May 30th Whiskey Dick

This weeks hike will be at Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area on Sunday.  Click on the link for the information and directions. This will be a hike with the family,  looking for wildlife and wild flowers.  I plan on getting there around 9:00am.

Mt. Si Trail run/Hike

Trailhead Map.

Gps Track and elevation plot.

 The trailhead parking a lot had more cars in it than I had expected. I arrived at the trailhead a 7:45am and headed up the trail at 8:00am. The weather was ok the temperature was 49f and it was slightly drizzling.
The trail was in great shape all the way to the top. There was only a little snow at the top but it was well packed down. There were a lot  of people with dogs on the trail most were off leash, so if your not a dog person probably not a trail for you.

Elevation plot with stats.

It took me an hour to reach the top, note the average grade is 14.8%. Going up was a major cardio workout even at my slow pace at just under 4mph. My legs felt good but my heart was about to jump out of my chest and I was sucking wind hard. Coming back down was a quad burner it took about 40min at a 6mph pace.

Panorama looking down half way up the haystack.

I started up the haystack, it was wet and somewhat slick.  I still had good traction but I chickened out about half way up. I little farther down from that point I sat down for a minute and took the above picture.

Looking down on North Bend from Mt. Si

Panorama from Mt. Si

Overall it that a great run. Nice to see a lot of the snow is melting from the peaks. This opens up a lot more trails up for running. I did eat it running down, snagged a root with my right foot toe. I need to pick up my feet more ;P All is ok only a scrap on my hand and a bruise on my left hip.

May, 21st Hike

This coming Saturday the plan is Mount Si. I plan on being there at 7:30am, come join me. Message me on Facebook or here and we can arrange rides and carpools.

May, 14th Hike. Lake Twenty-Two

Today I wanted to hike to Monte Cristo the old mining town, however the road was closed several miles from the trailhead. On my way there I passed a few other trails to various destinations. So I pulled into the parking lot of the Lake Twenty-Two trailhead.  I'm glad I did this was a cool little hike with great scenery and was a well maintained trail.

Lake Twenty-Two trailhead.

Lake Twenty-Two trail info and map. 

This trail goes though an old growth forest with some big old trees.

Big old tree off the  trail. 

One of many water falls and pools on this hike. On a hot day these would be awesome.

  The trail had basically three sections that had very different feels. The first being though and old growth forest, mossy, little streams and creeks and water falls. The Second was though a open rocky area that was on a northern slope, everything was covered with thick moss.

Open rocky area this was switch backs for about .75 miles.

The third section is where the  snow started at 2200ft. This carried on two the lake.

The trail though the snow. 

Spring trying to brake through.

The creek just before the lake check out how thick the snow still is.

Panorama shot of Lake Twenty-Two and the surrounding mountains.

If you look closely you will see little streams of water coming of the cliffs . Click the photos to make them full size.

The distance to the lake was 2.35 miles. The trail when not covered in 3ft of snow, goes around the lake making a nice loop, making the trail 2.7 miles.
This was a great hike!

GPS track and elevation.

Wallace Falls Hike May, 7th.

Wallace Falls is located in Gold Bar, WA. I lived in Gold Bar for five years and always thought about going to Wallace Falls but never did. This was one of the motivating factors for wanting to go there. It is also listed on Washington Trail Associations website as being a good hike in the spring, plus it is listed as a good hike on a rainy day(its a waterfall thing).

Wallace Falls Tail with Elevation. 

We made some quick stops in the morning and arrived at 7:45am. On arrival the weather seemed better than I had anticipated. We still packed for the rain, it happens. The temperature was in the upper 40's, whoo-who.  

At the Wallace Falls trail head. 

We set off for the upper falls at 8:00. The fist half mile of the trail is on a gravel road under power lines, not exactly nature at it finest but it did provide clear views of the surrounding snow capped mountains. Once we got off the road and in to the woods it was beautiful. 

At the beginning of the trial. 

The trail was in really great shape. Some small puddles and mud here and there. We took our time stopping at all the lookouts along the way. 

The middle falls in the distance.

The lower falls.

The larger of the three main falls, this is the middle falls.

The upper falls. 

It was getting pretty wet at the upper falls. We had made it to our destination without any issues, only seeing three people on the way up. It had taken one hour and ten minutes to make the 2.6 mile hike with with lots of stops to take in the sights. The elevation gain was 1300ft to the upper falls. 

Poncho time at the upper falls.

On the way back down we passed 25-30 people headed up the trail. It was wet but we came prepared.  We left around 10:30am. What a great morning hike.

May 8th,9th Weekend trials

This Saturdays hike will be a short easy hike up to Wallace Falls. Its Perfect for people looking to get into the swing of things. I have chosen this location because its easy and there is still a good amount of snow starting at 2000ft. I do not want to deal with snow and the rain. The trail opens up at 7:45am I plan on being there then.

Sundays trail run will be at Lord Hill, Its close and lots of options as far a distances go. I'll be hitting the trail around 1:30pm - 2:00pm, after I done with playing for worship at Goldcreek. You can watch the live services at 9:00, 10:30, and 12:00.

Check out the links to the locations, let me know if you need a ride. It should be a fun weekend even if the weather sucks. Come join me.

Thank you,
David.

First trail run of the year

So for the first run on the year I decided I would run on a trail that I was somewhat familiar with. I even though I have not set foot on this trail in 10 plus years. So off to the trail-head I went.

Lake Serene
The trail starts outside the town of Index just off highway2. The length of the trail is about 7 miles to the lake and back. The elevation gain is almost 2000ft. There was a good amount of people on the trail the parking lot was 85%-95% full, not bad considering that this was one of the only nice days that we have had in area this year.

Map and slope of trail. This was made using map my run with data collected from my GPS.

The Gear
GPS- My newly acquired Garmin Oregon 450.
Small flash light- There is a old mine I thought I might want to go in, it was pretty cool 10 years ago.
My old FOX water camel-backpack- Carries water and TP and everything else.
Shoes- NB Minimus. wrong shoe for this trip.
Phone camera combo

The Mighty Smart, and some dude doing some cold stretching for the hike.

Parked the Mighty Smart and started rolling up the trail
The first part of the trail is on the old road that takes you up to where the old trail started. There was also a mine there15-20years ago. Its was easy going. Where the old road ended and the new trail started was nearly seamless because of vegetation growth and erosion, amazing.
Farther up the trail splits, to the right takes you to the falls, go left and your going to the lake. Were the split is according to my gps is near where the Mine located, so this is close to were the old parking lot use to be. Back in the day you would climb along the falls to the lake, it was much more direct. It was also dangerous, in fact all the trail books would not give the location of Lake Serene until the trail was upgrade.

I took the fork to the left and headed to the lake, the run was fairly easy at this point. I stoped to take a few pictures of some water falls the first one was at a bridge.

Waterfall though the trees. As seen from the second small bridge on the Lake Serene trail.

Stream below the waterfall. As seen form the second bridge on the Lake Serene trail.

Then a few hundred yards down the trail I stopped at another water fall with a nice pool beneath it

Cool waterfall along Lake Serene trail.

Pool below waterfall on the Lake Serene trail.

From here the trail stated to climb up rather quickly(see elevation chart),on granite rock rubble with some stairs mixed in on the switch backs. My legs were not so happy with me but I pushed on. About one mile from the falls is were snow, slush and, mud were on the trail as well.
Some places were pretty slick, this made me wish I had some chains for my shoes. I continued on and up crossing a few open snow fields. When I started crossing this one(picture below), I heard a distant rumble of an avalanche.  

Open snow field crossing on the Lake Serene trail.

This can make you a bit nervous when crossing these open areas because they are not exactly flat and it was getting warm rather quickly.

Beautiful view from an open snow field on the Lake Serene trail.

400-500 yards passed the above picture and I was at the lake.

Lake Serene, I used Photosynth on my phone to create this picture.

While at the lake I rested a bit, had a seat on the log bridge and enjoyed the sights and the sounds. It was awesome every minute or so you could hear and see avalanches coming off the mountain. Some were like water falls of snow. The sound was like thunder, very cool to be there for the show.

In the center you can see a small avalanche falling from the cliffs. Lake Serene

The way back down was quick and uneventful. I was wishing that I had worn shoes with a rock plate on the bottom. The granite rocks on the trail were all pointy side up and I was wearing a thin, minimal trail running shoe.

Overall it was a great run and a great day. Time on the trail was an 1:30. I spent an hour up top resting and watching so the total time was 2:30.  Good times

You and check out the trial run through map my run, Click Here

Thanks for reading my blog,
David.