Little Si — Friday, Jan. 2, 2026

The low clouds, dark skies and threat of rain this morning convinced me to kick off 2026 with a short and easy hike. I reached the overflow parking lot at 9:15am and was shocked to find it empty, so I motored over to the main lot where just eight other vehicles were parked. Temps were in the mid 40s and it wasn't raining so a fleece jacket sufficed (a rain jacket was in my pack). The trail itself was wet from overnight rains, but thankfully it wasn't muddy and there were just the occasional puddles to step over. Early on I passed one hiking group on my way up, but aside from meeting a couple people who were headed back down the trail things were quiet and I had almost complete solitude. The low clouds/fog made the trail very dark and moody, which is exactly how I like this trail to be. There were no blowdowns either, just one partially fallen small tree early on that was easy to walk under.

It took me a hair over an hour to reach the top, and initially I was just above the low clouds and could see the upper half of Mount Si. For the first time in recorded history I was alone at the summit, at least for about ten minutes. There weren't any views at first, but with a little patience the clouds began to part enough to see through to downtown North Bend and out to Rattlesnake and Mount Washington. By then other hikers began to show up, and I soon surrendered the summit to them. On the way back down I passed a couple dozen people and dogs headed up, most in groups of two and all friendly, both two and four-legged. I reached the parking lot again by 11:45am with one and a half parking spaces still free. I say "half" because somebody was a parking jerk and had straddled two spaces leaving only one full space left. On the way out I glanced over at the overflow lot which was about half full.