Elevation gain: 4,000 ft.
Max elevation: 4,787 ft.
Hike time: up ↑ 3:40; break ↔ 0:40; down ↓ 2:15; Total ⇅ 6:35
Effort: Steady
Trail difficulty: Most Difficult
Mt. Teneriffe has been on my "to do" list for a long time. It gets pretty poor reviews due to the fact that the majority of the climb is along a logging road. Having exhausted the majority of the hikes on my list, John and I decided that this would be a good one to try out.
I don't think this is a hike I'll be repeating for a while. The logging road wasn't too bad. What other hike reviews I read failed to mention, however, was that this hike is not 4,000 feet of elevation gain over 7 miles. It is 4,000 feet of elevation gain over 3 miles with 4 miles of flat road. I'm not sure why, but I find this kind of terrain very difficult.
Upon the road ending we found it difficult to find the trail (if there was one,) but we proceeded to the top anyhow. I'm really glad we did too. Not just because it would be a shame to miss the summit after all that work, but also because we saw some guests. Wild mountain goats! There were two of them on an adjacent mountain. John got a couple of great pictures. I, alas, was without my zoom lens.
All in all, it was worth it. A pretty tough hike. Next time I do it I will be running the gauntlet through the alternate route. That route's trail head starts at the top of Mt. Si!
Without further ado, here are the pictures (captions to come):
