Well, the temps were forecasted to cool off, so I knew Saturday was my day to do this loop - very few tackle it because it’s a long boring first climb to the top - about 7 miles of constant uphill, of which 4 miles is a service road, with over 4600 feet of climbing. But once you get to the peak, then you begin an amazing adventure on three single track trails that make up the loop in the screenshot. 

So how did I make that long climb fun?  Well, I started at 6am and there were no cars in the main parking lot… so I took off all my clothes and did the entire run/hike to the top with my clothes in my pack 🫣 It was an hour and 45 minutes in the buff.

After a while, I got over the nervousness!  When I got to the lake at the top, I definitely got nervous again, as there are campers that access it from the south.  As I carefully crested the trail by the camping area, I was ready to duck into the bushes to put in shorts if needed, but nobody was there.

After a few photos, I decided to put my clothes on, and literally 45 seconds later, three hunters appeared on the trail coming towards me… that was close!   

It was very slow going as the trails on the loop (in the screenshot) were quite technical, were also overgrown at the lower elevation, not marked at the higher elevation, and two sections were descending or climbing all of the way.

Regardless, I ended up just shy of 25 miles and 7,438 feet of elevation gain (and a similar amount of descent).

It was an epic day of fun!

Bigger day of trailrunning