After I graduate this spring I'll have one or two months to chill before moving off to Colorado for graduate school. I have a couple of ultras lined up (Mountains to Sound, White River 50, and perhaps a 50K or two), but I've decided to travel around Washington and potentially Oregon and go for trail runs in as many places as possible. This may be an ad-hoc trip with minimal planning, sort of a travel-as-much-as-I-feel-each-day thing.
My plan is to drive from Seattle to the Olympic Peninsula and hit two or three big trail runs I've been meaning to try: Hurricane Ridge, the Hoh Rain Forest, and possibly a run along the Pacific and Strait of Juan de Fuca around Neah Bay and Tatoosh Island. I will be avoiding Forks like the plague because I've heard that it has become infested with Twilight fans.
From there, I'd like to do some runs around northwest Oregon: Astoria, Mt. Hood, and Portland. Astoria is one of my favorite towns, for two reasons: it's situated on a hill by the Columbia, so it has my two favorite features for good running, elevation and water. I've never been to Mt. Hood, and while I've stayed in Portland I have yet to run there.
Then, I think it's back to Washington. Maybe hit up Yakima and do a long run around the rim, head to Leavensworth and traverse the cross country ski trails, head back to Winthrop or some area in the Okanogan National Forest (I have fond memories of cross country camp in Winthrop). I'd like to hit up the North Cascades, maybe the Ross Lake area - the lakes there have that fantastic blue-green tint and the sharp, staggering peaks need to be conquered.
From there, I think it's worth running in Bellingham and checking out Chuckanut Mountain. I wasn't able to register for the Chuckanet 50K this year since it was sold out in a few hours. After that, maybe hit Whidbey on the way back to Seattle.
This could be done comfortably in around a week, assuming I do a few two-a-days.
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