First Hike of the Year

Saturday dawned with gray and rain. We had hoped for better, but the drizzle became a driving rain by the time we started hiking. Si and Teneriffe disappeared into the clouds.

The trail starts on a logging road. That road continues on to a “Y” which can be used to get to Mount Si to the left or Mt Teneriffe to the right. The Kamikaze Falls trail branches off to the right after about a mile from the trail head. The route follows another, older logging road for roughly another mile until a new trail cuts sharply to the right and climbs towards the falls.



This was our first real outing of the year and we both were interested in how the walking and running would prepare us for hiking. We had not had any elevation gain to speak of in a couple of months, but Jodi has been running and taking long walks and I’ve been running and biking to work.



To our pleasant surprise, the 1,300 feet of vertical elevation seemed easy. It’s not a particularly tough trail, but still there was a lot of ‘up’ and the legs took the grade easily enough. Jodi even ran a little of it.

The trail kisses the stream in a couple of places then switchbacks veer away from it until the end when all of a sudden you are ‘there’. The falls rise vertically for well over 100 feet and the view is pretty cool.



A good start to the hiking year. January and the legs seem to be ready for more….

Rex (aka the ‘fur’) had a good outing as well. He too is getting back in shape and did well on the hike, but crashed on his bed when we got home. We then went to our new favorite pub – the ‘Noble Fir’ – leaving at home a very immobile ‘fur’.