The trail was in excellent (read DRY) shape today. It was gray and spitting a bit as I emerged into the basin atop. Just turned around and headed back down. I thought to myself this may be one of the last ""good"" days before it starts turning itself into a vertical ice rink. (G) Well, it probably will be some time but the gray will be here soon enough for the long term.

This was the first time hiking Mt. Si for my husband and I. My brother was our tour guide. My brother warned us saying, ""It's ass-kickin',"" and he was right. At first, we were laughing and joking around, greeting everyone with an enthusiastic ""Hello!"" However, by the time we were on our last 1/2 mile we could barely work up a smile. When we reached the top we rewarded ourselves with energy bars and plenty of H2O. We then quickly jumped to our feet, and ran part way down the mountain, twisting a few ankles here and there. When it was all said and done, we felt sore, but satisfied. Tough mountain/Fun hike

First time up on Si this year. Trail is in excellent shape. Too bad you can't say the same for the people on it. Now I know why I have my days off during the week. I've never seen so many rude people in all my life. I thought that when you get on the trail that all the worries and frustration from our busy lives and work are left behind. What I saw were nasty people stuck in traffic all week. Then trying to get to the trailhead, again stuck in traffic. You can see the frustration just boiling over. You can have your ""weekends"" off my friends. I'll stick to the ""mid-week"" thing. The scramble up the Haystack was a bottleneck. Four young men kept knocking rocks down on everyone. I was surprised no one got hurt. Saw a lot of careless activity. In fact as I write this NWCN just said that there was a fatality on Chair Peak today. Not surprised at all. Seems like the ""weekend warriors"" just go crazy when the sun comes out. September does produce some nice weather here in the NW. It's a good time to hike. People just need to mellow out.

Hiked to top of Mt. Si via the old route on the west side, off of the Little Mt. Si trail. The trail is steep, with lots of rocks and roots till about 2100 feet where the trail appears to leave and old clearcut or burn area and you pick the old graded tread which is a definite improvement, however steep. A definite improvement over the ""tourist route"" main trail. Only saw one person and no dogs till I hit the main trail. The old trail has an untrampled look that is missing from the new trail. The only downer of the day was that someone ahead of me had slashed the fronds from the ferns that over hung the trail and had chopped the huge ( 7 inch) puttey colored slugs in half and left them in the trail for others to step on. I don't understand killing the slugs, if you don't like then then just flip them off the trail with your hiking stick. The only person I saw on the trail was a older guy dressed like he was from the Austrian Alps and wearing long blue gaiters, the gaiters should of protected him from the wet ferns and leaping slugs--so if he was the chopper/slasher I don't see the need to go about destroying what Mother Nature has provided. However the trail is very green with mosses, ferns and understory plants and unpicked flowers right by the trail. None of the high traffic noise and congestion (sounds like Seattle) that you find on the new trail. No bugs, no blowndowns, no mud--just steep and slippery where the loose gravel would roll under foot. Also no water. The valley below was obscured from view by clouds but hiking up and down in the clouds made for a cool effort.

No snow, no ice. What more can one say - it is MT SI! (G)