Stretching the Legs Out

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Fall Family Weekend 2010 - Spokane, WA

Bowl and Pitcher Bridge, Riverside State Park, Spokane, WA

 

 

This past weekend the fam and I headed up to Spokane, WA to visit my sister for fall family weekend. We headed out in two waves, with my mom heading up earlier with some friends and the rest of us leaving later. After the beautiful drive up the Columbia River Gorge, we hit the desolation of eastern Oregon and Southern Washington. We pulled into Spokane around 11:30pm and I promptly headed down to C.I. Shenanigan’s in hopes of finding their seasonal Dunkel on tap. Unfortunately, the dunkel isn’t released until Nov 1^st. Damn! Ive had some good times with that dunkel as my liquid partner. I was hoping to take a growler home with me to Portland as growler fills are only $5 on Wed and Sundays. From there, I met my parents at Steelhead Bar and Grill and after only one beer we were prompted to join friends at Jack and Dan’s, a favorite Gonzaga bar and owned by John Stockton’s family, located right off of campus.  My college roommates spent many nights there during our time at GU. After closing down the bar at 2am, we headed back to the hotel for some well deserved rest.

I awoke the following morning to the sound of driving rain and wind. My father and I were planning to head to Riverside State Park and do some of my favorite mtb trails. We decided to wait until the weather let up a bit before heading out. Once we got to the Wilbur Road Trailhead, we saddled up and headed out. We brought our pup Rylee along for his first formal mountain bike adventure. After sitting in the car the previous day and all morning, he was raring to go. After about 15 minutes, my dad’s rear tire went flat. Thanks P Moran! Rather than taking the time to patch the tube or risk popping another tire (the rim is a little chipped), he decided to bail and go for a trail run instead. Rylee and I continued on. While the weather was cool, but wet, the trail was nice and tacky with the occasional puddle. Throughout the ride, Rylee never let up. He was bombing down the trails and climbing just as well. Clearly, there is a future for him in mountain biking, just have to get his endurance up.  The ride took around 2hrs, but when I got back to the car, my dad graciously informed me that somehow the keys locked themselves in the car. Luckily, I had thrown my phone in my pack before I left so I called my mother to arrange a rescue. It was a cold 20mins waiting for her arrival.

The rest of the day was spend at Green Bluff, which has now become a family tradition, and I hope to continue it into the future. We ate fresh pickles, homemade huckleberry ice cream, apple pie, fresh apple cider, and pumpkin cheesecake. After picking out our pumpkins and watching the pumpkin chunking, we headed back to the Steamplant Grill for Lauren’s birthday dinner. I had been looking forward to this as the steamplant has a very good pumpkin ale! While not as good as I remembered, the Wasatch pumpkin may take the cake, I brought home two growlers.

The following morning we ate breky at Frank’s Diner after a 1.5hr wait. Yes, it is very popular and delicious. I was planning to do a trail run with my sister, Megan on the Goat Trails on the South Hill, but time constraints prohibited that. There is always next time. Overall, I had a great weekend with my family. It was really nice to see Lauren and her collegiate living conditions. Brings back good memories. Hoping to get a gang together in Portland for Halloween and maybe and finally get Andrew out on the Wildwood trail….

UNT

Bryan

Sun Valley Weekend 2010 Day 3

I was the first one up on Sunday morning as I wanted to get one more ride in before I headed back to ptown. My original plan was to head back to greenhorn gulch trailhead and try the lodgepole/Mahoney loop but that one was supposed to have a good deal of climbing and would take around 3hrs. I wasn’t sure if my legs were up to that long of an adventure. As the boys surfaced from the barracks below the kitchen, I became distracted as kettle began to boil and other potential plans were presented. I was the only one who wanted to go for another ride as the boys opted to go fly fishing instead. I would have loved to have gone as I have never really fly fished, but I was in the mountain bike mecca of Ketchum and had to get my fix of singletrack before I left. I also brought all my trail running stuff and wanted to do a trail run, but I always have a hard time convincing myself to trail run when mountain biking the same trail in an option.  So after finding a suitable trail, I headed out to Adam Gulch trailhead to do the Shadyside/Sunnyside Loop. I think it was around 7 miles… The climb up through the lodgepole pines was cold and sufficiently shady. There were many stream crossings but I elected to take the logs over instead, but eventually the stream crossing became too numerous, and I grew tired of mismounting. It was time to get a little wet. At the fork in the trail which continues the Adam’s Gulch trail, I debated trying to take a longer loop, but a elderly trail runner suggested continuing my original trail as it had a great downhill section. I had to think that she knew what she was talking about and of course, she was correct. Amazing downhill through sagebrush fields and aspen groves with views into the valley below. I stopped too many times to take pictures and tried to soak all of it in. At the end of the trail, I ran into a lot of traffic as it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and the residents of SV began to hit one of the most popular and closest trailhead. I returned to the car, snapped a few pics and headed back to the condo.

After the boys returned from fishing, I learned that Captain Lange, with his infinite knowledge of coastal fishing, was able to apply some of those skills to the inland fishing world. Lange landed a small rainbow and caught his first fish on a fly. (Not sure if that is the correct way to say that?). I packed up the fire truck, ate a good lunch, said goodbye to the lads and headed out for my 10hr drive home. Yay!

The drive went very smoothly. It was nice to have light for half the drive which made it much more entertaining. The fire truck is a real champ, and is much more capable of long distance travel than the green machine. On the way home, I reconfirmed that I am in fact an excellent singer.

UNT

Bryan

Sun Valley Weekend 2010 Day 2

Oregon Gulch

We woke up the next morning and ate some eggs and bagels for breakfast. We/I wanted to do a big ride today and honestly anything in the SV area would normally be a big ride due to the length and elevation of most of the trails. After suiting up and loading the bikes, we headed into Ketchum to get some tubes and ask the local bike guys what ride we should do. The guy at Sturtos suggested Oregon Gulch, which was the ride we had been eyeing. Perfect. At the trailhead, we finished packing and fitting the bikes. I was riding my 09 stumpjumper comp, the boys were on my fleet of hardtail ironhorses (thanks adam and greg) and Joel was on his Rocky Mountain hardtail. (sorry joel i cant remember what it is. Slayer...?) We set off on rolling terrain for a few miles before beginning the 1st of 3 uphill slogs. Once Joel met us at the top, (he was riding a downhill bike) we proceeded to bomb down the hill. And I proceeded to clip a stump and go barreling into the bushes. At the bottom, we opened into a meadowy gulch (note that a gulch is something in between a ravine and a canyon or was it a gorge and a valley).

After a steady uphill climb for maybe 2 miles, we began the longest slog to the top of Oregon Gulch. Lets just say that we were all exhausted at the top and facing serious caloric deficit. I passed around some fruit leathers and a little powerbar. We each put on our shells and awaited Joel's arrival. Not long after Joel crested the final switchback and we all collapsed onto the ground to rest, eat and hydrate. Andrew, Lange and Patrick had only carried 20oz bottles and were quickly running out. Time to get back to the car we thought. We each picked our way down the rocky trail and regrouped every few miles to make sure we hadn’t lost anyone. At the bottom of Oregon Gulch, we all noticed a loud hissing coming from Patrick’s wheel. Yes, another flat tire for P-Moran. After fixing that, with a tube that was too small. My bad! We headed up Fox Creek trail for a “short” 200 ft climb, but it sure didn’t feel like it. Once we were all together at the top, we were all starving and thirsty. My hydration bladder was nearly empty and the rest of the boys had run out of water shortly before. We each high tailed it down the final section of single track with was the best of the whole day. Open Flowy Fast. At the car, we pillaged Andrew’s car for food, devouring a multitude of oranges and a bag jerky. The beers we had stashed in the car were left untouched as Andrew and Patrick attempted to raid the Sun Valley Ski Team’s training gym in search of water. In the end, they were foiled by some deceptive green hurdles that posed as a garden hose. Once loaded and partially refueled, one party headed to the store for chocolate milk, while Joel and I tried to navigate back to the condo.

Top of Oregon Gulch

After finally being refueled, rehydrated and re-rested, we headed out to poach some tub. The condo’s hot tub was temporarily closed till the winter season so we thought it far to borrow the neighboring condo’s outdoor tub. Once all the leaves were removed, we submerged our bike-worn bodies into the liquid goodness. The rest of the night was followed with Wasatch Beer, steak and football. We slept like rocks. Well I cant speak for Lange and Patrick….

(side note: I am in constant pursuit to find the world’s greatest pumpkin ale and Wasatch Brewery in now in fierce contention with Coeur d’Alene’s brew. If you have a potential winner, please let me know).

UNT

Bryan

Sweet Commercial

Sun Valley Weekend 2010 Day 1

On Thursday evening after work, I jumped in the Big Red Firetruck along with 4 mountain bikes and began the long slog over to Boise. The plan was to get to Boise late thursday, maybe sleep in the car if I got too tired, then grab Andrew and head to Sun Valley where we would meet up with our college buddies, Joel and Patrick who were coming in from Bozeman and Salt Lake City. The Bellingham member of the group, Captain Lange, would arrive late Friday night in Boise and drive Andrew's car over to SV that night. Then spend the weekend enjoying the areas immaculate singletrack.

So after sitting in lovely Portland traffic for an hour, I finally made it into the Gorge and was able to put the fire truck into cruise control. Just have to sit back and listen to the tunes for the next 6 hours. After many pit stops and refueling stations, I arrived in Boise around 2am mountain time and crawled into bed at Andrew's house.

The morning we awoke around 9am and fueled up on a nice egg and toast breakfast. After stopping by a local bike shop, REI, Costco, and the airport (to drop off Clare for Lange), we were on the barren road leading to ID 75. After driving 7 hours in the dark and 1 or so of desolate southern ID landscape, I was longing for a view of some sort so I was very excited when the sawtooths came into view. The remainder of the drive was absolutely gorgeous.

We met Patrick at Andrew's family's condo in Elkhorn, quickly unpacked, then grabbed the bikes and headed out for a ride. We settled on the Greenhorn Gulch trailhead and loop due to its proximity, length and technical ability. Andrew had purchased the adventuremaps.net map for the area, and it was fantastic as usual. I have a couple of these maps for Bend, Mt. Hood and the SW washington, and they are great. The trail climbed up and a moderate incline for a few miles with very few switchbacks till the end. I struggled a little with the altitude. We arrived at the junction and found an old picnic table and chairs. We rested here and debated whether we wanted to keep climbing up the trail to potential view point or just continue up greenhorn gulch. In the end, we climbed higher but quickly tuned around to follow the original trail. After some more climbing, we broke out of the forest and emerged onto an open ridge with spectacular views in every direction. After being talked out of doing an out and back to the car, instead of continuing the loop (glad I lost that one), I proceeded to bomb down the great open singletrack. After a few miles, I realized that I was by myself so I stopped to wait for the guys. A few minutes went by before I started climbing up to see what happened. Turns out the Patrick got a flat not long after I started down and was running down the trail while Andrew tried to catch me. We replace the tire and continued down to the bottom. I was grinning from ear to ear as I had never hit singletrack like that that was so open with great views.

That evening Andrew made chili while we awaited the arrival of Joel and Lange. Many beers were drank and tales told as we passed the hours. Bed time didnt come till around 3am. I was lucky that I was still on Pacific time.

UNT

Bryan

Off to Sun Valley, ID

The boys are getting together in Sun Valley for a big mountain biking adventure. Never been so Im pretty excited. Long drive ahead of me which may result in a camping trip in the back of the car. Who knows! Look for a post on Monday summarizing the trip

UNT

Bryan

Makeshift Bike Lights

Not the most attractive option

With Leif Erikson Dr, along with all the other firelanes in Forest Park, at my finger tips, I face the annual problem of fading daylight. Getting off work at 5pm and having it be dark under the forest canopy by 6:30pm at the latest, doesnt give me a lot of time to get out before its dark. I looked into getting some bike lights so I could ride the firelanes after dark, but they are ridiculously expensive. So I thought of an alternative, using my father's GorillaTorch light, since it puts out quite a lot of light, then combining it with one of my petzl headlamps.

Yesterday, I decided to give my idea a try, but I didnt know whether to mount the gorillatorch on my helmet or handles bars so I tried both techniques. Rylee and I did some laps behind my house and on some short singletrack in order to try a little of everything. Ideally, I would love to be able to ride technical trails at night, but my system wasnt quite up to the challenge. The best system seemed to be mounting the Torch on my helmet (to utilize the long distance beam: the gorillatorch is advertised at a max of 60-65 lumens, but it seems like more than that) and having some sort of headlamp strapped to the handlebars to give more light around the front of the bike. This system still needs some tinkering in order to work for more technical singletrack, but should be fine for the firelanes. I will post some pictures shortly so check back later tonight for more details.

UNT

Bryan

Surveyors Ridge Trail

A look south down Surveyor's Ridge

This weekend I headed out to bike Surveyor's Ridge Trail, which starts north of Hood River. I had always wanted to do this trail but was always turned off my the Strenuous! rating on the adventuremaps.net Hood River map that I have (great maps by the way). The trail is one of the best in Oregon due to the views and quality of trail. There are a few approaches to the trail involivng Oak Ridge trail and Dog River trail with some connection with Hwy 35. I decided to try and skip the supposedly brutal climbs that lead to surveyors ridge by taking some fireroads to the upper trail head so i could attempt an out and back on the trail to accumulate roughly 20 miles.

However, the forest road that I chose became a little too much for my 95 Explorer to handle (aka the Green Machine) so I pulled off on the side of the road, under some huge powerlines and pushed my bike about a mile up the rest of the road as it was too steep and muddy to ride. It had been raining all night and hadnt stopped yet. Next time I will take the better maintained and more frequently used FR17 on the back side, which will take longer but will be less strenuous or maybe ill be fit enough to climb oak ridge by next summer.

Anyway, once on the trail, I climbed steadily for about an hour. By this time I was soaked to the bone from the rain. I still havent found the perfect rain layer that is breathable enough to work hard it but wont cause sweat. I needed to get back to town by 7pm so I turned around at the halfway point around Gibson Horse Camp. I changed my clothes before heading home so I wouldnt freeze on the descent. Had to pull out all of my gear in order to get to the dry bag that had my softshell in it. After repacking, I ripped down the rest of the trail in about a half hour. The Marmot Tempo jacket that I was wearing was absolutely phenomenal! and the trail was even better. I look forward to doing the whole thing next summer. In the end, my ride total around 9 miles. Not as much as I would have liked but better than hitting Brown's Camp again.

Repacking
My Kind of Christmas Tree

UNT

Bryan

A Little Update

I recently moved this blog over to blogger from wordpress because blogger allows you to embed certain maps and other features. So within the last two days I have reposted all my posts from my other wordpress blog onto this on. The timeline doesnt line up but everything from here on out should line up. Thank you for your cooperation as I work through these technical difficulties.

Bryan

A New Favorite

The weather was awesome yesterday so after work I quickly suited up and jumped on the road bike for a nice little cruise. Plan was to head up skyline and enjoy the change of fall colors. I was worried about the waning daylight, but grabbed my blinky lights and headed out around 5:50ish. I immediately hit some pretty strong wind, which continue to slow me down for the duration of the ride. The wind is one of the things that really bugs me about road biking. It just stands as a large obstacle that really isnt that present with trail running or mountain biking, due to the locations of most of my rides/runs. But trail running and mtb have the common enemy of sand and mud so I guess everything has its draw backs. In the end, I ended up getting back right around 7pm with very little daylight left. Pretty bummed out that the days are already getting that short. Need to by a better headlamp so I can do some trail runs in the dark. Id love to purchase a set of bike lights so I could ride Leif Erickson, but those bike lights are way outta my price range right now. I have a few alternative ideas that Ill try and post about shortly. In the end, I gotta say this is my favorite ride that I have done by my house so far. I havent been road biking long so time will tell how long this ride stands as #1, but it has a decent climb up Springville road then some good downhill along skyline and Kaiser. Thats all for now.

UNT

Bryan

The Daily Commute

Thought I'd post a little blurb on my daily commute to work. I have been interning at Columbia Sportswear in the marketing department for almost 3 months now, and I gotta say that I can't be happier to be working where I am right now. The company is fantastic, and I love being in this industry. I consider myself very lucky as I was granted the internship a few days after completing my MBA from Gonzaga University. Go Zags!

Since Columbia HQ is located so close to my residence, I decided that I wanted to start biking to work. It is literally quicker for me to bike to work than drive because I can take short cuts the whole way there, and also because parking at HQ is very limited so most people have to be shuttled in from a local church parking lot down the road a little bit. I am so blessed to be able to ride about 50-60 yards of pristine singletrack on the way to and from work everyday. It might not sound like much but it feels great to be able to rip a little bit to and from work everyday.



So considering that I can take these shortcuts will inevitably become wet and muddy here in the PacNW, I needed a bike that could get me through the mud. I decided to take my old Jamis Durango SX mountain bike, which had a broken rear derailleur & hanger and strip it down to bare bones in order to convert it to a singlespeed. I didnt really know much about bike maintenance but had always wanted to learn more so I decided to make this a little project for myself. I purchased a single speed conversion kit, a crank puller, single speed chain and lock ring device at the local Performance bike shop and then after watching a few YouTube tutorials, I set to work. The hardest park of the project was aligning the cogs with the crank arm and finding the appropriate derailleur hanger that matched my bike frame. After a few weeks of searching for the hanger, I finally found one that fit down at Fat Tire Farm. Once I had that missing piece, things proceeded smoothly and shortly thereafter the Green Dragon was completed, outfitted with the necessary bike lights and fenders. Ill try and get a photo of my bike up here soon. Feel free to ask any questions about singlespeed conversion.

So now that my bike is ready to roll, I ride my bike rain or shine everyday to work, unless I need my car for work. The 2.53 ish mile trip is a breeze and it sometimes makes me wish that I had farther to ride so that I could actually get a workout from the trip. Hopefully, Ill be able to find an apartment in the upcoming months, but that is dependent on the job situation.


UNT

Bryan

Birthday Bash 2010

This post is a little late, but will recap the events of my birthday bash 2010. Adam and I, followed my Andrew and Maura, headed down to my family's vacation home in Sunriver, OR. As usual, we planned way more activities than what was feasibly possible. Our intended list included: mountain biking the McKenzie River Trail, Climbing South Sister, climbing at Meadowcamp, some low key spelunking in Boyd Cave, mtb Mrazek trail and a visit to Deschutes Brewery. So with that line up, we ventured off to Sunriver Thursday night in order to get a jump on the weekend. After a lazy start Friday morning, Adam and I pulled off Skyliner Rd around marker #5 of the Phil's Trail Network. Our plan was to cut off the Shevlin Park part of the trail and take some fireroads to by pass them. I think it was FR4606? Anyway, we ended up hike-a-biking part of the trail as a short cut, at the recommendation of some local shop guys in SR, that was a bad idea as it really worked us climbing out of the canyon. We finally bushwacked our way back to the Mrazek and continued all the way to cold water/clear creek (cant remember the name) before we were too tired and decided to turn around in order to get some climbing done at Meadowcamp. The ride back down Mrazek was amazing and definitely worth the slow, gradual, long climb to the top.This was half adventure #1.

Coming down Mrazek

We had climbed Meadowcamp before and had our eyes set on a specific route next to a little cove besides a big Ponderosa. Didnt have a guide book so we didnt know the rating. With light fading, Adam and I set up a top rope, but quickly realized that there was not enough light left to actually climbing the route so we cleaned the anchor and headed back to the car with the intent of coming back the following day.

Boyd Cave

That night, Andrew and Maura arrive and we continued the celebrations late into the evening with numerous games of beer pong and a weak attempt of the board game Imagin-iff. The next morning we got up and geared up for a climb of South Sister. But on our way, we decided to stop and climb down Boyd Cave for a little while.  Maura and Andrew had never really done anything like this so it was nice to have some newbies. So with a latter than planned started, we arrived at the Devil's Lake Trailhead and headed up the South Sister Climber's trail. In the summer, this is a technically easy climb/hike but very strenuous in nature. Once reaching the alpine, we detoured over to Moraine Lake, which has a wonderful view of Broken Top and South Sister. Realizing that it would take the rest of the day to climb to the top, we headed back to the car, rounding off a 2.3 ish mile hike with relatively 2000ft elevation gain. These are ballpark numbers. Half adventure #2.

Moraine Lake and Broken Top

That night we rode our bikes to the Owl Nest in the Sunriver Lodge for drinks, then jumped in the car and headed into Bend for the 4th annual Octoberfest. The live band was great and the beer was better. After that we all headed over to the Deschute Brewery Public House on Bond St. After more delicious food and beer, it was time to head back to Bend and get some zzzz's.

Just below Clear Lake

Sunday morning, we packed up and had a wonderful breakfast of eggs and gheta(sp breakfast meatloaf). Adam and I wanted to mtb the McKenzie River Trail on the way back to Portland, but needed a shuttle so we were able to convince Andrew and Maura to caravan with us over to the bottom of the trailhead, then ferry us up to the top. After driving the picturesque McKenzie Scenic Byway, we jumped in their car and were deposited at the bottom of Clear Lake due to daylight constrictions. Adam and I quickly set off and quickly got off trail on a hikers trail following the waterfalls down. (Note to others- take the footbridge over the river after leaving clear lake. You want to be on the west side of the river.) We made our way, slowly down the path until we came to the reservoir, in which point we found out that our intended bridge back to the trail was in repair for the summer and generally impassable. After proceeding around the reservior for maybe a mile, we finally made it to the trail after an hour of route finding. The trail was technical until Tamolich Pool, but then proceeded to become unrideable due to extremely technical lava rock sections. Lots of hike-a-biking for the next 30 minutes. At this point, we noticed that we only had about an hour of daylight left due to all the setbacks and roughly 12-14 miles of trail. We hammered on for another hour, getting lost again by missing the trail and heading up a forest road in search of it only to find it back at the bottom of the road. It began to get very dark just as the trails opened up into some really fun and flowly sections. But we decided that we needed to bail and try and hit the car before dark. We strapped on our headlamp, set them to flash mode then took turns drafting each other back to the car via the highway. The last two miles were pitch black and we were glad to have bailed when we did. We packed up the car for the last time and prepared ourselves for the 3 hours drive back to portland.

Time to Go Home

All in all it was a fantastic trip of Half Adventures and I wouldnt have changed anything. It was nice to have Andrew and Maura join us for the tail end of the trip, and Adam remains the trusty friend as usual. I am working on getting the photos that Adam and I took during our trip up here on the blog so hopefully Ill get all off them up here soon.

UNT

Bryan

The Maplewood Lollipop Loop

I went out for my first trail run since my 50k a week or so ago. As usual, I took it a little too intense for my first run in awhile. I decided to go out and do one of my favorite runs in the area, something I call the maplewood lollipop loop. This run is in Forest Park in Portland. If you arent familiar with it, just know that its worth moving to Portland just for this park and trail system, all with in Portland city limits. Anyway, this run starts on top of skyline rd at the firelane 2 gate. From the gate you descend pretty steeply down to the famous Wildwood trail, take the left and follow it a few yards till it intersects on your right with the Maple trail. Run the Maple trail in its entirety and when you get to Leif Eriksson(sp) take a right and run the old road roughly 100 yards until firelane 5. Head up firelane 5 (be cautious of mountain bikers decending down this trail bc its one of the only bike legal "trails" in Forest Park that is actually any fun. After some steep but quick climbing FR5 will intersect with the Wildwood Trail again and follow it left all the way back to FR2. Remember to keep some strength bc the climb up FR2 is very steep and stairsteps roughly 4 times. So this trail does a lollipop loop with Maple and Wildwood trail hence Maplewood.

Gate to Gate took me 1 hr and 19 mins with some change. Using the Green Trails map of Forest Park, I calculated the mileage at around 10.7 but I feel that number is a little high. By the end of the run, my muscles were feeling very tight and one of the tendons behind my right knee was bugging me. I definitely took it too hard for my first run in a week or so. Looks like Ill stick to my bike for a few days. I'm heading out to Sun Valley/Ketchum in a few weeks to rip some pristine Idaho singletrack with some college buddies so a little bike fitness wouldnt hurt.

Also, once my friend Adam gets done going over the photos from this past weekends birthday celebrations in Central Oregon, Ill get some pictures uploaded as well.

UNT

Bryan

Cle Elum 50k

Courtesy of Glenn T.

I  ran my second 50k about two weeks ago and couldnt have been any happier with the result. The week prior to the race I was suffering from some sort of big toe injury that was having me contemplate where I would end up racing. I didnt want to drive all the way to cle elum and then drop out at mile 4. I had my dad come to crew for me, well really, he volunteered in order to waive my race fee, which I had already paid for and would need to be reimbursed either way. He also wanted to see what it was like at one of these events considering he didnt get to see me run my first one (Spokane River Run 50k).

I stayed off my feet for a couple of days but wasnt seeing any improvement with my toe. I ended up stretching my feet and lower legs with the Stick (massage roller) and it really loosened things up. The next day I felt great and was able to go for a short 3 mile jaunt down fire road 1 and a short out and back on the wildwood with no pain whatsoever. This gave me enough confidence to at least get in the car and head for cle elum, wa Friday after work.. Maybe I would just do the 25k. After I semi sleepless night in the Timber Lodge in Cle Elum, I ended up getting enough confidence to start the 50k.  I knew I wanted to get out in front quick as the 1st 50k that I did I got stuck in the middle and could never catch up to the front guys. Not that I would have because the first place finisher beat me by over an hour and I got "chicked"! So with this in mind I settled in climbing up south cle elum ridge (I think) in around 12th place. I felt really good throughout the first half of the race. Unlike the previous 50k I did, I did not run with a hydration pack and instead ran with a ultimate direction hand held water bottle with nuun in it. I figured that I would stop at the aid stations this time around because at during my last 50k I did not stop at the aids because I hand enough water and gels with me in my pack. But during this cle elum race, I wore my MHW refueler advance shorts in which I fit 6 gels in three pocks. I also ran with a SPI belt around my waist that carried a half tube of nuun and tylenol should the aids not have it.

My one big mistake this time around was bring a lightweight rain shell. The trails had been pounded by rain the prior days and rain was definitely a high possibility, although the temperature on race day hovered around the low 60s. I ended up having to take off my jacket with in 2 miles and carried it in my hand for the rest of the run! I thought that I would be able to use the SPI belt to strap it to my waist but it was too bouncy for my liking. The rain held off for the whole day so there wasnt even a need for the jacket. Also, I didnt know what the trails were going to be like. I knew from the website that the trails were going to be pretty rugged, and the recent rain could only have made the trails worse. I purchased a pair of Montrail Mountain Masochists GTX (aka waterproof uppper) and hoped to have them broken in for the race. That didnt happen though so I could to run in my Montrail Rockridges with the MHW Seta trail running gaitors. I felt that with would be a good combination should the trail get pretty muddy. Thankfully, while there were only a few puddles, I was able to jump over most of them. In the end, I probably did not need gaitors but they didnt hinder me either.

Okay, back to the actual race. The race boasts 7000ft of elevation gain with the starting elevation at 2800ft with a max elevation of 5800ft. So considering that I sleep at around 100ft living in Portland and that my routine training elevation was around 800-1000ft on the wildwood trail, I was a little nervous about how I would perform at altitude. Never the less, I pushed through the climbing, walking where need be, crawling where mandatory. I crested Windy Pass (the beginning of the downhill) feeling really good. I was ready to bomb down the trail, leaving all the old men with shaky knees in my dust. And bomb down the hill I did. I felt great from mile 16-24, flying through all the creek crossing. At this time, due to false information, I thought that I was in the top 3. But as soon as I began to approach aid C at around mile 24 (which i thought was mile 26) my legs began to stage a revolt. So here I was 6 miles from the finish with legs that were pretty much pumped to the max. My bomb down the mountain strategy was backfiring. I continued past aid C where I learned that I was in 6th place with a #5 just in front of me. That gave me quite a boost and I tool off for the finish. I wanted a top 5 place. I soon passed number #5 in the bushes answering natures call (awkward). However, the problem that I was facing was that both the 25k and 50k racers finished on the same trails and I couldnt tell who was in the 50k and who wasnt. I began passing more people. Some I could tell were 25k racers and other I couldnt. So once again I had no idea what place i was in so i just pushed hard to the finish. At this point, my legs were shot. My left knee was having IT band problems and every down hill felt like someone was hitting my quads with a hammer. With two miles to go, I noticed a runner coming up on me fast but I had nothing left to hold him off. There goes 1 place! Then with 1 mile to go, another guy passed me. That really got me going but there was no way that I could catch either of them. I ended up crossing the finish line in 6th place with a time of 5 hours and 9 minutes! Pretty damn good but I was so close to 4th place which sounds so much better! Camera died before the end of the race so no photos from the end unfortunately.

Once my dad came back from volunteering, I soaked in the tanecum creek then jumped in the car to visit my gf in Seattle. Over all, my second ultra went really well. Here are some comparisons between this race and my last one.

Cle Elum/Spokane River Run

1. Montrail Rockridges/La Sportiva Lynx
2. 5 hours 9 minutes/5  hours 1 minute
3. 6th place / 13th place
4. Not chicked/chicked
5. Rainy and coldish/hot and dry
6. UD handheld/hydration pack
7. nuun/nuun
8. run&walked/ran the whole thing
9. No Nike+/Nike+, (told me I ran 37 miles)

Thats all for now,

UNT

Bryan

Greetings...

This will serve as my inaugural blog post. My goal for this blog is to chronicle the various adventures that I partake in on a daily or weekly basis. I also hope to use the blog as a training tool in order to reference previous runs, rides or climbs in terms of weather condition, pace, fitness, partners, etc. I will try my best in the next couple of weeks to learn how to operate Wordpress and get into the flow of being a blogger.  I may try out different features in order to learn how to use everything so give me some slack as I take control.

UNT (until next time)

Bryan