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Evergreen Endurance Coaching

Evergreen Endurance Coaching

Running, cycling, triathlon, duathlon, swimming, backcountry travel

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We did a combo Easter/Earth Day celebration by going for a family sail, with wildlife sightings galore! Sleepy sea lion gets a boop on the nose. 😍 Great blue heron teaches the circle of life...😯
@pugsandmutt and I found the creepy cabin today. It was every bit as creepy as you'd expect. I'll post photos as soon as I download them from my camera. In the meantime, here's a phone pic of LaVonne in the middle of a grove of old growth cedars. I'm as curious as the next person (obviously, that's why I went looking for the cabin in the first place) but I can honestly say the giant trees we found along the way were so much more memorable and amazing than that small, dark, disturbing structure. I'm not sure why the 19th century loggers left these trees alone, while logging huge swaths through the rest of the valley, but I am so glad they did.
Rumor has it there's a "creepy fairy house" located off-trail, deep in the woods amongst old growth trees, up the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River valley. Photos of the cabin recently resurfaced, confirming that it does in fact exist. Today I went looking for it with @pugsandmutt, her adventure pug Muno, and my adventure puggle Maggie. Although we never found the creepy cabin, we did find some astoundingly giant trees and a watchful barred owl. And now we have an even better idea where the cabin is located. Apparently only a handful of people know where it is, and it took one guy six tries before he was able to locate it, so we're not too bummed that we couldn't find it on our first attempt. Where's the adventure in that? (Of course now we're more determined than ever...)
Giddy up, Monday! I've had this mug since grad school and it just gets more and more applicable over the years.
I'd always thought of the North Fork Sauk River trail as "the way to White Pass/Pilot Ridge/Glacier Peak." But this outing reminded me that it's a gorgeous trail in its own right. There are huge old growth cedars right from the start and - at least this time of year - there is plenty of solitude. . . Road conditions: The road to the trailhead (NF 49) is in reasonable shape - a couple washouts in the usual places and some larger potholes that made me glad for moderately high clearance (Subaru Outback). But I bet a sedan could make it if you're careful. . . Trail conditions: There are approx 10 blow-downs across the trail. Some are easy step-overs, while a couple are more significant and take a few minutes to crawl around. All are passable. The trail was largely snow-free until around 3000 ft, including the backcountry campsites and toilet at 4.75 miles. I was surprised to see that Mackinaw Shelter at approx 6.5 miles has been torn down and is now just a pile of lumber. I guess I haven't been up this drainage in a couple years, so maybe that's old news. Beyond the (former) shelter, the trail starts to climb more steeply and crosses a snow-covered slope that looked ripe for postholing. I'm sure someone more determined could press on further, but I was content to turn around there. This resulted in approx 13 snow-free miles of river valley wandering, which isn't too bad for mid April. Pic 1: The log crossing to the Pilot Ridge trail is still there... solid but slick. Pic 2: Sunlight warming one of the last patches of snow on the North Fork Sauk River trail.
I've been a fan of @dirtbag_diaries for years. It's one of my favorite podcasts, and I love listening as I drive to adventures big or small. So it was a real honor - and kinda crazy! - to be featured on their latest episode. Hope you like! 😳😊 Link in bio.
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