Like the canyon

Wow new month already! Yikes that 100 is coming up too fast.  First real run of the week.  It felt good to take a few easy days after Saturday.  Started at Wheeler to Maples to the CW overlook and back.  On the way up, when I came off of Maples onto the trail up to the over look I slowed a bit to hit my gel and drink some water.  2 guys on bikes tried to pass me, I took a sip of my water, but it back in the holster, gave the guy a glance and shifted gears and took off, leaving them in the dust!  I got to the top hung out, watched the sunset and headed down, passing them still on the way up, both gave me a funny look.  I love that we can run up hill faster than most people on bikes, like revenge for all the times they about kill me on blind corners and I think it kinda blow their mind.  Anyway, I got out late and had the pleasure of running up in nice evening shade and caught the sunset from the overlook and raced the fading light back to the car. I lost, and ended up runnning the last 3 down a very dark trail with a crappy light.  14 miles 2450 vert. 9:04 pace. 

Easy 4, hot!

1st trip up BL for the year, ran into the go fasties BJ and Jon on their way down, talked for a bit.  Went by lots and lots of chatty hikers.  I got out too late for the annual 4th of July crowd. Remkes signed the book saying they beat the sun! Too early for me! Legs heavy today and my energy was very low, run felt really long.  Diagnosis, grass allergies kick'en in hard and I started out about a quart low on fluid and it only got worse from there. Oh, and I gotta eat mo bettah.  Beutiful day out overall and great to finally get to a real peak. ??time?? Garmin shorted on the way up, reset on the down and ran  low 9:'s to high 7's. 15 miles or so, 3600ish vert.  7300 vert this "weak" and 38 miles or so.

Malan's peak tonight.  Its been a while, and I think that this trip was one of only a few this year on completly dry, snow free trail.  Moderate pace, topped out at just a scratch under 37:00 and continued into the Basin for a river and back RT.  Going to the creek in Malan's Basin added about a mile and another few hundred feet of climb, making thr RT from 27th just under 6 miles and 2400 vert.  Made the RT in 1:07, but I should give myself a miniute mulligan for the bush that caught my headphone chord and ripped the da*# thing right off my body!  I had to dig around in the weeds looking for my player, none the worse, just dropped a few sweet words.  Doc C. says he's run that RT in under an hour, that's fast run'en!

Semi annual Zion 24 hr with some good friends.  We seem to do a couple of these every summer and they are ususally a high light of the season.  We left Teusday after work, drove in around midnight, dirt camped on BLM land and woke early to see what canyon we could get a permit for.  No plan really, just to have fun and see what we could do. The top couple of choices, Kolob Creek, Echo, Mystery, were either closed (snow belive it or not?) or already sold out, so we eneded up doing an sorta obscure cnayon outside the park called Birch Creek.  What an awesome canyon! great canyon, cool narrows, beautiful rappels, and it is an easy out and back from the car, well sorta easy.  It dumps out out in Orderville canyon and my buddy Nate was nice enough to hike out to the car while three of us continued down Orderville and out the Narrows to catch the shuttle to meet nate at Zion Lodge.  half hour cat nap and some frisbee on the grass and it was back home by bed time.  Got some good, tough running in down Orderville for about 4-5 miles. 

Easy 4 Wheeler/Icebox.

My own little version of Speedgoat this morning.  Wanted a long run today as this week has been, well, weak on miles.  Parked a car at the top of N.O. Pass Friday night with the plan to end up there somehow.   Got up and out the door by 5:25 headed for the BST and south to Beus Canyon and the "trail" to Mt Ogden.  Ran the 5 miles to from home to Beus very casual, amazing how easy and fast that section of trail goes by when you're taking it casual.   Usually when I run through there I'm racing some stupid imaginary split time from like 2 years ago. Hit Beus and started the very long climb to Mt Ogden.  The first mile or two of the Mt Ogden trail are great single track next to the creek and deep in the woods but it deteriorates quickly from there.  Lots of overgrown trail, lots of roots and bushes across the trail, made for a pretty slow go. No big deal, I had along way to go and wasn't trying to push the pace and the climb is tough, 5.5 miles and 4150 vert from the BST/Beus junction. I  passed a group of about 10 or so in the first mile on the way up and chatted for a few minutes with Doc R on his way down, other than that I was out there alone. 

I really enjoyed the top part of the climb, the trail opens up to some beautiful meadows and the grade backs off so I was able to run cool trail up high with an awesome view of the valley below and peaks above.  Eventually I was on the hike/scramble section to the top of Mt Ogden. I hit the top in an easy paced 2:48 from my front door, ended up being 11.2 miles and 5120 vertical. I love this peak, other than the huge radio towers, its a small, craggy summit with an 800ft or so drop directly to the East.  I have made a habbit when I get to Mt Ogden to also traverse the exposed saddle to the north to summit Mt Allen at the same time.   Mt Allen is the twin peak north of Mt Ogden proper.  I always forget how exposed that section can be, if you stay on the ridge you end up doing a little easy 5th class with about 500 feet of air behind your rear end.   

  I sent my wife a pic from the top of Mt Allen, hung out for a few minutes remebering all the great days I have had skiing from this same spot in the winter, and headed down to the top of the Snowbasin tram at about the 3:05 mark.  One of  the tram cars was parked at the top, so I walked out on the platform and opened the door and sat inside for a minute or two, I've spent hours on this thing in the winter, its so different in the summer up there, no snow, no cold, no people.  I headed out for the descent to the base of Snowbasin running the service road for a while, using the mtn bike single track and eventually running down the ski runs at about the half way point.  I hit he base area at 3:40 at about 15 miles.

I filled up with water at the base of the Needles gondola, talked with a few friends who had road biked up and hung out with a buddy running the lift.  It was fun to tell them that I had started from home and was planning to run to down to South Skyline and over to the top of North Ogden divide.  I was feeling great and put my pack back on to head out, went to grab my phone to send my wife another pic, and . . . .no phone! I had it in my front "vest" pocket on my shoulder strap, and it was GONE!  Knuckle head me has my entire business on my phone so losing it would be reeallly bad. 

Well, I knew it was somewhere between where I was and the top of Mt Allen.  Only problem was my descent route was all over the place, service road, trail, off trail. I had slid out about a 1/2 mile from the bottom and thought that was most likely where it was, but wasn't sure. I knew I would most likely not beable to see it as i was all over the mountian.  I knew I could roughly follow my descent back up . . . .if only I could hear it ring?? I Called my wife from the lift op's phone and asked her to call my phone over and over again for the next hour, poor thing, but she was a sport and agreed.  I turned around and started climbing.  Phone wasn't where I fell, not where I stopped to rise my face in the creek about half way up, arrrr! Started thinking I may have left it on top of Mt Allen.  I made it all the way back up to ajust below the top of the John Paul lift (basically the top of the resort about 800 ft below the peak) and was resigned to going all the way up if nessesary, when . . .I heard it ring, my trooper wife, I had 96 missed calls! Phone tucked away safely I started the long haul back down.  The detour added 4.5 miles and over 2400 vert.  I still felt ok energy wise, my legs were a little hammerd when I got back to the base at a little over 20 miles and 7600 vert but the detour had used up all my gel on the climb and had a little over 5 miles to run down the Maples/Icebox trail to get to the bottom of Wheeler Creek where I had more gel and some water stashed.  I called my ever patient wife and gave her a heads up that she may have to pick up a very bonky husband in about 45 minutes. 

I thought if I get to Wheeler and feel good I will continue, if not I'll get a ride.  Well, I got a ride.  I was pretty trashed at that point.  25.4 miles, 7700 vertical, 6:31 including all stops and some slow, phone looking hiking.  Great run, need to complete the whole thing soon.  Nothing like getting a killer big mountain run from my front door.

Work is insane.  Glad the family is out of town, wouldn't see them anyway.  16 hour day tuesday, 14 hour day today.  Got out for a late 5 in the dark.  Easy pace, felt great, actually had more energy when I got home, even though it was 10:45 PM. Guess it's good ultra trianing in a sick kinda way.

Work remains insane.  Another 14 hour day.  There is light at the end of the tunnel, and a light on my head still from the easy 5 on the trails tonight, again in the dark, again good ultra training . . . . I think?

This one has links to pictures below, finally!

 I love adventure runs!  While its fun to go with friends, I always seem to get the most personally from solo trips, especially when they are to new areas and on trails I’ve never been to.   Something about stepping out into wild places with no one but you to depend on to get yourself through it. I guess that’s the adventure part, or the stupid part?

This adventure started way too late on Friday night (ahh, the joy of working for yourself).  I rolled out of town at 8:00 PM headed for the Big Sandy trailhead in the Wind River Range in Wyoming.   I have been into the “Winds” a few times before a long time ago, but always from the north end, never from Big Sandy, which is why I should have brought a road map.  Me being me, I glanced at the Wyoming Gazetteer,  found the trailhead, thought it looked straight forward enough,  put the map back on the shelf and left, dumb!

I was feeling like a genius when about a half hour out of Farson Wyoming I saw the familiar brown sign pointing to the right onto a dirt road saying Big Sandy Entrance, yes! I knew it was straight forward.  Two miles later I was running a hamster maze of unsigned dirt roads in the very, very dark trying to find the trailhead, no luck.  Called a buddy I knew would be awake, had him google it, ummm, not much there either, called another buddy, woke him up and asked him to look at his guide book, yep that did it. All in all what should have been a four hour drive, I made six by leaving the map home.  Brilliant, 2:00 AM arrival at the trail head, nice!

I threw my mat on the grass next to the car and crawled in my bag to sleep a few hours, only I couldn’t because the sky was unreal, it’s not often you get to look up in that kind of darkness on that clear of a night, wow!

Mosquitoes! Everywhere! I woke up at dawn, it was freezing and the sky was now filled with mosquitoes.  I’ve spent time in notorious blood sucker areas from Alaska to the Yukon tundra, nothing like these swarms, I killed four in one hand clap! Cold and bugs, no sleep, I crawled deep in my bag for another hour.  Up at 8:20, on the trail by 8:30, mosquitoes.   The trail started out as perfect single track through a green meadow next to a beautiful river, does it get any better?  Today it would.  I had never been here before and had really no idea what to expect.  I had heard a lot about the area from friends who climb in the Cirque of the Towers, so I knew names and a little topography but that was about it.  My very thorough planning (about 5 minutes with the Wind River South map and a route recommendation from a friend) had my estimated route distance at 28 miles and I was planning to get to the Cirque of the Towers area and head off trail Northeast over a high pass, cross around the back side of the Cirque and come back to the trailhead, making a big loop.  Plan B was an out and back to the Cirque if snow blocked the pass.  

I saw a few people within 2 miles of the trailhead, a couple of day hikers and solo girl with a big pack, other than that, not a soul on the whole loop! Awesome, but a little unnerving out in the middle of nowhere.  I made my way at an easy pace to Big Sandy Lake, incredible!  Beautiful mountain lake surrounded by green meadows, wild flowers and high granite peaks.  Made a hard left onto the Jackass Pass trail and started to climb up toward the Cirque of the Towers, within a few miles the scenery became so amazing I think I was tripping over my jaw, absolutely stunning, green, snow, huge granite walls, unbelievable.

As I was climbing toward the Cirque I noticed a side trail that went directly to a high ridge rather than the main trail which went up a long gradual valley.  I took the shorter route and was soon standing on a saddle above one of the most beautiful valleys I have ever seen.  Big alpine lake, creeks in every direction pouring down off of steep boulderey hillsides, huge granite spires.  The side trail I had taken ended here and I had to boulder hop, bushwhack a little, and cross a few creeks, one over waist deep to get to the bottom of the valley.  No sooner had I reached the shore of the lake and the trail, I had to leave it again and start to climb to the pass (Texas Pass I think ) to cross over to the next valley.  I was happy to find a faint trail up a good portion of the initial climb, but it soon petered out as I got above tree line.  I was slogging uphill through a beautiful high alpine meadow filled with granite boulders.  I noticed another set of tracks crossing a few of the snowfields, they looked funny, then I realized they were bear tracks! They were kinda melted out so they were not real new, but for sure bear tracks.  Kinda funny, because I noticed me and the bear choose about the same route, I guess he was headed for the same pass.  I was on very open hillside with big sight distance, so I figured if he was still around, one of us would be aware of the other while we were still a ways apart.

I hit the high pass (11,940 ft on the map) at about 11 miles and looked into the next valley and saw two partially frozen lakes and still not a soul to be seen, just me, a bear somewhere, and big mountains.  Perfect! Other than the bear.  I descended  to the lakes singing out loud to my music and hooting all the way down.   The lake shore was basically dry tundra with no trail, just cruising on soft grass and hopping over rocks.  As I descended through another shallow pass, the whole hillside I was running on started to be covered in yellow and purple wild flowers. I sat down for a few minutes to take it all in. unbelievable. 

Eventually I hooked back up to a trail and cruised at an easy pace down a broad, green ,open valley then into the trees again and about 9 miles of perfect single track past lake after lake all the way back to Big Sandy.  I saw two people hiking up about 1 mile from the trail head and a couple sitting in a meadow a few miles out from Big Sandy, so in 25 miles I saw 5 people and all closer than 2 miles from the trailhead, nothing like having the place to yourself.  I think the universe gave me a little love today for suffering through the week I had at work.  Everything was absolutely perfect.  Body felt fine, weather was made to order, sun in the morning, clouds and breeze in the middle of the day, a short rain storm 5 minutes after getting back to the car.  I felt no need to push pace at all, I ran comfortably when I could, hiked cautiously when conditions warranted, and stopped and took it all in a lot.  Absolutely, hands down, no doubt about it, best run so far!

Ended up with 24 something milkes and 3700 something vert all above 9000 ft.  The Garmin link is on Sunday the 18th post.

PICS!

First part of the trail

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495088387635281474

Big Sandy lake

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495088420567643458

Climbing to the Ciurque

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495088420567643458

Looking back toward Big Sandy (about where i took the detour to the Cirque

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495088441162794722

Trail into God's country (the Cirque) Peak in the center in Pigora, Texan pass is in the far right of the picture (snow field on ridge)

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495088457688334002

Won't let me paste anymore??? I'll put more in the 18th post along with the Garmin Stuff.

SEE SATURDAY'S POST FIRST

Here's the Garmin stuff, look at it on Earth setting if it will let you, much more entertaining.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/40802130

Looking down on Lomesome lake in the Cirque

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495088479157856578

From the shore of Lonesome

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495088486678788242

Looking down on the Cirque on the way up to Texas Pass, notice Pingora on the right

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495088496228854274

Looking down form Texas onto Billy's Lake (this is the draing I followed back out)

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495088510211647842

Wildflower covered hillside looking down on Shadow lake

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495120379695013570

Looking back up toward Shadow lake (valley I cam down)

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/WindRivers#5495088549653076498

Beautiful 1/2 marathon late (started at 7:30) on the trails below Sowbasin. (Wheeler/E Fork/Green Pond/Maples/Icebox) Got back to the car just as it got too dark to see.  Great run, felt solid, tempo pace. 13.11 miles, 1900 vert, 1:51. Wish they all could be like that.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/41108340

Got out late again tonight, this time headed for Ben Lomond Peak.  I have been wanting to do a late one up there all summer and with the fam out of town figured I better get it in while I had the chance.  Nothing like sunset from up there, really nice tonight with the clouds, a little summer time alpenglow.  Was kinda hoping to have the place to myself as it was so late, but apperantly the all the local moto jockeys like Ben Lomond sunsets too, geeze there must have been 10 up there.  Nothing like huge dust clouds and 2-stroke exhaust to make your run all the more enjoyable.  After the forst 3 or 4 miles most of 'em had cleared out so it was just me and the mountain. 

Made the peak in 1:39, despite several delays letting trains of moto's go by.  Made the round trip in 2:55 including a few minutes of sight seeing on top.  Actually one of my better times to the peak, which I felt good about as my legs had no pep tonight and I felt like I was in cruise mode. The RT time is a little slow but I had to run 3/4 of the descent with the headlights on.  All in all a great run. Saw lots of goats up close and personal, man those guys can move fast over gnarly terrain! Got back to the car a little before 10:30. 15.5 miles 3950 vert.

Pretty good 3 days for me.  25 on Sat, 13 Mon, 15.5 tonight.  53 miles, 9400 vert so far this week, and 3 more days to go.     

Easy 5 tonight.  took it nice and slow with the dog.  Ran some, hiked some, stopped to let the dog play in the creek alot.  1100 vert.  Dog says it's too hot.   

Lewis Peak tonight.  Left the trail head at 7:00 or so, I'm going to have to change up the schedual once the family gets back, but for now I am loving the late evenning runs up on the high ridgelines.  Beautiful run tonight, Lewis is not the most stunnig peak in the area, but the trail up offers some of the best views.  Mt Ogden to the south and Ben Lomond to the north, ogden and ogden valley to the east and west.   I felt great for having 60 miles and 10,000 vert on my legs already this week.  I wasn't breaking any speed records, but kept a run going all the way from the trailhead to the peak and back.  Sometimes shuffeling along isnt much faster than walking, but it sure feels better to be a runner rather than a hiker.  Peak time 1:01, RT 1:58.  One crash and burn, one mose and one calf, one good sized buck, lots of sage grouse.  Just under 11 miles, 3200 vert.    

Easy 3 AM before picking up the family

It was hard to get out of bed for this one.  Its been a pretty big running week for me in both miles and vert and I'm beat!  I've made to all the peaks in the area this year except Willard, so that's were I was headed this morning.  Basically the you run to Ben Lomond and continue on for a few more miles and hills to the North toWillard Peak. 

Leaving the trailhead my legs really didn't want to run, it was like jumping in cold water, deep breath, hit start on the watch and start turning them over. With in a 10 minutes or so things felt better and I noticed two guys closing in from behind and a third a little further back, I thought oh man, I hate getting passed, so like it or not the race was on.  I held them off for the first mile-and-a-half, but they came by and being competive I jumped on their tail and hung on pretty good, all the while making excuses in my head like"I bet they haven't run 60+ miles and 15,000+ vertical this week"  and "I bet they aren't doing 20 miles today".  I'm such an idiot, realizing this, finally, I backed off and let them go and with in minutes they had both stopped and were waiting for their slower buddy. Both complimented me on the pace and said they were only going a couple more miles.  Figures. Ha!   

I was pretty cooked from the informal race and settled into an easy pace for the rest of the climb.  There are two little climbs once you hit the ridgeline on the way to the peak, if you've run or rode this trail you know them.  They both come after a relativly flat section and after you have already been climbing steady for four miles.  I call the first short one the "grunt", and the second longer one the "groan".  If I'm feeling good I run both of these, otherwise they are hikers.  I ran 'em both today and figured why not try and run every step to the peak, something I've never been able to do.  The switchbacks up the last climb were tough and the last 100 feet to the peak is almost straight up and nearly killed me, but I made it, ran every step!  I must have looked like he## 'cause there was group on top and one of them said to me "we'll get out of here and let you throw up" Ha! Time to the peak was 1:41 today.

Cruised over to Willard, passing lots of folks hiking over from the parking lot at inspration point.  Made a hard right and started the rough climb back up to the peak.   Hung for bit, checking the view, looking through the amazingly old peak register (see pic below) and just enjoying it as I rarely get to this peak.   On the way down I followed the rocky ridgeline, short cutting a half mile or so back to the trail.  As I traversed the ridge I got into a huge heard of mtn goats.  Like with in 20 feet of some big billys.  I kept thinking I hope those things don't tend to charge folks.  They gave me a good look over, decided that I was obviously not in any condition to be any sort of threat and headed on own the hill.

Made my way back over to Ben Lomond, talked for a while with some friends who had ridden up on motorcycles.  Cruised down and caught up to the local Wasatch 100 veterens.  These guys have finished Wasatch over 12 times each (that's a pretty small club).  I walked along and talked to them for most of the decsent.  I gleaned as much info about 100 mile strategy as I could.  Basically they scared the hell out of me.  Yikes! 

20 miles, 5200 vert.  long day, standing on the rim of the bucket, need some rest. 7 day block is 92 miles and just about 19,000 vert.  Everything feels solid, other than tired. 

Pics below.

Ben Lomond with Willard to the right from trail

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/BenLomond2010#5497564899805418146

View from top of Ben (mt ogden and Lewis in background)

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/BenLomond2010#5497564924922286274

View looking back to Ben from Willard

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/BenLomond2010#5497564934120698162

Next 2 are goats

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/BenLomond2010#5497564942951881842

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/BenLomond2010#5497564958663800146

Craggy Ridge I follwed back to trail

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/BenLomond2010#5497564970453260482

Check out the date on the peak register, its been there that long, still in perfect shape and has entries up to today 7/24/2010, There are names of friends in there from when they boy scouts, that's a piece of history! (Willard)

http://picasaweb.google.com/110731470557570571093/BenLomond2010#5497602762641279058

Same Snowbasin trail 1/2 marathon as last Monday.  Ran it a little faster tonight than last week, 1:49 for 13.1. 1940 vert.  About got killed by two mtn bikers on Green Pond , luckily I had a feeling it might be coming and stepped to the right side of the trail just as a guy came flying around a blind corner.  He almost put it in the dirt to avoid hitting me, and I had to jump sideways to miss his handle bar, just as I caught my balance his buddy came around the corner even faster and about took us both out.  Explatives and apologies exchanged, and all was good agian in few seconds.  Other than that, not another person out.  Really pushed the downhill hard tonight, had splits from 6:40 to 6:58 for 3 miles and my Ice Box split was 7:20, last mile down Wheeler was 6:41.  I'll take it for technical single track.  Route was Wheeler/E.Fork/Green Pond/Down Little Cat at Snowbasin/Maples/Icebox/Wheeler.  A little rain tonight made it nice.  Great run, I expected a little more fatigue after last week. Calves are a little tight, me thinks its time for some more ART.

Lewis Peak tonight.  11 miles, 3150 vert.  2:00 hours. Tough and I'm tired.  I took my camera tonight and would have some great shots but the battery was dead. doh! Unbelievably cool sunset, dropped below the clouds just as it went behind the horizon, turned everything red and orange, nothing like summer alpenglow, an awesome view in every direction and a camera in hand with a dead battery.  Nice! 

A little side story:

Parking lot had one car in it, trail was empty, thought I was all alone out there until I turned the last corner headed to the peak, and there, on the peak sat a very tired, out of shape and inexperienced looking father and 3 boys, guessing ages 12, 7, and 5. We talked for a bit, the older boy asked how long it took me, I said an hour, he said they started at 3:30.  Well, it was currently a little after 8:30 (that's 5 hours to go 5.5 miles)  and getting dark fast.  I asked if they were headed all the way down or spending the night?  They said all the way down.  Ever been up here before? nope. Geeze, maybe I was wrong, but they sure didn't look like they were prepared, or had planned for what would end up being close to a 10 hour day in the mountains by the time they got back to the car, in the dark, with thunderstorms all around the valley.  The trail is not straight forward in the dark either, lots of side trails and unmarked forks. I asked if they had lights? yes, and they showed my 3 small flashlights like you would by at a dollar store.  I asked about water, they said they had a little but thought it was enough.  I had nothing to offer them, one light, 2 gulps of water and I was out of gel.  I wished them luck, told them to be safe and headed down.  I worried about them all the way down and on the way home I saw a cop parked on the side of the road, I pulled over and explained the situation, that they were fine when I saw them, but somebody might start to worry  (there is no cell service up there so if they were way over due they couldn't let anyone know) and call it in, and I wanted to let him know where they were and that they were o.k.  Right now its 11:00 and I'm sure they are still on the mountain, hope all is well. 

Easy paced 5 with 850 vert on the bench above home.  Loving these monsoon evenings.  Cooler temps, a little rain, a lot of alpenglow, even a gray rainbow that popped out right as the sun was going down, never seen that before. Geeze I love living here!

Good old Indian Trail ount-n-back tonight.  I haven't run through here since early spring.  Made me think about how long a summer of runnig it has already been and brought back good memories of the magic of first early spring runs on dry trail through the moutnians.  Why is it that every run this week I have watchted the sun sink below the horizon? Are the days getting that much shorter already, or am I just getting out later? Noticed fall colors starting to show on the low brush, some bright reds and yellows already.  Hard to belive its only a month or so from going into full color change on the higher ridges.  It was a hot one out there tonight, but I was reminded to enjoy these warm nights and good trail because it won't be long 'till runs are on icey single track with 2 foot snow banks on each side and I'll be dreaming of dirt under my feet again.

9 mile sweat festival, car said 91 when I got out and it was very humid, baked all the way up the West slope. 2700 vert, stopped short of the canyon TH on the out-n-back.  Easy pace, but felt hard.

I love running through the mountains in the dark.  There is something to having the world reduced to the 20-30 ft of glow on the trail in front of you and a huge starry sky overhead.  But running mountain trails alone in the dark comes in degrees of intensity for me.  Starting in the dark and knowing it will be light when I finish the run is a piece of cake and regular fare.  Starting in the light and knowing it will be after dark when I finish is a little more intense, (or freaky) starting in the middle of the night and knowing you are doing a solo long run to a remote mountain top and back is always high on the intense/freaky scale.   Its always really hard to step out of the truck at a trailhead in the dark, turn on the lights and head off alone into the black knowing it will be more black and more alone when you return.    

With the higher degree of freak, comes a higher degree of reward.  Last night's Ben Lomond run will no doubt go down in memory as one of the best of the summer.  Running alone in the dark across high mountain ridges definatly tunes up your senses.  Knowing I'm out 7-8 miles from the nearest person tends to make me pay attention.  Being on the peak at 1:30 AM was serene.  No wind at all, totally silent, watching lightening storms way out west of the GSL and far off to the east, meteors streaking across the sky and a bright half moon lighting up the surrounding peaks. I signed the register and noted the time.  Under my name I wrote a hello to a friend I knew would be up there arond 7:30.   

Only one notiable animal encounter.  About a mile from the peak a big mountain goat walked out on the trail about 30 feet in front of me.  He stood there acros the trail, looking at me and not moving.  The stand off went on for a bit too long and next thing I know I'm talking to him, "sooo, are you going to move, or what?" "don't make me huck a rock your direction" Nothing.  Fianlly I turned out my lights, and he was off, full sprint up the trail. 

If you are wondering why the middle of the night? well first, out of schedual necessity (my wife and 10 year old were entered in a triathlon Saturday morning and wife and I needed a night out together  Saturday night equals no time for a long run. On the tri reuslts, I'm happy to report they both came home with hardware, wife 3rd place age group, 10 yr old 3rd place overall in the kids tri out of what had to have been 150 kids competing.  It was awesome to watch that kid get after it.  He swam like a pro, tranistioned like he had been doing it for years, and ran down the only runner in front of him, made papa very proud! And I don't think my wife has ever come home from a triahlon without a place medal, made hubby proud again) second, the adventure of it, 3rd, 100 miler training. I need a couple more good night runs like that to tune me up for the Bear 100 in September. 

 Run stats: 16 miles, 4000 vert. Day started at 6:00 AM, worked 10.5 hours, run start time 11:30 PM, Peak 1:25 AM, car 3:10 AM, bed 3:45 AM.  Sleep of the dead unitl 6:45 AM.

Last two week totals: 138 miles, 28,500 vert, most of it over 8000 ft in elevation.  Add in 50-55 hour work weeks each week on top of it, and well, I (and they) needed a little family time today.