Photo Dump #2

Woolly Horn Ridge in the distance - Nick Eaton Trail

Trying to understand all the ridges and mountains in the distance. Nick Eaton Trail

Indian Point - it was so windy that my hat almost came off. Therefore, I pussed out and didnt climb out on the spine to sit in the vision quest pit before the bulge. Pretty big drop on either side so probably the best decision.

Angel's Rest. Thursday night adventure with Andrew. Angel's and Devil's Rest OAB

Andrew thankful that I made us go back to get headlamps before leaving.

Olallie Lake - Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA

Upper view of Ollallie and Mt. Rainier if it wasnt washed out.

Talapus Lk Th to 5 lakes - Talapus, Ollallie, Pratt, Island and Rainbow

Heading down to Pratt Lake

Pratt Lake. Took a wonderful dip in the cool blue water. Felt really nice!

4th Lake of the Day - Island Lake

Finally took the time to complete the whole Wildwood Trail in one go. 30.2 miles 4:57. Really washed out. my bad

Week day bike ride. Looking down towards Beaverton and Hillsboro.

Mt. St. Helen's via Ape Canyon Trail. Took the day to volunteer at the Volcanic 50k around MSH.

Hiked in around 45lbs of water and food for the aid station #2

The Gap

Aid Station #2 and crew. Not a bad view I must say!

Had a chance before the racers got to the aid station so I took a quick run over to the Plain of Abraham. Very desolate, very cool!

Plains of Abraham

Memaloose Lake. Clackamas Wilderness Area

Grizzly Man of the Mountain!

PA and BVT

Heading to Cresent Lake

I had a couple of busy weekends with some minor adventures thrown in, but I’m always more eager to blog when I have good pictures to back the text up. This has not been the case recently as I have not been taking many pictures during my outings due to limited camera access and general laziness.

Yes this was shot out of a moving car

Two weekends ago, Kerrie and I and the GU crew headed up to Port Angeles, WA for our buddie’s bachelor/bachelorette party. His family has a house on Lake Sutherland so we spent the weekend playing beach volleyball, tubing, and drinking beer. I had illusions of doing some big runs in Olympic National Park, but low elevation snow levels, a closed TH access road and general exhaustion from the constant heat and activity, left me with only 1 run. I wanted to do a loop on the Elwah River but the access road had been taken out by a landslide (or so we were told by the park ranger). I also wanted to do a loop to Lake Angeles, but the snow level was still too low and finally, I wanted to do a loop up and aroung Mt. Muller, but I was too tired and lazy. In the end, the boys and I did an 8 mile OAB on the Spruce Railroad Trail along Cresent Lake. We all felt pretty crappy the whole time, which lead to the laziness the following day. Overall, it was a great trip, good to see the Moran’s, Haguewoods and A Langfield. I’ll see them all again in two weeks for the actual wedding.

This past Friday, Kelly Cumiskey, and I headed to Banks, OR after work and did a 45 mile road bike OAB on the Banks-to-Vernonia State Trail. The trail was very similar to the Centennial Trail in Spokane, WA, which we used to ride quite a bit when we were at school. I gotta say that I love the idea of rail-to-trails that seems to be spreading across the pacific northwest. The ability to stay off the road, but still have great pavement, along with exploring new areas that gets you off the beat pack is a great idea. Another important point to note is that this ride signified a return to equilibrium for me as I have now ridden my bike father than I’ve run. My goal is to sign up for a century sometime in the fall so that I can knock that off my life list and feel justified in believe that I could ever run 100 miles (which is also in the plans for the distant future).

That’s all I got for now. I hope to plan something bigger for this weekend, but we’ll see.

UNT

Bryan

The Elwah River Trail I didnt get to do

The Lake Angeles/Heather Peak Trail that I also didnt get to do.

Sweet Commercial

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