Running Blanchard Mountain
Blanchard Mountain – The only place where the Cascades connect to the salt water.
photo courtesy of www.blanchardmountain.org
As I have talked about I am training for some marathons. The list keeps growing as I have added a few more to my schedule. Well since two of them are mountain trail marathons I knew that I needed to do some mountain training. So off to Blanchard Mountain I went. A friend who is even more running crazy than I showed me the way. Blanchard Mountain is a popular hiking spot, but not a spot most would think of to go running. We had over 2400 feet of ascent and were running for over three hours. Not a spot to work on a fast pace. Footing was not always sure and at times we were climbing reaching up with our hands. A truly great run. Very few people, but those that we did see were happy and kind. Being in the great outdoors seems to create happiness. We ran past Lilly Lake and Lizard Lake doing what we estimated to be a 12 mile loop. Remember how I said it took over three hours. Under my normal running pace a 12 mile run would take less than 2 hours. Click on this elevation graph of my run and you will see why it took so much longer.
We ran past a view point that is used regularly to launch hang gliders. The view was incredible. I could see Samish Island, Guemes, Cypress, Lummi, Orcas, Vendovi, Sinclair, and other islands. Absolutely stunning.
Here is some of the scenery. I can’t wait to go back for another run!
Lily Lake
Notice the hydration pack. We each drank about 2 liters of water on this run
Hopefully I labeled it properly.
Check out the tanker ship for some idea of scale.
I’ve probably mislabeled some of this, but hopefully not.
There is a bit of controversy over Blanchard Mountain as there is some proposed logging that is set to be done there in the future. It would be sad to lose this recreational gem to logging. However logging this mountain is part of it’s history. As we ran we could see evidence left behind of past logging. Stumps with springboard holes and various cables left behind from years past. I hope they don’t log it, but I am not very educated on all the facts.
photo courtesy of www.blanchardmountain.org
