As I left Dirty Harry's Museum, the trail became pretty steep. It's littered with rocks the whole way up to the summit of Dirty Harry's peak. When I got to the Web Mountain connector trail, my plan was to carry on to Web Mountain, come back and summit DHP. When I saw how overgrown the trail to Web Mountain was, I nixed those plans and carried on towards the summit of DHP. And I'm really glad I decided not to try Web Mountain.
Hiking up DHP was tough. There aren't really any switchbacks to even out the elevation gain. It's just a trail that snakes its way up to the summit. The good thing is; there is plenty of shade throughout the hike and the summit is even pretty well guarded from the sun.
Eventually the trail smoothed out as I neared the top and it was a gentle hike with a nice summer breeze to cool me down as I made my approach. The trail is slightly overgrown in places, (as well as down by the Web Mountain connector) but nothing serious as of right now.
I shared the summit with one other person and passed SeattleNoDaker and his dog, Khumbu, ( I also passed them going down near the Little Balcony). Very pretty dog, and very well behaved. I rested at the summit for about 10 or so minutes as I sucked down some Vitamin Water, ate some granola and stared at Granite Lake down below.
The trip down was awful. Descending really puts in perspective how steep the trail going up really is. Plus, the rocks on the trail do not help. I kept stepping on rocks, kicking them down the trail and I'd step on them again causing myself to nearly trip and fall. It was constant pounding on the knees, rolling of ankles and tripping over loose rocks and sliding in loose soil. I suppose I'm exaggerating but it seemed like I was constantly slipping and sliding everywhere. I was glad to make it down to the bridge for a 30 second road walk before making it back to the parking lot. I was exhausted.
It was a tough hike, indeed but worth every minute out there.
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