Sourdough Sufferfest

On Sat Sep 9 - Monday Sep 11 I ran the UPWC Mind/Body Challenge Sourdough Sufferfest. This route travels from Sourdough trailhead to Hannegan pass trailhead summiting Sourdough mt each time as you do a out and back. The route has ~ 26,000 of gain over ~ 100 miles distance. It took me 62 hours to complete this route. That time included 5 hours of sleep over 4 naps during the two nights of travel.

Not wanted to deal with traffic on Friday after work I left early Sat morning for the Sourdough trailhead. I was on the trail at 8am working my way up 5,000 ft in 5 miles to reach the ridge the lookout sits on. On my way up I meet two other hiker from the Methow and was traveling with them on and off. Once at the ridge I turned left to find the Sourdough summit. This is where I made my first of many time errors on this trip. I went to highest point to discover that over there there was a higher point. Well after a bit of wandering toward the summit I finally took up my smartphone with the Gaia app and used it to work my way to the summit.

Ok this done, time to get going on to the rest of this trip. It was raining now lightly and I put my rain pants on for all the brush I was about to work through descending Sourdough to Ross dam trail. This trail is quite brushy and takes paying attention to stay on it.

Sourdough lookout

Ross lake from the ridge

The next trail is quite nice and I was seeing more people now. It was a pleasure to be on well maintained trail. 

Ross lake

River leading to Ross lake

The next trail I was on was Big Beaver trail. This is another well maintained trail. One of the highlights of the trip was the old growth trees along this trail and Little Beaver trail. I did not take any photos of these trees as I could not capture the size of them. It is a rare opportunity for me to roam among old giants like this. These trees were 6 to 8 feet in diameter. 

I pass over Beaver pass and on down to the junction with Little Beaver trail. Once near the bottom of Big Beaver trail I make another time error. My gps show the trail crossing the river at this one point. I remember Jessica and Brad talking about this bushwhack to cross the river. I was on a very good trail that lead up river and descending. I spent a bit of time on this good trail trying to figure what I should do. I went with the gps and my friends trip reports and crossed the river on logs bushwhacking to the other side. While I was doing this I knew something was wrong. I knew the trails around here were used by people riding horses. While making this route go I took my time to understand it so I could have an easier time on the way back. I found the way people had gone and was on the Little Beaver trail. Oh, it is dark now as I am doing all this. 

I cruise along the Little Beaver trail that turns into the Brush Creek trail. I take two one hour naps during the night. During the morning I switch to the Chilliwack River trail. To cross the Chilliwack river you take a cable car if you are a person. 

The Chilliwack River trail leads to Hannegan pass. 

Hannegan pass

Looking back to valley I came up. 

It is a nice downhill here to the parking lot where I will turn around to repeat what I just did.

Back up I go toward Hannegan pass. 

I am going back the way I came. I take one one hour and one two hour nap on the way back. I had two time wasting moments during the night. I came through two different camps losing the trail. It took a bit of wandering using the gps to and Gaia to get myself back on track. Navigation at night in a spaghetti system of camp trails is a hassle. On the way back I ponder the transition from Little Beaver to Big Beaver trail. Luckily for me I pass the point on the Little Beaver trail where I entered and come upon this sign. 

Leading to this very nice bridge. Everyone who does the route, take note!

I  am working my way up toward Beaver pass and I see this sign on a tree. 

I wonder what it could be for. 

Beaver Pass shelter. 

I am at the base of Sourdough now and I would like to be finished by dark. I switch to a faster pace to see what I can do about getting up to Sourdough summit and back to the ridge in the light. 

This photo is for Brad as it is the first water you come to on the accent to Sourdough lookout. There is some standing water from snow melt on the way over to the summit. I ran out in this section for 15 min until I got water on the way down to the trailhead. 

Here some photos from the lookout ridge on Sourdough

My time from the saddle to the summit of Sourdough and back is a little over one hour. Here are a few photos from the summit. 

If you zoom in, you can see the lookout in the center of the photo. 

More  photos from the golden hour from photographer's point of view. A trailrunner with common scenes would be well below this point. 

At this point I am below the saddle and working my way down to my car at the trailhead 5.000 ft and 5 miles below me. . At about halfway down I decide that miles on my gps are too slow. I switch to elevation. It is more satisfying to watch the drop in elevation to show where I am at. 10:00 pm and one last photo to close this trip out. 

If you had common sense and wanted a very nice daytrip, I would suggest hiking up to Hannegan pass. Maybe if you wanted more of a workout, hike up to Sourdough lookout or summit. I nice 50 miler would be to hike from Sourdough to Hannegan. If you are in the same mental state of Brad and I do this starting from Hannegan pass and avoid the 5,000 ft of descent to finish off a 100 mile plus route. 

Ok now for the mind part of this, this route is called mind/body challenge Sourdough sufferfest. For me wandering amongst the sights and sounds of the wildness is not a suffer. That is who I am as a person. Reading poetry is sufferfest for me. I really enjoy a good story to read or listen to. I realize that Gary Snyder is very good at his craft and through his life has suffered and able to bring this to those that read his works. I remember the last line from this poem from elementary school days by Robert Frost that describes my wildness trail running.

."But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep."

Ben & Kevin’s Excellent Pasayten Adventure

On Sat Aug 19 2017 I completed the UPWC route B & K in 20 hours and 10 min. The route was 55 miles long.

I drove up to Iron gate in the Pasayten in north east Washington on Fri night after work. I got up to the trail head late as it is a 6+ hour drive from Seattle with Friday evening rush hour.  The last bit of road is a bit rough, but with slow careful driving I was able to make it in my Subaru Impreza. Setting the alarm for to early I am up and on the trail by 4am. It was unusually warm I thought for this hour , elevation and time of year. Off I moving on trail 533 taking my first left on trail 343. This trail takes me to a right turn on trail 342. It is still dark at this point. Last year I had run all these trails on another UPWC route in the light. Today I was out for the completion of this route.

It is starting to get light as I approach Windy peak. I summit this last year, so today I will move on to see what else there is in store for me. As I pass the left on trail 360 Basin creek I realized something it wrong. I have to add a extra quarter mile here back tracking to where trail 360 leaves this trail. There is no sign to tell you are on Basin creek trail. It is cross country travel for a bit till a faint trail appears. I would for the next 6 miles be on the trail, loose the trail, consult GPS and find the trail, then repeat this process till I got low enough in elevation to be able to stay on the trail. I would step over, under and go around what felt like 1,000 trees on this section.

This is a photo of one of the better parts of this section.

Once I got to the Chewuch river trail # 550 taking a right here life got a lot better. I saw horse hoof prints and knew this would be a easy cruse. I was gaining elevation, but had a good trail. If it is designed for horses, it would be easy travel for me. One of the highlights of this section was following the Chewuch river. I would get views on and off of the river for the miles I traveled along it. Below are some photos of my time along the river.

My next turn was right on the Boundary trail. I would be on this trails for a while leading me past Cathedral lake.

This was my favorite part of this trip. I loved this open country to roam through. I would like to backpack this area some day going slow through here. It is quite remote and would take two day to get to at walking pace. 

This was my favorite spot on the trip. Cathedral lake is wow!!! These are larch trees that turn golden in the fall. The ideal time to be here would be when they all turn. You can see the pass I am headed toward in the center of the photo. 

Here is the lake looking down from the pass in the last photo. 

I a headed to the mtns on the left center in this photo. Again, this is very nice running country to cruise through. 

An old relic of days past on the trail. 

I took a right on trail 533 on my way to Sunny pass. As you can see I am almost out of sunlight. I am chasing the shadow line on my way back to my car. From Sunny pass it is 5.2 mostly downhill miles to my car at Iron gate. The trail is easy going for which I am grateful as moving at night is a bit slower than day. 

The end of a great trip. Thanks Ras for posting to Ultra Prescription Wilderness Challenge. Thank you to everyone that reads and follows along with my adventures. I hope this inspires you to go out and see new places and experience new things. 

Owyhigh Lakes loop

On Sat July 29 I ran/hiked the Owyhigh lake loop on Mt Rainier. This loop is 33 miles long with 9493 ft of elevation gain. It took me 11 hours to complete the loop.

Mt Rainier is a beautiful park with well maintained trails. It is a joy to travel along these as I work my way up to summerland. 

This next photo is of panhandle gap where I am headed. 

Once at panhandle gap you will look out toward indian bar in the distance traveling over easy snow fields. 

One of the local residents in this area,  your marmot neighbor. 

In this area I caught up with a fellow hiker/runner asking directions as all the snow had got him confused on where the trail was. I pulled up my route on my smartphone and gps watch and showed him where the trail lead. He was going my way and out for a day trip. He decided to join me for a few miles until we got to the grove of the patriarchs. Next up for us was indian bar in photo below. 

Once we climb out of indian bar I get a nice view of Rainier.

Grove of the patriarchs is a very nice trail for people that want a nice place to hike with relatively flat trail a couple miles long. I travel along this for a little while before turning left up the eastside trail. 

Here is a welcome sign. 8.2 mile till the road. I will pass by the Owyhigh lake above on my way there. This is quite a climb that goes on for awhile. Luckily for me it was mostly in the trees providing some nice shade. 

This was the toughest part of the journey for me. Walk/running along this road with no shoulder was a bit unnerving. I am glad the cars were for the most part generous with the distance they gave me. 

Northern Mother mt loop

On July 29, I ran the Northern Mother my loops in 23 hours. This route had 16,837 ft of elevation gain over 47 miles.

I started the route at 6pm from the sunrise parking lot after completing the Owyhigh route. The area around sunrise was quite crowded as I ventured out onto the trail. After spending so much time alone on the Owyhigh route, I put my headphones on to isolate myself for the crowd. After a few miles I was on the Northern trail. The scenery is amazing on Rainier. The Northern trail upheld the standard.

 My first highlight was this meadow that appears to stretch on forever.

 I would see people camping and hiking here and there. Next I had this great downhill run to the valley bottom.

The sun was filtering through the trees making this one of those special times to run. Once at the river, I would have the biggest challenge of this route. I found ribbons and cairns to follow leading me across logs to where I would need to ford. There was a hand line but the river was waist deep there. After some other attempts, I found a spot 100 feet downstream only knee deep. More flagging and cairns lead me to the trail as the light was fading in the trees.It was headlamp time now as I climbed toward spray park.

At some point I stop by a stream to filter water and have a snack. I noticed moth fluttering about my headlamp. I would then notice a shadow pass by and no moth. I think I had a bat near by I was providing  a feeding station. I took off after a bit. In a while later, I was quite tired and took a 45 min nap.

One of the things I love about night moving is watching the darkness fade to light.

I was in the beginning of Spray Park at this time. It was a joy to climb up through this terrain alone in the morning light. There tranquile to me about this.

The spell was not broken until I came across a early hiker taking photos of the sunrise. I was on my way down at this point toward Mowich lake. As time and miles passed I passed many more people on their way to Spray Park.

At Mowich lake I took a short break to eat and redo gear as it was starting to get warm with the morning coming on. I short while later I was at Ipsut pass traveling down a freshly brushed path. Life was good. I pass 5 groups of hikers in the bottom of the valley working their way up toward Ipsut pass. A easy river crossing lead me to the trail that parallels the carbon river and glacier.

This is a big climb up past Mystic lake and onto the ridge top  that is my high point of this trip. It feels good to look down and know I have easy miles to my car. I start to meet a lot of people as I approached Frozen lake above Sunrise. I am back in the busy parking lot, change and start driving looking forward to that mug of chai tea at the store in Greenwater just down the road.