Climbing Poo Poo Point

There are so many different trails to do in Washington that I think it is humanely impossible to attempt to do all them in a single lifetime.  If one walks into a Seattle Barnes and Noble there are several hiking books that describe and inform about hikes in Seattle or very close to Seattle. One of those books, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles (2^nd ed.) is a great option to follow if one wants to attempt the Poo Poo Point trail for the first time. Over the year that I have lived in Seattle, I have built of an endurance to walk almost endlessly on flat surface with the right shoes (I have walked 18.5 miles in one day before), but I would like to start incorporating more inclines; so I have been motivated to attempt more mountain trails.

The Poo Poo Point trail (go ahead and giggle like a 12-year old about the name for the trail) has a lot of unsigned junctions and it seemed to be easy to get lost in the first .25 miles of the trail. Therefore, I strongly advise getting a very detailed description of the trail; unless, you are all for hiking spontaneously all over a mountain. Wandering aimlessly on a mountain is not me, because I don't carry a compass, cannot use the stars for direction, and was not a Girl's Scout so I have zero skills for gathering and hunting. Basically, I would be the first person to die in the Hunger Games. The trail is rated as difficult for the incline, mileage, and the wonderful switchbacks; however, there are a couple of areas that are mostly flat. The trail was mostly dirt and gravel with a few dirt steps.

Poo Poo Point Trail is located on Tiger Mountain and offers a lot of forest and plant life on the trail.  There are a couple of bridges and a little water (creek). It was a little warmer than what I would like for a hike but the weather provided clear skies, which equals a great view once at the top. A potential added bonus that Poo Poo Point offers is getting to see paragliders launch from the top (unfortunately there wasn’t any launching during our visit). Additionally, there is an outhouse at the top if you are not one to pop a squat in the woods and it has hand sanitizer in it.

The approximately 8-mile roundtrip hike is not a loop. I hiked on a weekday, and there were several people on the trail but it never got congested. Additionally, there are two main trailheads to this trail: one at the high school and one right before I-90 ramp; we did the latter one.

View from the summit of Poo Poo Point

View from the summit of Poo Poo Point

The green landing area is where paragliders launch from

This is what a lot of the trail looks like (lots of green and trees, narrow path)

Climbing Little Mount Si

The first mountain I ever visited was Mount Rainier, because obviously there aren't a lot of chances for a midwestern to climb mountains in the midwest. I hiked trails around Mount Rainier but definitely did not attempt to climb the mountain from base to summit (Mount Rainier is the only 14er in the state of Washington). Therefore, the first mountain I climbed base to summit was Little Mount Si.  My friend had purchased the book, Day Hiking Snoqualmie Region as an ebook, so we consulted it for this hike.

We really only needed to use the book to find the parking lot because so many people use this trail that it was maintained well (hence not needing to consult the hiking book).  At the beginning of the trailhead there is an outhouse (and yes it smells awful; I don't think a gallon of febreeze would help the aroma). We hiked this trail on a weekday and we encountered a lot of people and unleashed dogs. I love dogs, but when you are on a mountain, I personally do not want a 100+ lbs dog running at me full speed with the potential of pushing me off the mountain. The view at the top is truly spectacular! I could have stayed up there forever!! Thankfully we had clear skies; therefore, we could see Mount Si (which was a little intimidating in a majestic kind-of-way) and a lot of the Snoqualmie River Valley.

For my first mountain climb it was the perfect amount of challenge with just enough motivation to make me want to climb it’s bigger brother, Mount Si. 

View of Mount Si from the summit of Little Si

View from the summit of Little Si, showing Snoqualmie River Valley

Snoqualmie River Valley view from the summit of Little Si

Enjoying the view of Mount Si from the rocks on the summit of Little Si

Well worth the hike up for this view of the Snoqualmie River Valley and mountains

I thought these exposed roots were cool and a little eerie 

The rocks were heavily covered in moss. There are places on Little Si for rock climbers to ascend the mountain

This is a view point at about .25 miles from the trailhead with the bathroom

This is signage at the first parking lot for Little Si (not the trailhead with the bathroom, but will connect to that one in about .1 mile)

Dreamland

I have recently finished reading the book Dreamland. My initial intrigue was that I tend to have "insomniac" tendencies and wanted to learn more about the world of sleeping. Although, I found it ironic that I would read this book right before I went to bed, it was too interesting to initiate any sheep counting to put me to sleep. The book isn't as heavily researched as for say a Mary Roach novel, but it does contain many stories/adventures with just enough science mixed in to make it the perfect blend of non-fiction.

Here are some interesting facts I learned from the novel:

-Most people spend a third of their lives asleep.

-Dolphins sleep with half of their brains awake at a time, giving them the ability to surface for air and be on the look-out for predators while the other half is presumably dreaming.

-Birds have the ability to put half of their brain to sleep or the whole thing.

-Lions and gerbils sleep 13 hours a day.

-Tigers and squirrels sleep approximately 15 hours.

-Elephants sleep 3.5 hours.

-Giraffes get about 1.5 hours sleep.

-Many studies have shown that splitting sleep into two roughly equal halves is something that our bodies will do if we give it the chance; but because of artificial light it is more difficult for our bodies to achieve this sleeping goal.

-because of the invention of the lightbulb, human sleeping has been changed forever, and caused a new world of health problems that comes from an overabundance of light.

-Thomas Edison founded a company called Edison Electric Co, which is now known as General Electric.

-Doctors currently think it is possible to train the brain to dream about subjects and characters (components that could haunt veterans when returned home), in a sense rewriting the stories that they tell themselves each night. This is called imagery rehearsal therapy; in studies involving combat veterans, imagery rehearsal therapy was as effective at reducing nightmares as medication.

-Companies such as Google, Nike, Procter & Gamble, and Cisco Systems have installed designated napping areas in their offices.

-Coffee is popular as a stimulant because it readily crosses the barrier between the blood and the brain, and once in the brain caffeine block the absorption of adenosine (a nucleotide that slows down nerve connections and makes you feel drowsy).

-In 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, pieces of gum that packed 100 milligrams of caffeine (more than a shot of espresso) were given to soldiers.

            -Packets are currently available to civilians at Amazon.com, each one stamped with the slogan    “Stay Awake, Stay Alive.”

-A wrist activograph (a wristwatch-sized sleep monitor) records the body’s movements each minute to determine whether the person wearing it is asleep or awake.

            -By 2020, the monitor is expected to become a standard part of a soldier’s gear.

-Sleepwalking is called somnambulism.

-When someone is sleepwalking, the parts of the brain that control movement and spatial awareness are awake, while the parts of the brain responsible for consciousness are still asleep.

-There was a case involving a man who drove 14 miles while sleepwalking and killed his mother and father-in laws and was found by a jury to be not guilty of the murders. His attorney indicated “sleepwalking wasn’t a defect of the mind. It was simply a normal condition in which the body acted without any conscious input from the brain. “ Therefore her client could not be held responsible for something he never chose to do and he couldn’t be deemed insane for a common and temporary state."

-Her client’s deeds coined a new term: non-insane automatism.

-A 1992 National Commission on Sleep Disorders report estimates that sleep apnea was the cause of 38,000 fatal heart attacks and strokes in the U.S. each year.

-Apnea comes from the Greek word for breathless.

-English bulldogs, pugs, and other breeds with pushed-in faces are the only animals besides humans that experience sleep apnea.