Granite Mountain
Date: August 11, 2011
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Distance: 8 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 4,000 feet
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Exit 47, I-90
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: WTA Pass Required
Trail Conditions: Dry, if you take the rocks.
Hiking With: Yuta Hagi & my dog Macho

For the past week, I have been waiting for a sunny day to take Yuta Hagi hiking with me. Yuta is Japanese and lives about one hour South of Tokyo. He came over to spend one week in Seattle to enjoy and study Northwest culture. I thought Granite Mountain (exit 47, I-90) would be the perfect choice for my friend….it’s challenging, great views and I knew there would be lingering snow yet. I decided on a later start hoping the clouds would vanish by the time we reached the top, the forecast was calling for sunny skies later in the day.

We started around 11:00 a.m., which was sunny at the trailhead and then got cloudy about two miles in. The cool part, we got above the cloud cover and then had an awesome view of the clouds below and the mountains surrounding us. Yuta did very well on his first Northwest hike, he stayed right behind me; I think this was his toughest hike yet. When we reached the pond, I threw some sticks in so Macho could fetch and cool his body off, we stopped at the pond on the way down too. The last time I did this hike 5 weeks ago, the pond had 3 feet of snow on it.

We took the rock scramble up and the snowy backside down. I helped and coached 3 ladies on the rock scramble, they were stopped at the beginning of the scramble and were thinking about heading back down. After relaxing on top in the sun for 1/2 hour, we headed down the back trail. Coming down in the snow was actually a lot fun, plus it was easy on my old knees. As usual, we stopped in at the North Bend Bar & Grill for a 9 Pound Porter and a cup of Jambalaya soup.