Overview
The Cascadian Wilderness Endurance Series events present an exciting opportunity for outdoor enthusiasts to participate in a multimedia adventure blogging contest. These self-supported/unsupported events are open to trail runners, backpackers, fastpackers, and hikers, and each event features a unique and defined route which participants must complete on foot and in one push. Unlike traditional endurance races, there are no course markings or aid stations along the way, providing participants with the freedom to create their own adventure. It’s all up to you! Participants can choose to tackle the route solo or with a couple friends. There are no cutoffs, so participants can take as much time as they need to complete the route without pressure. This unique event is not just about the physical challenge or exploring wild and beautiful places, but also about the opportunity to capture and share the beauty of the wilderness through captivating multimedia content.
1. After finishing your route, share your trip report about your experience. You can do this by posting in the Facebook group, tagging us in an Instagram post, making a YouTube video, creating a photo album, or any other artistic endeavor you can imagine.
2. Submit your time via the event page on Ultrasignup. If you have a GPS track, please include it. If you happened to get the FKT for the year, you must provide GPS proof.
3. Each year a meetup will be held in Seattle to wrap up the previous year, kick off the next year, make any big announcements about new routes or changes, and hand out patches, awards, and prizes for the previous year’s participants. If you are unable to attend the event, arrangements can be made to mail your patches to you.
We strongly encourage all entrants to join the CWES Facebook Group and/or follow the @CascadianWildernessEndurance Instagram to ask questions about the routes, gather and share trail beta, connect with other participants, scope out the competition, and keep up to date on the most recent news, information, and general goings on. This contest is brought to you by the Cascadian Wilderness Endurance Company LLC.
About the Mind/Body Challenge
Here's the scoop:
The Double Desolation Route is an out and back from the East Bank Trailhead off Highway 20 in the North Cascades to the north end of Ross Lake and back. Here's the catch: you must summit Desolation Peak twice, on both the out and the back. So the complete route is East Bank Trail to the Desolation Peak trail, summit Desolation Peak (a hike, not a climb), then head up Lightning Creek all the way to the Hozameen Campground, touch the Canadian Border, chug some maple syrup (optional but highly recommended), sing Oh Canada!, then reverse the route, including summiting Desolation a second time. The entire route adds up to 86+ miles. That's the Body part.
Here's the Mind part: Jack Kerouac spent 63 days during the summer of 1956 as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak. He wrote about his experiences in the books Lonesome Traveler, The Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels. To complete the UltraPedestrian Mind/Body Challenge you must read or listen to one or more of the works attributed to this period in Kerouac's career, and in your trip report tie in your experience on the trail to one of the books. This can be done in any way you see fit, through words, pictures, video, song, whatever expression you choose.
Anyone who completes the route, reading, and writing assignment will receive a one of a kind finisher's patch. Only 100 patches have been made.
Trailhead is on a paved road.
Below are links to the trip reports of two people that finished the Double Desolation Route in 2015, Jeff Wright and Brad Hefta-Gaub.
Jeff Wright's trip report
Brad Hefta-Gaub's trip report
Rationale
Why should you pay $20 to complete one of the endurance challenges? A small part of the fee will go to cover website maintenance and domain registration, as well as getting patches made and other small goodies/swag. The majority of this fee will be donated to trail maintenance organizations.
Why are we even doing this? To get people out into the wonderful wilderness areas that we have here in the Northwest and to build the community of adventurous people! The trip report is just as important as actually finishing the route, and we love it when people come up with creative ways to share their experience. Information isn't always readily available for these areas, and maps can be scarce and not always reliable (especially the Pasayten and Frank Church/Selway Wildernesses.) That can intimidate some that aren't as experienced outdoors-people. The goal is to empower people to get out into these wilderness areas and hopefully to protect them into the future.
Event's current local time: 1:50 AM PT
