The Little Si parking lot was full as usual, but just up the road, it looks like the new parking area is getting pretty close to being finished! I took the trail leading from the new lot - I had not been this way before. Clearly a bunch of work has gone into this trail - hats off to the builders. It is quite picturesque, imediately starting out with a lovely view of the valley just a minute or two into the walk. Work has been done on the rest of the original trail since I had been there last. There aren't any logs you have to climb over anymore and the trail condition is quite good. At the top the view is as nice as always and the weather was clear enough to see quite some distance. There were quite a few other folks on the trail but all were friendly, (I was kindly offered to share one group's gorp.) Several different languages were represented - it was pretty neat to hear German (I think it was German..) coming from up the trail, and French from behind me as I climbed the last few hundred yards to the top. Little Si is not a big challenge, but I think it's a great early season jaunt to get the cob webs out of the body.

Since we got a late start, we bagged our plans for Mirror Lake and opted for Little Si. I think this is one of the best short hikes around. It packs a lot for such a short journey - valley bottom old growth, sheer clifs and decent views from the top. And all in 2.5 miles. Evidently, someone's been doing quite a bit of work on this trail. Since I was last there, the stretch at the base of the clifs has been re-graded. Kudos! On this wet and somewhat rainy day, the trail had no standing water or excessive mud.

Four thumbs up!

Little Si is a good close-in hike. The parking lot for the trailhead is located just across the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River bridge on the Mt. Si Road out of North Bend. Parking can be tight, so get to the trailhead early or go mid-week. You can also park along the Mt. Si Road on the south side of the bridge. We had a misty day to start, but great cool hiking weather. The dark forested slopes loom up above as you hike the little valley between big and Little Si mountains. Little Si has some good rock cliffs. We watched some people climbing one of the routes from down below. The trail was muddy in places, steep and rocky in others, but in generally good shape. I noticed some new improvements in signage and tread since the last time I hiked to Little Si. Thanks WTA! We didn't have too much in the way of views today, but the top is wide open to the sky. There's shore pine (lodgepole) and manzanita on top for you naturalists. Good, short hike, 5 miles, 1200' gain. At an easy, slow pace we got up and down in three hours with half hour brunch stop on top.

All the windfalls have been logged out, even through the ""log maze."" There are some muddy spots. Most of the North Bend valley (like fer sure totally) was fogged in.