Si of Relief

The volume of other hikers--some outfitted for a thru-hike of the PCT and others who appear to have been headed for a mildly-strenuous stroll in the park before making a wrong turn--and the too-perfect views from the trail of climbers on the rock faces above kept us feeling that at any moment we'd come around a bend and find out that we'd actually been walking in the gear try-out playground outside REI. "Still collecting data," and "long-term investment" are a few snippets of conversation we couldn't protect ourselves from overhearing, reinforcing our idea that close-in hikes like this are the golf courses of the Pacific Northwest. Business gets done. If you don't mind playing through frequently, though, or, in Seattlest's case, stepping off the trail frequently to allow others to play through, this is a great walk that occasionally makes you work and allows you feel like you've accomplished a little something when you get to the peak where, counter-intuitively, you can usually find a rocky nook of your very own. Tell yourself it's a warm-up for the season (or a warm-up to your warm up on Mount Si) and get up there. You won't be out of place if you take your kids, your dogs or your associates.