Photos from this trip can be found here.
My thighs were still burning from climbing Eightmile Mountain the day before, so today I opted for someplace low-key to take the dogs on their weekly major exercise. I looked at the Teanaway 20 list for inspiration, Mount Baldy had the lowest elevation with a gorgeous view atop.
The dogs and I started hiking shortly after we arrived at 9:30. There were about 10 cars in the lot, with one guy and his dog taking off right before me. The bridge over Silver Creek was somewhat hidden, and I almost crossed the creek barefoot before seeing it to the left after coming down the inconspicuous trailhead.
This trail was not as popular as I had anticipated, which was a good thing. We only ran into one couple at the beginning of the hike and another couple just below the ridge of Thomas Mountain/Baldy Mountain junction. Patches of snow on the ridge between the junction and Baldy, but not enough to deter anyone from going forward. We followed the ridge line all the way to the top; pretty straightforward. The peak could be reached directly from the west ridge and there was no need to go around below the peak to come up from the east. The guy with the dog and another guy who came up later did just that.
The views were awesome and I could see quite a few of the Teanaway peaks I’ve been on. The dogs were happy, although a little overheated. They jumped right into Silver Creek to cool off when we got back to the bottom. Coincidentally, on the way down we ran into The Seattle Gay Hiking Group again, first time being on the way down from Green Mountain. The group was on its way back from Easton Ridge.
Yet another gorgeous day for a gorgeous hike!