Day 456 – US – Washington [Bellevue to Snoqualmie Ridge]

04/07/21

32km

  From Bellevue (Washington) to Snoqualmie Ridge (Washington)

North America

Last of the acclimatisation days, some uphills and entering bears territory

By the lakes with the Cascade Mountains in the background

I had planned to start the US crossing with two shorter runs. I had uncertainties about my getting over the jetlag as well as potential side effects from vaccination. It turned out I adapted to the new time zone overnight and as for vaccination, I report a mighty headache that kept me awake for 3hrs on the first night then nothing else. After two days of running, I declare myself adapted to the new environment!

Entering bears territory

Today I headed towards the Cascade mountain range. I was warned yesterday by Ariane that it is the beginning of the bears territory, which I will run through for a long while across several states. I have not found a bear spray can yet and that’s something I need to buy (just in case). There are other wild animals in the region, such as cougars. They all can be dangerous, but the rule of thumb is that attacks are very rare and in general, these animals prefer to be left alone and flee human company.

Running on the many trails of the region

Today started out nicely, by the Sammamish Lake and onto the trails towards Snoqualmie. It is still proving difficult to adapt to the new weight of BoB the stroller. I also found out that the new tires I fitted are much heavier than the previous set – this morning as I pushed the empty stroller prior to loading it, I found it was much heavier than normal. One thing that can be easily fixed next time I run past a bicycle store.

Snoqualmie Ridge

Snoqualmie Ridge is a very leafy friendly community. As I ran through it at midday I saw kids playing outdoors, people sitting on their frontyards and it seemed very welcoming. It’s also National Day here (4th July) so there were a lot of flags waving around – and I will stay up tonight to see if there is any celebrations or fireworks going on.

For this crossing of the US I have introduced a new feature on FaceBook and Instagram. I post daily videos of my run (made with the app “Relive” linked to my Garmin account) – it is also linked to my phone and places my pictures onto the track I have run with geolocalisation. I intend to post these daily on social media, I guess that is more suited to the audience than my lengthy and wordy blog posts!

Here is what it looks like:
Day 455: Seattle to Bellevue: https://www.relive.cc/view/vJOKgyJewwO
Day 456: Bellevue to Snoqualmie Ridge: https://www.relive.cc/view/vevWpWNBNGO

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: