Twin Falls (for reals)

March 17, 2024

Didn't want to waste a gorgeous weekend in March so we loaded up the pups and revisited Twin Lakes. Windy weather back in December made us turn back, so today we came back. Arrived at the trailhead at 9 AM and got a parking spot. No cars parked along the side of the road yet. Toilets at the trailhead. Discover Pass required.

Lovely hike along the river and in the wood. Some small muddy spots but it's bath day for Toby and Mario anyways. Plenty of access to water sources for the pups and easy access to the river for a paw wash on our way out.

We hiked to all 3 viewpoints. I liked the lower viewpoint the most.

The trees were fluffy with moss

Lower Falls Viewpoint

Family Photo @ Lower Falls Viewpoint

Upper Falls

Upper Falls #2

Trail Beer Time - Matchless' Warehouse in the Woods

Tradition Lake (for reals)

 February 10, 2024

We attempted this hike at the end of December, but with the windy conditions and creaky, swaying trees we decided to revisit and today was that day.

There's so many trails you can take and connect with others around Tiger Mountain. It's also a very popular area for trail runners. We started on Tradition Lake Loop, connected to Section Line Trail via Bus Trail (instead of heading up to Poo Poo Point), then down via Nook Trail and followed Bus Trail where we saw the bus on this section and finally back along the Lake trail to our car. It was a good one for the pups with just enough elevation gain.

Tradition Lake Viewpoint

Family Photo on Nook Trail

Checking out the Bus on Bus Trail

Après beers at Métier Brewing Cherry Street Taproom. We paired our beers with fresh beignets. Yum Yum. Taproom was also hosting a local artists bazaar event that afternoon. Support WA beer!

Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge & Rattlesnake Ledge

January 13 & 14, 2024

I'd say about 60% of the time it snows or there's inclement weather during my birthday weekend. This year was one of those years. Andy planned a weekend snowshoe and hiking trip at Government Camp near Mt. Hood and Tunnel Falls just east of Portland. We drove down to Portland Friday evening well aware the region was experiencing an Arctic chill, but didn't anticipate any moisture. As the night went on the weather forecast changed from 2-4" of snow to 8-12",  then less snow due to freezing rain. Saturday morning news was not great. Freezing rain and ice pellets in Salem up to 1/4" was now heading north to Portland within the hour. So, sadly, we decided to skip the trip to Mt. Hood, canceled all plans as everything was closed, and headed back home for the rest of the weekend. It was a long drive to stay at a hotel for one night. If you're counting we're now 0/2 on planned hiking trips in the Portland area. 

We made the most of the drive back home and visited Billy J. Frank Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Olympia and hit up a couple breweries in Tacoma we've been meaning to try (E9 & 7 Seas).

Billy J. Frank Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

Bummed the next day but still wanting to take advantage of a dry, chilly, sunny Sunday, we decided to hike up to Rattlesnake Ledge. We arrived at the huge parking lot at 9:30 am to fewer than 10 cars. The trailhead starts at Rattlesnake Lake Recreation Area which is a large day use area with picnic tables, stoves, and other rec trails. No pass required. The lake itself appeared to be dry but also frozen. 

Dry/Frozen Rattlesnake Lake

The 4.0 mile hike itself was quick, about an hour up and 45 minutes back down. Temps were in the teens so I bundled up at the start. It wasn't a bitter cold, though. There was very little wind and eventually had my insulating layers off within 25 minutes. I had flashbacks to covid days when my glasses would fog up from having my nose and face covered. It felt like I had to alternate between risks of foggy sunglasses and not being able to see the trail/tripping, snow blindness, and frostbite. Me? Exaggerate?

There were a few icy areas along the way which made me thankful to have yaktrax. I noticed a couple people coming down with just sneakers somehow.

Icy section

There were a good amount of early birds heading down on our way up. We ended up having the whole top ledge to ourselves for awhile. It was warm, sunny, and calm at the top. This is a popular one and there were a bunch of people hiking up on our way down.

Where's Andy?

Warm and sunny at the top.

Twin Falls TH / Tradition Lake TH / Lake Sammamish State Park

December 29, 2023

Yes, you read the title correctly. We only visited the trailheads for Twin Falls and Tradition Lake. 

With Teneriffe Falls so empty at 9:30 am yesterday, we decided to take a slow morning and didn't arrive at Twin Falls trailhead until 10:00 am. The drive wasn't bad at all, but definitely windy. There were a fair amount of cars already parked at the lot (~20) with a few more arriving right behind us.

And it was crazy windy at Twin Falls trailhead. With recent rains, visible loose branches, and towering trees swaying overhead we proceeded to the trail with caution. Big gusts of warm wind whipped Mario's fur around and we could hear the thud of trees knocking against each other. Hyper aware of the conditions and not wanting to get hit by falling branches, we decided to play it safe and turn around while groups of families continued past us. Toby was not pleased, but we took him down to the river on the way out. Maybe we'll try this one on a less windy day.

Toby enjoying South Fork Snoqualmie River @ Twin Falls TH

Snoqualmie River @ Twin Falls TH

We thought perhaps it would be less windy down at Tradition Lake at Tiger Mountain. Well, we thought wrong. The paved parking lot was full but we managed to nab one available spot. About a half mile in to our hike and several powerful wind gusts later, we again decided to turn back. Hearing trees thudding against each other in the middle of the forest is so unsettling. I've experienced trees fall near me and read enough local news stories about falling trees crushing people. I suppose we got a mile hike in here though!

Posing on a bench near Tradition Lake

Still wanting to give Toby and Mario a good walk we decided to check out Lake Sammamish State Park. Didn't even know this park existed until I was searching for somewhere to go on google maps as we left the trailhead. I'm guessing it's a popular park in the summer - beaches, fields, wetlands, and lots of picnic tables which have been stored away for winter. We did a three mile walk down to Tibbets Beach and Sunset Beach, then along the boardwalk to where the creek meets the lake, and finally around Orchard Trail. Drainage was very poor and there's a good amount of construction and improvements in progress around the park. Looking forward to paddleboarding here this summer.

Lake Sammamish State Park

Teneriffe Falls

 December 28, 2023

As we pulled in to Teneriffe Falls' trailhead, it was clear to me that this is a popular one. There are paved roads, plenty of parking, landscaped planters, and a nice structure for toilets. A Discover Pass is required and in the summer this is one of the shuttle stops. On this drizzly winter day there were only 3 cars parked when we arrived at 9:30 am. Yay for winter break!

We hiked the 5.6-mile in and out trail with Toby and Mario. They did a great job navigating the 22 oftentimes rocky switchbacks up to the falls. The trail was well maintained and well marked. It also remained fairly wide the whole way up enough so we were able to walk side-by-side at times.

Wide trail

Teneriffe Falls was raging. There wasn’t a great flat spot to stop and relax so we took a standing break at the upper part of the falls along the sloped trail.  We made a quick detour on the way down to check out the nicely constructed new connector trail before continuing back to the trailhead. Apparently the connector trail avoids most of the rocky sections, but I didn't read that far into the hiking description so we went back down the way we came (the rocky way 😅).

Silver and Twin Lakes

October 7-8, 2023

With my favorite backpacking season upon us, I was itching to do an overnight somewhere.. anywhere! Originally thought it'd be cool to see the larches and check out Lake Ingalls, but probably so did hundreds of others so we opted out of that one for now. Instead, off to Twin Lakes we went early Saturday morning. The lot was full by the time we arrived at 9 am and we managed to get the last parking spot. Toilet is available at the TH and NW Forest Pass is required. The hike starts at the same trailhead as Gothic Basin where we hiked in 2016. Signage has definitely been updated or added since we were last here. There's no way we would've missed the turnoff to Gothic Basin this time around. But this time we intentionally passed it on the way the Monte Cristo town. We saw a few groups hiking to the abandoned town and no further than that. We had the trail entirely to ourselves the rest of the day, which is crazy considering the warm weather all weekend and the full parking lot.

It's an easy flat 4 miles to the abandoned town. Some folks opt to bike this trail and there's a bike rack located in town. We spent a couple minutes looking at the signboards and continued through to Poodle Dog Pass which was a steep climb of 1500' over 1.9 miles. Fall foliage and nicely constructed boardwalks distracted me from the harsh elevation gain and my ageing knees.

At Poodle Dog Pass we had the option to take a 0.4 mile detour to Silver Lake, but decided to continue on to Twin Lakes. Once again we began to climb, then descended a concerning amount, and then climbed back up again. This dang trail! There was definitely some swearing and a lot of keeping my head down so I didn't see the steep and endless climb ahead. The view above Twin Lakes was indeed spectacular. Route finding was tricky here.

Sadly, route-finding was again tricky down to the lakes. We misinterpreted the map, took a left a little too early and followed some untrustworthy cairns. This lead us to an impassable talus/scree field where Andy slid several feet and luckily was able to save himself from sliding with the river of rocks down the cliff. That was enough for us to turn around. Exhausted, hot, and hungry we had lunch with a view of the lakes while rethinking our overnight plan.

With no spots to pitch a tent, a few hours until sunset, and a couple liters of water remaining, we decided to play it safe and back-track to Silver Lake. There we would be able to filter more water and nab an established campsite. Back home now looking at the map, we know where we missed the drop off prior to turning left. It certainly wasn't obvious when we were out there. Good thing we played it safe and didn't continue on the path we were on. We'll have to revisit this one another time.

At Silver Lake we heard two voices. Finally, people! A couple who just came from Twin Lakes. We chatted a bit and both were surprise at the solitude on this hike.

Silver Lakes was a lovely camping spot. After a long 7 hours of hiking 11 miles, Andy and I took our time and enjoyed the rest of the evening outside sipping cocoa and stargazing. 

One of the positives of back-tracking and camping at Silver Lake instead of Twin Lakes is that it made the hike out on Sunday much easier as the bulk of the difficult elevation climb was past us. We had a nice reflective hike back down and quickly set our sights on après beers.