Mount Teneriffe, Mount Si, Roaring Creek & Teneriffe Falls — Monday, May. 22, 2023

Took a new route up Teneriffe today.  Started in the Mount Si parking lot at 0730 with 3-4 cars there.  Hiked the Mount Si trail to the Roaring Creek trail which is about 1 mile in.  The Roaring creek trail is newly worked on and has a couple of bridges running through lovely old growth forest.  It takes you to the Mount Teneriffe Trail on which we made a left to head up to another new intersection with the Falls connector trail.  The Falls connector takes you to Teneriffe Falls trail then up to the falls.  The waterfall was immense today.  With the addition of drippy trees and heavy drizzle, it was a water kind of day.  We then headed up the Kamikaze trail to the summit of Mt Teneriffe.  It was a little tenuous and slick on the rocky area, then a little muddy past the rocks.  We hit snow at 4200 ft but it was just small snow fields (maybe 1-2 feet deep) with boot tracks.  You could easily find footing up the mountain adjacent to the snow but the wet roots, etc were most slick so I stuck with the snow when I could.  You have to pay attention to where you are going as it is easy to get off track.  There are occasional tree wells and some thin snow areas overlying rock but very easy to navigate.  I did not use microspikes but had them with me. I had poles and gaiters which kept my feet a little drier and warmer.  We did not have a view at the snow free summit and there was a cold breeze so we started down to the edge of the meadow area to layer up since it was pretty cold and we were wet.  Had a quick snack and carefully started down paying attention to boot traction and knee alignment of course.  We stopped at the Falls for a bit and admired the spray.  It felt refreshing at this point since we had so many layers on.  We then took the Falls trail down to Falls Connector trail, to Mt Teneriffe Trail, to Roaring Creek trail, to Mount Si trail back down to the parking lot.  It was a great day in the lush forest with little light and a lot of water.  Saw 1 person going to the summit and a handful on the other trails.  Definitely a lot of solitude on a wet day.