Mudbog Hill 1250' 500P' 1/2/12

After last week's enjoyable outing I thought a similar type of day was in order. With the weather dry and the kid's still out of school I thought I shouldn't let this opportunity pass by. The girls are starting to get into the peakbagging thing especially as I have started each of them a page on Peakbagger.com. I guess the compulsion doesn't fall too far from the tree. We made our customary stop at Tiger Mt. Store and I was dismayed that all the drinks were not cold. After chatting up the cashier, I found that the store had all the copper wire stolen over the long weekend, making their compressor non functional. Hard to believe that all that effort was worth the risk for the perpetrators. After the girls finally each made their decision on what snack to take we were off. I decided on Mudbog Hill because it was on List of John and looked to have logging road access tot the summit. I am not sure that the girls would enjoy a low elevation bramble bash of some obscure low lying hill.

   Just before the train track crossing we parked at a wide spot in front of the locked gate. There was plenty of signage to discourage further exploration so what follows may or may not be a collective figment of my family's imagination. After getting situated we may or may not have started up the nicely paved road. The road climbed steeply and then switched to gravel.  After a short descent we found ourselves at a small lake or what may be considered the "Mudbog" this hill is named after. Soon the pitch increased and the girls were losing their enthusiasm. Thankfully only one at a time would do this making motivation somewhat easier. Once we reached the saddle the winds really increased and it was a bit nippy. We followed the road until it crested and left the road cross country for a short ways to make the summit. After a brief round of high fives we retraced our steps back to the road.

   Finding a dry sheltered spot we all enjoyed a family moment enjoying our summit success. Much to my surprise a group of 3 motorcycle riders came up the road and as soon as they saw us they turned around. Thankfully relieving me of the burden of explaining what we were doing.  After finishing our snacks we headed down hoping to outrun the inpending rain. Soon after we again saw the riders and as soon as they saw me they quickly turned around. Evidently we must look pretty imposing. A bit further down the road we ran across a nice couple out for an afternoon hike. Soon we were back at the car thankfully before the rain arrived. I am very thankful my girls were both willing and enjoyed themselves. Nothing beat their excitement to update their climbing page.... a proud papa I am.

Approx 3 miles 700' of climb 2:30 Car to Car

Little Peak 3440' 600'P 12.29.11

For once I had a plan for this day however the weather had other plans for me. I wanted to stay on the West side of the crest but when I made my way up I-90 the rain was torrential and making it worse it was quite warm. Not enthused with spending a day getting drenched I kept driving without a destination in mind. I hoped the weather would be better East of the crest. As I made my way towards Easton the skies showed no sign of letting up. As I neared the Nelson Siding Road I felt an urge to turn off so I did. As I made my way down Nelson Siding I remembered a couple of previous trips in the area. I used the Granite Creek Trailhead but I remember that the road continues with two other trailheads further along. This seemed like a good day to do some exploring. The road turns into a groomed snowmobile road so I had to turn around and park. The rain was still pounding as I suited up.

   Thankfully I had enough gear to stay dry and shortly after leaving the car the rain magically stopped. I walked the road which seemed to lose more elevation than it gained. The road was well packed making for easy travel. I reached a junction and chose the one heading up hill. After another mile I reached a saddle and took the branch heading SW. I didn't have a  map so I wasn't sure but it seemed the road was heading to a distinct point giving the day a worthy goal. I was able to see a snowshoe trench heading towards the ridge crest so I followed. I was happy to see that there was some foot traffic making me feel a little less crazy. At least I wasn't alone in my pursuit of some unnamed high point. The ridge is long set off small bumps which would be much easier to bypass by staying on the road. Since I didn't know this I thought each bump would be the summit. Since I thought each bump was the summit I resisted putting on the snowshoes. Becoming frustrated of this up and down regimen I rejoined the road until the summit came into view....... or in this case another false summit. Finally I reached a point that was considerably steeper and after topping out I was pleased that it was the summit. The summit has some good views to the North and there is a nice plaque commemorating a local father.

Not looking to get any wetter I decided to head out before the rain returned. After rejoining the main line of the road the rain returned with a vengeance making for slushy walking. The road seemed to go on forever, just before reaching the car I met up with a large group of cross country skiers just heading up the road. I sure did get some funny looks, I am sure they weren't expecting to see a drowned rat carrying a pack heading out.

Approx 8 miles 1500' of climb 4:30 car to car

Holder Knob 1110+ 12.26.11

With the kids having indulged themselves, along with myself, over the holiday weekend I thought it best to get out. I wanted to take advantage of both the dry weather and the kids being off from school. I wasn't looking to go far so a return trip to the Taylor Mt. area was perfect. In the Spring we had climbed Holder Ridge and but did not climb Holder Knob. I thought it was a perfect fit for this day.

  The parking lot is just South of the Hobart-Issaquah/Hy 18 junction. I was very surprised on the amount of cars in the parking lot. There were very few spots to left to park. Most of the rigs were horse trailers and we were soon treated to a group of 7 returning as we were prepping to leave. I always marvel at horses, there sheer size in inspiring. We headed up the nice logging road reversing the route we had used in the Spring. Once reaching the junction with the Holder Ridge Trail we left the road taking the trail North. Soon we reached another junction and continued North on the Holder Knob Trail. The trail itself was muddy but manageable for all the little feet. In short order we were able to reach the summit area and snapped some pictures. A nice trailrunner took a family picture for me since I was struggling to do so on my own. I was thankful the whole family was able to stay upright on the way out on the very slippery trail. For fun we left the trail as it parallels the access road and went cross country to regain the road. It was very fun to get the girls out and have them both add a summit to their growing lists.

Cabin Mt. Wanderings 12.20.11

I had an extremely taxing weekend so I made a nice fire and spent some good family time relaxing on Monday. With all that time doing very little you would think that I would have had time to make plans for the next day. I instead gave it very little thought with the expectation of winging it in the morning. By the time I got motivated it was nearly 10 am giving me a sparse amount of daylight hours. I was hoping for a quick efficient climb of Cabin Mt.  via the North. I used the Cabin Creek Road via Easton and had some trouble finding the best place to park. The roads were not exactly matching my map and I lost considerable time before parking .25 short of the turnaround and followed a well travelled road that was heading in the general direction of my intent. In the future I will access this area from the Cabin Creek Road from I-90 cutting down on the amount of walking

   The road led to the train tracks which were heading directly in the direction I wanted to go. Walking train tracks was a new experience for me and it took some experimenting to find the most efficient method. I even tried just walking on the rail which was the easiest but soon lost it's appeal. Once I reached a road that led to Cabin Creek Cabins I left the railroad tracks for a logging spur heading towards the power lines. Once I reached the powerline road I followed until I reached a high point. I switched to snowshoes and left the road for the nice consolidated snow of the clear cut. The snow made for an enjoyable climb as I used the sparse trees as slalom cones. The snow covered all the unpleasantness of what lay beneath it. I angled towards some larger standing timber that looked rather choked so I paralleled the clearcut in the dripline of the trees making for even easier travel. Finally I ran out of clearcut and entered the trees. After 200' of climb I popped out on another road that had been driven on making for easier travel. Since the road wasn't on my map I was curious. Since the road was rather steep and packed I felt like it may be the fastest method to reach Cabin Mt's summit.  I resisted a few times where there were options to leave for a more direct line. At around 4200' I reached the end of the road. Looking up and seeing another 600' to go and without the time to reach it, I decided to head back. I had to be back early and I knew I wouldn't be able to make the summit in my allotted time.

  The weather started to move in and became quite windy, thankfully the wind abated as I descended lower. Making my way over the most varied terrain was quite enjoyable on the way out. I was very happy to get out and stretch the legs and give the dog a good run even though nothing substantial was achieved.

Approx 6 miles 2000' of climb 3:30 car to car