A few months ago John and I hiked Bald Mountain and I kept commenting to him what a great running trail it was. I have been secretly trying to teach him to recognize good running trails for me since he hikes a lot. Susan and I finally got a chance to run it, and I have to say I think I impressed her.
The first 1.4 miles of the trail is a fairly gradual sometimes sandy climb, around mile 1.2 you cross over the Sandy River on a seasonal bridge. Head north on the PCT, before you start the 2.2 mile climb up to Bald Mountain you have to scramble over two fallen trees to cross the river. The climb can be steep at times, but I kept telling myself and Susan it is only 2.2 miles and then the rest is a lovely gradual down hill.
Once you reach Bald Mountain the forest opens up into fabulous alpine meadows, glacial streams and an unbelievable view of Mt. Hood. You can also see several stunning waterfalls coming down the slopes of Mt. Hood. The trail continues down to the Muddy Fork of the Sandy River, which you have to cross not once but twice without a bridge, so be prepared. The water wasn't raging when we crossed it, but it wasn't a little stream crossing either. The first crossing we found a stick that helped us cross over the slippery rocks, but our shoes were completely soaked. The second crossing was much easier, there were rocks that we were able to "hop" across.
The trail continues down past the Yocum Ridge junction, to Ramona Falls. If you haven't seen Ramona Falls before, you are in for a treat. Then you follow the trail back to your car, crossing the Sandy River one more time (on a bridge).
The route from William L. Sullivan's "100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington"
Susan cross the "tree bridge"
wild blueberries
Susan taking a picture on Mt. Hood from Bald Mountain
Our family hiking trip this year was to the Dolomites, more specifically Alta Via 1. John and I have done several hut to hut hiking trips in the Alps and planned them all ourselves, we never had any problems. As I started to plan our trip to the Dolomites, it became clear to me that it might be easier if we used a local company to help us book our accommodations and transportation. That way when questions came up from family members there was someone we could ask. Also letting the ultrarunner of the group plan the daily hiking itinerary probably isn't the best idea.
I ended up contacting Dolomite Mountains, I sent them my itinerary, the places I had already booked and a few other specifications and Monica created an agenda pretty similar to the one I already had in mind. As much as I like to plan things myself, it was nice to have someone local and not feel responsible for 5 other people's vacation. Plus if they thought the hike was too hard they couldn't blame me.
16-18 Aug 2015
No run has reshaped the borders of my soul like circumnavigating Mt Rainier. No run has infiltrated my dreams like spending three days just running and not much else, in the middle of the longest summer in the Pacific Northwest's recent memory. No run has made me fall so deeply in love with the magical combination of mountains, wilderness, and summertime.
Like all of our great long runs, Ann researched and planned this one. She discovered that most people run the 93-mile Wonderland Trail clockwise, and that we could split the route into three days with a cushy hotel stay each night. We, however, would run the route counterclockwise to start with the longest day of running first. We had a beer with our friend Heather McGrath, who had run around Rainier the previous year, to hear more about her trip, get tips, and make sure that our plan wasn't too crazy.
The Enchantments is probably one of the most photographed areas in the Cascades and there is a good reason. The drama of the sharp peaks of the Stuart Range reflecting in the blue waters of the lake basins makes it hard to take a bad picture. The picturesque beauty has made a popular area even more popular, which makes it extremely difficult to an overnight permit in the permit lottery.
Last year John and I got a permit to the Eightmile Lake zone, but there was a forest fire and our pass got pulled. We put a reminder on the calendar for the lottery in 2018, but somehow missed the reminder. When we finally got around to getting a pass we got one for midweek the first week of October for Eightmile Lake. I was happy to have a pass but weather at the beginning of October can be a little iffy.
Looking at the weather before we headed out there was a 50% chance of rain and was suppose to be close to freezing overnight, so we decided to camp in the van and to do day hikes instead. The nice thi…
Our first day off to run in 2018 (Wednesday, 4 April), and I was thrilled. While on a family hike a month or two ago, I noticed a trail sign with some good distances on it. I looked them up when I got home, and discovered the Tarbell Trail-- a 24.75 mile loop in southwest Washington in the Silver Star Mountain and Grouse Mountain area. After lots of research, I was excited to have planned our first adventure since it's usually Ann who does the work.
Well now we know why that's the case. After a bunch of rescheduling, we finally settled on Wednesday, 4 April for our run. On Tuesday, Ann called the ranger station and was told that part of the trail was closed for logging and that there was also snow. Last-minute back-up plan: the Wilson River trail. It's a 22 mile point-to-point trail that's safe from snow, we've only run it twice, and it's been three years since we did the whole thing.
Susan was spending time at the coast with her family, so #trailrunning and I decided to meet her 1/2 between Portland and the coast in the Tillamook forest area. We took advantage of having 2 cars and being able to shuttle, we ran the of the majority (22 miles) of the Wilson River trail, starting at Elk Creek and ending at Keening Creek.
The weather was perfect, Susan was in capris and a short sleeved shirt, I over dressed in long pants and a long sleeved shirt. The trail was completely runnable, I would describe it as rolling hills, though Susan and #trailrunning might disagree with me about the hill at the very end that seemed like it would never end. There were a few times when the trail hit a forest road and the other side of the trail wasn't obvious but it didn't take us very long to find it. If I would of done a better job of reading the trail description on Oregon Hikers we probably wouldn't of had any problems.
Yes, and I'm still impressed!
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