Sunday, August 15, 2021

2021.8.15. Teneriffe - Dixie Peak

8/15, Sunday. According to weather.gov, the haze should be gone today. I hid indoor for most of last week due to bad air quality and stuffy hot weather. Very eager to go outdoors. Headed out in clouds (maybe haze?) early morning, and caught the 7:45am TrailheadDirect bus by the Central Library. 2 on board already, 3 of us waiting. No one else came up, so just 5 of us to the trail. I disembarked at Teneriffe TH. Parking lot was ~1/3 full.

Teneriffe FallsI was curious to see how much water is left, but didn't expect that the rock was bone dry. More surprising is that most hikers simply turned around here. To see the waterfall, checkout my first hike here. As usual, I continued up the Kamakazie Trail. It was getting warmer, and I made a stop to eat an apple. Didn't want to sweat too much, because I had only brought 1L of water + 2 small containers of milk (less than 0.5L total).

Arrived at the top before ~11:30. Just shy of 3 hours. Some fireweed on the open slope, but no flower on the rocky outcrop, just dry grass. I ate my sandwich under my silver umbrella. Pretty good view all around. Still a bit hazy.

Around noon, I headed down, and followed the regular Mount Teneriffe trail for about 0.9 miles, loosing ~800', to a road junction. The road is decommissioned. A pile of rocks, and behind that is a campsite. Further on (do not follow the road), almost along the ridge is a faint overgrown trail, which I followed. Once awhile there is a pink ribbon. Overall, fairly easy, about 3/4 mile and 500' to Dixie Peak. The top of the ridge is open (or rather alternative open and short section of trees). I saw Crater Lake (just an ugly pond now) to the west, but didn't see Rachor Lake to the east (maybe dried up?). A cairn marked the summit. Good view and some huckleberries. Not as good a view as from top of Teneriffe. The grassy slope to the east is quite nice. The west side is more treed. I didn't stay long here. I arrived ~1:10pm, it was getting too warm to be comfortable. It's very dry here.

Retraced my step. I initially thought of going to Blowdown Mountain. But it looks tree covered, also didn't see any track on the ridge south of Crater Lake. Didn't care for more bushwacking. So headed down Teneriffe Trail, and took Roaring Creek trail to come out at Mt. Si. parking lot. Surprised to see water along Roaring Creek trail, in fact, crossed maybe 3 small creeks, just not roaring. Was able to wash some sweat away.

Caught the bus shortly after 4pm. I waited more than 30 minutes this time (supposed to run every 20 minutes at this hour). 2 already in the bus (from Teneriffe TH), 5 boarded with me. A lot more people at Little Si TH. A lady decided to wait for the next bus with her toddler. Maybe 15 total on the bus. 2 got off and 2 got on at North Bend. Overall, very convenient for to get a good workout outdoors.