Granite Lake Road 12.7.04

With the snow level flirting with 1500ft I decided to mountain bike until I reached the snow line. I have never used a bike for this purpose. I made it much easier than I expected to the snow line. It was now snowing quite hard as I changed into my boots. I had not really expected so much new snow I could have used my snowshoes above 2000ft. I had an appointment that I needed to be back early for so I turned back at 2800ft. It was quite fun watching the dogs dealing with the heavy wet snow. Soon I was back to my bike for the much easier coast to the truck.

Squak Mt 11.10.04

Finally Tanner's knee could withstand some hiking. I started him 3 weeks ago on leash walking the south side access road for just for about a mile. Last week I decided to do the West Summit and Central Summits. He was doing so well I decided to unleash him for the road walk out. This wasn't a bright idea because not more than a quarter mile into the descent both dogs sited a deer and were chasing the deer down the road at warp 6. Just what his knee needed an all out run steeply downhill. Thankfully no damage was done and Tanner recovered with only minimal soreness the next day. For this week I deemed him fit to be off leash for a real hike. I decided to take Phil's creek trail unil it passes below the East Peak. Here I left trail and bushwhacked to the East Peak's summit. This route is mostly unpleasant with meddling nettles in season. After summitting I was sure I would find trail down the north side. I found bits and pieces leading me more westerly. I dropped to Phil's creek and found this even more unpleasant travel I did a long traverse in a se tack until I found somewhat easier travel. After a much longer descent than I would have liked I rejoined the trail and was back to the car. Be wary very few of the junctions in this system are signed and many do loops which makes route finding quite confusing.

Kendall Peak 10/12/04

With the one dog on the mend I decided to leave both at home... which is always an adventure. The weather couldn't be more ideal as I hit the PCT at Snoqualmie Pass. My intent was to summit Kendall Pk.. The PCT was it's usual less stenous than I would like climb. I left the trail at around 5300ft, there was a cairn to mark the climber's trail that leads to the summit. Use caution as there was a fair amount of rockfall on both summit and descent. The climber's trail was fairly easy to follow as I reached the top in 2:20. The views of area peaks was beyond compare. I stopped and enjoyed the warm sun and my lunch before signing the summit register. The descent went without incident and soon was back at my car.

Hardscrabble Lakes 9/8/04

After Last week's all day affair I was looking for something somewhat shorter. Justin joined me for this trip. I thought he might get a kick out of the Middle Fork Rd, thankfully regraded up until Dingford Creek. We managed to bump or way to the parking area about .5 miles short of the end of the road. It is just past the huge tree that is down on the road. The weather was perfect but I knew it would change to rain showers later in the day. There is a fisherman's trail that tacks to the NE towards Hardscrabble Creek after joining a old logging road. The (trail) is quite overgrown but was suprisingly easier to follow than I expected. The trail,slash old road, peters out in a huge rockslide that is cairned enough to follow without too much of a problem. Most descriptions of this route have you cross the creek about 2/3 of the way to the lake. I chose not to do this and found fairly easy going all the way to the lake. I managed to catch some nice rainbows in the short time I fished. We debated on what to do next. I had hoped for a summit try of Big Snow Mt via Upper Hardscrabble Lake, but with the impending rain I thought wiser. We decided to just to go to the upper lake. There is small pool above the lower lake if you follow the stream about 100 yards upstream from the start of the pool you will find a good fisherman's trail that will take you to the upper lake. I did a little more fishing until I noticed a gully on the south shore that looked that would take me towards point 5598 which I have seen referred to as Hardscrabble Dome. I zigzagged my way up the heather slopes for about 30 minutes to reach the summit. The views are quite amazing well worth the extra 1000ft of climb. The downclimb went much faster than expected and soon I was back to pick up Justin who had stayed at the lake to catch a nap. I didn't want to linger too long because it was quite apparent the it would rain soon. We hightailed it to the lower lake and just passed the big rockslide when it began to rain in earnest. I was relieved to make it through the hardest part of the descent without rain, however the lower stretches became unpleasant due to the rain on all the brush. We both became quite wet and were most happy when we finally returned to the truck.