Mount Teneriffe, Teneriffe Falls, Talus Loop & Mount Si — Friday, May. 15, 2020

Early morning rise

So many unmasked faces

Not early enough

Took a day off work to avoid the crowds. Planned to start from Teneriffe but the lot wasn't open when I arrived (sign says it opens at 7am). Si's lot was, so turned around and parked there. First section was already full, and then some. Decent amount of large potholes.

Started hiking around 6:30. Foggy and a bit drizzly, but good temp. Took the Talus Loop trail over to the Teneriffe trail and then the cutover to Teneriffe Falls. Had the falls to myself, so stayed a bit to take pics and video. It's coming down hard right now.

Continued up the Kamikaze trail to the summit and got quite a workout. Reminded of my quarantine body. Some peekaboo valley shots going up the ridge, but mostly forested. Hit snow around 4200. Brought micro spikes and poles but didn't use them. Could have helped, dunno. 50/50.

The top's a bit wandery with the snow cover, but not too hard to find the path if the weather's good. Arrived at the summit around 9:20 and had it to myself until about 10. Clouds stuck around for most of that, but still pretty. Headed out when people started to show.

Took the other side of the loop over to the upper Si connector. Passed maybe a dozen people total on the Teneriffe side. Not the case on Si. Got to the summit around 11:45 and people everywhere. Didn't do the haystack because of the plague. Just headed down.

Back to my car around 1:30. Passed a bunch coming up while I was going down. Maybe 10-15% had masks. Maybe 70-75% actively helped keep a 6 foot distance. There are places where you can't if only one party is interested, and some were clearly not interested. Passed at least two Bluetooth speaker groups and a half dozen bags of dog poop. Always the best crowds at Si...

Most people were with it enough for me to not be too concerned about distancing, but I can't imagine a weekend day. I understand the reasoning, but it seems that opening only the few most popular hikes in the state could be a recipe for disaster. People are going to hike where they can, and they aren't going to turn around on their own after a long drive. I don't recall seeing any rangers trying to handle numbers. Maybe I just missed them? Curious to see how this evolves.