TBT Hiking Post from Hubby - Snoqualmie Mountain

It's Thursday!! That means another Throwback Thursday post from Hubby. Today's post is our hike to Snoqualmie Mountain. I remember on this one we got lost at the beginning and wasted a lot of time trying to find the correct route, and ended up having to turn around. We lost time, but ended up finding the right way and pressed on. It turned out great and were rewarded with cool views.

Snoqualmie Mountain, June 25, 2007

Foreshadowing our (mis)adventure to follow, a last minute change of plans sent us to Snoqualmie Mountain after a check of weather made us leary of the originally planned trip up north.  I thought this would be an easy trip without much planning because we could just follow the trail/boot path.  I programmed the way points from 75 scrambles into my GPS, grabbed a map, and off we went.  We found the trail easy enough to start but before long, we were following a creek that seemed decidedly untrail-like.  We obviously couldn't keep following when we hit this waterfall.  We had lost the trail.  The smart thing to do at this point is turn around and figure out where you lost it.  Instead, we decided to press onward, knowing that the trail crossed the waterfall higher up.  Unfortunately, I decided to head towards the ridge climbers left of the waterfall.  The trail is climbers right.  And I made this decision with a GPS in hand and map too (the trail was not on my map).  We fought our way up steep slopes and lots of brush, using veggie belays the most of the way and at some points having to resort to crawling.  To compund our problems, it was raining lightly, so we became thoroughly soaked.  Eventually, we were cliffed out with no idea where the trail might be and no good idea how to precede upwards or towards it.     We retreated and found our way back to the Snow Lake trail.  We went back to our original trail figuring we would at least find where we went wrong for next time.  The second time through, it was obvious.    The trail crossed the creek and I took us up the creek (literally and figuratively!) instead of following the trail across it.  At this point, the weather was improving so we decided to try again.  Why waste the day?  We pressed on.  I would normally consider this a rough trail, but it felt like a sidewalk after our morning's adventure.  Not that far along, we crossed the waterfall as expected.   We followed what alternated between obvious trail and less obvious boot path towards Snoqualmie Mtn.  There is some snow on the path higher up, but wasn't too bad since it was soft.  It could be tricky if hard.   We eventually reached the south summit, with a short ridge over to the true summit further north.  We tried to find an easy way across the ridge, but given the snow on it, our general fatigue, and our happiness with being on the south summit, we abandoned this attempt fairly quickly.  We hung out on the south summit, eating late lunch as the weather improved. We descended to blue skies and great views. I had numerous other "moron moments" but I won't elaborate.      No problems heading down. Stats (includes initial misadventure): 4 mi, 4300 ft., 7 hrs