Summer Running – McAlester Pass Loop

The pacific northwest has been stuck in a pretty rough heat wave lately, with temps in the upper 80s. It’s definitely in contrast to our usual June temperatures, which we PNW-ers both begrudgingly and endearingly tend to call June-uary.

Typically the rest of the country enjoys the summer heat and lazy poolside weekends while we’re stuck here in the 60s and 70s, under grey weather and a steady stream of on-again, off-again classic Seattle mist.

The grey also brings more rain to the mountains, and when summer “officially” starts, after July 4th, hikers, climbers, trail runners, mountaineers, and everyone else starts their summer adventures off with swollen creek crossings, lingering snowfields, and washed out forest roads.

That’s not really the case this year. The hotter temps, drier spring, and low snowpack means that creeks are already drying up, and a lot of trail and route options that typically aren’t open until much later in the summer are all for the taking now.

Our original plans  were to head south and run near Mount St. Helens, but Katy put it best: “maybe we don’t want to be turned into fried eggs on lava beds.” The route we planned in that area would be pretty exposed, and there were warnings of Thunderstorms for the area.

We opted to head north, to North Cascades National Park, where we’ve wanted to run for a while now anyway.

Friday night was a traffic-delayed drive to full campgrounds left and right. We eventually found a spot at Lone Fir Campground on the east side of Washington Pass. This worked out great, as the route we last-minute planned was closer to that campground anyway.

The goal was to run the less-popular  McAlester Pass-RainbowLake backpacking route: a 31 mile loop, mostly in shade, with plenty of water on route.

The climb to McAlester Pass was cool, gradual, and in beautiful forest. The pass lacked some of the dramatic Cascade views that some other NCNP mountain passes offer, but the meadows were nonetheless fun to run through.

The route then descended under the shadows of Rainbow Ridge and along Rainbow Creek, which we crossed multiple times. We turned west, following the trail up to Rainbow Lake before climbing another, unnamed, though more beautiful/dramatic pass between Rainbow Lake and Bowan Mountain.

McAlester Pass – fun running.

Katy starting the descend towards Rainbow Creek after McAlester Pass.

Running through some awesome, fast single track past Bowen camps.

Rainbow Lake. Should have probably dipped in this lake, but we opted to keep moving.

Katy starting down the pass towards Bridge Creek after ascending above Rainbow Lake

Katy running down the pass past Rainbow Lake.

We finished the route by continuing on the trail west until it crossed Bridge Creek (which proved to be a difficult crossing in waste-deep, fast moving water — Katy and I crossed carefully together) and rejoined the PCT.

The last 7 miles back to the car along the PCT were the most difficult part of the run — it was about 95 degrees, in the sun, with walls of heavy brush on either side of us. The plants kept things humid and made the air feel stagnant. It was not easy to keep our pace up.

Overgrown brush was generally a challenge throughout the day. Especially between Rainbow Lake and Bridge Creek, stinging nettles and thorny weeds so thick that we couldn’t see our feet kept our pace slow and legs hurting. On the bright side, the slower pace kept us slightly cooler, so we weren’t overheating on a weekend that social media later suggested was full of heat exhaustion.

We finished the 33 miles right around 3:30pm (we added 2 miles at the begining of the route when we got off track). We drove back to our camp, and soaked in the cold-water Pine Creek that ran through the campground. The rejuvenation of sitting in a snow-fed creek after a long run in 95 degree weather is the best reward a tired body can ask for.

Cool beers, a delicious dinner, and relaxing commenced. It was a great way to round out the weekend.

Tools of the trade. Not a bad way to break in new pairs of Scotts and Altras.

Good livin’ at the campsite. The sun did a number on my neck.