Little Si — Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025

Chris and I carpooled out to North Bend where we met our buddy Jeno in the Little Si parking lot at 6:00 AM this morning.  One hiker took off ahead of us and we had a second one pass us on the climb out of the parking lot.  Both of those guys were headed up the Old Si trail.   Between the small creek which was roaring this morning and the first turn to the climbing rocks I was out in front of the guys and came to a large Hemlock tree blocking the trail.   At first I thought I had made a wrong turn in the darkness and backtracked but nope the tree was down across the trail.   We tried to find a way around it in the darkness but had no luck.   I finally said I'm going under it and took off my pack and squirmed under it.  Jeno followed my lead.

Our buddy Chris is the tallest of the three of us.  He said I don't think I can get under that when suddenly he leaped up onto the log and began to walk along it's trunk.  Had it been light out I would have taken a photo of him.  As it was, seeing the balance, agility and nimble footwork it dawned on me that many years ago the big man was considered one of the top offensive lineman in school history.  I thought I can see why as he still has it.   Maybe the Hawks can use him!     :)

We assume the tree came down in yesterday's storm as along with that obstacle there was a lot of small debris and branches down along the trail with two smaller step over trees over the trail just below the summit.   We topped out at 7:15 and took a break there looking at all the snow on the peaks further out along I-90.

After a short stay we headed back down watching our footing as a lot of areas had running water or were soaked and slippery from all the rain we've had recently.  When we got back to the tree I said the heck with going over or under it and I found a path around the west side of the tree which we followed before we eventually hooked back up with the trail.  

We had not seen anyone since the two guys when we headed out but in the last half mile to the parking lot we saw 7 hikers, one pair and the rest solo.  We got back to maybe a half full parking lot at 8:45.  I had not checked the bathrooms on the way out but checked them then.  Wow!  A rare five star rating from me this morning. Spotless, no garbage, fully stocked...they looked like they had just been cleaned which was nice to see.  

Stay safe everyone.  See you on the trail.  SR