Low visibility
The idea was to climb Mount Si by the light of a full moon and have breakfast at the top at sunrise. This being western Washington, however, we hiked up the steep trail in the tepid glow of our headlamps and the black of night progressed incrementally into the gray of day, rather than exploding in beams of radiant light.
The best laid plans… as they say.
Still, breakfast was delicious and the group was a lot of fun. There were 22 of us (I think), and I am pretty sure I was the oldest. We left from the parking lot at about 3am and I got to the summit a couple of minutes after 5am. Each of us had a backpack with some of the items for the breakfast feed, and we made a pile of the communal food for Marc and Paul to put together. The dutch oven cuisine (4 ovens, actually), was outstanding and was consumed in short order. Mimosas all around, and not a drop gone to waste.
Most of the group picked their way to the top of the haystack, the true summit, once the light had gotten established. Shrouded in fog and cloud, for the most part, but the mists parted now and then to provide occasional views of the Cascades and the valley below.
This is the 5th annual for Marc and Paul, and it just gets more popular each year. It was my first time going with them, and although I have done the trail before, it’s been years. It’s a busy trail, probably the most-used in the entire range, and I encountered at least a hundred people on my way back down. Maybe two hundred. And all those people have an impact. (Maybe more on that later.)
A good time, overall. A nice way to start the morning.
About Ken Campbell
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A story of sea kayaking and science on the rugged coast of Alaska. Coming – Spring 2014.
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