On Saturday, there was still an inch or two of slush in the parking lot. Just about the whole trail was snow-covered, except for the last quarter mile or so before the summit. That last quarter mile was almost entirely snowfree. Nowhere was the snow more than 3 or 4 inches deep. There were some icy spots where snow has been packed down by boots. Some of these spots were not obvious, though they were mostly evident if you were watching for them. There was nothing that couldn't be managed with a modicum of care (poles helped). View was fine, mild temperatures, and no wind to speak of. The snow should all be gone before very long, assuming the weather remains near-normal.

I left home for a day of photography fully depressed about the weather. Yet again my day free to work and mother nature was beating me up! It was raining so hard. My plans actually were to head to Vantage and hike in fresh snow in the desert. Alas, snow was packed on I-90 from Tinkham Creek all the way well past Easton and Taneum areas. So not feeling like wasting 1/3 of my day going snow through 40-50 miles of snow I stayed put, slowly driving around the upper Snoqualmie Valley in the downpour of the morning, getting coffee...what to do? Maybe I'll just car-photography work today so I can keep the gear somewhat dry. Upon hitting North Bend it let up to a drizzle. Hmmmm...my backup plans of multiple Issaquah Alps peaks was still in the back of my head. I went for it and headed to Little Si and when I arrived at 9:50am the rain STOPPED! I've not hiked Little Si for at least 10 years and thus had not even seen the new trailhead parking area access. Wow. And...empty. The first 1/4 mile really gets the heart going to gain the elevation to tie in to where the old trail comes in. I felt like I was returning to a warm comfortable place when I got to the moss covered rocks and tress of the forest in the saddle area. The rock cliffs....mossy trees...quiet....it was a pure joy of photography with the cloudy day in the forest! My only humans today was a high school group of 8 guys heading up. They blew by as I was photographing mossy scenes...and blew back down in the downpour of late morning. Did I say downpour? Well I was blessed in only having 35 minutes of my day hiking in rain, but in those 35 minutes the meteorological part of me guesstimates it rained at least 11.83 inches!! I can honestly say I haven't hiked in rain like that for years, if ever. My summit time on Little Si was during this time as well, and my time on top was all of about 32.7482 seconds. Why stick around? No views to photograph and no cover of trees from the rain! I swam back down and marveled at the memories of ""hey, I don't recall switchbacks heading up here"". The trail to the top has to have been rebuilt in the last 10 years since my last scramble up. Rains stopped as quickly as they had started and I hiked on out. I had more plans for the day....wanted to use all of the daylight! I enjoyed seeing many nice sized flocks of golden-crowned kinglets in the maple thickets. A raven grumbled through the forest. And moss dripped....and it was good. This Little Si trail has to be one of the LEAST affected trails from last weeks windstorm. Only one down tree to walk under. It makes sense as this is sort of ""around the corner"" from the path of most intense outflow winds. There, I ruined it---all of humanity will flock here this weekend due to no windfall to deal with, a fair length hike, and elevation too! Before leaving the neighborhood I went out to do a trailhead check on Mount Si and Mount Tenerife trailheads. My rig was alone when I left Little Si, but still Mount Si had 15+ cars. Tenerife was empty too. Amazing---those Mount Si people all go past Little Si still, leaving me to myself. Next stop: Across the way at the Iron Horse State Park by Rattlesnake Lake, and Cedar Butte called! Alan L. Bauer 12/12/2003

Realizing we were going to encounter a lot of moisture today, we chose the logging trail road up to Mt. Teneriffe. What can I say, its a road that goes up...so we slogged upwards until the snow became too deep for hiking boots and we were bone-cold wet. After eating a quick bite and changing into dry clothes, we headed back down. At this point, although we had hiked for about 3 1/2 hours, I felt I needed to do more. So after returning to the car and not changing into my dry warm fuzzies, I talked Jacqui into doing Little Si. I had wanted to do this hike for awhile and just hadn't fit it into my hiking schedule. Although we were extremely wet, this was an incredibly beautiful little hike. The rocks are massive with green moss and baby ferns. We felt like we'd been transported into a ""hobbit's shire."" When we got to the top, there was a high enough ceiling in the weather that you could see the area mountains. It more than made up for the earlier, somewhat disappointing hike. By this time, we were only too happy to get back down and strip off the wet clothes and get into our warm, dry ones and then off to the local latte stand for a hot cup of java! Happy Hiking :0)

The parking lot was full when we started from the trailhead at 5:30 pm, but there were few hikers on the trail. The majority of the people later seen were the rock climbers scaling the cliffs of Little Si. When we saw the Mountain Rescue vehicle, we figured the cliffs were where they were practicing. After hiking up the hillside above the lot and coasting along the flat part of the trail, we saw the Mountain Rescue team coming down the trail with a stretcher. A large dog was stricken with heat prostration and was being carried out by the team. We were cautioned to have plenty of water for Jake, a Blue Tick Hound. The only stream crossing proved the point, since Jake drank more than he usually does. Progressing north up the valley separating Little Si from Mt. Si, just past the rock climbing cliffs, we passed through fern gully, a cool and shady spot on this hot day. The trail looped around to the west side of Little Si, with switchbacks up to a rocky summit with views across the Snoqualmie valley to Rattlesnake Ridge. Overall, a varied and enjoyable hike for an after work jaunt.

Little Si is a hike that I've always enjoyed, but I never had used the new trailhead until now. On Sunday, I decided to try it out. The new parking lot and restroom are wonderful, but the new piece of trail linking the parking lot with the existing Little Si trail is terrible. The first part of the trail is too steep for the high level of use it is getting. The remainder of the link trail is a sea of mud, due to poor construction and drainage. I assume the the WTA is not responsible for the new trail, as they usually do excellent work. Out of curiosity, I followed the closed off older version of the trail and found it to be in excellent shape. The gravelly surface of the old trail (actually an old road) drains well and stood up to the formerly heavy foot traffic without any problem at all.