Enchanting Shag Carpets

On Sunday I headed up to the Enchantments with Seattle Running Company. Wow. I had never been there and have always wanted to go. I was a bit hesitant because I thought I wouldn't be able to keep up with all the fast people and I knew it would be an all day event and yada yada yada. The night before I kept having dreams that my toe fell off and I had no balance for running. In my dream I kept looking at the space where my toe was meant to be and wondering just when it fell off and bummed that it would not grow back. I woke up at one point and thought to myself, this must be a sign that I shouldn't go. But when I woke up at 5:30, without an alarm, I thought, well surely this is a sign that I should go. So I got up, walked Struth, made coffee, grabbed my bag and was off.
On the ride to Leavenworth I was in the SRC van with about 6 others and the time passed quickly as we were all talking and made some stops to pick people up on the way. In no time we were at the Snow Lake parking lot where we dropped off a few cars and loaded up the remaining cars to head to the Asgard Pass Trail head. Scott trying to round us up here get our running stuff together....it was COLD!
We mushed into 2 cars from about 4, so it was a crowded 6 miles to the trail head were were starting from.
It was pretty cold but I decided to wear shorts and bring plenty of layers, a windbreaker and LOTS of food. We were a pretty good sized group, maybe 15 or 20, but of various different speeds which made the 8 party limit easy to accommodate.

So off we went...running up towards Asgard Pass. I was trying to take pictures and trying to keep up with Wendy WJ, Ponytail Glen and Linda. My photos didn't turn out too well at this part as I was concentrating on keeping up. I have a hard time starting on a hill, so I was panting like crazy. I purposely did not wear my HR monitor because I didn't want to know how fast my heart was beating.
Too bad there were No Dogs allowed....I was missing Struthie, but thanks to friend Cari, he was being well taken care of. . . !
We ran and walked through such beauty. I was so excited to finally experience the Enchantments. I can see why it is called the Enchantments.
I came across a bridge that goes SOMEWHERE...

And that somewhere was Asgard Pass. Wow, what a climb. There were times when I needed my hands and feet, times when I thought I was headed in the right direction, (but was not), thanks to Wendy for yelling down to me to tell me which zig zag way to get to the top of the very windy Asgard Pass.
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There were some great views on the way up.




Finally...got to the top of Asgard Pass and turns out, I had just missed seeing a mountain goat. I remember seeing a bunch on my backpacking trip at Ingall's Lake, was hoping to see some here, but the views were so spectacular that missing a goat was no big deal.
Linda, Jonathon and I ran from Asgard Pass from rock to rock, lake to lake, stream to stream and through what inspired 70's shag carpeting. No kidding. The leaves on the trees littered the trail with the most brilliant colors and textures. I was continually amazed at what I saw and stopped regularly to snap a few photos, some turned out a little crooked as I was multi-tasking. But here's some of those sights to see.

We had plenty to drink thanks to Scott's filter, which is giardia proof.

As we reached the forested decent running switch back after switchback, I was still running through brillinat colors and snowcapped mountains.
After we were all done running, some of us headed to Gustuv's for dinner. Linda and I celebrated with what else...an Enchantment Ale! Delicious.
It was a great day running, with amazing views, fun people which led to a awesome night's sleep and some stiff legs on Monday. What more could I ask for????