my 1st BEAR!

I thought about carrying my camera on the Rattlesnake to Cougar run I did with Scott Jurek yesterday; I should listen to that gut instinct. Thanks to Mike for the early ride to Rattlesnake Lake, Scott and I started just after 7am up Rattlesnake. From the get-go it was warm and we were guessing high 70's before 8am. A little toasty for the NW.

Rattlesnake to Cougar is about 41 miles with 9k feet of gain and 9200 feet loss (according to my T6). The route connects Rattlesnake ridge, Tiger Mountain, Squak Mountain and Cougar Mountain. A fun point to point with some good climbs, a river crossing and only a small downhill bushwack section.

In order to connect Rattlesnake to Tiger you drop off Rattlesnake down a pretty steep overgrown hillside. We'd been following some rather large tracks (Scott thought Cougar possibly) and just off the top we saw a deer. About midway down the drop levels out a bit - I was behind Scott and when I popped out onto the flat he was quickly changing direction and said - "Black bear over there." I have never seen a bear while running and instead of following Scott away from the bear I moved closer to see. He was foraging and didn't notice us (even though Scott had come within 10 feet) until I took one extra step. He looked up and then took off in the other direction. Definitely a highlight for me!

Up and over Tiger East, on our way down we met up with Mike again. Fortunately the spring on the TMT (Tiger Mountain Trail) was running and the three of us filled up with cold water, so cold it was hard to drink as fast as we wanted. We ran into Greg on the way down Tiger and he opted to join us out to Cougar rather than his planned 3 Fat-Ass loops. The four of us dropped into the Issaquah community center where Mike loaded us up with water and food for the remaining 15 miles and 3k feet of gain over Squak and Cougar. A much appreciated fuel stop - Thanks Mike!

The day was hot and I couldn't get over the amount of water and nuun I drank last night to no avail.

I enjoy reading about everyones' adventures - it is amazing what nice weather will let/make/encourage us to do.