The rain stopped a day ago and the sun came out so shortly after noon. C.J. and I took the short drive to the roadhead of the old Mt. Si road, now gated and supposedly decommissioned. There is enough room to park 4-5 cars without blocking the gate or encroaching on the school bus turnaround area, but we were the only ones there. C.J.'s watch showed about 1310 as we headed up the road.
About 1/2 mile in we turned right on a side road that quickly became an improved trail which paralleled the road as it climbed the flank of Mt Tenerife. In about a mile we came to an obvious junction and turned right, uphill, on a trail that had been cut through a talus field.Above the talus field, where we stopped for a scenic lunch break, the trail had just started to switchback when it met the stream that issued from Kamikaze Falls.
Instead of a herd path that followed the stream, the well-designed but rocky trail used another dozen switchbacks to reach the base of the falls (at 2.4 miles,but that may have been someone's measurement before the switchbacks were cut). We decided against continuing to the top as the sun was already sinking toward the top of Rattlesnake Mountain.
The trip down was considerably faster but the trudge out along the road seemed to take forever. We reached the gate long before we would have had to don our headlamps, but it was after 1700 and it was getting pretty gloomy.
Rewarding ourselves for seizing the day, we ordered up some pizza for dinner.
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