El Corte de Madera Open Space preserve is one of a collection of parks surrounding Skyline Blvd near Kings Mountain, including Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve, Phleger Estate GGNRA, Huddart County Park, and Wunderlich County Park. All told, there is over one hundred and fifty miles of awesome trail to explore in this region,…
Category: Trail Running
Catching up on sleep!
It has been nine days since I returned form Colorado and the TransRockies run with an interesting recovery. 113 intense miles over six days was a weekly mileage PR by about 25 miles so I knew I would be dealing with some fatigue. However, the source of even greater lethargy was the lack of sleep…
Transrockies Run
The TransRockies Run in the Colorado Rockies covers over 113 miles in 6 stages with nearly 21,000 feet of elevation gain in an appealing point-to-point format. The start is at Buena Vista and the route passes through Leadville, Red Cliff, Vail, and finishes at Beaver Creek. Every day the crews reconstruct a tent city as…
High Sierra Adventure Runs
Much of the FKT focus in California is with multi-day long routes (John Muir Trail, Tahoe Rim Trail), but there are numerous single-day loops and routes in the high Sierra that are aesthetic, providing the runner with all the scenery and fun without the sleep deprivation and extreme fatigue. There are a plethora of peaks…
Grand Ridge Park
Grand Ridge outside of Issaquah has had its ups and downs. While I was in high school, there were some great technical trails I often enjoyed (although they were often either brushy or muddy). Then, the mega development at Issaquah Highlands bulldozed through a huge chunk of the forest. Many trails were lost as suburban…
Suiattle Crest Aerial Route Map
Here is a much oversimplified aerial map of the Suiattle Crest 50 mile adventure run loop. The words in yellow are the passes. We started at Little Giant Trailhead but you could also start at Phelps Creek Trailhead – both are indicated on the route. Click the image for a larger version and don’t forget…
Suiattle Crest 50 Mile Loop
Colin Abercrombie and I completed a 50 mile loop in the Glacier Peak Wilderness that includes 12,500+ ft of elevation gain and passes through six passes (Little Giant Pass, High Pass, Buck Creek Pass, Suiattle Pass, Cloudy Pass, Spider Gap). The 50 mile distance was not contrived – we simply used existing trails and routes…
Ptarmigan Traverse FKT
Colin Abercrombie and I completed the Ptarmigan Traverse in 14:36 from the Cascade Pass parking lot to the Downey Creek trailhead, a new FKT (fastest known time). In 2008, Colin and I did the traverse in 18:10 so we were extremely happy to do it 3 hours and 34 minutes faster this time.The prior FKT…
Clark Mountain
Clark Mountain is located in the Glacier Peak wilderness of north-central WA. It is a great non-technical climb with excellent views of the Dakobed Range, Glacier Peak, and the Napeequa Valley. The climb starts at 2,300 ft in the White River Valley (not to be confused with the White River near Mt. Rainier) and tops…
Mount Olympus FKT
I climbed Mount Olympus in 11 hours, 6 minutes round trip. This is the new fastest known time (FKT) on the mountain, breaking my own FKT from July 31, 2007 by 24 minutes. I went solo and the climb was unsupported. I started at 3:10 am and finished at 2:17 pm (miraculously, the same real…
Leor Pantilat's Adventures