Some Siriously Late Night Hiking
It was a beautiful chewsday when, hard at work delivering shareholder value, I received a text. Originally, I had planned to go do some stairmaster with Danny later that day. However, this text from Richmond informed me that he had desires to hike. But not just any hike - we were to ascend the legendary Mount Si. Well… why do stairmaster when you can do the real thing?!
We headed out after work and collected our hiking gear, along with some delicious Bahn Mi sandwiches from Saigon Deli in U-District. Unfortunately, I am notorious for taking my sweet ass time and by the time we had picked up Priscilla and Richmond, we were already hitting the 8 o’clock mark. Yaouch!! This was going to be a long night…
Into the unknown…
The hike up was actually quite nice. In other night hikes, I was accustomed to finding other people either leaving the trail as they finished up their hikes. However, this time was much more solitary, as there was scant a single soul at the trailhead’s parking lot. Throughout the night, the only souls on the trail that night were us. This was nice!
Getting snowy!
To fight against morale (I’m not a huge fan of night hiking, though I’ve done it a lot!), I was jamming the frick out to some sick EDM music with Danny. As we approached the top of the trail, the wind started picking up and the snow came out to say “ello!”.
The first mini-scramble! The stars were brilliant tonight
The first class 2ish scramble you hit at the summit area on Si wasn’t too bad! There were pretty clear footsteps from people (and dogs, we hope..) that had been there probably earlier that day. We ascended the slippery icy rocks to get some epic pictures at the haystack and much on the rest of our food.
The gang coming around the corner; headlamp pictures look so cool in my opinion
Danny toughing it out in her new mountaineering boots
A needle in the haystack; ah darn, that’s just snow
Turn that damn light off!!
The haystack area was the worst. If you can’t tell, I am desperately trying to stay warm with the use of my Frog Tog jacket as a hard shell for my pants. Even two layers wasn’t enough to stop the brisk probably 20-30 deg wind-chill.
The food and drink was delightful though.
Wait… was this whole hike just a Whiteclaw Ad and I’m not the main character??
ArGh
This was Richmond’s second time to Si ever and in his prior excursion in high-school, he didn’t recall whether he made it to the haystack. We made sure to create photographic evidence of his visit on this occasion:
The most legendary picture of the trip; Rich looks like a true mountain man here
The hike down was swift and much easier than the way up, especially as we escaped the wind. I was hit with a spout of extreme sleepiness which persisted all the way to the car seat and then my warm cozy bed..
Night hiking isn’t my favorite. But it sure beats stairmaster!