An Auspicious Beginning

It has come to our attention that blogging is a trend of sorts in the trail running and ultra community. Being fans of bandwagon-ery, it was only natural for us to chronicle our own running exploits and impart to you our words of wisdom (debatable), youthful optimism (generally), and witty insight (we are always witty). 

To start off our first post, nothing would be more appropriate than to describe the first post-finals run of Spring Break. 

First off, we rolled out of bed around 7:30am to meet at a bus stop at 8:30am. Sure, it's nothing like a 4am wake-up time that I know some trail runners do, but think about it: 3 college undergrads, just finished finals, it's Spring Break....it begs the question: why weren't you effin' trashed?! Anyhow, we arrived at the Tiger Mt. Trailhead on 2nd Ave in Issaquah around 10am. The plan was to run for about 7 miles, using mostly the trails that I used to run in high school cross-country (my team was incredibly lucky, I know), and we ended up doing just shy of that distance. 

For those of you familiar with the names of the trails, we ran thusly: up Heartbreak, through Adventure, along the Powerline trail until we arrive at the High Point parking lot, did one loop on the Bus trail (named for the weird abandoned bus on the trail...I have no idea how it got into the middle of the woods), and then came back along Swamp and Big Tree. Luckily for us, there were no run-ins with bears or naked hobos, both of which the Tiger Mountains trails are famous for. We did get to see the Ruth Kees Big Tree, which is the largest tree (a Douglas Fir) within the city limits of Issaquah and is estmated to be between 200 and 400 years old. Some of us (::cough:: Soph ::cough) were not very impressed, but I think it's one of good ol' Issy's highlights. 

Overall, the trail was a little muddy and wet in some parts. The trails are like small agility tests, with all the roots and rocks you have to dodge.  It was gorgeous, though, with some misting in the forest. A perfect way to begin Spring Break, I'd say.

Happy (trail) Running!

--Phylly