Poo Poo Point 12-20-09

I had one more hike scheduled to reach my last goal of the year, hiking up 10 miles in elevation. I had about 1000' left to go - piece of cake. Well, it would have been a piece of cake if I hadn't gotten the flu Friday. I stayed home from work and lounged around that day, sleeping a lot with a slight fever. I had two cans of soup, some fruit snacks, a handful of chocolate, and a banana between Friday and Saturday. Needless to say I was running a little low on energy. I downed a banana and sandwich before I left for my hike, hoping to get some energy from that. I had never driven through the downtown portion of Issaquah and besides the ridiculously slow speed limits, it was really cute! The trailhead was near the Issaquah high school and I found a very small parking lot just passed that with what looked like a trail. There were no signs but after consulting the map on my new phone, it looked correct. It had been lightly raining so after putting on my rain pants, I hit the trail just before noon.

Soon after starting, I knew this was going to be a tough hike. I really was pretty weak still but I was determined to meet my goal. In my head I figured I would just hike slower but apparently I only know one speed, so I eventually just started taking a lot of breaks. After hiking about 0.78 miles, I reached the first real junction. I had apparently been hiking on the High School trail - appropriately named since it started at Issaquah High School. I took the fork that listed Poo Poo Point trail as one of the many that direction. Not even a tenth of a mile later and I came to the junction with Poo Poo Point. It was this little ratty trail leading to the right but I followed. Soon the trail entered the woods and became a wider trail that looked more well traveled.

I found a few nice logs along the way to sit and take a break. The beginning of the hike was pretty quiet but I finally met a few groups. I got to an elevation of 1150' (my goal was to reach 1200') and was excited I had made it so far since I had had some serious doubts throughout the whole hike. The last 50' took forever though because the trail decided to level off, so I had to hike further than I had hoped. I did encounter a large bridge spanning the cascade falls so I guess the extra distance ended up working out. Finally the elevation on my GPS read 1200' and I knew that I had hiked up 1000' and reached my 10 mile goal! I promptly turned around to head back to my car, and met several groups on the way down. The early rain and clouds had given way to some blue in the sky and some sunshine sneaking through the trees. Luckily going down takes so much less effort so I didn't need to take any breaks. I was glad to get back to the car though and head home. More rest for me!

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