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
Well hello there — is anyone still reading this thing? Despite not really blogging at all in the last two years, we are still running and having lots of adventures. And, unsurprisingly, a lot has happened in that time. Torres del Paine Susan got divorced, is solo parenting, adopted a few new cats, lost her job at Nike, and is leaning into some much-needed “me” time. We sold our house in Portland and moved to Bellingham in February (2025). I quit my very stable job and joined a startup. I had a birthday and officially aged into a new race category. I also started outrigger canoeing. Susan, Cedar, and I also welcomed a few more humans and dogs into our pack — Billy (dog), his human Rachael, Miriam, and Kellen. How we all met and became friends definitely deserves its own blog post. To keep this post to something I might actually finish, I’m going to stick to monthly highlights from 2025. And without further ado… January My sister Courtney, Susan, and I traveled to Chile and Argentina...
Mt. Baker Back in Portland, I never ran races on Forest Park trails. Why would I pay to run trails I already ran every day? Plus, I had plenty of running friends to explore with. Bellingham is different. I moved here in February 2025, and I'm still figuring out the trails. And I don't really have running friends yet. So when I saw the Galbraith Mountain Trail Series — three races on the 2nd Saturday of November, December, and January — I thought: maybe this is how I do both. Learn the trails AND meet people. Due to my schedule, I was able to partake in the last race in the series. I picked the long course: 15.6 miles, about 2,600 feet of climbing (according to my Strava ). Classic PNW winter conditions — cloudy, 43 degrees, muddy. Me at the start The long race was tiny, maybe 15-20 people. Most of them took off at the start, and I never saw them again. Things spread out fast. So I didn't really get a chance to chat with anyone during the race, but honestly? It was nice to...
Ann and I headed down to Tucson for our annual visit with Amber and David. David had discovered the Daydreamer in tiny Patagonia, Arizona—about an hour south—and we all signed up for the 30k. There was just one small problem: I had foot surgery in mid-December and couldn't run for a month. I'd only been back at it for a few weeks, with a week off in there for a trip and a cold. So I was way undertrained and hoping for the best. Whoops. David ended up hurting his foot last minute and dropped to the 10k, being extra cautious since he finally got in to Western States this year. We could tell he's already started training—he was way faster than the last time we ran together. We arrived in Arizona on Thursday night and squeezed in a Friday morning run at Sabino Canyon. This made me nervous since I've had pretty spectacular falls there our previous two visits. Somehow, I managed not to eat rocks, sand, and cactus this time. Friday afternoon we drove down to Patagonia and ...
.JPG)
Yes, and I'm still impressed!
ReplyDelete