Again, on my last hike, I had a bunch of other people I was going with, and they had done all the planning before hand, and all I had to do was keep up on the trail. This time, I had no such luxury. Before my dad drove us up to the trail-head near North Bend, we had to sit down and pick out our trail. The book emphasizes that you have the right gear and your essentials at all times, and this example is in regard to this, "When that day-hike turns into an overnight trip because of a missed trail and a bad map, you'll be wishing you had some extra light to see the trail" (Stevenson, 101). Raina and I weren't interested in spending the night outside in the cold, so I wanted to be prepared. Part of making sure you have the right gear is knowing what the trail conditions would be like. I wanted to hike all the way up Mount Si at first, which is 4,043 ft in elevation. The snow line that day was at around 1,500 ft, and we didn't have the right gear for hiking in the snow, so we decided that hiking all the way up would be a bad idea. Instead, we hiked the trail highlighted in pink, starting in the Mount Si parking lot and hiking to Little Si, which kept us below the height of Snoqualmie Pass (2500 ft), marked in green on the map. Out and back, this hike was just under 8 miles, and roughly 3,000 ft elevation gain out and back. Plan A was to begin and end in the mount Si lot, and plan B was to start in the Mount Si lot, hike up Little Si, then just hike down to the Little Si lot instead of going all the way back to the Mount Si lot, which is what we ended up doing. Planning our hike was a very important step in the process, and one I haven't needed to do in the past.
The gear I packed was also much different than my hike to Franklin Falls. Once again, I didn't have loads of people going with me, so I needed to carry my essentials myself. The essentials listed in the book are:
"Map and compass
Headlamp and extra batteries
Knife or Multitool
First aid kit
Butane lighter or waterproof matches, and flammable tinder
Warm clothes, and rain gear
Emergency shelter
Gear repair kit
Signaling devices
Extra food/water
Sunscreen
Insect repellent" (Steventson, 100).
Now, in my own tiny little day pack wasn't going to fit half these things, no matter how hard I tried. I could fit my 1.5 liter water bladder, some snacks, my phone, and maybe an extra dry layer. So, I borrowed my brother's much larger one. My smaller one is on the left, Charly's is on the right.
I have all my essentials there except sun screen and insect repellent, an emergency shelter, and a compass. I couldn't find the sunscreen, insect repellent, or our compass, and I don't own an emergency shelter. The compass is likely the most important, but I could easily gauge which direction we were facing based on uphill and downhill, because we were on a mountain, and where the sun was in the sky. You'll also notice a handheld radio in the top right of the image, which is what I used to communicate with my dad, since cell service was spotty. We both had our amateur radio licenses, and were able to communicate using repeaters in the area or via simplex when there was no cell service. I could also call for help this way if my phone had no service or died. I was very happy to have the larger pack, because I needed nearly all of my extra warm layers at the top of Little Si, which was exposed with a cold wind. I'm not sure how cold it was, but I don't think it got above freezing throughout our entire hike.
Overall the hike itself was a blast. We started at 10:45 in the parking lot, and finished in the Little Si lot at about 2:30, overall about a 4 hour hike. It was very cold, and the ability to shed and add layers throughout the hike was great. Unlike the Franklin Falls hike, I never shed down to my base layer. It was just too cold. The trail was bare and wet up until the mile mark, where snow was beginning to appear on the plants and ground. At the point where we transitioned off the Mount Si trail and onto the Douglas Fir Trail, the trail was completely covered in spots. After that, we dropped nearly all the elevation we had gained coming up the Mount Si trail, (1,000 ft) and by the time we joined up with the Little Si trial, we were only about 100 ft above where we started. We then hiked the 800 ft back up Little Si, and ate lunch at the top. At the base of Little Si, you could look straight up and see the summit right above you. We were basically standing at the base of a cliff, and it was rather impressive to look at. There were a few climbers who had belayed themselves and were going to climb up the cliff. By the time we had hiked up and back down to the Little Si lot, we were very tired and also very happy that we didn't have to hike all the way back to the Mount So lot. Even if we had felt up to it, we likely wouldn't have made it back before the sun set at 4:33. That was where I was very happy we had planned a 4.6 backup route other than the 7.8 mi round-trip we had wanted to do originally.
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| Raina and I just above the snowline |
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| Here was where the snow was appearing on the plants and trees |
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| Here you can see snow covering parts of the trail |
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| Impressive looking rock face on the Loop Trail section |
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| Little Si cliff edge from the trail (If you squint really hard you can see the rock climbers standing between the 7th and 8th trees from the right) |
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| View of Mount Si from the top of Little Si |
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| Me and North Bend in the background |
In conclusion, the gear we carried was much different than my last hike, and my dad and I had to do the ever vital the planning stage instead of the boy scouts do it for us. I learned a lot about the types of things you need to be prepared for, and how to actually sit down and plan out your trip. What hikes have you been on that've required extensive planning or special gear?
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