When the weather isn’t quite right for a summit, when the snow isn’t where you want to be, and when it’s pouring down rain… I can call on Harley to go out for a hike with me and he won’t complain about the rain!
I knew I wanted to get out and active before a long week of work (going to be co-facilitating a class out of town this week and I know it’ll be tiring), so even though the forecast was for 100% rain, I tossed my rain gear and several towels in the car, made a cozy platform for Harley in the backseat, and set off for a mountain stroll.
Matt K. was super awesome and sent me beta on Mt. Si while I was on the ferry over to the mainland. I knew we could easily make the summit even in the rain, but as I weighed out our options I decided to go with the original plan of doing Little Si first and seeing how that went. There have been a lot of landslides lately from all the rain, I knew the top of Mt. Si would be slippery and was worried about being solo in bad weather, and honestly I can’t remember ever doing Little Si so it seemed like a good way to knock it off the list on a less crowded day.
As we started up from the TH for Little Si, I could see that we were behind two people and a dog moving about the same pace. Harley was excited and wanted to visit with the other dog, and I foresaw several problems arising from this. Since it didn’t look like we could pass them, as soon as the trail branched we took the Boulder Garden Loop Trail and let them continue on directly towards Little Si. This ended up being a great decision as we didn’t see another person (or dog) on the entire loop and had some peace and quiet on what tends to be a rather busy trail.
We rendezvoused with the main trail and proceeded up to Little Si. The rain was pouring and the trail muddy, but we were on a mission! Harley had some trouble on the slippery rocks as we neared the summit, but he figured out his route fairly well with only a few minor corrections. We made the top, shared some jerky, took some photos, then made the trip down in good time.
All told, my phone tracker had us at 7.46 miles and about 2:40 total time (I forgot to pause it during our first break so I think we did a bit better than that, although it certainly wasn’t a race today). Harley seemed to enjoy the hike, I felt energized and eager to go out again, and we celebrated by stopping at Wanted Espresso in Northbend for cocoa and a puppocino.
Harley was quite a tired soggy doggy by the end, but I was proud of how well he tolerated wearing his backpack and did well in the wet weather. Can’t wait to take him out again soon!
To follow our trail…
The Time That Is Given Us 