Miserable hike, great sense of accomplishment

Description of hike courtesy of www.vtrail.com

Topographical Map generated with my GPS and MapSource

For the last three weeks, we have not finished a hike for one reason or another. The first weekend, Dan and I started McClellan Butte, but after 2-3 miles decided that we really were not in the mood to hike and turned around. The second weekend, Nuria and I started Mount Si, but I began feeling bad and we turned around before even going a mile. The Third weekend, the weather was poor and we did not go. This weekend, the weather was poor as well, but I really wanted to finish at least one more hike before the bad weather set in.

We arrived at the McClellan Butte trailhead at roughly 10:20am. Normally we would have started earlier, but it was raining there until about 8:30. It was cold and looked like it could rain at any second. We decided to go anyhow. So we started up the trail.

My GPS did not work well at all in the thick forest that encompasses about half the trail, if you look at the topo map provided above, it scatters us all over the place and has us jump great distances. About halfway the forest is light enough that the GPS tracked very well.

We began slogging up the muddy trail at exactly 10:39 (this time will be important later) and the hike starts off relatively easy. At the 0.4 mile mark, we cross the first of two roads. You walk for 0.4 miles on the first and then re-enter the forest. The forest is noticeably thicker at this point. I called it "The Deep Dark Woods." While we did not see a gingerbread house inside, the sight would not have been a surprise. After we crossed the second road, the hike becomes noticeable steeper.

At the point where we crossed by a waterfall, we began seeing snow and the snow continued to get heavier all the way to the top. While it never actually rained throughout the hike, the trees were all wet and the wind cause huge droplets to fall on us. By the 4.5 mile mark the snow made parts of the trail quite slick.

Finally, we reached the top at 2:53. There is a scramble at the end, but with the wet/slippery conditions on the trail, we did not do it. We were at the top until 3:10. Dan found that he had several bottles of various drinks in his pack and emptied a few of them. We now had 3:20 to get down off the mountain before dark.

The way down was a brisk pace for the most part. The fog had partially lifted so I was able to take this picture on the way down. We made it back to my truck at 6:26.

Dan's hiking book says that you should leave 8 hours for this hike. We did it in 7:47. We are above average! WOO HOO!