Weekly Run Log - Sept. 11-17, 2011

Example of Great Basin Highlands as a brochure calls it.

09/11/2011: Ran another section of the Bear 100 from Franklin Trailhead up the Steam Mill Trail (139) and then the cutoff to Steam Mill Pass and Hell's Kitchen Pass. Then turned around and came back. The trail is dusty with loose dirt until the trail switches over to the North side of the ridge in Steam Mill Canyon. Then the trail improves and stays pretty nice through the 120 degree cutoff up the 200' to Steam Mill Pass and down and up to Hell's Kitchen Pass. Steam Mill Canyon is pretty nice once you hit the more alpine meadows near 8,000'. Too bad I will be running it in the dark. 

Ran into Bruce Copeland on the way back down. He is the "Trail Boss" as he introduced himself. He marks the course. I recognized the name from the link on the website to get to his Blog. He said that some of the trickier places have been marked already for folks like myself who are "previewing" the race course. He said the bulk of the marking will be done the two or so days before he race. I guess there is a problem with hunters not liking the race as it disrupts the game movements. I would hate to disrupt the movements of game so that the hunters couldn't blast the hell out of them.

As I write this I am camped up Franklin Basin near the future location of the Logan River/Steep Hollow Aid Station. Someone is discharging firearms nearby. I guess I am not in the land of the fitness buff anymore! 2:52, 11.0 miles, 2,100' vert.

09/13/2011: Checked out the countryside surrounding Beaver Mountain today. Ran up to Peterson Pass and checked out the other side, then ran down to the Yurt and followed the race course to the Winter Trailhead.

Got off the race course on the way up. I found the new flagging on the race course but misinterpreted them as I was coming from the opposite direction as the running. Also there was a flock of nearly 100 sheep blocking the view down the proper trail. I took off up a game trail and was soon discouraged looking across the creek at the side of the valley I was supposed to be on. Finally, I bushwhacked my way over and hiked several hundred feet up the hill to where I found the trail. All-told I probably lost 15-20 minutes looking for the trail.

The rest of the run was great. Great views, pretty good quality trail. Stood at the top of the pass and debated on dropping down to the Peterson Trail. Decided against it when I realized that I needed to start limiting myself or I would run 20 miles every day checking out the race course. At this point I need to check out the sections that I presume will give me the most trouble navigation-wise.

On the way back down as I got closer to the Beaver Mountain access road and the Yurt I ran into the flock of sheep again (they hadn't moved) but from the other side. The side that the three sheep dogs were on. They barked at me and I didn't know what to do so I went around by way of the access road. Recconning the route was surprisingly straight forward through the Beaver Mountain Ski Area. Only some slight confusion trying to skirt the tree cutting operation going on below the parking area. 1:59, 6.9 miles, 1,400' vert.

 That ain't snow. Hail naw!

Looking at the trail in the near distance and 

the majority of the course behind that.

09/15/2011: Reconned a section that will come late inthe Bear. Bugler's Holiday to High Top Grunt as it says on the mileage chart. I was almost going to start from a place I thought was the Ranger Dip Aid Station but decided to drive to Bugler's Holiday instead to maximize the amount I was reconning. Good thing because I was a mile or so off on where Ranger Dip was going to be. I realized my mistake when I drove by a more obvious trail shooting off to the right (toward Gates of Paradise). I had to four-wheel it from he sign pointing to Fish Haven Canyon to the start (next time go around the loop in the other direction) of the run. It was gnarly but short. I was proud of my truck.

This will be the first glimpse of Bear Lake on the run.

From the start of the run it was pleasant. I was running on a beautiful broad alpine ridge. The ridge rolled to top of High Top and got a couple views of Bear Lake when the trees on the edges of the alpine meadows afforded views to the East. Then descended to the junction with FS 494 called High Top Grunt. I would imagine it is called that because it is the beginning of the uphill "grunt." the return was nice. None of the uphills are all that bad. Each is runable. I will be conflicted during the race as to whether I will want to run or powerwalk the uphills. 1:41, 6.6 miles, 1,050' vert.

09/17/2011: After 24 hours of rain/cloudy weather I took a run from where Cowley Aid Station is going to be located to the summit of Ricks Pass, then down he short ways to where the trail descends the rest of Ricks Hollow. The trail descending down is obscure and I ran to another trail on the map and descended down to the trail and as ended the hundred or so feet back up to the road to be sure that I had it right. I love reconning 100 mile trail races though this race course has a lot of ATV Trails that are very actively used. I feel frustrated often as ATVs come power-sliding around corners to see me right there. 1:15, 5.0+ miles, 1,000' vert.

Weekly Summary: 28.5 miles, 5,550' vert.

Bear Reconnaissance (Part 2)

One week left to the Bear 100! I am pretty excited to get on the trail and test my will one year after finishing Leadville.

I have spent the last week camping up Logan Canyon in many places off the sides of Forest Service Roads. The camping is pretty good, with the only exception being the neighbors. The scenery is great. The trails are pretty good singletrack and ATV trails mostly with a little 4WD road running thrown in. The most interesting thing about the terrain is the livestock that are been raised free range. One morning I woke up to about 200 sheep moving through my campsite on the side of a road up Beaver Creek. This morning I woke up to cows in my camp site. They were sniffing my fold-up chair. Probably wondered where I got it.

Speaking of sheep... I had a first on the trail the other day. In running into a herd of sheep I also ran into the three sheep dogs that were tending the flock. One of the dogs was barking at me, though it was also wagging its tail. I wasn't quite sure what they would do if I had proceeded to try and walk through the sheep, remaining on the trail. No one was nearby so if they had attacked I would have been alone in trying to fend them off. I finally bushwhacked around them, giving them a wide berth.

My days have consisted of getting up when I felt like it, making breakfast and driving to a trailhead where I could recon some trail that is a part of the course. I have made some mistakes in efficiency for sure. There have been several times when I could have run a section of trail and made a loop back to my car by some road. In one instance it would have been shorter to run a loop of trail and road, I would have  seen more of the course, it would have been shorter, and it would've avoided an out and back. Another piece of efficiency would have been in bringing a bike. Because most of the Aid Stations are progressively higher as the course unfolds it would be beneficial to leave a bike at the higher aid station, start running at the lower aid station, then take the bike back to the car, coasting the whole way. I thought about bringing a bike but then thought against it. I don't know why I guess I shanked that one too! Maybe someday I will create a framework for looking at a course and breaking it down into reconnable sections in an efficient manor.

Bear Reconnaissance (Part 1)

I arrived in Logan on Thursday evening after driving across the Southwestern deserts of Utah. My plan is to spend the last two weeks before the Bear 100 previewing the course and making my final arrangements for the run. Because there is so much going on right now (actually there is always so much going on) I figured it might be worth updating my blog more than weekly. Since I had originally imagined this as being a blog dedicated to my adventures, not just running, I figure it would support my aim to include my daily life and reconnaissance notes while I am preparing for my race.

At this point I have reconned a little more than 12% of the race course. My focus has been on checking out the parts of the course that I will be running in dark, then on reconning the final miles. I have left the beginning of the race up to the joy of discovery on the day(s) of the race. I suspect that I will be checking out that part of the course when Brenden and Maryann come to up the day of the pre-race brief.

My impression of the race course so far is this: The course will most likely be dusty. There isn't much water on the course and the trails are heavily traveled by horses and cattle. I have occasionally mistaken a fresh cow plop for an old, dry cow plop. Luckily the trails have been dry enough that the manure dries and falls off well before hitting the trailhead.

All but one of the aid stations is accessed from Highway 89 (the Logan Canyon Scenic Byway). Along the Byway are several places to camp in campgrounds or pull off onto an unmarked FS road and there are many places to camp without having to pay. In addition, there are picnic sites (at least one with water),  historical houses, and trailheads, all with great pit toilets to use as one is driving by. All of these things make Logan Canyon a great place to stay and camp while reconning the route. This will also make crewing much easier as we can have a base camp midway up the Canyon for crew to go back to to sleep, eat, and relax.

The only downside to camping up Logan Canyon Scenic Byway is that there are a large number of other users from the redneck category: Hunters, Horse packers, ATVers, Four Wheelers. I have been bothered by loud swearing, and gunfire from the neighbors several times in the four nights I have been here already.

At the mouth of Logan Canyon is the City of Logan with all of its amenities. On rest days one can go into town and get food, coffee, check email, buy supplies, etc. All very handy. From a needs-based perspective the Bear 100 is well set up for runners.

Weekly Run Log - Sept. 04-10, 2011

09/06/2011: Ran Prospect Mountain from the Diamond Mine up CR3 as an out and back. Cut off from the Mosquito Pass road high and ran the rollers up the the summit. A good, low intensity run. 1:43, 7.0 miles, 1,300' vert.

09/07/2011: Turquoise Lake Trail, out 0:33 and back. Slow day for me. 1:06, 6.0 miles, 50' vert.

09/09/2011: Got my first impression of the race course today in running from the Temple Fork Aid Station to the Tony Grove Aid Station (or where they will be) and back again. I had a little confusion in the Tony Grove Campground but finally pulled out the course description and nailed down where the course goes.

 Looking up Blind Hollow.

Entering the Aspen. A more Colorado feel.

For the most part the trail is graded for horse packing. It was obvious that the trail is still used for horse packing. The surrounding land is also free range for cattle I had to shoo a group of 7 or 8 cattle from the trail on the way up but on the return they had moved to the side so I could go around them (mooooove over!).

I had another snake encounter on the trail (jumped many feet over it). It was a Rubber Boa (Charina Bottae) about a foot and a half long. Quite harmless but I thought it was a giant worm until I poked it with a stick and got close enough to notice that there were scales on it. Then I noticed the eyes. This brings my summer trail running herpetology tour to the viewing of 1 Grand Canyon Rattlesnake, 1 Milk Snake, and 1 Rubber Boa!

I drank from a stream in the middle of cattle grazing land and I shouldn't have. I hope I don't get sick before the race. 3:28, 12.7 miles, 3,000' vert.

Weekly Summary: 25.7 miles, 4,350' vert.

Weekly Run Log - Aug. 28-Sept. 03, 2011

Snapshot of the ridge North of Mount Massive.

08/30/2011: After two days off and a week of nasty weather I decided to attempt the Massive Traverse along with a return by Colorado Trail/Highline - a run I dub the Massive Super Loop. I watched the weather forecasts waiting for a break in the cycle of raining/thunderstorms from late morning through the evening. On Sunday I saw a slight decrease in the chance of thunderstorms on Tuesday in several weather forecasts so I knew something had to change in the weather patterns. I gambled on the change and I timed it just right with the weather as it only sprinkled on me two or three times but never went to the next "level".

The Run:

I walked more of this than I would've preferred. At 4:40 am I shuffled up the Hagerman Road (CR4 or FS105) in a quasi-run. I was lacking motivation for sure and there was a little worry about my joints and the weather. You could say that I wasn't attacking the hills at all. At daybreak I hit the the pass and departed from the road to off-trail towards Massive. The alpine terrain was good traveling and for the first few bumps on the ridge I only had to work my way through the maze of Juniper and some Willow from time to time.

 

Mountain Goats on the ridge north of Massive.

Early morning North of Massive still.

The sun came up helping me warm a little and I continued ticking off the bumps on the ridge progressively climbing higher and higher as I got closer to Africa Bowl and the familiar territory between North Massive and Massive proper. I made one wrong turn and followed the east side of a fin (between Point 12,654 and Point 12875) instead of the west side and found some great 4th class scrambling which slowed me down dramatically. Upon looking back at the fin it was obvious that it would've been faster to take the west side 2nd class route that wasn't quite as obvious from the other side.

Still found some snow to kick steps into.

 Bad runnout below but I am good at kicking steps with running shoes.

I didn't find water until just above Africa Bowl and even then it was only a trickle. I felt like I would find a better water source soon (I was wrong) so I half filled my bottles and continued on toward the five peaks above 14,000' that makes up the meat of the Massive ridge.

The 14,000' peaks all traveled easily. I was prepared for the 3rd class scrambling of the south side of North Massive and there was a great path being formed from the large amount of travel all the way over Massive Green to the Summit of Mount Massive. 

Looking toward Champion. OB's cabin's up that basin. 

Bouquet on the ridge.

There is no trail from the Main Massive Trail to any of the southern summits. The running became remote again and good off trail travel. It would have been runnable if I had been in a better shape for high altitude running (hence the reason I was there!). The last three summits (South Massive, Peak 13,630, Point 12,381) were pleasant with the temps warming. The clouds built but didn't threaten all that much.

After hitting treeline I descended through the beautifully spaced (for skiing) trees down South Willow until I hit the Colorado Trail at 10,800'. The run back to the truck was long. I ended up walking longer stretches than I had hoped. I was able to run the downhills pretty well but I was maxing my heart rate out quickly on the slightest of uphills.

Despite my disappointment with how much I walked, I did keep my heart rate high so it probably did a lot of good. All than time in oxygen debt above 14,000' must've done some good. We'll see at the Bear in about three weeks! 

At this point I am done with the long runs in the 20 miles range. I feel I have done a good job of training this year and now I just need to maintain my fitness for these three weeks (and maybe work on preparing my knees for the extra pain of tendinitis). 10:36, 25.0 miles, 7,000' climb.

09/01/2011: Turquoise Lake Trail. 0:30 out and then a return. Stopped to go to the bathroom at Matchless Boat Ramp. Felt sluggish but pain wasn't huge or sharp indicating dire issues. 1:07, 6.0 miles, 100' vert.

09/03/2011: Turquoise Lake Trail again 0:35 out and back. Was hauling: 18 minutes 07 seconds to the Tabor Boat Ramp. I would recommend not running there on holiday weekends. Was snapped at by a dog that was tied to a tree on the trail. Only got my shorts and I thought it might've ripped them but apparently not. I don't like how dog owners are oblivious of their dogs capabilities and then tie them up on the main thoroughfare. 1:14, 7.0+ miles, 50' vert.

Weekly Summary: 38.0 miles, 7,150'  vert.