Intro

This blog as might be apparent from the title has to do with running, biking and basically other outdoor individualistic sports, sometimes extreme, such as rock climbing . But don't be surprised if you find articles on work, personal life, music and even philosophy, this blog is an exception in this aspect in the blogosphere of running blogs and I am trying to revamp the blog to make it more runner friendly. You might want to look at the sidebar titled 'categorised', which as is obvious, categorizes my posts into different areas of interest.
The other thing that might interest many people is a section on 'running videos' and 'general videos' on the side bar, which I keep updating now and then.
I plan to bring in more posts on running and biking, with some added colour, so as to make them 'complete'. That's about it for now.
As a post-note, I have run a half-marathon, but I am yet to attempt a marathon, which through some concerted effort and time should happen in the future, but that ofcourse is not the culmination of this blog, it would on the contrary be something to jumpstart this blog onto new vistas.




Thursday, March 27, 2008

Hiking at Wallace falls state park, Gold bar

So I was looking towards North to North-East of Seattle after my little trip to windy Little Si.
I narrowed down on Wallace Falls state park - Infact, almost all places I am hiking at this spring break is from this webpage. Mr. Pinyon has done a great job of putting together places that you could go to for hiking or backpacking with the added condition that they be accessible by the bus-system in seattle.

{\Diversion into bus-systems in Seattle}
So far, I have used the following bus-systems to go around Seattle on different hikes/road trips:
1) The good old King County Metro - Serves the heart of Seattle and also touches the outskirts of Seattle such as North Bend, Carnation, Kent, Bothell, etc.
2) The Sound Transit (named after the Puget Sound River system that form the backwaters of the Pacific): Good point to point service. For example: University district to Everett takes just 32 minutes - a distance of around 25 miles.
I have used the Sound Transit on a biking trip to Lake Kapowsin, where I travelled to Tacoma by bus and biked from there to Lake Kapowsin.
3) The Community Transit: Serves most of the northern outskirts of Seattle with a Hub at Lynwood. Can be used to get to places such as Granite falls and Gold bar.
I took CT 271 to get from Everett to Goldbar (wallace falls state park located here)
Other Transit services I have noticed:

4) Skagit Transit: Used to get around Skagit County with places including Bellingham and Mt. Vernon.
Skagit Connector: This bus (90x) connects two counties: Snohomish County (Everett) and Skagit county.
I could use this bus to access places such as Mt. Vernon or Caymon islands (through a transfer bus), both wonderful places to visit and ot hike. But the only problem is this bus is available during weekdays. This bus also has limited service from Everett Station- early mornings and late afternoons.
5) Island Transit: Can be used to get to beautiful islands North and North-West of Mt. Vernon such as Caymon Islands.

{\End Diversion}

Start:
I started out at 12:30 pm from Seattle. Caught the ST 510 to get to Everett. From there I caught CT 271 to get to Goldbar, this bus takes 1.5 hrs and gives you great views of the infinite mountains that crisscross across this region. Only problem was that it was raining and I had to contend with rain drops on the window of my bus!

Once at Gold Bar, I had to walk for 30 minutes to get to Wallace falls State Park.
Below is a video that describes the walk:



Inside the state park, the first awesome view was of the roaring Wallace river that begin as Wallace falls from the heights of this park. A few rapids on the way made for a delicious and delectable scenery :d



Moving ahead, I went to hike the falls. It took me close to an hour to hike all the way upto the upper falls. I liked the middle falls best, below's a video of the middle falls:


Coming back, I got some great views of the mountains near Goldbar as the sky cleared up. Unfortuantely I screwed up my digicam settings or the camera itself got screwed, so the pics didn't come out well. Suffice to say, this was a great trip despite the persistent rain I had to endure during the trip.

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Kennenisa Bekele with the WR

Robbie Mcewen and steve o'grady - The 'Nudge'