Yesterday, I was supposed to be running my 2nd 50 Miler at White River (Crystal Mountain). Facing two separate injuries during my training, I was forced to drop that plan. But, I had always wanted to do the Enchantments. I got my stitches out of my knee ~3 weeks ago, and was able to quickly come back. One of my friends messaged me earlier in the week that they were planning to do the Enchantments Saturday. Was I in? Yes! Let’s do it.

My friends are slower, so we discussed two of us would leave our cars at the finish at Snow Lakes Trailhead, then I wouldn’t have to wait for them when I finished earlier. We discussed that they could always turn back at Aasgard if it was too difficult, or they could always stay through the night in their puffer jackets worse-case scenario. We all had headlamps and extra light.

We stayed the night before at the Bavarian Ritz Hotel in Leavenworth, a quick 11 min drive from the Snow Lakes Trailhead. I was out like the dead by 9:30 pm. We wanted to get an early start, but someone took a lot longer than planned. We got to starting at the trailhead at 6:51 am.

I stayed the first 3 miles with my friends, but it took them ~2.5-3 hours just to do those first 3, so I decided it was time to push ahead. At the overlook of Colchuck Lake, I ended up introducing myself to a group of girls who were shooting to finish around the same time as me, 5 pm – 7 pm. I ended up running with them later.

I got to the ascent at Asgaard pass around 9:30-10 am. A quarter of the way up, I refilled my Camelbak at a waterfall stream. A little over half way up, I was out of steam, and needed to stop for lunch. It was sunny, but once you stop, you realize how cold and windy it is. It took me 40 min to scarf down a tuna sandwhich for some reason. Then I felt like I had plenty of energy to carry on.

Towards the top of Aasgard Pass, there were cairns to the left and cairns to the right. I ended up following everyone going to the right. This woman in sandals with her hiking partner commented she thinks we went the wrong or more indirect way. I wondered the same, but at this point we were so close to the top, we decided to continue.

The Enchantments at the top of Aasgard are unworldly beautiful. I saw so many mountain goats and Little Annapurna peak. This section of the hike is the most pleasant, but I kept trucking along except to refill my Camelbak about half way through the Enchantments section. Here I met up with a few women hiking together. I was about 6 hours in. They seemed worried I was alone, so I explained my friends are just slower and both ours cars were parked at the trailhead since I was most likely to finish first. They ended up learning I’m used to running ultras, and was supposed to be running a 50 miler today. They offered to take a photo of me. After awhile I pushed on again. But, this entire day, I really welcomed all the lovely interactions I had with strangers along the way.

Going through the Enchantments and past Tranquil, Isolation, Inspiration, Perfection, Leprechaun, and Vivian Lakes, other than Colchuck Lake, were my most favourite parts of the hike. Here I was with multiple groups of people piggybacking all the way down to the descent to Snow Lakes Trailhead.

The 7,000 ft descent down the Snow Lakes Trailhead was by far my least favourite part of the thru-hike. If I were to ever do this again, I think I’d just hike up Colchuck, Aasgard Pass, and the Enchantments and turn around. Come to think of it, while heading up Aasgard, I met several trail runners/hikers who were doing this who made the comment to me – “You guys are all in for a very long day.” Now I know exactly what they meant.

Before Nadas Lake view, a whole bunch of us took the wrong way down a very steep descent to the Snow Lakes Trail. It was not easy on anyone’s knees.

At Snow Lakes, I ran into 3 women backpackers who said they had been hiking since 9 am to get to Snow Lakes from the Snow Lakes Trailhead, and thought it had been 9 miles. My watch had me at 16 miles at this point. I thought, “This was supposed to be a 17.5 – 18.5 mile trip. What the hell!?” It was now turning into a 25 mile hike. I bumped into and piggybacked the trail with a group of guys who said they were only at 12 miles. I wondered if maybe taking the right instead of left at Aasgard somehow added 4 miles to my trip. I started running because although I was prepared for the dark, I had no desire at all to be stuck out there in the dark. A few girls I descended that wrong turn with, caught up with me and started run/hiking too.

For awhile I was alone on the Snow Lakes Trailhead descent. The wind was blowing and sounded very eerie. I kept pushing to descend faster, not wanting to be out there at night. My legs still felt pretty good. Here two more groups of people, including the girls I was with at mile ~6 at the top of Colchuck Lake, and a few people I had seen on other parts of the trail, started running with me, and said I inspired them to run. It was nice to have the company for a while on that brutal descent, but they passed me about 2 miles from the end. I kept checking my map, noticed I had signal and a message from my husband checking in on me, when I’d be home and if I wanted something warm for dinner (Yes, please!). I estimated maybe I had a mile and a half. It turned out to be 5 more miles. Those last 1.5 miles, I just wanted it to be over. My legs finally were tired. I finished at 6:40 pm, for almost 12 hours total.

Stats:

First 21.20 miles: Strava; last 2.72 miles: MapMyRun

It was a total of ~25 miles between my Garmin (which died at mile 21) and MapMyRun on my phone. It took me 11 hours 49 min total.

My packing list

I went with running trail running sneakers instead of hiking boots. I think this was the right call for me. I do not do well with hiking boots on long descents like that; my toes just get mashed. And it was nice to have the flexibility to run, plus my trail runners grip better on gravel and rock than my boots. I did bring an extra pair of socks. After stepping into a stream by accident, I did change them at mile 18 and my feet were very happy about this.

Definitely used my poles way more than normal. Even used my Yaktrax (though only threw 1 on to easily put on/off) on a couple slippery snow areas.