John Guilford's Hikes

Date: 1992-02-23

Location: Twin Falls & Cedar Butte

People: (including myself): 11 other Mountaineers

			My Alt.	Real Alt.
Start:		10:00
Falls:		10:30
Road:		11:00
Trail to Butte:	12:30
Summit:		1:10		1937?
Leave:		1:45 ?
Road		2:05
Trail to Falls:	3:20
Out:		4:15

This was a relatively easy, though long, low altitude hike (about 12 miles RT).  It is actually a combination of three different hikes.  The first part was through Twin Falls State Park.  Take exit 34 south off I-90.  Take the (next?) right and go about 1/2 mile til the road ends.  You are there (just north of the river).  About a mile or so from the trail head (along a good trail the meanders up and down) you come to the falls.  There are several boardwalks/stairs that take you to some good viewpoints of the falls (there is a large lower one, and several smaller higher ones).  The trail then continues past the falls and after another mile or so connects with the road after gaining a bit of altitude.  Unfortunately, the trail roughly parallels I-90, so there is a constant roar of traffic.  Down by the falls, you are a bit further away, and the sound of the water masks it, but on the further stretch of the trail, it is quite obvious. 

The road used to be a stretch of rail line (it is easy to find old railroad spikes and other remnants along the way) that is now just a wide, flat, real level road.  It looks like they are in the process of running power lines along it.  This angles sort of back the way you just came, but it goes away from the highway (in a SE direction).  This goes on for several miles.  Along the way, the road goes over an old railroad bridge over a gorge that has a very nice waterfall next to it.  After several miles of this, find a virtually invisible trailhead on the left.  I wouldn't have noticed it, and the hike leader came up the previous day and had trouble finding it. 

The trail just grinds its way up 1000' (?) to the top of the butte.  The top is just a clearing in the trees.  The views aren't terribly great.  You can see Mt. Si, and have a wonderful view of I-90, and a few other things, but nothing to write home about.  Just to the east is Mt. Washington(?). 

It started sprinkling on the way in on the roadway and my hat came out.  The sprinkles/rain came and went for the rest of the day gradually building.  I stayed dry without any trouble.  I put on some wind pants on the summit as we were just sitting, and I didn't want the rain to fall straight onto my pants, but they came off when we hit the road again. 

This hike was a great demonstration for the concept of layering.  When you were hiking up hill, you took most of your outerwear off.  When you stopped or levelled out, however, you got cool, and so had to put more back on.  When you got moving again or it got steeper, clothes had to come back off. 

On the way out, most of us stopped at "The Pizza Place" in Northbend, which, as I understand it, is the traditional stopping place for the Mountaineers coming back from Snoqualmie pass.