This past Sunday Sennet and I decided to go for another hike in the Cascades. Stacie wanted to finish up some painting on the the long re-model we are doing, so we decided to bring the dogs with us. Looking through the Pacific Northwest Hiking Guide we settled on Rattlesnake Ledge. It’s not far from Seattle (about 35 miles east) and across the interstate from North Bend and Little Si – the hike we had done the week before.

Rattlesnake Ledge is a high rock outcropping on Rattlesnake Ridge – a 7-mile section of the easternmost part of the Issaquah Alps. The Ridge, Ledge, Lake, and mountain all get their name from the rattle of seed pods on a nearby meadow. When the wind blows they sound like a rattlesnake (real rattlesnakes are not found in this part of the mountains).

We got there kind of late in the morning, and the parking lot was full and the trail had a lot of people on it. The hike up to the Ledge is a bit shorter than the Little Si trail, but somewhat steeper, especially the initial climb. Sennet had made the comment on the drive up that hiking was his favorite sport. It wasn’t too long into the hike however, before he started complaining that his legs were tired and his back hurt. Then of course he would run up the next section of trail.

It took us a while to get up to the ledge, but the view was great, looking down on Rattlesnake Lake and out over the Cascade Range. We rested at the ledge, ate some banana bread, and Sennet had some Sour Patch candy. We gave the dogs some water and then began the hike back down. When we were almost back down to the bottom Sennet really began to whine, saying his legs were hurting and that he never wanted to go on the hike in the first place, that I made him go. I kept coaxing him along until we were down. Then he ran over to the lake and wanted to throw rocks for a while, so we did.

On the way home, we stopped at the Preston/Fall City exit and ate at our traditional aprés-ski BBQ joint – Rhodie’s Smokin’ BBQ. It was delicious, as always. We split a Carolina Trailboss – hickory smoked pulled bbq pork on crunchy French bread topped with slaw – and some bbq beans and mac & cheese. Sennet eyed the people at the next table eating ribs and said he wanted that next time. By the look of the ribs, I had to agree with him.

By later that evening Sennet was saying he wanted to go hiking again the next weekend, so his discomfort appeared short-lived.

Hike time was about 2 hours, distance was 4.5 miles, and 1,254 feet elevation gain.

Friday was Sennet’s last day of Spring Break and I took him hiking up Little Si near North Bend, WA – about 30 miles east of Seattle in the Cascades. I wasn’t sure how he’d do, as we’ve never really hiked a long hike before. He killed it. Basically ran up the trail the whole way, and then ran back down. We had banana bread, bananas, water, and a bar at the top, sitting in the sun looking over the whole valley. Pretty cool. He had a blast, and was such a strong hiker we will definitely be doing more of these.

The Little Si hike that we did was 5 miles round trip, 1,265 feet of elevation gain, and it took us just under two hours.