Day Hike - Grand Prospect

It was really cold with clear skies. We finished our trail head introductions with the question "What are you passionate about?". We started up the trail at about 8 am with an inch or two of snow from the get go. With a steady pace we made it to Stan's Lookout in an hour which is about 2 miles up. Someone had left mountain sculptures on the picnic table there. How did they know we would be discussing the geology of Rattlesnake Mountain? Must be trail magic.  Then we hiked up past the clear cut and into the older growth forest (my favorite part). We proceeded along the long level traverse and down to Sally's Swale at 3 miles out. Gee whiz:  whats' a swale and who was Sally? Crossing the like creek bridge, we started up the last 1.3 miles with the snow getting deeper.  It was easy to negotiate with our "spikes" and tall gators. With streams of sunlight coming thru the trees we made our way up to the last trail barriers and switchbacks. We arrived at a sun drenched Grand Prospect around 11 am. Success!! I guess there must have been 5 inches of new snow at the top. The benches at Grand Prospect were totally covered. We put on extra layers, shared hot cocoa and some celebratory Mochi (goggle it). Of course we took the "proof of hike" picture with Mt Si in the background and blue skies above it. I lamented that we needed to leave this beautiful setting. We made it down safely to the trail head around 1:15 pm with all souls accounted for.

All in all this was a great hike with great weather and great people.
Pete Matsudaira, Foothills Branch