An Unexpected Guest Joined Me For a Trail Run Recently

I've been trail running a lot over the past year or so, and out of nowhere, my daughter Alina asked if she could come with me, so last Friday, we played hooky from Zoom University (aka: Zoom Skool) and ran together. We ran ~1 mile to a massive landslide off of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie trail (whose official status is "Currently closed due to a massive landslide") and spent some time exploring:

Landslides Are Difficult To Photograph When They're Really Large

She did awesome. It was ~225 feet of elevation gain across 1 mile .. it was a great first run:

Best Running Companion Ever

A little trivia for that area: about 0.7 miles into that run, you pass underneath a wickedly steep cliff... it's about 1,200 feet high and nearly perfectly vertical. Turns out, the top is Stegosaurus Butte, a hike that's only 1.1 miles long but is 1,200 feet of elevation gain (making it ideal for conditioning if you're short on time):

Standing Tall, Below Stegosaurus Butte, On the Middle Fork Trail

I tried to get perspective on how steep it is by cramming my face into this photo .. you can kind of get a sense of how steep it is:

Perspective? Maybe. Maybe Not.

Also, can confirm "massive": the landslide is longer than the length of a football field (including end zones) and the amount of damage is stunning. This photo doesn't do it justice, but you can get a sense of the damage looking to my left, where the entire trail has been washed out and now there's a 40' drop:

The Landslide Is Longer Than a Football Field

Also, here's a cool shot of a tree whose days are numbered. There are sections of this trail that do appear to be unstable (as of March, 2021).

It's a Little Scary To Stand Underneath This Tree

Here's a gratuitious landscpe shot. This trail gets nicer and nicer as you run further and further. Past Cripple Creek it's incredibly verdent, remote, and very quiet:

Garfield Mountain On a Clear and Lovely Day