August 23:Clearcuts and Runners

Today we entered the clearcuts. The last 40-50 miles or so into Snoqualmie Pass is littered with these patches of forest that have been clearcut. Not only are they ugly from a distance, but when you walk through them, they are overgrown and could be really hot depending on the weather. Luckily for us, the weather was fairly mild, so it wasn't really too bad.

We got about 12-15 miles in (just past Blowout Mtn) when we ran into a guy who told us a race was going on today. It's called the Cascade Crest 100-mile Endurance Run, and about 100 runners start this race and run 100 mils straight. The average time is 28-30 HOURS of running. They run straight through the night and eveything. They are on the PCT for just a part of the race, and it just so happened to be the section of trail that we were walking today!

For most of the afternoon we were stepping off the trail to let these runners by. They were all very curteous, and many were interested in what we were doing (well, as interested as you can be as you run by).

The trail through this area is pretty steep; in fact, parts are some of the steepest trail we've had outside of Yosemite. Many of the runners would walk the steep or long uphills and run the flats and downhills. At one point the trail was so steep that we passed a couple of the runners (that had just passed us) as they trudged up the hill!

The bonus was that they had all kinds of stations along the way, and we hit the last one not long before it was going to close. They gave us a green light to eat whatever we wanted, so we loaded up on fresh fruit, sandwiches, and even hot soup! It was fun to hang out there for a bit as well, because as runners came in, everyone cheered them on as they grabbed some food, water, headlamps, etc, and headed back out.

I made the comment at one point that I would hate to run 100 miles at one time, and Mark's reply was, "That's what most people would say about hiking for 4 months straight!" Ok. He's got a point. To each his own.

We only had 2 miles left to hike, where we joined up with the rest of the crew camping on an abandoned gravel road. We fell asleep to the sound of the last few runners pounding on by.

Total Miles:2385.3
Miles Today:30.2
Camp 118:Another Mouse

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