While checking out the map the night
before, I completely underestimated the distance between the east side of Squak Mountain and the north side of Cougar Mountain,
which was the planned run for the day.
 |
| Looking across at Squak Mt. from Poo Poo Point. Cougar Mt. beyond Squak on right. |
Luckily, it was a beautiful morning
and I had good company this Thursday morning. Michael, Daniel and Sean
Cameron (aka "Cam") started our run off of the Issaquah-Hobart Rd. in
the Sycamore neighborhood. We entered Squak via the Sycamore Access Trail
and headed up the east side of the mountain on the East Ridge Trail. This
was a beautiful switchback trail and reminded me of the switchbacks behind Lake
Padden Golf Course in Bellingham. It's pretty straightforward to get to
the summit of Squak: from East Ridge Trail, take a left onto the steep Summit
Trail (not a switchback!), then a right when you hit the access road and we
were at the top. Not much to see here other than a few views north
through the cracks in the evergreens.
From the top we descended past the
old Bullitt fireplace (very cool, check it out!), took the West Peak Trail to the
Chybinski Loop Trail and out the West Access Trail onto Renton-Issaquah Road
SE. We headed south on the highway for about 0.5 miles then crossed over
into Cougar Mountain at the Wilderness Creek Trailhead (sign to the
right). As for the days plans, so far so good. This was when things
got interesting.
I believe we were at about 90
minutes into our run at this point, and the goal was just a little over two
hours. I was thinking, having looked at the map
of Cougar the night before, that a quick loop into and out of Cougar via the
Bear Ridge Trail and back into Issaquah would do the trick. Not so
much.
Who's ever ran on Cougar Mountain
and not gotten lost? Right! Talk about confusing! For one,
signs don't seem to point in the right direction. Second, a lot of the
signs are marked with numbers and letters like W11, E7 and C6. That
didn't help so much. After another hard climb (make it stop!) up some
trail (Wilderness Cliffs maybe?) we made it to a four way (or was it five way)
intersection and decided to head north...I think? Luckily we ran into a
real ultra runner (Mr. you should try this wonderful 30 mile run!) who told us
the directions out (which we missed), so we ended up on a road overlooking Lake
Sammamish and shortly there after at Anti-Aircraft Peak Trailhead.
At this point, we knew where we
were, but we didn't know the quickest way back into Issaquah. And we were
well over two hours on the chrono. Daniel volunteered to go into the
ranger trailer and ask for directions, coming out with a map (what a great
tool!) and telling us tales of seeing doughnuts and cafe. We were hungry,
thirsty and tired, having eaten what gel we had over an hour earlier.
Quietly, we made our way back down and out of Tiger Mountain via the Shangri La
and Bear Ridge Trail, having just enough energy to appreciate the fern covered
"Fantastic Erratic," a large glacial boulder as I passed by.
Once we hit the Renton-Issaquah Road
again, we painfully picked up the pace, wanting to get back to the car
asap. The problem was, the car was on the opposite side of town, with no
direct route to get us there. (other than running up and over Squak again...no
thanks!) We put our heads down and ran tempo pace through Issaquah,
separating ourselves from one another a bit. It was great to turn the
corner on Sycamore Drive and see Daniel's car waiting for us after a 2:52
run...almost as long as it took me to run my only marathon...without any water
and one gel. You could say breakfast at the Issaquah Cafe was amazing
that morning. Or was it afternoon?
Run Stats: Total Distance: ~20 miles Time: 2:52:26
Elevation Gain: too much Pace: 8:36
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