Colchuck Lake Trail Run

This summer Alex caught the bug and is officially a trail runner – a very good one, in fact! He’s been venturing out on trail runs nearby with a local running group. It’s provided new friendships, adventures and a wonderful way to explore local trails. It turns out he loves to run – as long as it’s on a trail 😉

This newfound love has forged some new ideas for adventures together. We’re amassing quite a list of big runs to do. We started with a very steep run at Ski Hill this fall and then somewhat spontaneously ran to Colchuck Lake a few weeks ago.

Colchuck Lake is in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, just outside of Leavenworth, and is the gateway to The Enchantments. We had hoped to do the 20-mile hike through The Enchantments this summer but it didn’t work out with our schedules. We had a window of time recently and decided to go for a shorter adventure instead of the full thru-hike.

It was a smokey morning in Leavenworth and just as we rounded the corner toward the Alpine Lakes Wilderness the skies opened up. It was clear!!

We opted to run to Colchuck in lieu of hiking simply due to our limited amount of time. It’s just shy of 9-miles round trip with 2,500 feet of elevation gain, so a hike would have taken most of the day. Our run was 2 hours 55 minutes.

The scenery throughout the whole adventure was spectacular. The fall colors were in their splendor. The terrain was a lot rockier than we expected and it was surprisingly crowded for a Monday!

When we arrived at the lake I was in awe. It is truly a breathtaking sight.

We had so, so, so much fun. It was a highlight of the year for me, without a doubt. It was a very challenging run – probably the most difficult I’ve ever done.

We’ve got several more trail runs on our minds to help keep us active, busy and seeking adventures for the next several years.

Our proverbial village really showed up to help make this happen for us. Hannah’s teachers were cheering us on as we dropped her off, and our friend Lauren picked up Hannah early {her school closed early that day due to the smoke} from school and brought her out to lunch. Bri and Morgan were ready to meet Ben at Spanish and make sure he was set and ready to go! Thankfully we made even faster time than we had expected and didn’t run into any issues.

Here’s to the next big adventure!