This short one has been on my radar for a while. After hurting my foot earlier in the year and not really being able to hike long distances how I wanted, I put my focus on lots of hard, hilly efforts. I saw that there had been no rain for a while, so conditions would probably be perfect. I set the alarm for 4 AM and made the drive. It was still super dark when I arrived but I wanted to get a really good warm up in and use the washrooms up at the top of the mountain. It was just after 7:13 AM when I hit the start button on my watch...
As always with these things, it didn't take long to be hurting and out of breath. I ran what I could but was forced to hike the steep stuff with the stair steps. I really wasn't sure if I was making good time or not. My main focus after brutally spraining my ankle last year during an FKT attempt, is safety first. I said a prayer and asked God to keep me safe before the start. I also had to beat my time from last year, which I thought I should be able to do. I tried to push harder as I got to the top, I seemed to have paced myself very well actually. I got to the cascade hiking sign and my watch read 9:35 which was about 30 seconds faster than last year. Time to descend. Focus, focus, focus! Luckily I only saw one guy on the way down, and I went as fast as I could with the whole safety first thing. I gave one last push over the final bridge and hit my watch where I had begun. 16:48! Super happy actually. It was everything I wanted. Time to cool down.
I will also mention that there are some short cuts one could take on this trail. I did not take any. This FKT isn't to get to the top in any way that you want, it's following the purple blazes and staying on the main trail. You have to take all the man made steps whether rock slabs or wooden stairs. People have taken short cuts and created other pathways that weren't meant to be there. Great trail to do though!