7/11, Saturday, sunny turns to cloudy. Every year, early July (often on 7/4), I hike to Bandera Mountain's flowering slope. But I never went beyond, not even to Little Bandera. This year, flowers are disappointing: seems a small year for beargrass. I saw more dead flower stalk of last season than this year. See this contrast picture of last year vs this year at about the same viewpoint. 
We ventured to the true summit of Bandera, and tried the old Mason Lake trail - totally new to me, and no crowd.Our little "gang of three" invited the same girl of Mount Washington hike. So we carried a big pack for training. Mine weighted 30lb, maybe 23lb on the way down. I had no problem with the 30lb pack, except maybe a bit less unstable when scrambling. 4 of us met in Issaquah at 7am. Carpooled in 1 car to I-90 Tinkham exit (#42 - only one other car parked at the road end), instead of taking the next exit (#45) and drive back west on a bad road.
It's ~0.4 mile, ~600' gain on Mason Creek trail to hit the road. Cars were parked way past us, which is still ~1/3 mile to TH. We crossed the road and marched into the trees, instead of walking to TH. It's ~1/4 mile ~400', not too much undergrowth, just a few down logs and rocks to get over. Not difficult, but for the new girl, it is. One of us would scout the route ahead, and one would stay behind with her. We hit Ira Spring trail just before the large bridge over Mason Creek. Water was sliding off a big slab here, quite nice. There's also some room to regroup, off the trail.
The first part of Ira Spring trail is a logging road. Then it picks up grade, gaining elevation until the junction with Mason Lake. Crowd thinned out by at least half. There starts my favorite part of this hike: the steep meadow covered with beargrass. But this year, it's a disappointment. Doesn't seem like I'm too late. After the grade eases, going into the trees briefly, and then emerged to a nice rocky ridge, with heather and penstemon. The west summit itself is a small rock crop surrounded both sides by trees, only enough space for use to sit and have lunch. So we pushed on. Most hikers spread along the rocks leading to the summit. More open here.
There's a boot path going almost along the ridge. Sometimes to its south, sometimes to its north. We lost ~300'. Then this large boulder field. I enjoy boulder hopping. But our new girl is very slow here. 
Finally we were all here. We found a tupperware container. One thought someone forgot his lunch box, and was planning on taking it down to the TH to throw it away. We had the whole place to ourselves. View is excellent. 360° Island Lake below, and a couple of smaller water body beyond. We could even see Adams a little. Half an hour later, a tall guy (Frank) arrived and asked us if we saw the summit registery. We looked for the tube, and found it without its cap. Eventually we realized that the tupperware is the replacement of the registery. Frank knew that the pen didn't work, and tried it (right it didn't work), and I gave him my pen. A couple of us also signed it. I donated the pen into the tupperware. We chatted with Frank, starting from his R2R (a 50 mile run from base of Rainier to Ruston Way in Tacoma's waterfront) shirt. Its cut off is 13 hours for solo runners. He told us about a 100 mile race around some Snoqualmie Peaks. There's also a cutoff time. He said he's 62, and he gets 2 extra hours by being older than 60. So, the 5 of us shared this rocky place for an hour, before heading back. The girl ran out of water. That was perfect, because we all need to dump extra water for the added weight. The clouds had increased. Could no longer see Rainier.
On the way back, we followed some different path which disappears. We went a bit too low, and had to scramble back up to the ridge. Joined the crowed at the West Peak. At the junction, we turned to Mason Lake. Along the flat part, lupine was blooming very nicely. The lake is boring. I don't understand anyone would come here. Saw 2 people swimming. I came here in order to take Mason Creek trail down, so to avoid the crowd. It's not obvious where the junction is. Need GPS to look for it. The trail is quite nice. Quite some devils clubs though. The upper part has some short steep stretches over rocks. None hard to negotiate. Then a flat and mossy part. Then a nice stretch along the creek. Last a gentle zigzag before merging to the logging road of Ira Spring trail. We met only one family: a couple with two little kids. Two of us now ran out of water. I offered almond milk. They both drank some but didn't like it. We did the cutoff again, and back to our car ~6pm. Saw 3 other cars parked there.Because of the slow speed, I wasn't tired at all. Total step count: 32K. I think it's about 9-10 miles. Quite some small flies. A bit of a nuisance.
