Mount Catherine- my fifth time summiting this mountain and always a real treat in doing so. I spent the last 30 days or so off the trails and on the pavement running and the stair master as well as the gym trying to stay in optimal shape from last months Baker climb and it's really been paying off. I needed the time away from the mountains to reset and recharge after pending a few days in the North Cascades and I'm happy to have checked the weather and see that there's still quite a bit of warm weather left to go hiking before all the rain and snow starts, (which I'm also excited for).
I don't recall the service road being too terrible on my last few times up to the trailhead but the washboarding this time around just about shook the teeth out of my head. Coffee went spilling out all over my cupholders, it was so bad. The potholes in the very beginning have seemed to get progressively worse and the ruts down the middle of the road closer to the trailhead have deepened as well. This service road gets quite a bit of use being that there's nearly four trailheads on it, so maybe the forest service will send a grader up and put in some work to smooth the ride up a little bit.
The small pullout in front of the trailhead was full so I parked a few feet back into another small pull out and got started. I took it slow at first, trying to regain my trail legs but after gaining the ridge, I took off. I passed five people coming down and made the summit in about 45 minutes. The smoke was definitely inundating the area but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm always appreciative of these beginner hikes to help regain my endurance and strength after being away from the trails for a month.
Trail conditions were near perfect- very dry, no downed trees or any major obstacles. One thing to note is; it seemed that some trail work was done in the first few hundred feet as the rock bed had been smoothed out to create a dirt trail. No more having to walk on rocks and risk rolling an ankle.
I spent quite a bit of time on the summit taking pictures, reflecting and just enjoying being outside on a mountain summit again. I was back to the trailhead in about 30 minutes passing three more people as they were headed up. I had brought some cold weather gear 'just in case' but I was down to base layers once I reached the summit. It was warm!
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