I like this hike, it is about 6.5 miles (all the way to Debbie’s View) round-trip and maybe 2k elevation gain but it has a gate and the gate doesn’t open until about 6am. Rather late for me for the week because I like to avoid the traffic. The weekends have less traffic on the roads but more traffic on the trails but what the heck. I started up the trail this morning at 6:30. Mine was the first car in the lot. How nice! What an energetic fellow am I!
But not so much – just as I was starting up the trail I saw a headlamp of a trail runner coming down. Since there was no other car in the lot, this guy obviously started at the other end of the mountain (like on SE May Valley Road) and had gone all the way over (about 6 miles) by 6:30. Sheesh.
And a few minutes later there he was, going back the other way. So this guy’s idea of a good workout was to run 12 miles up and down a mountain. Respect.
As I suspected, the trail was crowded with people going up as I was going down.
All I did was the 6.5 miles but it was enough. The view at Debbie’s View was not so great – no sign of Rainier – as it has been a grey day.
But there is some color this time of year along the trail:
Here is the track. A fun morning, as always.
Track