Foothills Trail

Dodging rain events, I took a run along the Foothills Trail this morning, beginning in East Puyallup. The trail is an amenity few communities have. . The County, and more importantly, the Foothills Rails-to-Trails Coaltion, were key partners to making the trail happen. Once abandoned rail right-of-way is now a twelve-foot wide path for non-motorized recreation. The RtoT Coalition is the sponsor of several runs during the year, especially the lengthy Rainier to Ruston Rail-Trail Relay and Ultra. I missed out last summer, but hope to take part this new year.

Not the funnest run is some spots, but I have been on it early in the day to see coyote and bald eagles. I actually had not run this section since Christmas-time 2005 when I had one of my major running epiphanies; I ran layered in tights, fleece pants, and sweatshirt for more than 3 hours in some ecstatic daze in some heavy rain, and then made a quasi-resolution to run my first marathon.

More south, the trail crosses more rural terrain and heads further away from the noise of the highways. There are some absolutely stunning places to rest along the trail, particularly beside the White River, about 2 miles south of Orting. One day, maybe soon, I hope to run the length of the span from Puyallup to Wilkeson. Though no good connections exist, some trail infrastructure exists in Buckley as well. All-in-all the they County trail website boasts of 15 miles of current paved sections, but I believe it has not been updated. Near the East Puyallup Trailhead, there is a rock with a "32 MP" marker on it. You can run up to the Gateway of Rainier if you wished it.

Loads of people are out there on the weekends. I met a good-natured guy today, named Bob, who walks five miles of the trail daily. Not many folks were out today due to the weather and flooding the night before. I spent about a half hour in the morning surveying property damage from the previous two nights+ of rain and flooding. Two 100-year flood events in a season! In Sumner, at least, the water rose several feet higher than it did in the floods of 2006. Garbage, general debris, and oil is seeping out of the ground in the riparian area-flood zone. USGS guys were on the Hwy 165 bridge headed to Orting taking measurements on the river as it zipped by underneath them. It is just a mess when the rains hit so hard after melting snow. More comments on it later.