Leg 7 - in pictures

On Saturday morning M and I drove out to Sandy to do Leg 7 of Hood to Coast as a training run. We've done a lot of training out in Sandy as it's not too far from where we live, and it's beautiful countryside to run in (although pretty hilly!). Anyway, M is running Leg 7 this year and wanted to check it out again before the race.
The description from the H2C website says "Rolling hills along Highway 26 on paved shoulder and country roads." It is 6.32 miles long and rated "Hard" according to H2C. I've run leg 7 a few times, and I know that the first time I ran it, I didn't take the "rolling hills" very seriously. I regretted it later after going out too fast. Since I know others out there in blog world, like Jess here, are running Leg 7, I thought this might be helpful to give a preview of what leg 7 is all about.

So, here is Leg 7 in pictures...

Starts at the Safeway on Highway 26 in Sandy (it used to start at the Fred Meyer a little further down the road, so this is a change for this year):

The leg starts on a nice slow downhill along Highway 26 to Orient Drive. Here's the view looking from Safeway down Highway 26:

After the turn onto Orient (at 1.3 miles in), the "rolling hills" begin. Here's what they look like as you make the turn:

Intersection of Orient to Kelso road (2.03 miles):

View looking down Kelso road:

Kelso road to 362nd (2.89 miles):

View looking down 362nd:

362nd and Dunn Road (3.63 miles):

View looking down Dunn road:

Dunn/352nd (4.12 mi):

View down 352nd:

352nd/Hauglum Rd. (4.61 miles)

View down Hauglum Road:

For some reason, I didn't get a picture of the intersection of Hauglum Road/362nd (5.10 miles) but here is a picture of the last hill on that road (it's about a mile from the finish):

And the exchange point at Cottrell School (6.3 miles):

So that's leg 7! M is a stud and ran the route both ways to get in about 13 miles. I only ran it one direction because of my stupid foot which is healing, but not as fast as my impatient self would like.

Hope that helps anyone who is running Leg 7 to feel a little more prepared for what is in store. It's a very pretty run through some beautiful countryside.
See? Isn't this a pretty view? Plus, if you look close...cows!

M and I at the finish (M looks super cute. I look like a bug).

Two more weeks until h2c! Can't wait!