Tough Challenge Ahead

Steve on our own personal Trail from Hell.

UPDATE: Yes it's true, we asked some boyscout leaders who were on the Mineral Creek trail with some scouts for some directions. Our map while limited was better than theirs. We also used a "lifeline" and called Rob "Rattler" Hester for some help finding our way from the French Cabin Creek AS to Silver Creek AS. This is where the road caused us some confusion. I should include our chance meeting in the North Bend parking lot at Starbucks in the morning. We ran into "Slug" and "PoSSuM" (Marathon Maniacs) on their way to Yakima for a run and a family visit.

Yesterday Steve, Jamal, and I ran the last 1/3 of the Cascade Crest course. The course was designed by the devil himself and it totally kicked my ass (I thought it, I may as well write it). Garmin logged 12,000 foot of climbing over 28 miles.

We started out at Kachess Lake and headed into the section known as the “Trail from Hell” (TFH). This trail goes along the edge of Kachess Lake. The elevation profile for this section looks relatively flat however it’s 5 miles of roots, rocks, up and down. For our added entertainment if you were to slip and fall along some sections of the trail you would eventually land in the lake after rag dolling down a 40 ft. embankment. We had a map with the general layout of the trail but nothing real detailed. At the end of TFH we were having so much fun that we missed the right turn to the Mineral Creek AS and ended up taking a mile detour before realizing our error. Jamal and I had some fun on this detour doing some boulder scrambling along some massive boulders near Mineral Creek. When we made it to the Mineral Creek AS site we started an 8 mile climb up forest service roads toward Thorp Mt. The No Name Ridge AS site is on a dead end road that is the trail head for single-track trail to Thorp Mt. and French Cabin Mountain. This section is about a 25 on a difficulty scale from 1 to 10. The really enjoyable part is that this all starts at around mile 80 of the 100-mile ultra. I never thought we were going to stop climbing on the first really steep section of “Cardiac Needles”. This SOB section will definitely present the greatest challenge to me during the run. We didn't hike up to the lookout on top of Thorpe Mt. because we were concerned about how late it was getting. The lookout is part of a fun little out and back from the Thorp Mt. AS. You climb about 500 feet to the Lookout and collect a poker chip to prove that you took advantage of every vertical foot of elevation the course can throw at you. We got confused when we came to a road at what we thought was the bottom French Cabin Mt.. Turns out we simply needed to continue on the trail we had been on but it looked like it was going to take us in the opposite direction of where we intended to go. What we discovered, after searching for other trials for about 45 min was that the trial switch backed to the proper direction. The trail is mostly down hill from the French Cabin Creek AS however it has really been torn up by Mt. bikes. Instead of the relatively smooth hiking trail you get a churned up rocky rutted trail. The bikes tear up the top surface and kick up all the rocks to the surface so it's like running on loose uneven gravel. We made it down to our car that we had shuttled earlier that morning at the Kachess Ridge Trail head. Total mileage was about 28 miles with our wayward nature.

Wildlife Report:

1. Bambi nearly got flattened on the drive to the trail head
2. Many big fat chipmunks
3. One big doe that Jamal got really close to as it bounded in front of him.
4. Two frogs in a creek past French Cabin Creek.

Did I say we saw some incredible views?

Trail from Hell Pics:

The second half of Cascade Crest is obviously the toughest of the course. I’ll need to conserve some energy in the first half to keep the forward motion going in the second half.

Pics from Thorp Mt. Climb & French Cabin Creek:

We came to the end of our run at Kachess Ridge trail head where we had parked the shuttle car. We soaked our legs in a nearby stream and headed to J-Berry's in North Bend for dinner. This run gave me a much better idea of what I'm up against. I have utmost respect for any runner who has completed this course. It's one brutal challenge. Thanks to Steve for his navigational skills, and Jamal for showing us how to power hike up those Cardiac Needles.