GW890-13aug2022-Run/Hike the Rattlesnake-North Bend WA

“I'm running free yeah, oh I'm running free”~Iron Maiden-Running Free Run the Rattlesnake…12ish-miles with 2800-feet of ascent. Pretty even split between trail running/hiking. My hiker/yoga buddy is rehab’ing after hip surgery and returning to calling the Saturday shots for epic local hikes. Today he chose Rattlesnake Mountain, offering me an opportunity to hike for a few miles with him and two other friends, with a cool option for me to break away and run solo trails west to a trailhead where they would drive to and meet me. Normally, you won’t catch me anywhere near Rattlesnake Mt/Lake on a Saturday - one of the most over-populated hiker routes in the State. But I knew from previous experience here (last run/hike in 2020?), that 95% of fair-weather hikers only go up 2-miles to the lowest trail ledge lookout, get the selfie and then head back to the lake on the same trail. I also knew that from this point heading west, was 8-miles of pristine, serene trail that was calling my name. So…a nice casual rehab hike for Bill (4-miles RT) and then they drove around to rendezvous w/me at the other end of the trail. I had some slowish power-hiking up the inclines and of course photo-op stops, yet my friends only had about 15-minutes of wait time at the far trailhead before I came cruising in to meet them. And what a wonderful cruise it was. Pretty much the last 4-miles is trail butter on the descent. I opened up my stride and was flying along. So much trail runner enjoyment! And where as my hiker bud’s were mixed in with literally hundreds of weekend hikers on their 2-miles back to the lake, I encountered only about a dozen people in my final 10K of west-bound trails.