Wonderland : Day 1

"I also knew I was being challenged.  This was the world of the woods and the working stiff, the logging camp being a world especially overbearing with challenges, and, if you expected to duck all challenges, you shouldn't have wandered into the woods in the first place."
-Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

Where in the world is the trail?  How in the world will I make it tomorrow? Wow, it sure is beautiful out here!  What is around the next bend, or over the next pass? These were the thoughts that persistently occupied my mind on the first day of my attempt to run around the Wonderland Trail in three days. 

My family and I arrived in the Pacific Northwest last Thursday and headed directly to just outside the Sunrise entrance to the Mt Rainier National Park.  We stopped along the way at a couple of small roadside markets for vegetables and meat; the local cherries, blueberries, housemade elk jerky, kielbasa, bacon and smoked salmon were delicious highlights throughout our journey. 

That night, I packed my small Nathan HPL #020 pack with some water, a squeeze filter (highly recommended at 3 oz), shotblocks, map, compass, camera, endurolytes, advil, a second garmin watch, and a pbj sandwich.  That's about it.  My plan for the next morning was to run from White River Campground to Cougar Rock Campground, about 30 miles and 6,000 feet of elevation gain. 

The next morning I stopped in at the Sunrise Ranger station to register.  After he pulled my permits he mentioned that it would be nice but "plenty of snow".  I thought, sure maybe a few patches of snow.  It was the end of July after all.  I asked him what color the blazes were, and he responded that there are no blazes.  Hmmm, that's interesting for a major trail in a national park.

At the trail head, I kissed my family goodbye and trotted off.  I felt great and was super excited.  Although I knew this was the best I'd physically feel for the next three days.

 

After some nice cruising trail through the forest I started climbing.  I climbed up to Sumerland shelter which was just at sub-alpine level.  I saw a Marmot messing around and cleaning up after previous visitors. 

Very shortly after Summerland, the mountain opened up into alpine peaks, valleys, passes, bowls, couloirs....and snow.  Bunches of snow. I found some faint tracks and followed them up.  Within a quarter of a mile I had lost the tracks and was heading up into a big bowl.  I pulled out my map for the first time (of many) and realized I was off course. 

I corrected and found tracks again after about another quarter mile.  I eventually passed a couple of female hikers coming the opposite direction and made my way up over Panhandle pass.  Passes are always spectacular in the high mountains....never "pass" on a chance to hike to one if you are within striking distance.

Panhandle Pass

Once over Panhandle pass the trail was completely covered in snow.  I was barely able to make out a couple of hikers tracks and scrambled across.  I just hoped they knew where they were going!

The Trail cuts across the snow covered expanse.  One of the few hikers I passed can be seen in lower right.

I pushed through long sections of snow, running as much as I could.  Without a trail, there were no switchbacks, which meant following a simple bearing on all fours up and over climbs.  I slid and glided along various grades.  And I checked the map frequently just to make sure.  I was in another world.

Rare Trail Above Treeline

Long snow covered descent to Indian Bar.  Slip slideee!!

The trail descended through the snow down to Indian Bar.  At this point (about 12 miles in), I saw the last two hikers I would see for a long while.  This was significant because they had a gps and I had been roughly following their footsteps.  At this point, the trail went cold, so to speak.  I had no footsteps to follow, no blazes, no cairns.  Thank God I had my map and compass.  I could have easily left the compass behind, since I had assumed the well-known trail in a national park would have been well traveled and well marked.  Additionally, it was hot and humid in Georgia as I was packing.  Snow was the last thing on my mind.   

As I ascended out of Indian Bar, I started to check the map and compass frequently.  I was simply following a bearing over blank expanses of snow for a while.  Every once in a while, I would eventually come to grassy spots or steep drop offs with no sign of trail.  I would scratch my head, check the map, the compass, and correct.  I became frustrated and a little nervous. The miles were taking much longer than planned.  I tried to pick up the pace to compensate, which didn't help.

At one point during some head scratching, I passed what looked like bear droppings, and as I was trying to find trail, smelled the strong scent of a beast.  It surely didn't help the nerves.

The trail descends along the ribbon of snow along the ridge.

Finally I had descended back down below treeline.  After the huge 6 mile descent I bottomed out in Box Canyon.  It was comforting to be back on trail and simply running again.  My legs were starting to feel heavy though.  With my mind finally off of route finding, I began trying to figure out how I was going to be able to do the next day.  Out of Box Canyon, I began to climb up the 5-mile, 2,000-ft ascent to Reflection Lake. 

Almost immediately on the long climb I began to feel pretty terrible.  And the worse I felt, the more I told myself I wouldn't be able to do the next day.  I felt nauseous and my legs were a wreck.  I was taking a few steps at a time.   I think the snow sections earlier in the day really set me back by not focusing on eating well and really spinning my wheels.  Seeing the numerous wildflowers and waterfalls helped slightly, but were really no match for the funk that I was in for a couple of hours. 

    

I finally arrived at the Cougar Rock campground 9 hours after the day began and 30 miles of spectacular country away from where I had started.  Unfortunately, I was determined to not go out for the second day.  I had fears that my legs wouldn't hold up.  And fears that I wouldn't be able to find trail, especially since it was socked in.  And fears that I would be miserable all day.  Although Allison provided plenty of encouragement, I decided to just hike with my family the next day and then start again on the last 30 mile segment the day after.  At the time, I felt sure that I wouldn't regret my decision. 

Stay tuned for reports on Days 2 and 3!

One Week to Wonderland

On Thursday, I'll kiss my family goodbye at the trailhead and step out to run around the most prominent mountain in the contiguous United States....Mt Rainier. The Wonderland Tail is a spectacular long distance trail, according to folks who've been there.  So I hope to run the 93 miles in three days. 

I'll set out each day with some water, enough food for a day, my camera, and my thoughts.  My crew (my family) will be waiting for me at the other end each day with our tent, some better food, and a couple of beers.  Not bad.  It'll go down as follows...

Day 1: White River to Cougar Rock - 30 miles / 6,050 ft El Gain
Day 2: Cougar Rock to Mowich Lake - 35 miles / 10,500 ft El Gain
Day 3: Mowich Lake to White River - 26 miles / 6,200 ft El Gain

I'm looking forward to trekking in the middle of some beautiful country each day.  I have no idea how my body will respond to big miles on consecutive days, so I'll have to focus on recovery each night.  After Wonderland we are going to go relax and truly recover on San Juan Island for a couple of days. We are all super excited! I'll take some pictures and post when I'm done!
-Jason

July 4th

Quintessential 4th of July day in Atlanta: Ran the Peachtree Road Race 10k, went to a cookout at a friends house, and went to see fireworks.  As for the race, I finished 272 out of 57,745 finishers in 37:56.  Yes, it's the largest 10k in the world.  Although I haven't run it in years, it's fun for me because I can ride my bike to MARTA and take it straight to the start and jump right in the sub-seeded corral.  Easy Peasy.  I'm pretty happy with my time considering I haven't been training for a short road race and it's a fairly tough 10k course in hot weather....maybe I'll have to get on the track more!  Hope everyone had a great day!

OUR SOUTH

I've been thinking a lot about Doc Watson since he passed away a couple of weeks ago.  He was so great.  One of the things I've realized is that his music makes me truly proud to be born and raised in the south.  Somehow his innovative style of music is able to convey our culture, our people, and our land.

Sometimes I feel like I would rather be in a place like the Rockies or the North Cascades, which are certainly more grand than our smaller, older, denser Appalachian mountains.  And sometimes, I tend to see some of the negative things about the south, but I've come to realize every place has it's dirty secrets; you just have to be there long enough for them to present themselves.  In the end, I don't think I'd rather be anywhere else but the south.  Here are three good reasons.

Our Land
I grew up in East Tennessee and it seems to get more beautiful the more I go back.  The rolling green hills and the rivers are comforting.  A little to the south is the mountainous smokies and western North Carolina.  We just got back from Waynesville where the mountains are more layered and dramatic.   

We have beautiful mountain lakes, like Lake Burton, where we just spent a couple of nights at Will's little red cabin...

We have killer waterfalls, rivers, and wildflowers in deep wilderness like the Cohutta's in North Georgia (these pics from a trail run to Jack's River Falls earlier this year)...

Our Food
In my opinion, we have best food possibly in the world.  I love the pig...and we know how to cook the pig.  I love our vidalia's, our peanuts, our collards, and our rainbow trout.  I love cooking with butter.  And grits.  I love the recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation.  Our food is dripping with culture.  From cajun to cakes.  My mom makes THE best gumbo and pound cake.  Trust me, I've tried most of them out there.  A lot has been written about southern food lately.  And new southern restaurants are popping up all over the country.  Rightly so.  Most of the food is pretty simple, but the technique and ingredients are key.  Anyway, go make some fresh grilled trout, summer corn and collards for dinner.  Enjoy!

 
And of course,
Our Music (and our People)
Three from Doc...

Windy and Warm - One of my favorite instrumentals that highlights Docs style and ability

Sittin on Top of the World - Highlights Docs personality

The Lone Pilgrim - Just because

Spring Racing!

SweetH20 50k
It's been a great couple of months of running and racing.  Back in April, I went back to SweetH20 50k and came in second overall in 4:43.  It was another good southern race that was convenient to home.  Even though my time was only a few minutes faster than last year, the course was tougher since we were fortunate enough to make the creek (more like river) crossing this year and make the climb up the yellow river trail.  Videos Here. As usual the pack started out fast (low 6 minute per mile pace!) so I held back and ran along in about 10th for a few miles before making my way up.  Rumor on the trail was that there was a young gun looking to break the CR.  I was just hoping that wisdom could eventually overcome young speedy legs so that I could catch him.  So I focused on nutrition and even pacing and eventually passed him around mile 20 or so.  But I was still in second.  So I kept running.  UP and DOWN the gas lines.  And finally saw the the guy in first at the turn around.  He was around 10 minutes up on me with about 5 miles to go so I was pretty much out of luck for the win.  I had a great day though since I felt good the entire race.  After the race, I had a beer with the winner, Dave Eaton from Grand Rapids and we talked about trail racing around Michigan.  I visitied with the other local trail folks and then took off for the Sweetwater 420 fest with my family.  We through frisbee, listened to music, and drank beer for the rest of what turned out to be a near perfect day.  It turns out I did something right during the day because my recovery was awesome....very little soreness and I was back running within a couple of days.  I'll just have to repeat this recovery method often. 

TMSA 10k
Our local 10k to support our charter school happened a couple of weeks later.  As usual, I volunteered by putting out the course markings the night before the race.  Then on Saturday morning walked up to the start with my family.  I won for the third straight year and lowered the CR to just under 38 minutes. This race usually occurs shortly after an ultra so I just try to survive for the 6.2 miles....for fun of course!

Chattooga 50k
My friend Rob suggested we jump into the Chattooga 50k since the RD, Terri, opened up the race for Saturday as well as the typical Sunday to accommodate more interested runners.  Great idea.  So we emailed Terri and she said, come on!  Terri puts a few low-key ultras around South Carolina.  There is no charge, just a donation cup at the check-in table.  I've always heard good things about her races so this would be a good chance to experience one. 

Rob and I got up super early and drove to a campground near Mountain Rest, SC, just over the Georgia border.  After Terri gave some instructions we started the race with about 40 other runners.  I started in 5th and worked my way up to the lead after about 5 miles.  It was definately different being in the lead that early.  My plan for the race was to take it easy since I would be in Waynesville with my family the following week and wanted to repeat an awesome cycling loop that included some big elevation up to and over the Blue Ridge Parkway.  So once I had the lead, I put it in cruise control and ran along the rooty single track along the Chattooga river (very close to where deliverance was filmed.)  I had a blast just taking it easy.  There was a long 10 mile unsupported section that I didn't see anyone on that I had a blast on, just taking it easy.  Then came the turnaround at around mile 20.  I figured second place would be about 10 minutes or so back but to my surprise he was about a minute back with a female runner right behind him.  So I picked it up and hustled back through the unsupported return to the finish.  When I got to the finish there was no one there.  Just a tent.  And silence.  It was awesome!  I loved it.  I walked over to the picnic table where Terri's grandsons were heating up barbecue and beans for the runners.  I said HI and they said they were surprised to see me so soon and went over and wrote down my time.  I got in just under 5 hrs (4:58) with the second fastest time over the five year history of the race.  (Someone else actually ran faster the next day though.)  I was very happy with the outcome.  It was fun hanging out with the runners that came trickling in and sharing stories from the trail.  I REALLY loved this race and the course.  I want to come back next year and camp to get the full experience.  Anyone up for it?

Future Running Plans
I'm going to run the Wonderland Trail over three days in July!  Super psyched about this one.  Stay tuned for updates.

Future Blogging
I made a new blog on a different site Dirty Calves to post about the random adventures that go on in my personal life in addition to running.  I originally wanted to keep it separate from the running blog because a I've figured running people would only want to see running stuff.  Well, I've come to realize that there are folks out there doing this sort of thing much better than myself, both much faster than me as well as much better writing.  Here are some of my favorites-
http://www.alpine-works.com/footnotes/
http://thatdakotajones.blogspot.com/
http://antonkrupicka.blogspot.com/

So I'm going to try to post here about many other things that I'm also passionate about- being outside, adventure, music, food, photography, the environment, building, creating, friends, and family.  We'll see how that goes.

-Jason

San Franciscan Envy!

Not sure what I've been doing for the last month, but it's not posting on this blog.  They say to have a successful blog you have to post often....oh well. 

I have been running though; basically to get ready for the Sweetwater 50k this weekend.  Last year I finished 5th in 4:46.  We'll see if I can improve this year.  But the real reason I want to go back is to do the original course including the river crossing that I missed out on last year.  It was too swift to cross last year. 

Last week I had another chance to run in the bay area - Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve.   Views of the ocean over Half Moon Bay, big redwoods, lush forest, and solitude.  Just another killer place to run in the area.