Another Seattle area hike — Denny Creek

2009-09-16

Evidently the hike and subsequent leg trauma from two weeks ago wasn't sufficient, so, on this my last day of this visit to North America, I decided to go again. But my friends threw a curve ball at me, and we ended up going to longer, harder trail. This report is unique in that it is entirely taken with the iPhone (forgot my camera).

The trail was called Denny Creek, and is a good mile or two longer than the previous Mount Si hike, with a much rockier trail and bigger elevation gain. My outdoor sandals, which were appropriate for the groomed trail at Mount Si, did not weather this trip so well, and pretty much went in the garbage afterwards.

The iPhone camera is generally pretty lousy, but held up okay for this trip. Don't really recommend it as the primary photography device though.

[Click on any photo for a larger view]

Yah, those are my sandals. They don't like serious off-road hiking.	Although I will say that the number of people with 500$ worth of expensive crap for a 4 hour hike was a bit ridiculous ...	Just as crowded as Mount Si. Tonnes and tonnes of cars.
But with a creek!	You have to have a "Parks Permit" here. They enforce that rule vigorously.	Finally at the trailhead, let's go!
	Ooh, only a few hundred metres into the hike and already a bridge!	And a huge I-90 overpass right overhead. That cracked me up.
	Okay, away from the highway now. Much quieter. Not too long before away from cell phone signals too. Much creepier.
The iphone camera struggles in ambiguous lighting.	First big creek area thingie. Apparently this had washed out and was supposed to be scary and dangerous, but was fine.
The only hard part was finding the trail again on the other side.		Back on the right trail, you break out of the forest and walk over a reasonably flat area through rocks.
	This hike goes through one valley, over the top of a mountain, and then down a lake.
And past a nice little waterfall.		I love this photo. A fly flew past right as I snapped it.
Next water crossing.	My secret hobby on this hike?	Freaking out all the groups of Chinese people by speaking Mandarin to them.
Accidentally got a 10yr old kid in trouble, however, when his mother announced quite unhappily that this "foreign guy even speaks better Chinese than you!" ... eeep! Poor guy.		Oh thank goodness, at the top of the hill. This hike was a monster, and notably longer than Si.
Going down towards something ....	Hey, it's a lake! Sweet!	Oooh, a gorgeous glacial lake. Shoulda brought a towel or something and jumped in!!

Cheap Panorama of the lake time! It's really beautiful!!
SWEET solar flares. Even without Photoshop.		There's a big rock there in the distance and these guys were trying to get up the guts to jump off into the water.
		You can continue onwards for another hour or two if you're so inclined.
	Okay, rested at the top for 25 minutes or so, heading back down the hill.	That is a big-ass mushroom.
The waterfall looks a bit better in the afternoon sun.		By the time I got down to the first water area, there were huge crowds of people playing and picnicking.

Almost at the end.	What's that? we were supposed to carry a permit? Whoops. Didn't see that.	Eeek! That's even scarier !! Good thing I didn't see that at the start. Let's see how my legs do on an 11 hour flight to Beijing tomorrow ....