Kendall Katwalk, PCT, Snoqualmie Pass

This morning I drove to Snoqualmie Pass to check out the conditions at Kendall Katwalk. It's still close to four hours to drive there from Portland, but I-90 is really pretty. The PCT trailhead is easy to find, and the route to the catwalk is fairly idiot-proof. I am not a huge fan of foresty hikes, instead preferring meadows, rocks and sky, but the forested majority of this hike is about as lovely as trees and moss get. After a couple miles, the views start opening up as you switchback up talus slopes, and the terrain is varied the entire way with tallish peaks all around. On a Monday morning, I passed only one other hiker and two coming out (at the top and on the return trip there were many more). There were still a few snow slopes as I approached the ridge, but they were soft and manageable in trail runners and utilizing poles. Only one of the traverses raised my pulse a little, but it was over quickly. I passed the little scramble up to Kendall Peak and saw some bear prints in the snow. After another short stretch, I reached the catwalk at about six miles, a touch further than I had read. Mount Stuart was visible in the distance, my new mountain crush. The cloud-enshrouded panoramic view is empirically very pretty, but I was slightly underwhelmed... guess I'm spoiled. The trail between me and Bumblebee Pass looked very snow-drifted, so I opted out. I trail-ran down the way I came, busting my ass in a waterfall once, and then battled traffic for over five hours. Is this worth a loony drive, à la Mount Aix and others? The jury's still out until I get a damn nap.

12.5 miles out and back.

Mount St Helens Annual Ride

New Kicks - Brooks Pure Flow

So, I finally ran my awesome Brooks Pure Cadence into the ground. When I discovered that the Pure Cadence 2 comes in an unacceptably gross color scheme, I had to start searching for a replacement. I tried the Nike Frees, as well as a few other minimalist shoes before settling on the Pure Flow (pictured above). Took home the Pure Grit first, but they were straight-up painful. They went back to REI in a fit of rage. However, these Flows seem to be working nicely so far. I guess I'm a Brooks girl. Review to follow when I've put more miles on them.

Updated: These are not as good for my feet as the Cadence, but still pretty rad. At first one of my feet felt a tad too supported/corrected in the arch, and now I've either gotten used to it or broken them in. The break in period was maybe a week or two at the most. The laces can be pretty restrictive and cause toe numbness, so loosen them up if that happens to you. Good traction on mixed surfaces, but haven't had a single day of rain yet or taken them on a true trail run.

Mount Aix Hike

Wonderful alpine hike east of Mount Rainier with two new hiking buddies. Mount Aix is the highest point between Goat Rocks and Mount Daniel, and from its top you have in-your-face views of Rainier, Helens, Adams and Goat Rocks, as well as the neighboring 7,000+ foot peaks in the Nelson Ridge group and the distant Stuart Range. The drive is 3 hours 45 mins from Portland in the early morning, but (irritatingly) closer to 5 on the way home (tourist traffic). Totally worth it, even with the five miles of switchbacks up to the ridge. We saw goats on Fake Bismarck (the un-named peak blocking the view of Bismarck), encountered little snow,and generally had an awesome time. One of our party scrambled up the class three summit block, while my partner and I stayed just below. We explored the class two route up the back, but it seemed unappealingly long and also somewhat sketchy. Both approaches had their drawbacks, and we decided that we were not missing out by playing it safe. Excellent hike with excellent people.

And So It Begins.

With my first full week of marathon training under my belt, I think that the Hal Higdon Novice 2 is actually going to work with my schedule. I modified it a bit, but the only thing I'm really sacrificing is some bike rides with my husband. Which sucks, but in the summer I'm a busy gal. And Friday's rest day will allow me to put in the requisite minimum 60 hours to study for my sommelier certification test... the same week as the Portland marathon! I can't wait to get up over fifteen miles, but I know I have to take it slow to avoid injuring myself. I will be the first one to admit that I may not be cut out for marathon running, but I'm already dreaming about it, and getting guilt about not running harder or farther. It's a weird, weird thing...

Colchuck Lake Overnighter

Couldn't get people to join me for this one, so I took off optimistically for what I termed a "tourist hike." Leavenworth is five hours from Portland, so I left Sunday morning and arrived around 1:30 via US 97, which is butt ugly from Goldendale to Ellensburg. I was surprised at how close the trail is to town - it's only an eight mile drive to where charming Icicle Road intersects Eightmile Road, and from there only four more to the popular Stuart Lake trailhead.

The trail is about 4.5 miles to the lake, somewhat longer than the mileage I had read. The hiking is challenging but not harder than your average Gorge hike. Think Table Mountain or Silver Star. With a pack, I was hot, but it was not bad at all, and extremely well-marked for such meandering, rugged terrain.

At the lake, campsites are not immediately apparent. There is one at the outlet of the lake  but the others are on the south side of the lake near the approach to Asgaard Pass. In the picture below, you can see the lake with the pass, Dragontail Peak and Colchuck peak from left to right. Asgaard looks scary as shit here, but in the late summer it is mostly a very steep scramble. It's the shortest of two entrances to the Core Enchantments zone, and many hikers do it as a long dayhike to circumvent the permit process.

I explored around the rim of the lake a bit, and decided to do more in the morning. I backtracked to the first campsite near the privy.

At camp, I took plenty of pictures, ate dinner, read my book and mused about life and why I do things like drive five hours to go sit by myself on a rock and eat dehydrated food from a bag. No doubt this was a gorgeous lake, but not necessary as a backpack. I guess I thought it would be fun. And it was, mostly, until my night-time visitor. At about midnight, a large animal clambered up the boulders about five feet from my tent and then hovered near it for the rest of the night. I would hear it intermittently, scared out of my mind. The fact that I never heard my bear canister and stove jiggle from my kitchen area baffled me, and I couldn't understand why the animal was just hanging out. Was I being stalked? I yelled, made noise, and prepared to do battle with my trekking poles, but in reality all I could think was to kiss my ass goodbye if it came into my tent. I swore up and down never to camp solo again, despite every other uneventful experience I have had. Eventually, I relaxed and drifted off for a few minutes. And then, at 4 am I heard the metallic click of hikers carrying trekking poles and mountaineering gear, and saw the faint glow of first light. My relief was intense. I got out to relieve the bladder that had been bursting since midnight. After fumbling around with my gear for a bit and journaling about my experience, I got out again. This time I noticed I wasn't alone.

This large goat was hovering near my toilet area, about 10 feet from me. At first, I was surprised in the way that you are when you realize you are a) being watched, and b) in the presence of wildlife. I was calm enough to take a picture before shooing him away. He didn't exactly shoo particularly fast, and in fact it took quite a bit of noise and a bluff charge on my part before he scampered up the trail a bit. "Wow, that's pretty cool," I thought. "Now, on to breakfast." I started to move towards my kitchen when I noticed he was back, and had noiselessly shimmied into the trees behind me. What the hell...? I tried to scare him off again, and this time he just stared at me with creepy narrow-set eyes. We carried on like this for about fifteen minutes until I started to feel a little threatened. It occurred to me from his sounds and movements that this was my night-time visitor! While I knew he wasn't a threat to me, his persistence was getting a little freaky. Once he got too close and I lobbed a rock in his direction - this seemed to provoke him a bit. At this point, I gave in. I'm stubborn, but I'm not that stubborn. Touché, goat. You can have my campsite and whatever dried pee you can find, you weirdo. I hastily stuffed my backpack full, and he escorted me out like a damn security guard. Fuck you, goat.