1st Annual Mt Si Run, 6 September

There are still spaces open for Pro Guiding Service's 1st Annual Mt Si Run. This deceiving trail travels only 4 miles but gains over 3000 feet of elevation, making the climb just shallow enough to run but steep enough that you will never forget it.  Come join us on Friday, 6 September.

More information here:  LINK

Urban Trail Running

Lately, I haven't been able to take the time to drive to the Issaquah Alps to trail run, and running on pavement is - for me - uninspiring.  PG says its because my ADD-addled brain needs more stimulus to stay engaged - how she can run the two 5k loops she laps around our house has me glassy-eyed.

But I found a new source of inspiration - Seattle Stairs!  This website was pointed out to me by a Seattle Fire Department firefighter (firefighters have a fetish for running stairs) - its an online map of every public stair set in the city, and +30 4-6 mile "hikes" that link stairs, hills and parks into the closest thing to a trail run.  I checked out the Alki Stairs route and found 6 miles of Interesting.

Check it out for yourself - http://seattlestairs.home.comcast.net/~seattlestairs/

Discovered a new trail through a pocket ravine park.

A steep stair down.

Steep climb out of Schmitz park.

Ocean views throughout.

Statistics:  Alki Stairs Trail Run.  6 miles, 760 feet climbed/descended, 729 stairs up, 404 stairs down.  22 December.

Don't Call It a Comeback

Finally, back at it.  I could blame it on work, on travel, on dogs, stress, all the special ski events and the beer and donuts or that I couldn't find any right-footed socks in the drawer.  But somewhere my enthusiasm decided to take a sabatical, and my three-times-a-week-runs stumbled to twice-a-week, then tripped to once-a-week, then came to a gasping, heaving,

stop.

And for the last month I've done abso-jack-lutely nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  Just feeling more and more...anchored?  Fixed?  Rooted.  Or in a rut.  And I needed to wake the $%#@ up.  Right now.

So I took a step.  For myself.  I took one hour today to be completely selfish and went for a run.

Back to Cougar Mountain - thank the Buddha for the Issaquah Alps.  Since its Veterans Day and weekend, starting at the Military Trail seemed appropriate.  Then a zig-zagging up and down route across the side of the mountain until a final rolling stretch back to the car.

It wasn't the furthest I've ever run.  It sure as hell wasn't my fastest.   But its not going to be my last, either.

Statistics:  Cougar Mountain trail run.  3.7 miles, 650' gained and lost, 54:33.

Trail Run on Chuckanut

I spent two days visiting BCA accounts in the Bellingham, the City of Subdued Excitement.  I lived here for a few years getting a BA from Western Washington University, so I took the opportunity to visit a few friends and eat and drink in a few old haunts.  The Black Drop still makes the best coffee; Mallard's the best ice scream.  And the Temple Bar has actually expanded and got a liquor license (YEAH!!!), and Archer Ale House is still one of my all-time-neighborhood pubs.

But another thing I got to do was get a trail runner's spanking on Chuckanut Mountain.  The single-track trails there can be b-u-r-l-y, and I completely under-estimated my route and over-estimated my legs on this 11.5 mile, 2900 foot monster.  Ouch.

Clair managed to stay in front most of the run. Neo dogged my heals.

We broke out of a thin marine layer near the summit of Chuckanut.

With two miles to go, our one sight of Mt Baker - its there, in the haze.

Strava:  I've started using an app called Strava to map my runs.  Its a GPS application that tracks your bike or run route, then can be uploaded and applied to a map, charting your elevation.  It can be a competitive tool, letting people share routes and compare times in a somewhat-official-way.  I just like it for the record it let's me keep.  Tips - using Strava and your music at the same time eats the battery (at 20%/hour), but Strava alone did not eat it near as much (8%/hour).  Also, the GPS will often work even without a cell signal.  Its a tool - an interesting tool - but still a tool.  And it means you have to run with your smart phone.  Online it is possible to add routes in by hand - which is what I'd have to do if I wanted to conserve my phone's battery or if I don't want to carry it.  There's even a widget for putting it on the blog, which I'm debating.

Statistics:  Chuckanut Mountain, Summit Loop up the Chuckanut Ridge, down Overlook, then around on Lost Lake.  11.4 miles, 2850 feet climbed, on 11 October.

Urban Trail Running - Discovery Park

I've been exploring the parks in Seattle - I can make a 5 mile, 400' elevation run by doing two loops around Lincoln Park, or another five by running a figure-eight loop through the Arboretum.  But the best place I've found so far for urban trail running is Discovery Park.  A counter-clockwise loop on the using the North Beach, South Beach, and Loop Trails creates a fun, scenic, a easy-to-access five mile loop features a killer climb half-way.

Statistics:  Discovery Park Circumnav, counter-clockwise.  5 miles, 430' gain/loss.  No time recorded.  23 July.

Keeping it Local

This week I kept the runs short and local.  Both of the dogs were laid up with different injuries, and I'm leaving in the morning to guide the Forbidden Tour.

Tuesday, 1 May.  Me-Kwa-Mooks Double Loop.  3.3 miles, 650' gain/lost.  A fun local run I've discovered.  Run into MKM Park and follow the trail from the Beach access to Jacobsen, drop down to the waterfront and run back to the park.  Head back in and up the trail for the second time, but turn and continue climbing up the 55th Ave SW access trail to Genessee St, head east to 51st Pl, and follow 51st south until it intersects with Jacobsen.  Head down Jacobsen to the MKM Park entrance, and follow the trail one last time to the ocean and home.

Wednesday,  2 May.  Hike to Alaska Junction.  3.9 miles, 500' gain/lost.  Hiked my errands around the Alaska Junction today, including a side hike to check out a use trail in MKM Park.  

Friday, 4 May.  3 May.  Lincoln Park Loop.  3 miles, 200'.

Totals:  10.2 miles, 1350' gain/lost.

Running in Circles

Ran the current 7.6 mile course on Friday, but instead of running down AA Ridge, we doglegged through Tibbets Marsh instead, adding only 0.1 of a mile and about 150' of elevation.  It was still a fast run.  One of these days I'll carry a camera.

Statistics:  Cougar Mountain.  7.7 miles, 1130', 1:49.

seattlerunningclub.com | LINK

The Next Step

These runs are getting so regular, I'm just going to start posting up stats.  I took the dogs on the 2003-2004 7.5 Mile Course, but early on took the Coal Creek Trail to Quarry Trail, and ran up that - adding some elevation and mileage, but spending a lot more time on single-track trail.

Statistics:  Cougar Mountain.  From Red Town - Coal Creek - Shy Bear Pass - Deceiver Ridge - Far Country - De Leo Wall - Marshall's Trail - Red Town.  8.1 miles, 1300 feet of elevation.

seattlerunningclub.org | LINK

Chasing Down My Motivation on Cougar Mountain

What?  I thought you brought the bread crumbs!  Photo uphillrunning.com

Feeling psyched to get out is an ongoing battle.  I used to combat it by living out of a van and simply parking at whatever seasonal destination I had chosen at the time.  Here it's harder - especially living at sea level.  Even if it's dumping at the Pass, it's difficult to get going while the Pacific Northwest is being North-wet.

But I have a list of runs that I want to do in my lifetime.  A bucket list of big distances that I want to travel by foot.  In terms of shortest to longest, they are:

• Mt Hood's Timberline Trail, 42 miles
• Grand Canyon's Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim, 41 miles
• Mt Rainier's Wonderland Trail, 93 miles
• The Tahoe Rim Trail, 165 miles
• The John Muir Trail, 211 miles
• The Pacific Crest Trail from Snoqualmie Pass to Manning Park, BC, 261 miles

Photo seattletimes.nwsource.com

So I decided this spring that I was going to get serious about running.  Again.  Call it a late New Year's promise.  Whatever.  But running on pavement is boring and hurts, so I needed trails.  The best trails are 40 minutes away, or longer, and under a lot of snow right now.  So I was looking for a network of interesting trails that were a short distance away.  Cougar Mountain was the place.

Cougar Mountain Regional Preserve is a county park that sits at the southern borders of Bellevue and Issaquah.  Its web of 36 trail miles is also linked neighboring Squak Mountain State Park, just across the two-lane SR 900, and another 24 miles of trail, with up to 1400' of elevation difference.

Since 2003, the Seattle Running Club has hosted the Cougar Mountain Race Series.  Races of 5, 7, 10, 13, and 31 miles take place over six months from May to October.  I thought it would be cool to participate this year, but guiding commitments have me missing the first two races already.  So instead I decided to run the courses for myself - the club keeps pdf's and jpeg's of the courses on their websites (there's been three different courses since 2003).

Photo uphillrunning.com

So while I'm waiting for Snoqualmie Pass to melt out this summer, I'll be doing laps through the Issaquah Alps.  I'm in the 7-mile race series right now.  My goal is to build up to marathon distances, then to start building up endurance so that I can move 30 miles in a day, and again the next.  My list will be a combination of runs, cached fast-packs (where I have food and fuel cached for the nights, but traveling with clothes and camp kit), and unsupported fast-packs (where I'm carrying everything with me).  I know that I can't make this entire list happen this year - but I'd love to tick off two.  Or three.

Cougar Mountain Race Series Maps LINK

Finishing the Five Milers

Ran the final "5" mile race course, from the 2005-2006 series.  This was my least favorite - a moderate hill in the first mile was fine - and the same course is in the current course, but there was also an equal-sized final hill in the last mile on the old Cave Hill road that just sucked it out of me.  Yech.   Still, that was balanced out by how cool the Quarry and Coal Creek Trails were.

Statistics:  2005 Cougar Mountain Race Series 5-Mile Course, 5.9 miles, 650 feet climbed and descended, 1:19.

Course Map (its a pdf) LINK

Running History - The First Cougar Mountain 5 Miler

Yesterday I took the dogs and ran the original 2003 Cougar Mountain Race Series 5 Mile Course.  Despite the killer start - straight up Cave Hill - the course was really cool, running across the boardwalk trail through Shy Bear Marsh and to the Far Country Lookout.  We took a wrong turn at the bottom of the Far Country hill and headed towards the Licorice Fern Trail for about 1/2 mile before realizing the mistake, so we added a mile to the run.  But the rune was a nice course - only the parking at Red Town allows for about 20 cars, making the Race Series move up to Anti-Aircraft Peak Trailhead understandable.

Statistics:  2003 Cougar Mountain Race Series 5-Mile Course, 6.5 miles (5.5 mile course), 880 feet gain/lost, 1:27.

seattlerunningclub.org | LINK

Mud Run, Part II

Earlier this month Neo was stapled up with his third surgery after impaling himself on a stick last fall during a run.  So after taking care of some business at Pro Ski and Mountain in North Bend, Clair and I stopped in Bellevue to run in the Mercer Slough.  Mud, boardwalk, bridges, rain, mud, skunk cabbage blooming, boardwalk, mud, bridge, a lot of mud, gravel, boardwalk, and finally a little bit more mud back to the car.

Mud Run!

Mercer Slough - 4.5 miles of boardwalk, trail, and mud!

Night Runs

Last week, it finally hit me - I've been spending so much time sitting down on my ass, that it was becoming progressively harder to be active.  This computer is only a small part of the problem - I can spend all day reading the news of other people doing things, read the opinions of other people writing things, and basically read about all sorts of people having an active life.  You know, going outside.  Walking.  Bicycling.  Running.  Skiing.  Climbing.  Being social.

So for my first run of the new year, I pulled on the shoes and grabbed the headlamps.  It was 8:00pm in the Pacific Northwest, so it was well past dark.  One of the smaller headlamps, loosened up, works great as a "here-I-am" tool for Neo, so he got one around his neck.  I held a second one in my hand, and we headed down to the local larger-sized Lincoln City Park.

Situated on the waterfront, with a wood covered bluff, Lincoln creates a perfect 3-mile loop if you park just a few blocks away at neighboring Loughman Park.  A brief 5-minute warm up on pavement into the park set us up for the run up the bluff's dirt trail, a steep series of stairs and switch backs, and then we followed a series of unmaintained "use trails" that link grassy glades through knee-high dense brush.  The entire world slipped by as our attention focused on the trail in view of the headlamp's glow.  Back onto pavement to follow a ramp back down to the waterfront, then turned to the right, to follow the waves back home.

There's a dog here!  I know it!

Statistics:  Loughman-Lincoln Park clockwise loop.  3 miles, 150' elevation gained and lost.

Training Log

Run, 15 October.  Barlow Pass to Monte Cristo townsite.  22 km / 13.7 miles, 1600 feet / 488 meters climbed and descended.  No time kept.

Training Log

Run.  Lincoln Park, 3 miles trail, 200 ft climbed and descended.  28 minutes.

Alaska Mountain Loop

Last month, Dominic was visiting from Spain and looking for a moderate packing trip that would show him the Cascades.  We started by hiking up the Pacific Crest Trail northwards from Snoqualmie Pass.

Camp that night was at Ridge Lake.  Despite the bugs, we enjoyed the view!

The next day we continued along the PCT to Alaska Mountain, where we dropped packs for a short detour to the summit.  

Looking north, we could see Joe Lake, where we'd leave the PCT and head down to Gold Creek.  Note:  the open slope on the north side of the lake is the preferred way down.  We went through the trees, making for a more "interesting" descent.

After the cross-country descent to Joe Lake, we had to follow an un-maintained trail down and along Gold Creek.   It traveled through some incredibly densely wooded slopes.  Until becoming maintained at the Silver Creek junction.

For Dominic, one of the highlights of the last day was getting to look back up the Gold Creek valley and be able to see where we had returned from.  He's gotten the bug and talks about returning for more.

Statistics:  Pro Guiding Service, 8-10 September.  Alaska Mountain Loop, 22 miles / 35 km, 4690 ft climbed and descended.  Alaska Mountain, 5745 ft / 1748 m, via the NE Slopes, 2nd/3rd class.

Alaska Mountain Loop Slideshow

The Triad Traverse

Doug and Liz wanted an "alpine adventure".  They envisioned traveling for a few days above the treeline, crossing a glacier, perhaps climbing a peak.  They imagined being away from the crowds along the popular trails and climbing routes, of high mountain views, and incredible skylines.

We won the lottery on this trip.

Since we needed to meet in Marblemount, we took advantage of having two cars and planned a point-to-point hike from Sibley Creek to Roush Creek.  This would take us across Hidden Lake Basin, underneath Triad Peak to the Eldorado Glacier.  After the first two hours this route would be entirely cross-country until we reached the climbers track from Eldorado Peak down along Eldorado Creek to the second car.

After a mad scramble to find my car keys underneath Doug's backseat, we were ready to go.  The trail to Hidden Lakes Lookout is a popular day hike, as the filled parking lot attested, but for the first two hours we encountered relatively few people and steadily climbed up into the sub-alpine, where the trees started to really show the effects of the harsh long winters and became krummholz, which is one of my favorite words in climbing!  We left the trail at the treeline and started up the basin towards Sibley Creek Pass, a low point on the Hidden Lakes Ridge north of the Hidden Lakes Horn - actually Pk 7088, which looks like a really fun scramble along the North Ridge!

I knew that NOLS courses used this approach to in their Cascade Mountain trips, but I was still surprised to find a pretty well-defined use trail that followed the ridge to the north, clockwise around the basin.  The ridge quickly narrowed, and we were walking along a dirt trail on a ridge that was only about 10 feet wide, but covered in grass and alpine flowers.  It was spectacular!  An hour later the trail ended, and we were forced to drop down a gully, through some very steep and slippery heather and grass to a bench at 6200' to spend the night.

We woke up in the morning in good spirits, but that was quickly extinguished when the notch into the next drainage east turned out to be a drop-off.  We hiked back down to a second notch that didn't go either, then back up even higher than before to a third.  But from a vantage point, looking back down the ridge, I could see a possible heather ramp that was hidden in between our first and second attempts.  Frustrated and starting to discuss bail-out options, we hiked down to take a look.

The Ramp is left in the photo.  Doug and Liz are
traversing the snowfields bottom right.

100' feet of steep heather down-climbing - about a 35+ degree slope - separated us from the Triad Basin.  So we put on helmets and harness and I belayed Liz and Doug one at a time, for the full length of the rope, to easier slopes below.  It was stressful and nerve racking but they handled it great, and I very carefully solo'ed down to them.  From there it was an easy walk across snow fields and granite benches to the other side of the basin, where a final steep grassy slope was climbed using marmot and deer trails, with two bucks to show us the way, to the ridge dividing Eldorado from Triad Basins.

The view was incredible.  We could see nothing but mountains for 360 degrees, with Triad and Eldorado breaking our view to our north, but stretching out to the horizon in all other directions.  We were perfectly positioned for sunset behind Hidden Lake Horn, sunrise over Boston Peak, and all the light playing across the mountains to Glacier Peak in the south.  We could also see an easy entrance from where we were standing onto the snowfields below the Eldorado Glacier.  This had to be camp.

In the morning we woke up early to great the sun, and headed out for the last day.  The travel across the Eldorado basin was relatively straightforward, with a rising traverse across the Eldorado Glacier to the Inspiration gap, where we re-joined the climbers track and started to make our way down.  The talus fields were crushing, and we slowed down markedly even after we left them for the final steep dirt trail.  The end of never in sight, until we finally reached the Cascade River, walked the log across, and reached the car at 6pm.

This hike had it all for me - beautiful views, hard route-finding, physically challenging, and great partners.  Liz and Doug were ready for anything, and willing to follow me anywhere, and knowing that lessons a lot of potential stress.  We didn't climb anything - but we got to see the North Cascades in a way that few others ever do.

Notes: The Sibley Creek Pass approach is mentioned in the guidebooks as an alternate way to reach Eldorado.  And it is effective - the elevation gain is much more reasonable than considerably steeper and rougher climb up Eldorado Creek, but the route-finding along the traverse underneath Triad Peak is challenging.  Finding that ramp is key.  This approach could be done in one long day, providing you hit the ramp spot on.

Leave the Hidden Lake Lookout trail a little bit later than you may expect, after the final switchback and when you reach a granite knoll with a few gnarled trees on it.  An un-maintained trail should head up towards the very obvious low point in the ridge, Sibley Creek Pass.  Continue to follow a track along the Hidden Lake Ridge clockwise around the basin until you reach a dead-end.  Drop down right/south and aim for a bench you can see down skier's left at the tree-line at aprox. 6200 ft.  Drop your packs here and scout out for the ramp.  It should be about 100 ft above you and to the east.  If you aim low you can climb heather slopes along the ridge to the obvious ramp.  If you aim too high you'll end up on a precipitous, rock ridge that isn't easy to travel on.  So aim low.  Early season snow would make this a much easier undertaking then late season heather.  This ramp is key and not mentioned in Selected Climbs in the North Cascades, Vol. 1, 2nd ed., by Nelson and Potterfield (page 168-169).  Crossing the Triad-Eldorado divide, in contrast, was relatively easy.  It was very straightforward to cross is on grassy slopes between 6600-6400 ft, although a higher snow col was also identified at 7200 ft.  Still, I'd probably take the lower route again.

Statistics:  Pro Guiding Service, 3-5 September.  The Triad Traverse, 10 miles / 16 km, 5710 ft climbed and 7130 ft descended.