Dirty Harry's Balcony

This is a new hike to me, one I've never done before. I think that is going to be a focus for me this year; hikes I've never done before. Should be a good year I hope. Well anyway I drove down after work Friday night to the trail head and slept in the bed of my truck. I have modified my truck to be quite a comfy overnight sleeping arrangement for such occasions. Saturday morning I woke up and ate some breakfast and headed out. The trail head is located on a firefighter training facility road, the road has been closed to civilian vehicles, so you have to park outside of a gate and walk about a half mile on the road before you get to the actual trail.

Once on the trail, you start to climb quite steadily and consistently almost the entire way with little areas of relief. Even though you are climbing the whole way it isn't so steep that it becomes too difficult. The trail is a bit uneasy though because the trail is almost all rock. So be cautious about rolling an ankle or slipping if the rocks are wet. Normally I wear my trail running shoes if I am just doing an easy day hike with a small day pack and only use my boots when going on longer hikes with a heavier pack or if I'm doing some scrambling. On this day I wish I would have had my boots because of all the rock.

As you continue up the trail you will see another trail off chute from the main trail, that's the one you want to take. I knew beforehand there would be a intersection of trails and one would lead to the balcony and the other would lead to the peak. I took the wrong trail and after a few hundred meters I realized I chose the wrong one and had to backtrack. But it wasn't much and I quickly was going the right way. Eventually I made it to my destination: Dirty Harry's Balcony.

Dirty Harry's Balcony offers great views of surrounding peaks and Snoqualmie river below and also of I-90 if you're into watching vehicles from 1000 feet above. There isn't a ton of room for large groups to sit and relax on the balcony so if it is a crowded day in the summer it might be kind of a bummer if there are lots of people there with you. I was lucky there were only 2 other people there when I arrived. After soaking up some sun and some great views I grabbed a quick snack and headed back down. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day at about 70 degrees. Couldn't ask for a better day.

Region: Snoqualmie Region, Snoqualmie Pass
Distance:  5 miles
Elevation Gain:  1300 ft
Peak Elevation:  2600 ft
Difficulty: Moderate
Pass Requirement: Discover Pass

As always check out all the photos of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.

Kendall Peak

This morning I went out with some members of the Mountaineers group. We set out as a group of 10 with a goal to summit Kendall Peak near Snoqualmie Pass. We started out at commonwealth campground and vaguely followed the Pacific Crest Trail for the first part in the snow. Then we made our own path straight up the mountain aiming for the peak paying no attention to the much longer route of the PCT. 

After we cleared the forest we tried to take a bearing on the peak but it was a complete white out. The snow was white, the clouds were white and low; visibility was very poor. So we headed in what we thought was the direction of Kendall Peak. Trudging up the mountain in the soft snow was tough work if you were up front doing all the work. We each took turns making steps up the steep mountain gaining the last 1600 feet of elevation in 1 mile.

Eventually the clouds cleared a little and we were able to see where we going a little better. We got toward the top and got to the rock section that was snow free. Here we had to scramble up the rocks to the top of the peak. We were very lucky once we got to the top the clouds cleared up and we were able to see surrounding peaks and lakes. The forecast was calling for rain and luckily we didn't get any.

Unfortunately when we cleared the forest and tried to find our route we were off a little bit and ended up on a false summit of Kendal Peak; one was that 50 feet of elevation short of Kendall Peak. But it was too sketchy to try to traverse over the actual summit and time was too short to descend and find another route to the actual summit. The group consensus was we were "close enough" for the day. We would come back another time to try for the actual summit.

Coming down was a little boy dream. Sit on your butt and slide down. We descended about 1000 feet in 5 minutes. After the initial glissade it got a little sketchy trying to slide in-between trees. But we all made it back safe and sound and had lots of fun.

Region: Snoqualmie Pass
Distance: 7 miles (total distance)
Elevation Gain: 2750 feet
Peak Elevation: 5650 feet
Difficulty: Difficult
Pass Requirement: Yes, most all passes honored.

As always check out all the photos from of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.