I realize I'm sounding older and older when I write something like, "Back in my day," but... Back in my day we would spend the day after Thanksgiving climbing Mt. Teneriffe. Ooh, big deal. #OptOutside! Aren't you an influencer. Yeah, no. We were doing it before it was cool.
But the Thursday Night Afterburners was a casualty of the pandemic. So when I showed up at the trailhead with a belly full of turkey it was just me and Tink. Since we started before sunrise we had to start at the old trailhead making me even more nostalgic for the olden days.
Not to worry, the incredibly, stupid steep unofficial trail from the waterfall to the summit disabused me of any notion that this was the way it should be. We passed Tokul's Ridge and found the snow in the forest below the first meadow. It was right around this time when the clouds started to thin and I began daring to hope we'd have sun at the summit.
Did we? Oh, yes we did! A thick layer of clouds separated us from the world below of door-busting deals. Tahoma floated between the sky and the earth and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness ripped its way through here and there. In general: Awesomeness.
So then we went down, right? Nope. I started early so I could extend this adventure. It'd been years since I'd crossed the ridge between Teneriffe and Mt. Si. It's not even a ton of extra elevation gain. It'd be one long loop, but all on trail, so no big deal.
Except there were no tracks on those trails so I had to break trail the whole way. It was slower than expected. Harder, too. Yikes. And nobody was up there. Just me and the dog.
At least until we got close to Mt. Si. If you don't know, Mt. Si is one of the most popular trails in Washington. Year round, the trails are packed. Well, maybe they were a little less packed on a cold, cloudy day, but there were still way more than on Teneriffe.
I saw the Haystack that marks the summit of Si and wisely chose to skip the scramble. Instead, I started down the long, long trail toward the Mt. Si trailhead. So many switchbacks. Back and forth. Not at all like the route I'd taken to gain elevation. (Maybe that's why Mt. Si is so popular and Teneriffe's waterfall trail... isn't.)
Near the bottom of the trail I had to connect a couple of other trails to get back to the car. I'm not gonna lie, it was tiresome to make the return trip. However, the memories of standing above the clouds made it worth it. But I don't think I'll repeat this route for a while.
