Mt Teneriffe: Elevation gain: about 4,000 ft., Round trip distance: 14 mi, High Point: 4,788 ft
Side Trip to Rachor Lake from the Teneriffe ridge: adds another 600 ft of gain and an extra 1.5 miles round trip
To get to the trailhead, just drive 1 mi past the Mt Si trailhead and park near the gate by a school bus turn- around. We started at the trailhead about 8:30 AM. To get to Teneriffe, you just follow the main logging road all the way up. At about 1500 ft elevation, the snow started sticking on the ground. There are some nice views when you get higher up the road, but the fog kept us from seeing very much until it lifted on our return trip. The fresh snow covering the trees was real pretty. When you reach the level stretch of road at 4,000 ft, there was about 8"" of powdery snow. We saw a monster 4x4 truck up here just parked on the road with no one around. About ¼ mile before the pass heading over to Rachor Lake there is a cabin right beside the road. It was inhabited when we went by, and there were lights on and a small generator humming in the back. There was also an enclosed two person snow tractor parked outside. We thought about informing the cabin dwellers that the Y2K critical period had come and gone without event, and that it was safe for them to return to society.
At the pass, the easiest route to Teneriffe is straight up the ridge. It was a little bit brushy right at the beginning, but the route on the ridge top was pretty easy to travel. The ridge is forested until you reach the summit, which is completely wide open. There was about a foot of fresh, dry powder covering a solid, icy layer. There were no views at the summit today, just lots of fog. The drop off is pretty steep on the other side of the summit.
After returning to the pass and still having energy left, we decided to make a trip down to Rachor Lake ""because it’s there"". The powder was deeper in this basin and I sunk up to my thighs on a few occasions during the fun and fast descent. The lake is still a little slushy around the edges, but otherwise was completely snow covered. After some strenuous climbing to get back to the pass, we headed back the road and passed the cabin. The snow tractor was gone this time and there were tracks down the road. It turned out that the cabin guy had drove his tractor all the way down to about the 1500 ft level to pick up one of his friends who had left his huge 4 x 4 there in the snow. We returned without using headlamps to the car at 6PM.