Snoqualmie Mt. 10/29/02

As previously stated the climber's trail to Snoqualmie summit starts in the Snow Lake trailhead parking lot. The trail is in great shape and is easy to follow. There was a light dusting of snow in the parking lot and about an inch and half at the summit. I saw one other person and his dog during the trip. I am sure the views are stunning from the summit, but not today it was socked in.

Total climb 3200ft 1:27 up and 1:05 down

Mt Teneriffe Road Ranchor Lake 10.2.02

Mt Teneriffe trailhead is located at the very end of Mt. Si Rd. . There is a bus turnaround and parking area next to a gated logging road. Take the logging road until it Y's follow the left fork until the creek crossing. There is a climber's trail that starts along the creek and doesn't cross it. Beware of Wasps on the lower portions of the climb ( I was stung 5 times ). The route is steep and a little difficult to follow. It stays mostly on the ridge line. I reached the summit in 2:20 and decided to follow the hikers trail that descends to the logging roads direclty over Ranchor Lake. This trail is very easy to follow and is heavily flagged. Once on the logging road it is a easy run (but much longer) to the car. 1:50 out Total elevation climbed 3650 feet.

Goldmeyer Hot Springs 9.18.02

The Middle Fork road is it's usual bump fest but very passable. The turn off for the hot springs is a spur off the mainline that has a fishing regs sign and a sign with a L and a B with what appears to be a pear on it. Follow the branch that drops to the river. There is plenty of parking riverside. Cross the river beware the water can be treacherous (benign for this trip). There is a path on the other side that quickly takes you to the caretaker's cabin. The fee is $12/day/person, and only 20 people are allowed per day. We only saw 4 people during our stay, but we passed 7 on our way out. There are some great campsites along the river. The hotsprings themselves are about a half mile from the caretaker's cabin. The trail is about 250ft of climb but the trail is very well maintained. There is an outhouse and a dry place to keep your clothes. As are most mountain hotsprings clothing is optional so don't be suprised to see plenty of naked people. The spring is set in a cave that spills out into two lower pools. The water is would guesstimate to be around 104 in the cave. I had not been to the springs in 20 plus years,but it is very much the way I remember it. Please do your best to maintain it's unspoiled nature.

Ridge Lake, Edd's Lake 9.11.02

Left Alpental for Ridge Lake around 11 am under warm and sunny skies. The crest trail if about 2 miles longer than it should be on its meandering way to Ridge and Gravel Lakes. I camped on the south shore of Ridge Lake. The fish weren't really biting. There are some nice rainbows in Ridge and in Gravel there are rainbows, cutts and California Golden's, as well as every combination of the three species. The bugs were suprisingly bad for this time of year. The night was pretty mild and was pierced throughout the night with gunfire and war yells coming from the Alaska lake outlet. I guess it was someone's end of world pary. In the morning brought more bugs and nice weather so I set off for Edd's Lake. About a half mile from Ridge Lake there is a climber's trail to Bumblee Pass. The trail is very steep but it it pretty short once crested,it descends into the basin of Thompson Mt. I crossed the creek and dropped to the huge talus field on the west side of the creek. The rock is very unpleasent and a little tricky. I then dropped the remaining 800 feet to Edd's Lake. Travel around Edd's lake is fairly easy with the water level low. I saw many big California Goldens as well as some smaller rainbows. I managed to catch some twelve to fourteen inch fish. After my 2 hour stay I climbed the much easier east side of the creek and returned to camp. One curious side note, even though there was good flow in the creek flowing above Edd's lake there was no water flowing into the lake itself.