Hike of the Week : Larrabee Loop

This week's training hikes allowed us to test out getting up and hiking after camping ... twice.

I used AllTrails Pro and my Square One Map of the Chuckanut Recreation Area to plot out a looping route from the campground. We scurried across Chuckanut Drive and started climbing.

We crossed the Interurban Trail, and then continued on towards Fragrance lake.

I love the way these trees have grown over this fallen one:

We came to a little junction, and OF COURSE took the spur to the viewpoint.

ALWAYS go to the viewpoint.



From here we could see Orcas Island, and (I think?) other parts of the San Juans. Must learn my geography someday.

Then we headed back to the junction, and continued on through the forest toward Fragrance Lake. One of my favorite parts of our northwest forests is how mossy and lush they are -- this moss-covered, downed tree looked like a mossy kraken to me.

For the most part, we would have the trail entirely to ourselves today. We reached another trail junction, and this time headed toward the South Lost Lake Trail. (Full disclosure: I'm not sure why we didn't go an extra mile or so and loop around Fragrance Lake. Seriously, we got close and then just turned away before we got there. Perhaps we were spooked by the super nice couple and their dogs?)

While on the South Lost Lake Trail we met three trail runners, and could start to hear a few other people, but didn't see them. Again, just lots of green.

We then turned onto the Rock Trail -- a new trail built to showcase the area's interesting rock formations. I had heard it was steep -- so steep they had actually installed wooden stairs to protect against erosion -- so it seemed like a good addition to the loop. I should point out that this also meant we did not actually see Lost Lake. No lakes were visited on this hike.

We came to this set of stairs and I thought, oh, okay, not super steep, then.

Much of the trail still looked like this:

We did check out the rock formations -- interesting, but as Wil pointed out, he used to live in the Peak District so he has seen some pretty amazing rock formations...

One of my favorite sights in the forest is a mossy rock with ferns starting to grow out of it ... this was on the side of a huge boulder:

And then we saw these... oh, they meant it when they said stairs. 

Something about the trees and the ladder-like stairs makes me think of Escher when I see this picture:

At the top of the Rock Trail we popped out at the Cyrus Gates Overlook -- the highest point in Larrabee State Park.

We didn't linger -- there was a group enjoying their lunch at the overlook, so we moved on and joined the Ridge Trail -- which, unsurprisingly, runs along the top of the ridge.

The trail started off nice and wide, but soon narrowed and was, in places, a little hard to follow. We saw two trail runners during this stretch, as well as one solo hiker. A few seconds after we passed her, she called out, "Did either of you possibly drop some spectacles?" I paused, felt my pockets, and realized that I had dropped mine. I scurried back the few yards and thanked her profusely. We just kept marveling at how, seeing only a handful of people while hiking over 12 miles... and I drop my glasses right as we pass one of the few hikers? #grateful

You can't tell, but this is a really, really steep downhill. I swear.

But this was still pleasant. It was an interesting experience to not be in any hurry to be done with our hike -- after all, if we finished, we would just hang out in camp. So we enjoyed the time we spent in the woods.

After 2.3 miles we met the Lower Ridge Trail, which would connect us with Cleator Road.

This trail was nice and gentle -- something of a relief after being up on the ridge. And there were some great views:

We soon made it to Cleator Road and headed down the side of the mountain. We then joined the Interurban Trail, which we assumed would be flat and gentle. Nope. But it was far more pleasant that walking along the narrow, winding highway.

We eventually made it back to the trailhead, made it across Chuckanut Drive (much busier in the afternoon than in the early morning!), and back to our campsite. A fun, tiring, varied hike. We had views, we had elevation, and we had lots of time on our boots. 

Larrabee Loop

12.2 miles
2608 feet elevation gain

Camping! We went camping! And not in our back garden!

We had planned to go camping on Saturday night -- get up early, go for a long hike, then get into the campground, overnight, and hike again on Sunday.

Wil was going to be working late, but I had loaded up the car so that we could hit the road right after we got up. I had just sat down to an early, solo dinner when Wil walked in at 5:45. Wait, what?

Turns out they wrapped up early, so after a few minutes we looked at each other and said, "Wanna head out now?" Fifteen minutes later he was ready himself, and we headed north.

Of course, Friday night traffic slowed us down, so we missed getting to the park in daylight. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't enjoy trying to find an empty and nice campsite in the dark. But after two circuits of the open loop, we spotted one we liked, pulled in, and started setting up our camp.

I unrolled the sheet of Tyvek I wanted to test out as a footprint, then set up the big Coleman tent... with the rainfly, of course! Wil, meanwhile, started a fire and got everything else organized. While I inflated our sleeping mat and set up our "sleep system" (that is, the sleeping mat + a sleeping bag...), Wil went and registered for the two nights. And twenty minutes after arriving, we were sitting by the fire roasting marshmallows and making s'mores.

We slept pretty well -- despite the trains rumbling through on one side, and the Chuckanut traffic zooming through on the other. Heavy rain on the tent helped drown out the noise. I woke up in the early morning fretting about the rain... but when I actually stepped outside it wasn't raining much at all. And by the time we got up, the skies were clear.

We went on a great, long hike -- about which more later -- and a relaxing afternoon back in camp. That evening we walked down to the beach, which was lovely and nearly empty:

But then we just went back up the trail to our cozy campsite, where we made dinner and read by the fire:

That night got pretty cold -- I'm not sure if I should have topped up the sleeping pad? So we're going to do another cold-night experiment to get things sorted.

The campground was a bit noisy on the second night, with a group of college kids setting off fireworks and talking over each other till midnight or so. And, of course, in the quiet mornings I could hear the spectacular snores of the gentleman two campsites away. Bless.

Breaking down the camp was pretty easy in the morning, though we do need to get our gear more organized. We had had breakfast, loaded up the car, and were driving out of the camp before we saw anyone stirring near the RVs.

But for the most part, we really enjoyed going camping -- for the first time in YEARS. Some lessons learned:

- if you can't reserve a particular site in advance, then try to get to the campground by daylight so you can choose a good site

- bring plenty of firewood along -- you never know whether you'll be able to get more wood at the campground

- check your sleeping pad on the second night, and top up if necessary. (Perhaps the cold made in compress a little?)

- the sugar coating on Peeps is HIGHLY FLAMMABLE

Urban rambling : Chief Sealth Trail

Last summer while completing the Seattle Stairway 100K, I came across the Chief Sealth Trail and vowed to go back and walk it someday. I had even discovered that there's a bus that runs from one end to the other -- for a perfect short adventure.

The trail may not be the most scenic, but I think it's a great example of creating recreational space in the middle of a city. Built in the greenway underneath huge power pylons, the trail is fully accessible and used recycled material from the Link Light Rail project. The trail clearly gets used: even on a weekday when the skies were threatening to open up, I saw several people out exercising along it.

With a lot on my mind and an unexpectedly free day I decided to finally make it happen. I drove out to 15th Avenue S and S Angeline Street, parked, and jumped on the trail.

North end of the Chief Sealth Trail

I was a little surprised at the number of ups and downs -- far from being relatively flat, like a rail trail, this trail had a lot of hills. And when it was hilly, the trail wound back and forth -- I suspect to make it less steep so that it was safer for wheelchairs.

The trail passes near houses and garages. I kept being surprised by the street patterns in the area -- lots of narrow little streets. And some nice art:

The trail was in excellent condition and quite clean -- despite not seeing any garbage cans along it, I also didn't see any garbage.

Did I mention the skies were threatening? The light was weird and kept changing.

And on this cloudy day, I came to a sweet little artwork, on opposite sides of a road:

No straight stretches here, just sinuous curves.

When I got a little farther south, I believe in the New Holly neighborhood, these bluebell lamps appeared alongside the trail.

When I looked at the trail map before heading out, there was one stretch which was inexplicably skipped. It wasn't even clear how one might connect the two, really.

I looked at the satellite view -- what might cause this break? Nothing obvious...

Well, then I got there, the signage was a little confusing. I think I could have gone through some neighborhood streets and eventually climbed to the top of the hill and rejoined the trail at S. Webster Street. Or I could just do what a lot of people had clearly done, and climb the grassy hill under the power lines. I should point out that there are no fences, no NO TRESPASSING signs, etc. I suspect that the slope was just steeper than could easily have been adapted to accommodate wheelchair users, so the trail was routed around more gradual hills.

The hill was pretty waterlogged and there was a lot of mud in that grass, making climbing surprisingly slow. But I made it to the top with no problems. Looking back it doesn't look super steep, but it was the steepest climb of the day. In the picture below you can clearly see the trail coming down the hill until it meets the road, and then no trail coming up the hill.

But then I was back on track.

The remainder of the trail was much the same. Just a peaceful, mostly traffic free trip through south Seattle. With a lot of hills.

I was almost surprised to come to the end of the trail, but suddenly, there it was.

I crossed 51st Avenue South, and within 5 minutes was on a bus heading back to my car. I opened the back hatch, changed out of my hiking boots, and got into the driver's seat just as the torrential downpour started. How's that for excellent timing?

This was a fun trail, and a great resource for people in the neighborhood. Signage was good, and there are plenty of access points.

Chief Sealth Trail

4.32 miles
336 feet elevation gain