Finally got around to doing the Kings-Elk Mountain Traverse. I’ve wanted to do this one for awhile now, but with all the snow we’ve had this past spring, the conditions weren’t right until this past weekend. I loaded my pack and grabbed some gear and headed out around lunch time this past Sunday. My plan was to start at Elk Creek CG then head west on the Wilson River Trail till the Kings Mtn TH then head up and round back to Elk Mountain and back straight down to the car. It seems most people start up Elk Mountain Trail and go counter clockwise, but I wanted to let my legs warm up instead gaining almost 2,500ft in roughly 1.5 miles on the Elk Mtn trail.
Overall the run was everything that I wanted it to be. Some nice rolling singletrack on WRT, tough climb to the top of Kings, sketchy running/scrambling/hiking on the back side till Kings, good exposure, alpine-ish landscape and no injuries/knee problems. However, coming down Elk Mtn trail back to the car was a pain in the ass as it was so steep and loose. Very difficult descending conditions. If I do the traverse again, I will probably skip Elk Mtn and return via Elk Creek trail (longer loop with more runnable terrain). This was definitely more of an adventure run than a typical trail run, but this is why I started trail running in the first place, see more terrain, more quickly. Looking to do something fun this weekend so keep an eye out for another post next week.
UNT
Bryan
Kings-Elk Mt Traverse
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