creek, then back up hill. Along the way I had a view out to the south, but with the low clouds I could only see Ken's Truck Town over by I-90. The trail to the falls leaves the old roadbed and begins switch backing up through the talus rocks, so becomes a very rocky trail. In the open areas the rocks were covered with slushy snow. After getting up several switchbacks it began to really snow hard, so I decided to head back down the rocky trail. You had to watch your footing due to the snow on the rocks.

When I got back down to the old roadbed (no snow here), I decided to see how far it went to the west. After rounding a bed, the old road only went about 100 yards and ended at on old landing. I spotted a trail still going westerly, so hiked it to where it crossed a creek. I turned around here and headed back down the Teneriffe Falls trail to the Mount Teneriffe Trail. Before getting to the trail junction, I spotted a short side trail that went to an old fallen tree. This made for a good lunch time bench for some hot soup and a sandwich.

After lunch I hiked down to the trail junction, then headed west on the Mt.Teneriffe Trail. Along the way are several creek crossings, some with waterfalls to view. Three have bridges while the rest are rock hops. One goes over Teneriffe Creek with a good size waterfall. The third bridge is a short distance from a nice waterfall before getting to the junction with the Roaring Creek Trail. There was one waterfall you can hear but cannot see. It is completely covered with Evergreen Blackberry vines.

I then took the Roaring Creek Trail a short distance to where a large steel girder foot bridge goes over the West Fork of Roaring Creek. There is another nice waterfall to see here. From here I hiked back down to the trailhead parking lot. By now there was a little sun out. I met a few other hikers, some with dogs. The only wildlife was one Douglas Squirrel and a gnat at lunch. The waterfalls along the lower section of the Mt. Teneriffe Trail are nice to view. George

Made a trail running loop this morning out of the Mount Teneriffe trail to Mount Si, down the Mount Si trail, and back over to the Mount Teneriffe trail on the Roaring Creek trail. If you're hoping to avoid crowds, the Mount Teneriffe trail is definitely the way to go; there were only a few other cars in the lot when I arrived at 8 am, and barely any more when I got back a little before noon. No views today, but the haystack was fun as always.

I was super excited to check out the new Teneriffe Falls connector trail today.  I have been up to the falls on the old trail a few times and it's a bit of a grind with the rocky switch-back tread and today, despite some improvements in that section, all the banged up toe memories came flooding back.  So this is a report mostly for that section.

I parked at the Teneriffe Falls parking lot and the the less said about the deplorable state of the two porta-potties the better except plan on a pit stop before you arrive.  Not very busy with the temps on the cool side.  I made good time up to where the trail jogs right and starts the big climb to the falls and then it was a slo-mo careful hike up through the rocks.  I was keeping an eye out for the new connector trail junction but need not have worried it is well announced (pictured), and is about half way up the rock section to the main falls.  I passed Nancy's hiking crew from Renton and a work crew trying to subdue a large trail rock, but after that I was solo again all the way to the falls.  Falls were amazing as always, but I can only begin to think how crazy crowded this tight viewing area must get on weekends.  Then it was back down to the connector junction.  The new connector crosses the creek on a nice sturdy bridge and then it is carpet-like hiking.  You can not begin to think how good that feels after the rocky switch backs.  The connector winds through the forest with some amazingly huge logging stumps, some fun moss shrouded trees, and vine maples all scrambling for the light.  After a second low footbridge the trail actually turns up and I was starting to think I missed a trick and was now heading for Mount Teneriffe, but no you soon book end on to the Teneriffe road-trail and there is a sign to guide you.  Make sure to turn left here to go down or you will be heading to the top of the mountain and that's a long way.  This new trail will make getting to the falls so much nicer, I like a nice loop but using this new route as an out and back will still be better than the rock fiesta of the existing trail.

On the way back I extended my hike by taking the short connector to the Talus Loop trail and then taking that +down+ until it connected with the Roaring Creek trail.  I was going to head up and have lunch at the talus overlook in the sun, but I was running out of gas and didn't want to climb again plus there was no sun to be seen.  There has been a re-route on the lower section of Talus Loop too.  Just a few weeks ago Talus Loop and Roaring Creek joined together and shared a single trail about 0.1-0.2 miles before the Mount Si Main line.  Now Talus loop has been divorced from Roaring Creek with a new section so it arrives at the main line by itself.  Kind of a mega junction now.  Not sure why they did that and the new Talus Loop section is actually quite steep.  Anyway just make sure to pick the right trail (Roaring Creek - signed) at this new junction to head back to your car.  Roaring Creek was just a fern garden of loveliness today and the waterfall is still full.  In fact once back on the Teneriffe road-trail and heading down to my car all the trail side waterfalls were very chatty and beautifully outlined with fresh green ferns, and you have to hop over all the cross trail water features too.  So much green here.

Final stats were just under 8 miles and around 1700 ft of el.

Took a new route up Teneriffe today.  Started in the Mount Si parking lot at 0730 with 3-4 cars there.  Hiked the Mount Si trail to the Roaring Creek trail which is about 1 mile in.  The Roaring creek trail is newly worked on and has a couple of bridges running through lovely old growth forest.  It takes you to the Mount Teneriffe Trail on which we made a left to head up to another new intersection with the Falls connector trail.  The Falls connector takes you to Teneriffe Falls trail then up to the falls.  The waterfall was immense today.  With the addition of drippy trees and heavy drizzle, it was a water kind of day.  We then headed up the Kamikaze trail to the summit of Mt Teneriffe.  It was a little tenuous and slick on the rocky area, then a little muddy past the rocks.  We hit snow at 4200 ft but it was just small snow fields (maybe 1-2 feet deep) with boot tracks.  You could easily find footing up the mountain adjacent to the snow but the wet roots, etc were most slick so I stuck with the snow when I could.  You have to pay attention to where you are going as it is easy to get off track.  There are occasional tree wells and some thin snow areas overlying rock but very easy to navigate.  I did not use microspikes but had them with me. I had poles and gaiters which kept my feet a little drier and warmer.  We did not have a view at the snow free summit and there was a cold breeze so we started down to the edge of the meadow area to layer up since it was pretty cold and we were wet.  Had a quick snack and carefully started down paying attention to boot traction and knee alignment of course.  We stopped at the Falls for a bit and admired the spray.  It felt refreshing at this point since we had so many layers on.  We then took the Falls trail down to Falls Connector trail, to Mt Teneriffe Trail, to Roaring Creek trail, to Mount Si trail back down to the parking lot.  It was a great day in the lush forest with little light and a lot of water.  Saw 1 person going to the summit and a handful on the other trails.  Definitely a lot of solitude on a wet day.