The fall weather has been gorgeous in Snoqualmie this year and before the snow arrives, it is definately a good time to do some more hiking.

This weekend, we decided to be a little more adventurous and spelunk around Gold Creek and see what we might be able to discover that might not be on the standard trail. You might remember a previous posting on Gold Creek pond if you are not familiar with the area.

We started off at Heli’s Pond before creating our own path and trail to see where we might go and have some fun without the regular local hikers that might be only taking the easy paths.

So what did we find on this hike today?

Of course, when hiking into the unknown, it is important to have all the right gear in case you get lost or encounter some challenges in the terrain 🙂

Today, we found that we need to cross the fast running creek a few times, so being ready and prepared to walk across fallen trees is a skill you need to build and have.

Now, in the middle of nowhere and at least a mile from a trail, we found an interesting contraption with solar panels and detection infrastructure. I wonder if this is to detect incoming aliens or UFOs which might be hard to detect in the isolated mountains…

The best part of the hike was the challenge and spelunking we needed to perform to get up from the lower creek to a higher part of the mountain where we could reach an easier return trail. Checkout this massive root system we had to climb up and over to get a clear path up the mountain.

We carefully trekkend up this massive fallen cedar tree and then climbed the rocks to take some great pictures to celebrate the weather and joy of hiking this area with no other humans in sight. But we certainly did notice a lot of indicators of deer, coyotes and bear around the area…

It was only 4 miles and it took 3 hours, but the fun you can have when you deviate from the main trails and take an adventurous attitude with you.