I parked at Teneriffe trail head and bicycled to the Green Mtn trail head. I locked my bike to a tree a quarter mile up the trail and continued hiking up Green Mtn. At 2,900 ft I took the west fork of the trail, about half a mile later (shortly after passing a window cut in the trees on the left) the road/trail looked like it dead ended but I skirted around to the right and the road/trail started up again. Soon after that the trail markers go left off the road/trail into the forest, I followed the markers off the road/trail. After this point there was no trail, I just followed the orange trail markers through the trees and brush. After following the markers for half a mile or so I broke out into the bottom of a rock field. The ridge leading to the peak was dead ahead, there were mountain goats up on the side of the rocky ridge, one adult and three children. I followed the rock field west to the side of the saddle and made an easy climb to the top of a 4,640 ft peak, the second peak on the ridge south west of Green Mtn. I had lunch in this perfect spot and admired the 300 degree view. After taking lunch I headed back down, on my way down I wondered why I didn't try forging on to the peak of Green Mtn, I probably would have tried it if I hadn't been hiking alone. There wasn't much of a view until I got to the rock field, until that point I found it a dull hike through a recovering forest. After the rock field it gets beautiful, lots of bear grass and ferns and open space. It was a beautiful Sunday and I only saw two people (headed for Absolute Last Promontory) the whole day. Teneriffe trail head to Green Mtn trail head: 50 min Green Mtn trail head to 4,640 ft peak: 3.25 hr back to Green Mtn trail head: 2 hr back to Teneriffe trail head: 25 min Mosquitoes in rock field: countless and hungry Elevation gain: 3,685 ft

We began from the east end, about 4.2 miles past the bridge over the middle fork of the Snoqualmie river, and hiked the old and long abandon CCC road to Blowout creek. Look for a cliff above the road where the road is near the river. There were two cars and just enough room for one more. Must have been fishing in the river as we didn't see anyone and the cars were gone when we returned. Near the trail head there are several trenches and big rocks to stop vehicles then several small blow downs. At around one half mile the good road turns abruptly up hill. Continue straight across a dry (today) creek and along a couple of hundred yards of nearly washed out road. From here the old CCC road grade is in good shape but is over grown. About 15% of the trail has salmon berry across the trail at chest to head height. Not difficult to push through but unpleasant. Worse, the salmon berry is being replaced along the whole length of the trail by the introduced Evergreen Blackberry and near the trail head by Himalayan Blackberry. Now most of it is small enough to pull out with one hand but in a few years the trail will be impassable. From the junction with the Bessemer Mountain road to Blowout creek the road is in good shape and would be passable in a passenger car. In fact we saw fresh tier tracks. Blowout creek runs across the road, wide and shallow but if it were a little deeper it would be hard to cross with dry feet. Salmon berries were good but in the way. Invasive plants; Evergreen blackberry, Herb Robert and Scot's broom. Several Red-legged Frogs, one treefrog, Garter snakes, and tailed frog tadpoles.

Deciding to try out the route up Green Mountain described by Kevin Geraghty (www.midforc.org), I parked at the gated entrance to the S. Bessemer Road (5 miles from the end of pavement on the Middle Fork Road). At the junction with the CCC Road/Trail, I turned left, crossed the creek and hiked about 1.5 mi to the beginning of the ""East Ridge"" of Green Mountain. Left the road and hiked straight uphill through pleasant second-growth hemlock forest, with very little brush in the understory. These are good-sized trees for being just 60 or 70 years old, and I expect their days are numbered. Also passed by massive stumps of cedar (spruce?) with springboard notches chopped into their downhill sides. There were actually some bands of brush to fight through, made all the worse by branches laden with water, and logs to climb over, but relatively speaking, not bad. I reached a logging road landing at 3000'. It actually happened to be the upper end of the road/trail for Green Mountain described in the Mountains to Sound Greenway book by Manning and Spring. The alders on the landing have now grown big enough to block the view, so I scrambled 100 feet up the talus slope above the road and found a seat for a panoramic lunch stop. At this elevation there was already a few inches of recent snow on the ground, and the trees above me at 3500' were freshly coated. Decided to descend the road/trail to determine where it meets up with the CCC Road at the bottom. To my delight it was in excellent shape -- it seems to have been recently brushed out, and the path was clear. The grade is too steep for bicycle travel (at least for me) but just right for foot travel. Reached the CCC Road at 1514', a point right at the topo map edge. Walked back along the road, on a section I have never been on, and took in some good views through the trees. It is about 3 miles back to the stream crossing and the junction with the Bessemer Road.

Great sunny day for 5 miles of some map and compass work. Used Middle entry from Hwy 56 and found major washout in the road and 3 downed trees blocking the first 1/8 mile, but clear up to the CCC Trail level junction at 1M. Higher level dead ends were relatively clear with grand views of the entire valley. The major CCC trail was completely overgrown and we stopped counting the blow-downs that we had to scramble through after 20. Many more creeks running than were listed on the map. Quite a bit of wet trail and standing water on the eastern section from the middle entry. We packed out several garbage bags worth of trash from the trailhead....wish folks that insist on shooting their guns had the common decency to clean up their messes. Great outing.....

Having already had the days planned excursion to the Saddle Mountain area SE of Vantage thwarted even before the day began, I picked up Karen Sykes at Preston for a day to create something of an adventure anyhow. With the pass closed down due to the heavy snows for a second straight day we needed to stay on this side of the hill and headed up the Middle Fork Snoqualmie valley to do just that. We stopped first by the trestle area in the bend in the road and hiked back on the old Oxbow Loop road down to the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River. It was lovely down there and the snow started falling again while we were wandering around and doing much photography. The snow patterns on the boulders were fascinating! We then took off to head to the Middle Fork trailhead. However enroute to the MidFork trailhead we were stopped at the FS boundary by the start of dozens of trees across the road (smartly stopped...sure, I could have driven over the first couple of trees in sight...but what was ahead of us who knew). The snow was 8"" on the road by here anyhow so we parked, hiked the Middle Fork Road in pure silence of rigs. It was a spectacular way to experience this otherwise busy road area by actually hiking it through a winter wonderland and in total silence. In about 1.5 miles we reached the eastern end of the CCC Road and then chose to head back on the CCC Road to Bessemer Road, down the mile on the Bessemer Road to the Middle Fork Road, and back to complete a big 6-7 mile loop. We should have taken the massive tangle of snow-laden leaning trees on the path as a warning for what was to come. Once the CCC road hit >1300' there was 20-24"" of snow to plow through while all the trees in the world were leaning on the pathway to bash through and get totally as soaked as if I had swam the river. These three miles of normally easy hiking were the hardest three miles I've hiked in a long time. By the time we finally started the final 1/2 mile to reach the Bessemer Road Karen and I were very ready to reach it and at least be out of the soaking game of leaning snow laden tree bashing. At last we reached the Bessemer, and the legs somehow got us down to the main road and eventually back to the waiting rig. I felt so sorry for the lone salmonberry flower I saw trying to keep it's hopes up in 24"" of fresh snowfall! The drive out comprised of seeing how hot the heater in the buggy would get us before we started feeling it. It was a great day!! Alas, unless you want to stumble out of the woods as soaked as we were you had better wait until at least the snow melts off of the trees to clear up the path a bit!