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Mount Si is located about 20 minutes from downtown Seattle, along the I-90. There
are two trails here - Little Mount Si and
Mount Si.
The former is a light trail with easy walking. The second is classified as
"Strenuous" It's 3500 feet height gain in 4 miles. There is no resting
spots with level ground. You're always going up or coming back down. The final
scramble up the haystack, over the loose rocks typifies the trail. Take lots of
water, because you'll need it for the upwards trek.
The trail itself is quite busy - probably a few hundred people on it. There were
quite a lot of families, and dogs too. Not the best if you want to get away from
it all, but still, quite a good trail if you want just exercise.
These are thumbnails. Click on each for full size version.
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In the parking lot. Yes, this is just so I can include a motorcycle picture.
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At about the one mile mark, the canopy opens up briefly to reveal the sky
and mountains. Unfortunately, the low clouds prevents seeing any of that.
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At ground level, it is quite open - not much undergrowth down here. Again, at
the one mile mark.
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Another skyline shot through the canopy. This is about 1.5 miles in.
By eye, you could see the shadows of the mountains across the valley here,
but the camera seems to have been washed out by the intensity of light
coming from the low clouds. All the fine detail has been lost.
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On the way up the trail, apart from the odd slug, there was no animal
life at all - completely silent. It was only at the top did there start to be
signs of life, other than human, on the mountain. Here a small finch-like
bird arrives in the bush.
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This same bird hung around for a few minutes and slowly got closer. For this
photo, it was no more than about a metre away. Some of the other walkers are
in the background, enjoying lunch.
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This little stripped squirrel, or maybe a chipmunk (can't tell the difference)
was spotted hopping in and around the rocks. I'd tried to get a photo of it
earlier, but it kept darting in and out of the crevices before I could aim
a camera at it. Finally got it here, peaking out to see what yummy morsels it
could find.
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This is supposed to be a fabulous view of the Snoqualmie Valley - just a little up
the trail from the previous couple of shots. Obviously, the weather was not
cooperative today. That's thick cloud. Visibility was about 20-30 metres at most.
The flowers were out and about quite heavily, but again no wildlife. It was so
quiet, you could hear the noise of trucks and cars going by in the valley below
some 3500 feet below.
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The final part of the walk is a scramble up the rocky slope of The Haystack. As you
can see, it too is shrouded in clouds. I started up the path, then decided it wasn't
worth going any further because you'd see even less as you got higher. At least here
you can make out the shadowy outline of one side of The Haystack.
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On the way back down, there's a side trail over to a small creek running down
the mountain. The following are a collection of shots from there trying to be a
little artistic (except for my silly backpack that I notice crept into the edge
of this first shot - doh!).
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