Cuddy Mountain 5-10-25

I got started a little after 7:30 at the trailhead. The air felt warm enough that I didn’t feel the need to wear my jacket as I started to hike. I think I’m acclimating a bit, as well, getting used to being a bit cold before I start hiking. I did my warm ups first, and then headed out.

My legs were terribly sore as I began to hike. It didn’t help matters that this hike is mostly uphill until you hit the top, and the first mile is especially brutal in elevation gain. I tried to keep a good pace, but I could feel my muscles protesting with each step. I reassured myself that it didn’t matter how fast I went as long as I beat my time from two weeks ago. Not far from the trailhead, I realized that I hadn’t packed any sunscreen for the hike. I think there’s some in my glove box, but I was too far into the hike to turn back. I decided to use my clothing and hat with extra care and hope that the sun didn’t reflect too hard from any snow I might be walking across.

Up and up, with aching legs. I thought my pace was pretty good, and I had high hopes of beating my time from last week, but alas, when the mile was announced by my app, I had taken 35 minutes. Almost as long as the two weeks ago!

I counseled myself to patience. This is only my third hike of the year. Speed will come as I get used to the workload I’m putting on my body. After all, in the last week I’ve been doing all terrain mowing, walking, and running. It’s a lot, even though it does feel quite good to do the work. I took my first break not too long after the mile. I had a light snack and about 350 mL of water. I also took my short sleeved t-shirt off from under my long-sleeve button down because I was getting quite warm with the two layers.

It does get a little less steep after that first mile, but it’s still a challenge. Especially when I got close to the two mile mark, because there were several trees down across the trail. Some, I could easily step over. Others were so freshly fallen that limbs prevented me from taking that direct route, and I had to detour off the trail to get past them. Then the patches of snow began.

Not as much snow as last week, and starting higher up, but there in sufficient quantity to require me to put in a little extra work.

After the second mile, it seems like the trail is a bit easier. A little less climbing, a bit more traversing. I managed the snow patches with care, and didn’t take any spills or slides. The trail climbed out of the trees, affording views across the valley. Still a lot of snow up there. I prepared myself to turn back if the trail was covered with a dangerous amount of snow at any point. Safety fun is the motto.

The melting snow made the trail quite muddy in places. I could see faded boot prints from other hikers, including one slide out. And I also saw the deer tracks in the mud. After another break, I made it up to the next junction, just below the peak, which my app decreed was 3 miles. I know the overall hike is about 7, so I had half a mile to go to get to the peak. I figured it would be a fast mile, even with the time I might take to do videos or pictures on the mountain.

I figured wrong.

The trail started with a bit of a snow patch, but it was covered in rock dust and not difficult to traverse. That part didn’t slow me down. But, higher up on the trail, there was a large section covered in snow. That, in and of itself, not so much a problem. The problem was the run out. If I were to slip and fall on that patch of snow, I would be sliding down a very long way, likely gaining a lot of speed, and then running into very hard objects, like rocks or trees. This was a decision point. Did I believe that I had the equipment and skill to not only get safely past this point, but also to return safely?

Thanks to Ambrose, I had the equipment and the skill. I made the choice to continue, knowing that I would have to be extremely careful, and take things nice and slow.

Every single step I took on that snow was kicked in. I dug my feet into that snow so that I would not slide. I maintained three points of contact, moving only one foot or one trekking pole at a time. My arms were vibrating with tension, pushing down into those trekking poles to hold myself in place should my footing fail. Every step cautious and hard fought. I wished Ambrose were there to help with kicking the snow steps, but he taught me well. Slowly, I made my way across. The part with the bad run out ended before the snow section ended, so though I had to keep walking on snow, I didn’t have to be quite to careful at the end.

There were a few more snow patches on the way up to the turn, but I was able to walk just on the side of those, which wasn’t nearly as challenging. After the turn, I was relieved to see that the path up to the mountaintop was blessedly free of snow. I was going to make it.

There isn’t technically a trail going directly to Cuddy from the trail I was on, but there’s a use trail, so I use it. It’s a steep but short climb up to the ridgeline. I had to take care because the dirt and rocks are quite loose, but after the tension of the snow traverse, it felt easy. The wind was picking up, but I had expected that. I was hot enough from the uphill hiking that it felt quite nice.

On top of the ridge, there was nothing but snow, and I was so grateful that there were clouds blocking most of the sunlight. If there had been no clouds, I would probably have gotten sunburned on my face from the snow reflecting light at my face under the brim of my hate. This snow was much easier to traverse, since it was just a wide expanse. No risk of falling and sliding to my doom.

I made my way over to the peak, which was mostly free of snow, and spent some time taking pictures and videos. There were some incredible looking clouds just past the peak, all frothy and shaded in grays and blues. I should have looked at my timer to see how much time I had left before break time, but I didn’t. I just decided to get going as soon as I had my shots to try and make this fourth mile a fast one.

My break time timer went off as I was traversing the snowfield on the ridge. I kicked myself for not checking it sooner, because at the peak itself, there’s a doldrum – a spot where the wind just isn’t there. Now, I was in the thick of the wind. Down, windy, up, windy, here, windy. I sighed and headed for dirt. I might have to take a break in the wind, but I didn’t have to do it on the snow. I had a Walking Tamale along with my water on this break. The wind went from soothing to chilling, but not so cold that I needed to put on more layers. I did consider putting my gloves back on, but decided against it.

The dangerous snow patch was no less dangerous on the way down, but it was somewhat easier because there were already snow stairs kicked into it. I just had to stick my feet, heel down, into the existing holes to get purchase. I stuck with the three points of contact movement method and made it through safely.

Going down is easier than going up. It wasn’t always that way for me. When I first started hiking, I’d get terrible pains in my knees going downhill, but I’ve learned how to not do that – mainly by building up my hip flexors and other leg muscles. I was insulted when the phone announced that my pace for my fourth mile was “not moving,” but I knew the next one would be faster.

The fifth mile was pretty fast, especially when I realized that my body was not going to allow me to wait until I got back to the trailhead and drove to the Brownlee Campground to use the pit toilet. No, I was going to need to dig a hole, and I needed to get to a place where I could do that quickly. I got down to that first junction and took off on a hole hunt. While I was taking care of business, I was startled by the sound of gunshots. Several of them in quick succession, first single shots, then a few doubles. I hoped whoever was out shooting wouldn’t accidentally shoot me as I hiked.

I hiked much more calmly after the hole digging. I was almost back to the car, where I had a coconut water waiting for me, as well as some ginger tea in my Yeti cup. It would still be warm.

My right ankle had a bit of soreness that I tried to be aware of as I hiked down the last mile. This trail is pretty rocky, and not very even. It’s challenging. The ankle did just fine, bringing me down to that first stream crossing and then to the car.

Overall, I took just under 5 hours to hike 7 miles with over 2700 feet of gain. An excellent training hike. I won’t be doing it again next weekend or the weekend after, so I’ll have to see how I do in three weeks when I try it again. I hope I’ll be a bit faster, especially since most of that snow should have melted by then.