Miguel, a buddy that I met running 2022 Val d'Aran in Spain, came up to Washington (from Los Angeles) to run the Copper Ridge Trail, an epic 34 mile loop in the Northern Cascades, about 3 hours northeast of Seattle near the Canadian border. I thought this run would be a great training run for my upcoming Pine to Palm 100M in early September so agreed to run the trail with him. Couple days before the run, however, we learned that the weather was going to be rather unpleasant around Copper Ridge so decided to run the Mount Rainier Northern Loop Trail instead.
The Northern Loop Trail is a combination of the Northern Trail and Wonderland Trail. Starting from the Sunrise trailhead, you can take the Northern Trail to the Carbon Canyon River Valley where it meets the Wonderland Trail. Taking the Wonderland Trail back to Sunrise will complete a 32 mile loop with close to 10K of vertical gain that provides amazing view of Mount Rainier and surrounding area. Alternatively, you can take the Wonderland Trail to the Carbon Canyon River Valley and return on the Northern Trail, running the loop clockwise.
We started out at 3:30AM on a Saturday from West Seattle and arrived at the Sunrise Visitor Center at around 5:45AM just as sun was beginning to rise - perfect timing! I got out of the car to take in the fresh mountain air and, ooooooh, cold air and even colder wind. The temperature was in mid 40's but felt much colder with cold mountain air blowing hard across the parking lot. I wondered what I got myself into...I hate running in the cold. Miguel assured me that this was going to be the coldest point in the run as we'll quickly warm up after we started running (he was right).
We geared up and after taking an obligatory picture at the start with rising sun's ray on Mount Rainier on the background we started out on the trail.
The trail started from the trailhead with a slight vertical, about 600 ft, but quickly turned into a downhill single track to the Northern Trail and Wonderland Trail junction, which was little over 2 miles from the start. From this point, you could either go straight to stay on the Northern Trail, running the loop counterclockwise, or turn left to run the loop clockwise, starting on Wonderland Trail and coming back via Northern Trail. We decided to go straight, running the Northern Loop Trail counterclockwise.
Pass the junction, the trail is a trail runner's paradise: amazing view of mountains and landscape every couple minutes, a perfectly "manicured" single track (or as Miguel puts it: a "carpeted" trail) with just enough downward slope for gravity to be your friend, and a fresh set of legs! The section was so fun that I got little carried away and lost my balance, falling and scrapping my knee on the ground. Little blood, but no time to lose; there's more pristine trail to cover! We quickly came across the Lodi Creek which runs parallel to the trail for couple miles before veering left to eventually merge with White River.
A quick note: depending on the weather and/or how much water you are carrying, you might want to drink and refill your water at Lodi Creek as the next available water, without making a detour into a camp site, is at White River crossing at mile 10.
Staying on the trail, we passed the Berkeley Camp (at 4.5 mile from Sunrise) where we saw couple backpackers who were trying to get their day started. Shortly after the camp, there was a slight climb of about a mile before the forest opened up to a beautiful open meadow (Grant Park) that stretched for miles. It was amazing to see a meadow like this at almost 6,000ft high.
From Grant Park, it was a long decent of about 2,500 ft over 4 miles on a single track down to White River. The trail got more technical with more rocks and tree branches protruding from the ground but it was still a runnable section. As we got closer to the valley, the trail became steeper and the roar of White River got louder, signaling that we were near the valley. The trail abruptly ended heading into a field of dead trees and logs. It took us little time to get our bearing but we eventually found a man-made bridge to cross the river (courtesy of the Park Service!) after following the river downstream for couple minutes, climbing over tree logs and rocks.
On the other side of the river, the trail's bit ambiguous without clearly marked path, but we found our way by following a series of man-made rock formations (see the picture of neatly stacked rocks) made by previous hikers and runners that led us to Van Horn Falls (fresh drinking water spot).
From Van Horn Falls began the first of three climbs needed to get back to Sunrise. The climb started with a series of switchbacks that eventually took us over 2,600 ft over 3 miles, passing Lake James and peaking at incredible Windy Gap. The climb wasn't too difficult with few short runnable sections along the way and the view of fog-covered mountain range from Windy Gap was a good reward for the climb.
From Windy Gap, it's a 3 mile descent down to Wonderland Trail junction, passing Yellowstone Cliffs. Here, I took a wrong turn and ended up in the Yellowstone Cliffs Campsite that added unnecessary distance to my run.
Couple quick notes/advises:
Don't follow the direction into a campsite on this trail as camps are usually little ways off the trail. So if you end up in a camp, you are likely off-course so find your way back.
Invest in AllTrail Pro app ($30 per year) if you are planning on doing a lot of trail runs - I would have been in a big trouble without this app. It provides you with live trail location (even in an Airplane Mode) so that you can find your way back on to the trail if you are ever lost. $30 a year is a worthwhile investment for a trail runner.
After finding my way back onto the trail using my AllTrail Pro app, I continued down towards Wonderland Trail junction.
The 3 mile descent to Wonderland Trail consisted of steep switchbacks that were on a well-maintained trail, which was too much temptation not to pick up pace and stretch out my legs. I was cruising along, running close to a 10 min/mile pace, but after a while I started to notice little agitation developing on the outside of my right knee, the same location as my knee problem that developed during Val d'Aran in July. The pain grew and grew with each step and by the time I got to the Wonderland junction, the pain was undeniable.
Miguel was waiting for me when I arrived at the junction having gone ahead before the Windy Gap. We sat here for several minutes checking our gear, eating and chatting about the run so far - according to Miguel, there was a black mama bear with cubs on the trail on his way down, which I missed thankfully. Sometimes it pays to be slow!
The run so far had net descent of over 4,000 ft across 17 miles, which meant that there was going to be a lot more climbing to get back home. About a mile into Wonderland Trail, we passed the Carbon Canyon Bridge, which according to many is a must experience even if you are not using it to get to the campsite. We didn't cross the suspension bridge this time, but I'm sure I will next time.
The trail quickly turned into a steep technical climb with loose sharp rocks, but with amazing close-up view of the Carbon Glacier to the right. This was the most technical and painful climb of the course. We lost the view of Carbon Glacier about half way up the mountain as we entered a thick forest, but the pain (and uphill climb) remained until we got close to the Mystic Lake where trail stabilized and took us along the lake before eventually turning into a downhill to Winthrop Creek, another fast moving creek that we had to cross using a wooden bridge. I lost lot of time on this short descent from Mystic Lake to Winthrop Creek as my knee pain was becoming unbearable downhill, forcing me to use my hiking poles to control my steps as each right step down was accompanied by agonizing pain.
Immediately after crossing Winthrop Creek, it was the final climb of the day: 2,300 ft over 3 miles. By this time, I've been on the trail for several hours so the combination of fatigue, hunger and knee pain made this section difficult. Eventually, after climbing up through several switchbacks, I got to the mountain top and saw a long downhill track leading back to the Northern Loop Trail and Wonderland Trail junction that I passed several hours ago.
Before I could get to the finish though, I had to endure through another painful downhill run. I tried to focus and concentrate on using my poles to help take some pressure off my right knee. It was painful, but I was struggling along...and then suddenly, I stopped! There was a black bear grazing in the field in front of me. My first instinct after stopping was to check the surrounding area for cubs. Left, right, up and down...thankfully, I didn't see any. Then, I slowly moved back to give the bear more space while constantly checking my surrounding for any signs of other bears. The bear looked up and gave me a puzzling look for several seconds and then slowly wandered off into the thick forest. I waited for couple more minutes to make sure that he was gone and continued on my run, looking back frequently to make sure that the bear hasn't changed its mind.
Soon I arrived back at the Northern Trail and Wonderland Trail junction. I continued to shuffled along knowing that the finish about about 2 miles away. Several minutes later, I saw the Frozen Lake to my left. It's getting closer, I thought. Shortly after, I saw the Sunrise parking lot through the tree line. I'm almost home! I arrive at Sunrise parking lot few minutes later exhausted and hungry. Finally, the run was over after 11 hours!
I'm really glad that I ran this course for few reasons. First, the landscape was stunningly beautiful. Despite living in Seattle, I haven't spent much time in Mount Rainier and this opportunity opened my eyes to the beauty of this mountain.
Second, the Northern Trail Loop is a great training course for ultramarathons with quad-busting 10,000 ft of vertical spread over 32 miles. It's not easy finding trails with this much elevation gain so I'll likely use this course in future to prepare for mountain ultras.
Finally, I got to test-out my knee and found that it needs more healing. Not sure what I need to do: physical therapy, deep tissue massage, strength exercise, rest, or just try to build callus around the pain point by stressing it more...But, it's clear it needs more work.
For the readers, I would highly recommend the Northern Loop Trail for the reasons listed above. Even if you are not a trail runner, you could still enjoy the beauty of Mount Rainier by doing a shorter 5 or 10 mile run/hike. For example, from the Sunrise parking lot to Berkeley Camp is only 4 miles (8 miles round trip) but you'll still get to view and enjoy sites like Mount Rainier, Mount Fremont, Skyscraper Mountain and Frozen Lake, not to mention breathtaking panoramic view of stunning landscapes surrounding the area. If you have a day to spare when you are in Seattle area, definitely check out this spot!
Kommentarer