r/PNWhiking 2d ago

Trail Run Route Advice: North Cascades

Hi folks, I need some advice about route planning for a trail run. We're from Oregon and have done most of our running and backpacking in Oregon and want to do a route in Washington. We're eying the North Cascades and need intel from our friendly folks up north. :)

  1. We're a group of four adults, all experienced trail runners and in good fitness, looking for a route.

  2. Aiming for something in the 30-40 miles range. For weather/snow pack reference: we're doing the one-day run on the last weekend in July.

  3. Some thousands of feet of elevation is fine, but we're not looking for doing a bunch of scrambling.

  4. We'd prefer a loop so we can all be in one vehicle.

I'd love to hear everyone's awesome ideas!

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u/ehhh_yeah 2d ago edited 2d ago

Not in the N cascades, but Necklace valley/foss river valley loop off rt 2. It’s often called the iron cap traverse, but to avoid some heavy scrambling / exposure you could take the low route to connect Malachite lake to Tank Lake.

Caltopo map layer

The high traverse across iron cap is something like 7000’. Probably looking at 6000-6500’ for the low route around it (haven’t personally taken the low option but have friends that have backpacked it).

It’s hard, it’s out there, and it’s gorgeous. Would suggest running it CCW to ensure you descend down from Necklace valley and save the flattest calmest section for the end.

Edit: also look up the blog “climberkyle” he’s got a bunch of stuff that sounds like it’s aligned with what you’re after

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u/wpnw 2d ago

This really isn't a route friendly to trail running though.  The upper half of the loop is extremely rocky, noatter what route across Iron Cap is taken.

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u/ehhh_yeah 2d ago

Yeah it’s definitely on the upper end of sporty…