Monday, September 14, 2015

Easy Pass

Easy Pass
Sep 12 2015

Quick story: I ran from  Colonial Creek Campground on the southeast end of Diablo Lake to Easy pass and down to hwy 20 in a little under eight hours. I stashed my bike there the night before so I could ride the 21 miles in around 1.5 hours back to my car at Colonial Creek Campground. This trip is well worth doing. 

Longer story

Gear with me, see Chinook pass trip earlier in this blog. 
Wild life. I heard many birds and grasshoppers, but did not see any larger animals. 

My Story
Not being able to sleep till my 5am wake up set on my cell phone, I was up looking forward to this run like it was Christmas morning. I tend to be like this when I spend the night in my car camped at the trail head. 5:15 and I am at the trail head ready to go. The trip up Thunder creek trail was nice. I could run a lot of the trail. It was in very good shape. There are lots of little bridges over nice creeks.


 Views of the mountains were opening up on my right side. 


Thunder creek kept me company also



The woods had lots of nice moss and smooth trail to run on . 



Left turn up Fisher creek to take me to Easy pass. 


Following Fisher creek I saw lots of this little movie here. 



Once I cleared the forest, the view was amazing. Here is a small sample of where I was at. This is a must visit place in the fall. 





I was down at junction of the trail to take me up to Easy pass. It was 1.8 mile and 1,600 ft of gain. I figured a little under one hour and I would be there by 12:00. Here is a photo for almost to the pass looking down into the valley I am climbing out of and the trail over to the pass. 



The next photo is of the decent to the trail head of Easy pass. I am at the pass taking this photo. You can see the trail on the left side of the photo. This section was not very runnable. Lots of scree, it did hold in place as I ran down it. Have good footing, it is a hard landing if you misstep. 


I liked the fire weed. 

Someday I will grow up to be like that mountain behind me. 

Last bridge before the parking lot. 

End of the trail and time to eat my banana and apple before getting on my bike for the 21 mile ride back to my car. I was on the trail section for a little under eight hours. 

My car, bike and me at the end of today's adventurer. 

This was a great fall hike/run. About 10.5 hours total travel time between the bike and trail. There was a little under 9,000 feet of gain total on the trip. I did this loop in a counter clockwise direction. It would be more run able the other direction. I found I ran quite a bit in the direction I traveled. There were no major obstacles during the trip. I lot of trail work has been done since the last trail report I read. It was smooth sailing for me. Ras thanks for putting this out there. It was a nice day spent in the mountains.