9 1/2 Summits

My plan for this weekend was 12 summits Saturday (easy) and 4 hours Sunday (really easy).

Saturday
We started off in the dark and ran the extra 1/2 mile to the trail head. (I hate starting and finishing there). We topped #3 in 54 minutes #2 in 1:03 and #1 in 1:13. We cruised down #1 past the Christmas tree and onto the East trail pretty fast. Everybody knows I love to run downhill! At 1:41 we came down onto a road that we were supposed to just run straight across.

We did and immediately lost the trail. We bush whacked for 20 minutes. Well it's still winter so there isn't really all that much bush out there. We couldn't find the trail and I was starting to get cold from the slow pace so we circled back around to the road. We figured it would have to lead somewhere and it was roughly in the right direction. We soon came to a 'T' and turned left because it looked like where we were supposed to be and figured the trail would cross it eventually.
The road made a few turns and we ran past a gate that looked very familiar. We both agreed that it was the way to Middle Tiger but we still needed to hit East Tiger. So up we ran over the a crest and past a wooden gate.


We couldn't say for sure if it was the right way but since there was no other way.

There wasn't any other clear trail and the road was going downhill, so we went through the wooden gate for about 5 minutes before I decided we should turn back and give up trying to find East. We were on the road for a total of 45 minutes.
We went though the metal gate we had past before and headed up to Middle Tiger which put us at 2:55.

Before we got to South Tiger we made one last wrong turn. We went left onto the Artifact trail.

I would recommend everybody take this trail at least once. It's pretty cool! Once we realized it was the wrong way we turned around and headed back down toward the South Tiger stump.
We made good time all way to South Tiger and got there in 3:41 .

Tony and Van were headed up as we went down. Tony got Shela and Rickie's attention with is cougar calls. Funny guy, I expected to have to look for my pack that I felt at the stump. Tony and Van started much later than we did but didn't have to park down at the gate. I wasn't surprised when I saw them considering all the wrong turns we'd made.
We got to the turn around at 3:53, our mileage was about right at 17 miles even though we skipped a summit. I refilled my go juice and grabbed a snack. Shawn had everything she needed on her back. I gave Shela a couple dinner rolls and we were outta there. I was on a tight schedule and didn't have the time for a leisurely lunch like the last time I ran 12 summits.
We skipped the out and back to South because I wanted save time and try to hit East.
We made it over Middle in 5:54 it was right around then I decided to just take the short cut back to the car. We also noticed Rickie was favoring a front paw at certain speeds and if I was going to be carrying a dog out 5 miles I'd need all the time I could get.
We made good time on the road. After going through a couple of blow downs that happened to mark where we needed to exit the road,


we found the trail again and ran until after we got past the Christmas tree. We power walked faster than I expected on the ups and made finished last 3 summits with ease. Standing on top of Tiger #3 I checked my watch (7:12) and thought damn we should have followed TC and Van to East Tiger.
We took the same way down to the trail head as we came up,(section line - nook) instead of what I call Tiger #3 Freeway. I like the challenge of the steep technical trail on tired legs. If I went the other way I might be temped to walk in some spots and I'd be a lot muddier.
We made it back to the gate in 7:46, mileage of the 9 1/2 summits ... 30.5

Sunday
Jenn and I were supposed to do 4 hours at about 12 - 13 m/m average. We slept in, that was nice! and only had time for about 2 1/2 hours. We dropped the kids off at granny's and drove a mile down to the Soos Creek trail. It's paved which will help to toughen up the feet and shins.
We went to the end and back then did enough to get to 10.2 miles. That's 1 mile less than last weekend. Jenn was a little sore from the asphalt so we called it good. We ran into we Patch and Eric as we were leaving. Too bad we had no time, we could have talked Chuckanut strategy. Jenn did 6 more on the treadmill after lunch.

Miles this week. 46