I’ve done it a few times now, but it is such a nice trail that I never tire of it, especially since its so close to home. My plan on Saturday the 27th was to park the car at Snoqualmie Point, the west end of the trail, and have Wendy drop me off at the lake. But when we got to the “Point” to drop off the car, the gate to the parking lot was still closed and a dozen cars were parked outside all waiting to get in. Somebody obviously dropped the ball and didn’t get there to open up at 6am when they should have. So rather the park outside the lot, I told Wendy lets just go back to the lake and park it there, then come back. So she dropped me off again at the Point and I started my eastbound hike about 8:15, still early. I was mildly disappointed because I had hoped to avoid the noontime crowds at the Ledge by hiking up to the ledge early and going West, with the first 4 miles the steepest, then a long easy down the rest of the way to the Point.
For such a nice day I was surprised how few people there were on the trail, even at the ledge. While the ledge was very busy, I’ve seen many more there, so I figured that most were probably further out on other trails, now that the snow is nearly gone on many of them. I’ll have to start planning on other hikes myself now, get a little further away.
In the past this has been about a 5 hour hike for me, and this one was no different. I got back to the lake about 1pm, with a 30 minute break for lunch at Windy’s Point which was 1/4 mile from the East radio tower, which itself is 4 miles from the lake. So it wasn’t that much farther after lunch until I got to the car.
The view from Windy Point
Mt Rainier was in view as well, although you have to detour off the trail a little to find it
I got home a little after 1:15 and took a break. Wendy worked from 10-6:30 but got off early, was home by 3 as I was mowing the lawn. Apparently the mall was pretty dead. The neighbors Craig and Stephanie were having a garage sale and they put their kids to work hawking lemonade and hot dogs on the street to attrack hikers leaving the Twin Falls trail. Many took advantage and stopped in. We went over for hot dogs and Wendy got two matching wood kitchen chairs and an end table for the living room.
On Sunday I just couldn’t make myself get out of bed for another hike. In fact I didn’t get out of bed until 10am, but only because I was reading a good book from about 8 when I woke up. Looking outside though, the clouds completely obscured the mountains all around, which would have meant no views anyway. Even though it was close to 60 and not raining, I decided a little light housecleaning was in order and Wendy wanted to go to a matinee for the movie UP.
When we got back from the movie I decided it was time to start stripping off the old cedar shingles on the roof of the shed. Most of them are rotted and moss covered and will get replaced by standard composition roofing. It will be good practice for when I get around to doing the roof of the house. I spent about 2 hours pulling nails and got about a third done. I expect to finish stripping them off during the evenings this week, tarping over as needed if any rain is forecast, then perhaps get the materials to start the new roof this next weekend.
