Kalchess Ridge

The mountains were calling me, and I finally answered the call on Saturday morning. Jeff stayed home with the kids while I adventured. It was a 1 hour 46 minute drive to the trail of my choice at Kalchess Ridge, another gem plucked from the treasure chest that is the All Trails app. The Kalchess Ridge Trail is an out and back trail: 6.4 miles out, 6.4 miles back. I ran 12 miles and walked the rest in to finish. It took me 3 hours to cover that distance due to the veritable natural obstacle course on the trail. Here are the rest of the numbers. The trail had:

• 12 creek crossings (one way, so 24 total), and only 4 of those had a way to get across the creek without wading (2 bridges, 2 logs, and 2 big leaps).
• 7 fallen tree logs across the trail: I went over 4, under 2, and around 1, then did it all in reverse on the return journey (so 14 total).
• Countless melty mushy deep snow drifts to slip-slide-wade through. The middle 4 miles, so the last 2 miles to the top of the ridge and those same 2 miles on the way back down, were swathed in snow drifts. It was slippery! Twice my foot sunk up past my knee, breaking through the snow drift to the ground below where the snow was melting and trickling away. 
• 3 falls: I fell twice in snow drifts because they were so slick, so those aren't official falls--snow isn't as bad as falling on hard ground. My one real fall was after I had waded through a creek and my shoes were all water-logged and heavy. I caught my toe on a tree root and went sprawling. I had several really close call serious stumble-windmill-ahhhrrrg trips too.
• I reached the top of the ridge (6.5 miles) in 1 hour 52 minutes. 
• The journey back down again was much quicker because I embraced my wet feet and stopped trying to find less-wet ways to cross creeks. I did walk down the more treacherous sections of trail to avoid breaking my ankles. (time down: 1 hour 17 minutes)
• Total time: 3 hours 9 minutes 33 seconds. 
• Elevation gain: 2,976 feet. The elevation gain was not uniform at all--I was not climbing a mountain like I did at Mt. Si. The trail started out SUPER steep, skyrocketing my heart rate for the first two miles, then evened out for the middle section before taking me on a few rollercoaster ups and downs to the top of Kalchess Ridge. I am not entirely sure I made it all the way to the official end point of the trail/top of the ridge. I lost the trail at least three times on the way up because it was buried in snow. I followed previous hikers' footprints to find the trail again, but the footsteps ended. I walked around up there for a while in the trees searching for a trail with no luck. I scrambled up a rock and enjoyed a beautiful view before heading back down again.

I called Jeff while I walked the last little bit back to the car--my phone reception returned conveniently. Even though I would have preferred to have Jeff there on the trail with me, it was nice to have my husband in my ear while I hiked it in. I stopped to listen to the beautiful rushing Silver Creek before heading back to the car. It was hard not to soak my feet in the creek, but I didn't think I'd be able to get my wet wet socks and shoes back on again for the walk to the car, so I resisted. Plus I was a tad cold and tired. AND THIRSTY! I should have carried water with me. Three hours is a long time to run/hike without any water.

Ready to RUN! The air temperature fluctuated so much while I was on the trail; I took my jacket on and off repeatedly throughout the run. It was also quite dark and cloudy for the first hour of the run.

I'm not sure if all of the water I ran through was part of the same creek. All I know is that it was freezing snowmelt water that made a soothing rushing sound that was audible on close to 2/3 of the trail.

Rough trail: easier to go up than down this root-y section.

One of the two bridges, near the beginning of the trail.

I hiked around to the right and crawled across that log on the water to keep my feet dry during the first half of the run, but on the way back I ran straight through the water. It was much faster, if colder.

Hello, Evergreen State! The trail passed through several darling little meadows that looked like Christmas Tree farms.

I perfected the art of balancing my phone on rocks and setting the timer. Trees just don't look as big as they are without a human in there for scale.

Another mini waterfall

Peace and wisdom.

I took this picture when running on snow drifts in shorts and a t-shirt was a novelty. By the end of the run, I was fed up with slipping and sliding my way through long swaths of snow.

I never would have made it as far as I did without those convenient footprints of another hiker.

Blue sky!

Seriously, this trail was satisfyingly rugged. Well-groomed spongy smooth trails are comfy, but the rough barely-maintained single track mountain paths are the fun ones. I could see the power of winter in the position of the crooked logs and brush.

It felt like I was running upstream in a creek of freezing water a lot of the time.

Personal policy: don't contain the mountain joy!

One of my wrong turns led me to this marshy snow-melted field with a nice pointy mountain view.

I put my phone on the ground to take a picture...what are the odds that a piece of grass was growing exactly on my line of sight?

I kept catching glimpses of this rocky peak as I wound my way along the trail.

The view from the top of the ridge that I found was not exactly panoramic, but it was still satisfying. Those moody clouds did make me nervous, even though the forecast said there was less than a 25% chance of rain.

I was tempted to climb higher, but I resisted because I did not have a hiking buddy and it seemed too risky.

Heading back down.

So much frigid freshly melted snow! Splash-splash-splash. My feet were soaked. Thank goodness for my wool socks--they kept my feet from completely freezing.

Every now and then my foot broke through a snow drift. It was exhausting not to be able to trust my footing.

SO COLD. Even pausing for this mid-stream picture was almost more than my feet could handle. My shoes got nice and clean though!

Post-fall knees. Somehow I managed to fall on one of the very few not rocky patches of trail and my fall did not break the skin.

On the return journey, my legs were too wobbly and tired to balance on a log, so through the streams I charged.

I swooned at the paintbrush flowers.

Another wrong turn led me to this wide vista rimmed with wildflowers.

This sign was at the beginning of the trail. I saw no other signs for the three places written on this sign.

Silver Creek had a nice low bank right near the parking area. The sound of that water rushing over the rocks was musical.

The road to the trailhead was so narrow that branches brushed both sides of my van when I drove down it and I was very glad not to meet any other vehicles head-on.

When I got back in the car, I drank warm water and ate a PBJ sandwich. I also removed my soaked dirty shoes and socks and drove barefoot while listening to Life on Air, David Attenborough's fascinating memoir. I stopped at Costco on the way home and got some groceries and a sandwich. When I got home at 6:15pm, Jeff and the girls helped me unload the food and then we all went straight to the graduation party at a friend's house around the corner. I did not have time to shower! Thankfully I had pulled pants on so I wasn't too visibly dirty and leggy, but my hair was in all of its post-mountain-run glory and my skin felt grubby from all of the dried sweat. Don't worry, I only had to hug like 3 people at the casual backyard party, so it was ok. And really, I'm not too embarrassed to be grubby around the kind of people I know well enough to hug. It's just weird going to a social event without attending to my physical appearance first, haha. 

All in all, I had a gorgeous glorious time rambling and scrambling through the woods on Saturday. The natural high lasted for HOURS afterwards. I was practically giddy for the rest of the day, although when we arrived at the graduation party, I felt rather overwhelmed at being required to socialize after all of those hours alone in the mountains. It's hard to switch my inner hermit on and off so suddenly!