Hike: Rattlesnake Ledge
29 Oct 2011 22:31![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nwhikerRattlesnake Ledge
4 miles
1160 ft elevation gain
Rattlesnake Ledge was one of those emotionally important hikes for me.
For some reason, I had it pegged as a "Everyone can do that one, but I'll never be able to" hike. I'm not sure why, but there you have it.
The plan had been Little Si, but then the Discovery Pass issue reared its head, and dh suggested we do Rattlesnake Ledge. I wasn't sure I could, I said. It was long and too steep, and dh said he thought he could easily handle it, so I went and looked it up and...
Yeah. Short, with some elevation gain, and certainly in line with, if not easier than, many of the hikes we've done this summer.
We left AC at the Railway Museum to help bake cookies. While we were there, Linnea realised that AC was going to escape hiking... and the whining began.
It did not let up until we reached the damn ledge.
Seriously, that child hikes on whines. She wastes so much energy whining, it's ridiculous, and it drives the rest of us nuts, which is probably why she does it.
Anyhow, it wasn't ever a really steep hike, it was just constantly up, non stop, for pretty much the whole way up. The trail had been re-done entirely over the past few years, so it's in very good condition.
There were lots of people on this trail. Solitude? Not so much! And lots of dogs, most of them on leash, thank goodness.
Anyhow, up we went, to a beautiful view of Mt Si (and Little Si, which we will climb at some point), the valley, and the Cedar River watershed. It was a beautiful view, and a gentle one, with towns, and Nintendo, and I90, but the mountains and the forest were there.
It was also cool to see the watershed from that point. It isn't a place one can go hiking -duh, it's Seattle's -and our- drinking water!- and it always looks so undisturbed, with no evidence of logging, which is different from much of the rest of the I90 corridor.
Anyhow.
Dh, Linnea, and Perry.
Cedar River Watershed, with Chester Morse Lake in the background. That's our drinking water, local folk!
The ledge. The drop, btw? I refused to get close enough to really evaluate it... but about 1000ft straight down. The lake at the bottom is called Rattlesnake Lake.
A shallow part of Rattlesnake Lake, and Rattlesnake Ledge from below. Linnea had stopped whining as soon as we go to the ledge: she whines on the way up, then is a cheerful happy hiker on the way down. Anyhow, we decided to walk to the car via the side of the lake, rather than the trail that goes around and she was whining and complaining about how awful we were etc, and I turned her around, pointed up and said, she'd be up there, and that I didn't want to hear anything about "how hard" it was to walk 50 FLAT feet. She did not believe that that was where she'd been.
Anyhow, it was a fun, short hike (about 2 hours), and we went to pick up AC who'd gotten 3 hours of volunteer work in, and then headed home. I'm very glad we did it, and it was, as I said above, important to me.
4 miles
1160 ft elevation gain
Rattlesnake Ledge was one of those emotionally important hikes for me.
For some reason, I had it pegged as a "Everyone can do that one, but I'll never be able to" hike. I'm not sure why, but there you have it.
The plan had been Little Si, but then the Discovery Pass issue reared its head, and dh suggested we do Rattlesnake Ledge. I wasn't sure I could, I said. It was long and too steep, and dh said he thought he could easily handle it, so I went and looked it up and...
Yeah. Short, with some elevation gain, and certainly in line with, if not easier than, many of the hikes we've done this summer.
We left AC at the Railway Museum to help bake cookies. While we were there, Linnea realised that AC was going to escape hiking... and the whining began.
It did not let up until we reached the damn ledge.
Seriously, that child hikes on whines. She wastes so much energy whining, it's ridiculous, and it drives the rest of us nuts, which is probably why she does it.
Anyhow, it wasn't ever a really steep hike, it was just constantly up, non stop, for pretty much the whole way up. The trail had been re-done entirely over the past few years, so it's in very good condition.
There were lots of people on this trail. Solitude? Not so much! And lots of dogs, most of them on leash, thank goodness.
Anyhow, up we went, to a beautiful view of Mt Si (and Little Si, which we will climb at some point), the valley, and the Cedar River watershed. It was a beautiful view, and a gentle one, with towns, and Nintendo, and I90, but the mountains and the forest were there.
It was also cool to see the watershed from that point. It isn't a place one can go hiking -duh, it's Seattle's -and our- drinking water!- and it always looks so undisturbed, with no evidence of logging, which is different from much of the rest of the I90 corridor.
Anyhow.
Dh, Linnea, and Perry.
Cedar River Watershed, with Chester Morse Lake in the background. That's our drinking water, local folk!
The ledge. The drop, btw? I refused to get close enough to really evaluate it... but about 1000ft straight down. The lake at the bottom is called Rattlesnake Lake.
A shallow part of Rattlesnake Lake, and Rattlesnake Ledge from below. Linnea had stopped whining as soon as we go to the ledge: she whines on the way up, then is a cheerful happy hiker on the way down. Anyhow, we decided to walk to the car via the side of the lake, rather than the trail that goes around and she was whining and complaining about how awful we were etc, and I turned her around, pointed up and said, she'd be up there, and that I didn't want to hear anything about "how hard" it was to walk 50 FLAT feet. She did not believe that that was where she'd been.
Anyhow, it was a fun, short hike (about 2 hours), and we went to pick up AC who'd gotten 3 hours of volunteer work in, and then headed home. I'm very glad we did it, and it was, as I said above, important to me.
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Date: 31 Oct 2011 01:50 (UTC)I think Linnea and Toby would get along - or else drive each other crazy. He is also a whiner. Is it the age? I don't remember the others being this way! But hey, at least she smiles for photos :^)