My Mt St Helens plans had to be put on hold.  The snow conditions are pretty bad up there right now.  One fellow hiker reported waist deep snow, yikes.

My backup to that was go somewhere near Snoqualmie like I usually do.  The trails up there are great, but I-90 got absolutely battered by snow last week, so my backup plan was looking grim as well.  I would have died trying to drive up there in my little car.

But the roads have been cleared, and I found a trail that’s not too far up the pass.  Mount Si is held in low regard as I understand it.  A beautiful trail that’s turned into a freeway absolutely loaded with hikers in good weather.  But frankly, that’s literally every trail in the North Bend area.  I have not had a good experience with crowds on trails since I moved to Washington, it’s always a damn nightmare unless you get up before the rest of the world (4:00 – 5:00 AM is what I usually aim for).

That being said, it’s the off-season and a big snow storm just blew through.  On top of that, it’s the middle of the week.  I’m sure a handful of people got good time off work like I did, but generally speaking I anticipate a somewhat smaller crowd.

So I’m going to try and go for tomorrow assuming the weather holds and the avalanche conditions either improve or at least stay where they’re at.