One surprise on the way in via the Mount Si Road - there was a small herd of elk wandering on/next-to the road. And then one more bull elk in the parking lot. They got out of the way pretty quickly - just be careful especially on these shorter days.
I started up the new Si trail, turning up the Talus Loop trail over to the Mount Teneriffe trail. The new Si trail had loads of bigleaf maple leaves making going a bit slick. Wet snow began in patches around 2500' becoming continuous by 3000'. Above that the problem of the day emerged: lots of deciduous trees that still had lots of leaves on them. Lots of snow was stuck on the leaves, causing the branches to bend 'way over. On the Mount Teneriffe trail this was mostly small red alder close to the trail. Proding these with a pole was often helpful in getting the tree to shed its snow load.
This got much worse on the Si-Teneriffe Connector trail. There was one section around 3900' where the bent-over trees and shrubs were so dense that I considered turning around rather than making my intended loop. I managed to clear some of the worst offenders, but without some serious melting or leaf-fall this will remain somewhat obstructed. I finally made it to the base of Mount Si (top photo). Yeah, not much of a view with the low clouds. Snow depth by this time was about 6" (love those gaiters!).
I thought that getting to the Valley Overlook (which wasn't too nasty in comparison with what I'd just been through) would be the end of my problems. The worst was over, but I took before- and after- photos to illustrate the problem: this is where the trail comes up to the fork with the Overlook stub, looking toward the trailhead. Eventually I made it to the rocky opening that many seem to consider the "top" turnaround point. Until this point the snow had been completely free of anyone else's footprints.
There was a bit more getting down from that point, but as usual the amount of snow on this side was much less - no more than an inch, and diminished quickly as I descended. I proceeded down the Old Si trail to the North Road, taking it to the Doug Fir trail and on to the new Si trail.
Having been up Si many times - my expectation is that I'd have a workout, but no real surprises. Today's trip was an adventure!
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