whose hearts are mountains

I love trail running! Although sometimes I feel like I should call it “accelerated hiking” rather than running, based on my average pace. It’s hard for me to run up really steep, long hills without wearing myself out, plus some trails are so rocky I roll my ankle if I go too fast. There is no shortage of beautiful trails around Whidbey Island. Coming from Florida, it’s absolutely amazing. I really can’t describe how much happier I am living in Washington, with its beautiful mountains and lack of extreme heat and humidity, than Florida. To be fair, you can do a lot of kayaking, fishing, water sports, and maybe even surfing in Florida, but those aren’t as much fun to me. I’ll take the mountains over the beach any day! Of course in Whidbey you get both but it’s too cold to go swimming! I’m sure there are many people who feel the opposite especially with some of the cold, dreary weather we get here.

Anyways, a couple weekends ago I decided to do trail running instead of hiking. First I went to Fort Ebey State Park to run along the Bluff trail. I had looked it up online and it seemed like a pretty, relatively flat trail that was over 5 miles round trip. Of course it turned out that there are two different bluff trails and I ended up at a different one! It was very pretty but I was a bit surprised when it ended at 1.3 miles, which would make only a 2.6 mile round trip!

I’d wanted to go at least 5 miles, so I had to decide where to go to get extra mileage. Luckily they posted trail maps at most of the intersections. Unfortunately most of them didn’t have topographical lines, so I was unaware that the path I chose went into a very steep downhill into a ravine and then back up! This is where my hip first started to bother me. I did this run the day after snowshoeing, so another weekend of back to back activities! It’s been three weeks and it still bothers me when I run more than a couple miles, so I might need to put running/hiking on the back burner for a bit. Plus I’m going to focus on hip and ab strengthening exercises.

Anyways, I managed to fit in 5 miles by stringing together some other trails. There’s also a lot of mountain bikers around here but I could usually hear them coming so it wasn’t a problem to get off the trail so they could pass. I will definitely come back to this park for more trail running though!

The next weekend I went back to the Anacortes Community Forest Lands for a run. However this time I wanted it to be flat since my hip flexor hurt the most going uphill. I thought that I’d given it enough rest that this run would be fine but clearly not! I ended up going 7.3 miles which was probably more than I should have done. I don’t have pictures because this route was not as pretty. I did a loop around Cranberry Lake and then another out and back. The only annoying thing about running in the ACFL is that there are so many interconnecting trails! Every 0.2 miles I’d have to stop and pull out my map to figure out which trail to take. Next time I might plan out my route ahead of time in more detail and write all the turns on my hand.

I’m beginning to think about trying out a trail race in the near future. There’s a half marathon in the Deception Pass park in April that I might try out. I’ll be gone for three months starting in mid-May so I’d like to do something before I leave.

This was such a beautiful day! While Whidbey Island doesn’t get nearly as much actual rainfall as you’d think, there are still many dreary winter days with a light mist.

I don’t really mind clouds but it does make you appreciate the sun that much more! I decided to try out some trails in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands.

It’s a dense network of trails that you really do need a map to navigate, which I bought at a small store nearby. Most of the trails are pretty short but there’s so many of them and so many junctions that it would be easy to get lost.

I decided to hike up to the top of Mt. Erie and apparently Sugarloaf was another nice view along the way. Mt. Erie is the highest point on Fidalgo island and while there is a road to the top, it’s much more rewarding to hike to get there.

I pretty much followed the WTA description of which trails to take to get to Mt. Erie. The trail starts flat and begins to climb soon after.

There are a lot of trails that converge on the Sugarloaf viewpoint but after wandering a bit I found it. I was actually quite shocked at how amazing the views were!

The visibility on this day was fantastic! I also had the entire area to myself on a Sunday morning, and later I found out that the Seahawks game might have had something to do with that.

After enjoying the scenery and solitude for a bit, I continued on to Mt. Erie. The trail was relatively flat for a while but obviously as I got closer to the mountain it got pretty steep.

Reaching the top is a bit underwhelming at first because you come to a parking lot… but it didn’t take me long to find the amazing views!

I love the views of the water and islands, with the backdrop of snow-capped mountains. Of course as always, the pictures don’t do it justice.

There’s a couple of viewpoints at the top and some placards describing the landscape. I really can’t believe that such a great network of trails is so close to   my house!

And there are a few more state parks with lots of trails even closer! It’s a trail runner and hiker’s dream.

I normally love hikes that are very steep uphill and lead to a beautiful view, but this one was especially brutal for some reason. I think that maybe running 6 miles (farthest I’ve gone in a long time) followed by a very steep 5+ mile round trip hike the next day was just too much for my body. It was definitely a fantastic hike but my legs were not happy with me by the end. I wanted to do this hike because it was a long weekend, so I wanted to venture a little further away from home. However I was also aware of the fact that a lot of the mountains inland had gotten snow recently, and I did not have any gear for hiking in snow. Luckily the snow at this trail was all melted the day I went up.

This hike was actually rather difficult to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for. It starts along the Pacific Northwest Trail and the trailhead is on Chuckanut Drive. There is no parking lot, just room for parking on the shoulder. I passed by it at first and had to turn around and come back. I also had no service out here which led to my husband being a bit worried about me for a while! Anyways it’s a very unassuming trailhead and begins by switchbacking up a very steep hill.

 

After about a mile, there’s a nice view with a bench. Rain was threatening all morning but luckily it stayed mostly dry.

The trail continued uphill most of the way. At one point it becomes very steep and there was some trail maintenance halfway done to turn it into switchbacks. This was the only time I got confused because I wasn’t sure if the switchbacks led to a different trail at first. There were a couple other places where the trail split into two paths but would converge not long after. There was also one larger stream that you have to cross and I ended up balancing on some small logs that spanned the water. Even without the views, I love the forests here in the Pacific Northwest; the trees are enormous and the ground is so spongy with pine needles! Finally I got to the top!

The view was very pretty. I could see Anacortes across the water. It was too cold and windy for me to stay long, however, so I headed back down after taking some pictures. Sometimes I feel like a long downhill section is worse than uphill because it’s so much more pounding on your legs! Eventually I got back down and got some tasty Chipotle in Burlington! Overall a fantastic hike and highly recommended.