Hiking Mt. Si = Tougher Than Expected

On Saturday Jordanne, Kevin, and I decided to hike the famous Mt. Si.  At least according to the internet (which we all know is 100% true all the time), climbing Mt. Si is pretty much THE hike to do in Washington State.  At 8 miles roundtrip and over 3,400 feet of elevation gain, it was no joke.

Honestly, it was harder than I expected.  I just ran a marathon for goodness sake - I should be able to easily hike 8 miles, right?  RIGHT?!?!  Well, wrong, apparently.  Because this was far from easy, and 100% guaranteed I'm going to be sore tomorrow.  [update: my quads are soooo sore]

The beginning of the hike.  This picture doesn't capture it adequately but it was GORGEOUS in here, reminded me of the Redwoods.  It was called the "Snag Flats".

The 4 miles up were STEEP and by just 1 mile in it was like "uh, are we there yet?"  My glutes were definitely working harder than they have in any recent history (uh, hello, maybe I should try some hill training?!).  But, we made it to top, in about an hour and 20 minutes. 

 See - the top!  Too bad it wasn't a clearer day.

If you were daring enough to scramble up the rocks the views got even better.  Kevin finally convinced me to go a bit higher and you could even see a little bit of Mt. Rainier.  

The extremely daring go to the VERY top which involves an incredibly steep scramble up "Haystack Rock".  You could see 1 or 2 crazies up there.  There's no way you're getting me up there without a harness.  I'm sure I could get to the top - it's getting back down that I'm 99% sure would end in disaster.  

Coming down the mountain was where the real fun was though!  All that sweat-pouring-off-your-face grimacing and leg pain was gone (well, for a bit anyway).  Now, you FLEW down effortlessly, just gravity pulling you down.  You got to see all those suckers huffing and puffing their way up and be the lucky ones coming down.

We ran all that we could on the way down, although there was lots of super technical rocky parts, leaps down, and tree roots, plus dodging people, so we probably only ran about 3 of the 4 miles.  My quads (especially my right one) were thrashed by halfway down though.  I am beyond lucky I came home with all of my teeth, I almost fell about 100 times and my ankles and quads are going to be so sore, but despite all this, I LOVED IT.

2 thumbs up for climbing Mt. Si!  I'll definitely be back.

Have you climbed Mt. Si?  Were you surprised by it's toughness like I was or am I just a sissy?  What's your favorite hike?