Mount Si, Mount Si - Old Trail — Friday, Dec. 20, 2024

Sought out a good training hike with some distance and elevation that I could do at the end of the day. My first choice would have been the old trail, which I find more interesting, but I couldn’t make it out to North Bend until 2:30pm and was concerned about coming down in the dark, potential wildlife at dusk, and parking. So went with the more travelled trail instead. Not a lick of snow and only had one blowdown to step over near informative signs in I think Snag Flat. To motivate myself to move fast, I aimed to get to the scramble overlook area below Haystack by sunset. Saw a hiker that made it to the top of Haystack and later ran into him and we were able to hike/jog back to our cars together with my flashlight lighting the way. This out and back for me with no frills or add ons was 7.5 miles, 3200ft elevation gain, 3 hours. Vault Toilets were just serviced in prep for the weekend rush I guess. And trash receptacles were available. The old Mt Si trail shares the same trailhead with Little Si, whose parking lot was full when I passed by. The larger main Mt Si trail lot was no where near being filled today. Look forward to coming back when snow returns for some winter scenery.