Wetness at Silver Falls

Middle North Falls?

This past weekend Kerrie and I headed out to celebrate our 5^th anniversary. We started our adventure by visiting a string of wineries along 99W outside Newberg, Oregon. We hit up August Cellars, Duck Pond Cellars and Daedalus Cellars. We couldn’t help but buy a bottle at each stop. We had lunch at a café in Dayton, OR before heading east to Silver Falls State Park.

Due to the recent storms, most of the park was closed except for the cabins. Kerrie and I’s cabin was a rustic little gem not far from the restroom and showers. Pretty sparse accommodations: basically a bunk head, couch and double bed. It was basically like camping, but with a really warm, wooden tent.

We cooked up some Jambalaya on the stove, built a fire and peered through the trees at the stars. We were lucky that the rain held off for the most part.

Getting our Scrabble on!

The following morning we wrestled up some eggs before I suited up to attempt the ~8 mile Trail of 10 Falls. Due to storm damage, most of the trails were closed so I didn’t really know what to expect or if I’d be able to make it around the whole loop.

In the end, I made it all the way around and was thoroughly soaked from the constant drizzle and many blowdown bushwhacks. The falls, however, were really going off! Their volume was incredible. I forgot my waist pack thing or else I would have brought my camera. REALLY disappointed that I forgot it!

After getting back, I showered and packed up. On the way back to Portland, we stopped at Seven Brides Brewing in Silverton for some Nachos and victory beers, then stopped in Mt. Angel for a really tasty braut!

All in all it was a fabulous weekend. Great to spend some quality time with Kerrie and to escape the hustle and bustle of the city.

UNT

Bryan

Summer 2012 Race Schedule

Putting in a little cross training with Andrew

Ive been thinking about lately about my summer trail racing schedule. My “A” races for this year include: Sun Mountain 50M (5/19/12) and Waldo 100K (9/18/12). I am slowly working my way up, year to year, for a 100 mile race. Depending on how this summer goes, I may plan for a 100 next summer or a few summers from now. My favorite outdoor activity is mountain biking so I feel pulled to try out some endurance mountain biking events, like TOE, 24hrs Around the Clock, or High Cascades 100. But what pulls me to trail running, as opposed to mountain biking, is the simplicity of running, (no expensive equipment or maintenance require, just shoes), and more access to wildernesses and trails, not to mention how my knees and bike are more suited to trail running at my younger age. I’ll always have biking for when my body starts to give out.

Alright back to my races of choice. I want to do Sun Mountain because it should be easy to get into, it should have good (dry) weather, it is in a beautiful place that I’ve never been, it’s a challenging but doable course and its put on by good people. I want to do Waldo because it’s a NW classic, former 100k championship course, almost all singletrack, great area of Oregon that I’ve spent little time in, but want to spend more, very challenging, but beautiful course and a fabulous RD and support.

I will probably throw in a 50k sometime in March, not really sure what that would be as I am just planning this now. However, the two main reasons that I trail run are to 1) see how far/hard my body can go 2) more importantly, explore new areas that I wouldn’t normally be able to get to or have time to get too (not much time for backpacking and hiking is too slow generally and mountain bikes aren’t allowed everywhere.) So with that said, I almost look forward to my upcoming long training runs, like in the Gorge, Mt. Hood, Central Cascades, etc) more than the actual races. The main reason I enter races is to really test how far I can go (helps to have aid stations, medical personnel, marked courses, etc) and partly to compete, to see how good I am at this. I tend to get more competitive as the race goes on. So I look forward to documenting lots of the cool places that training takes me and sharing all of it with you.

As I am still working my way back from a hamstring issue, I plan of doing a post of some of my training thoughts. Not really sure what the best plan is now, but as I talk with more runners, and go through some trial and error, I’ll keep you posted as much as possible.

Next post should be about Silver Falls State Park as Kerrie and I rented a cabin for the upcoming weekend. I hope to get a good 10 miler in but many of the trails have been closed due to storm damage.

UNT

Bryan

New Years Update



Can't be a real post w/o a picture.
Rylee Dog



Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Been suffering from a slight hammy strain so I’ve been taking it easy and not doing anything too exciting. Spent the holidays over in Sunriver. The snow was nonexistent, which meant that I could bring my mountain bike out of storage. Got a few good rides in including Deschutes River Trail from Meadowcamp to Sunrvier and the Benham Butte loop out of Sunriver. Also spent on day exploring the Oregon Badlands Wilderness Area, not as cool as it sounds, but worth visiting. The “trails” were all really sandy fireroads/atv trails, at least the ones that my sister Megan and I ran. We did a loop to Badlands Rock and Flatiron Rock.

My hammy is slowly getting better but I had to bump my mileage way down to the point where I feel like I’m starting over with my training, not that I got very far, but still frustrating. It’s helped my hammy that I’ve been able to start riding the new trainer that I got for Xmas from my gf, CycleOps Magneto. The bike riding doesn’t bother my hammy at all compared to running. Going to start some minimal strength training at the gym at work over lunch to start building up some resilience and base work.

Not my cleanest post but thought I’d give an update on my happenings.

UNT

Bryan

Zig Zag Canyon Snowshoe

I'll make this short since it is over a week late. Adam and I headed up to Timberline Lodge the other weekend to get a little altitude, and also, to find a little snow. Given the recent dry and cold weather conditions, the snow level was very high and very sparse and Timberline Lodge was the best option. Back ups were Twin Lakes and White River Sno park, but Timberline looked to have the best conditions.

At the Lodge, we did our best to find the PCT, but in the end, just headed west towards Sand Canyon, Little Zig Zag Canyon and Zig Zag Canyon. In the end, we were out for about 3 hrs and climbed up towards Mississippi Head near the top of Zig Zag Canyon. Great day, great weather, great company and great beer (Mt. Hood Brewing!)

Enjoy the pics

UNT

Bryan

Willamette Stone OAB

I wanted to try out something new the other day so I finally got around to a run that I've been wanting to do to Willamette Stone Heritage Site off Skyline Ave. Oregon State Parks described the site as such:

With the exception of portions of the eastern United States and Texas, the United States is divided into a grid of six-mile squares called Townships and Ranges, commonly known as the rectangular survey system. The Willamette Meridian is one of 37 Principal Meridians in the United States, each of which is named, that define the rectangular survey system.

The Willamette Stone is the "Initial Point" or Point of Beginning of the Willamette Meridian. All land surveys and property descriptions in Oregon and Washington are referenced to this point. Established in 1851 under the direction of John B. Preston, the first Surveyor General of the Oregon Territory, the surveys completed from this location promoted settlement of the Northwest and began the transfer of land from government ownership to private ownership.


I didnt really know what to expect for the run other than a little trail finding and some steep inclines. The weather was great so I grabbed my iPhone and headed out.

Willamette Stone OAB

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Oregon

-FYI: I believe the vertical gain on this track is significantly off. It can't be more than 2k.

UNT

Bryan

Racing Cyclocross - Barton Park

Barton Park

This fall season I decided to try my hand at cyclocross. During the prior year, I started following cyclocross events online and watched a few vimeo and youtube videos and came to the conclusion that it was something that I would like to try. I also wanted to get into road biking as a good form of cross training. With that in mind, I purchased a cyclocross bike from my LBS, and also picked up a extra set of rims equipped with road tires. Not the ideal set up for road biking, but it would work for the mean time, but as a cyclocross setup, it would work great.

With very little time on my cross bike and very little training ( yes I tried a few mounts, dismounts and barrier hops), I signed up for a race in the local Blind Date at the Diary series. I raced in Cat C because I couldnt make it in time for the beginner race. Overall, it was a rough introduction into cyclocross as the race takes place in the evening under the lights of the baseball fields and other pop up lights, but not all of the course was lit so it was a little nerve racking sliding around in the dark amongst many other like-minded individuals. I soon realized that I went out way too hard and was cramping and exhausted by the time I crossed the finish line. In the end, I placed well, 18th I think in the C's, not bad for my first event, and I definitely knew that I wanted to race more.

A few weeks later, I signed up for my first Cross Crusade event at Barton Park. The Cross Crusade needs little introduction for those pugged into the cross scene. Once again, I raced Cat C because I didnt want to get up super early to make the Beginner race. I described the cross as a little muddy, but I later read that it was the driest Barton course they'd ever seen. Oh well, it was a good excuse to try out my new tires. I took this event at a much slower pace early on as I did not want to blow up like I did in my last race. I also did not know the course so I took the first lap and a half to get comfortable. Somehow during the first two laps, I failed to recognize where the finish line was and hammered hard on the third lap only to realize that the finish line was not where I expected and I had half a lap to go. So once again, I bonked hard and wasnt able to hold off the people that I had passed during my surge. However, I finished the race very happy and was glad that I came out to race. I look forward to next year and getting a group of friends together to race and maybe...... put together a team. We'll see.

UNT

Bryan

PS. No pics from the Blind Date, only Barton Park.

Oh this is where the finish is...