Holder Creek, Holder Knob, Carey Creek Trail & Boot Trail — Sunday, May. 21, 2017

I headed to Taylor Mountain hoping to explore an area that's new to me and get at least ten miles in. Based on the map, it looks like there's a nice loop that you can make by linking the Holder Creek and Holder Ridge trails with some of the gravel roads. Unfortunately after about a mile on the Holder Creek trail, it ends at the creek. There's an unmaintained trail that goes up the riverbank, but it's clearly not a continuation of the trail. It's best to heed the advice of a little girl I passed who said "you probably don't want to go there." I tried crossing the creek to a little island, but couldn't see where the trail continued on the other side, so I backtracked to try out Holder Ridge. The rest of the run had fewer navigational mishaps. The combination of rolling hills without a lot of gain and smooth-ish horse trails made it possible to actually get up to "running" pace, which was nice. In certain damp sections of trail, the horses have made things quite messy, but they're not difficult to get through. The walk up Holder Knob had just the briefest glimpses of Rainier, giving me hope that there might be a clearing at the top with some views (there wasn't). Continued on down Whiskey Still and Boot and took a left down Carey Creek. There's a short creek crossing on Carey Creek and a major blow down just west of the SE trailhead, but I didn't have any issues navigating it. There were some riders past it as well, so I assume horses can manage as well. From the SE corner, in headed back to the trailhead via the gravel roads which made for some more nice running and some pleasant conversation with a passing rider. Just a little over ten miles on the day and 1400' of gain.