Dirty Harry's Peak
This was a Mountaineers trip, and we were a party of 7!
Arriving to the parking lot is a bit confusing idea on my head. The mountain and trailhead being on the north side of I-90 you must take the exit to the south and then cross below the highway.
We arrived early to a mostly empty parking lot. Crossed the Snoqualmie River on a bridge open to traffic and then start on the Dirty Harry's Peak Traill.
The trail start climbing promptly, it is well signed and consists on the first part of mostly rocks and roots. You can see some rocks that have bolts on them for the climbers. Somewhere within the first mile and a half or so, below 1800ft you will see two separate forks, the first one is not signed, and the second one states that it's for climber's use. Those two are connected through a loop.
There are quite a few view points scattered around to peek at the highway and surrounding mountains. At mile 1.5 it mellows out and becomes a rather relaxing walk to the balcony. The balcony offered very good views of the mountains and clouds that were beneath us.
At mile ~1.5 the trail starts to be come consistently frosty. We brought some micro spikes for the ice and snow.
Supposedly at mile 2.5 the inclination is the worst of the trail, although I didn't feel it that way. Maybe because we had nice views of the mountain range all the time, some creek crossings here and there; Even some icicles.
We decided to pay a visit to the Dirty Harry's museum, which is some abandoned equipment from the logging days where the mountain got its name. That trail was all snow, but somebody had been there earlier so it was easy to follow the foot prints. Also it is well marked with pink and yellow ribbons/flags.
Closer to the mile number 3.5 the snow has accumulated, and the boot path is very well marked and it is about 1.5 ft below the rest of the snow. The snow on the sides wasn't packed or icy, so I sure was glad to have brought snow baskets for the poles.
From then on it feels like a never-ending uphill. It is hard, and I don't know if it usually offers views - but for us it was foggy so we had nothing to see except in front of us. It was tiring and a bit demoralizing, albeit fun (once it was over!). Two of them were ahead of us like nothing! I must've been color green envy :)
I am glad to have brought a hat with brims, because up there the trees had some snow, and since we were walking on top of a massive layer of snow, we had to push branches and snow was getting on my back!
All in all it felt like winter wonderland, but I was soaked in sweat! Next time I'll bring a dry upper base layer to change at the peak.
We got to the peak and as the sense of accomplishment set in, I peeked for the view towards granite lake and saw NOTHING! Just some milky white vastness that confuses the eyes. Off I went to cure my sadness with food.
It started to snow up there, it was a really beautiful moment. Then we proceeded to head back as we were starting to get cold!
We picked up a pretty consistent pace back and decided to take a peek at the climbing loop. Eeek! Not today. I had just ran out of water with a mile or so more to go. It seemed like a scramble down and probably a scramble up; We saw the first one, but the one up was a guess from the map. Tired and prone to mistakes, I decided to pass on this one and decided to head back to the original trail.
Back on the trail, I slipped and almost fell later and was even more thankful to have passed on the scramble! We made it to the car few minutes later and then my legs suddenly felt the horrors that I had just put them through.
Off with the boots! On with the snacks! Long live the French Bakery!
We have some phenomenal pictures thanks to Donna!
