07/16/2010   Wonderland Trail backpack  Photo Gallery
Paradise to Devil's Dream  6 miles, 2400' (from Longmire)
Rick has been wanting to hike the Wonderland trail for a long time now and was looking for company so I joined him for a four day hike from Paradise to Mowich Lake, in turn for which he helped with timing at our Light at the End of the Tunnel marathon the following weekend. As usual, I was late getting packed up, having just returned from our trip to Montana two days earlier. We left for Mowich around 1PM, dropped my car off at Mowich Lake then drove over to Paradise. Rick had originally considered hiking an additional 10 miles down to Ipsut Creek and the Carbon River road but I talked him out of it, not feeling that ambitious. As it was, the 42 miles and 10,000' to Mowich Lake was enough.
I also skipped the first six miles down from Paradise to Longmire. Rick wanted to do it for the sake of completeness but I wanted to hang out and take a few photos at Paradise, and get in a run, instead. I photographed avalanche lilies and ran 2 miles up and back on the road below Paradise, a beautiful spot for a run. I also drove our packs down to Longmire so Rick could make better time on the descent. We arrived at Longmire just about the same time, spent 45 minutes packing up and left about 6PM. Our original plan was to camp at Pyramid Creek but we missed it and ended up at Devil's Dream instead. That made 12 miles total for Rick so he was pretty wiped out when we finally made camp around dusk. It was a pleasant hike up a gentle gradient through the woods but with about 50 pounds on my back I was happy to see camp too.

07/17/2010   Wonderland Trail backpack
Devil's Dream to South Puyallup  7 miles, 2400' (including sidetrip on Emerald Ridge)
We were scheduled for a challenging hike today, up to Indian Henry's Hunting Ground, down to Tahoma Creek, up over Emerald Ridge, down to South Puyallup, up to Klapatchie Park and down to North Puyallup, 13 miles altogether. Rick was still tired from yesterday so we slept in and decided to go only as far as South Puyallup instead, six miles away. That still left us with the climb over Emerald Ridge which Rick's guidebook reported had a dangerous knife-edge section. Rick was considering a detour down to the West Side road to avoid it but I told him I'd carry his pack across the knife edge if he was uncomfortable with it and he agreed to try it. I was more concerned about the blister he'd developed on the outside of his foot. Though the boots weren't new, he had only used them for one short hike within the past year or so and the insole didn't fit well. It didn't look to me as though he'd be able to complete our hike but he was game to try so I put a special blister patch on it and we set out for Indian Henry's Hunting Ground. The famous flower meadows were mostly still snow-covered so we didn't linger there but hiked on down to the Tahoma Creek. The suspension bridge over the creek is the longest and highest in the park and turned out to be considerably more intimidating than Emerald Ridge. We stopped for lunch at the far end then I hiked back and forth across it again just for fun.
We took a break after the tiring climb up to Emerald Ridge. Rick took a nap while I explored a bit farther up the ridge, along a narrow moraine then up ledges and meadows to a peak of sorts about 400' higher than the trail. A few snow patches and lots of flowers up there. It would have been fun to hike farther up towards the Puyallup glacier but I didn't have time.
The descent to South Puyallup camp was difficult not due to the famous knife edge, which was way overrated, but rather to lots of loose cobbles the size of golf balls in the trail. The afternoon sun was warm and I was pretty sticky by the time we reached camp so after setting up the tent and pumping water, I found a way down to the river and took a cold bath. Rick fixed supper and we had a leisurely evening in camp. Lots of food, few bugs and not many people either when we arrived, though by dusk all the other tent sites were occupied. Since we were not scheduled to camp there I was worried that one more party would show up needing a place to camp, but none did.

07/18/2010   Wonderland Trail backpack
South Puyallup to Golden Lakes  12 miles, 3600'
We almost turned back today. Rick wasn't feeling very good in the morning and his blister got worse yesterday. With our trip half over we've only covered less than a third of our distance. We had a tough time doing six miles yesterday and need to make twice that today and tomorrow both. The hike out to Longmire via the West Side road would take all day, and at the end of it we'd still have six miles to go to Longmire, and worst of all, once we got to Longmire, Rick's car might not be there. There was a possibility that Valerie might have retrieved it for us, in which case we'd have to call her or Susan to come get us. Not something we wanted to do, so we set out up the trail, figuring that if the climb up to St Andrews didn't go well we could turn back at that point. As it turned out, we didn't have to because Rick felt better as the day progressed. We encountered snow about at the point where we gained the ridge on the way up to St Andrews Park. Below us the lowlands were covered with clouds but we had clear skies and bright sunshine as we traversed snowfields over to Klapatchie Park. The shallow lake at Klapatchie Park was mostly melted out and reflected the mountain nicely. The initial part of the descent to North Puyallup was even more scenic with foggy sunbeams radiating down from trees at the top of an avalanche chute. We passed several piles of bear poop and an area where a local wind blast had snapped off a dozen big firs and hemlocks. Down at the North Puyallup river crossing we ate lunch on ledges by the river below the foundation of a big road bridge, apparently for the West Side Road, that was never completed. Reminded me of ancient ruins being swalllowed up by the forest.
As we started up towards Golden Lakes we could see perhaps why they didn't extend the West Side Road. The trail traverses a long and steep slope which no doubt would have been very expensive to put a road across. Golden Lakes was buggy and not particularly scenic; I didn't take any photos. The couple at the campsite next to us directed me to some running water because I didn't want to use the lake, then they joined me while I was pumping. When their pump stopped working I offered to loan them ours tomorrow when we'll be done with it. They were grateful because they had another 10 days on the trail.

07/19/2010   Wonderland Trail backpack
Golden Lakes to Mowich Lake  11 miles, 2500'
Still a few mosquitos around in the morning as we packed up. We stopped at the ridge where the trail starts down to the Mowich river and hiked out about a half mile to an open peak on the park boundary where we had a 360 degree panoramic view. Perfect day for hiking, sunny cool and clear. The undercast filling the valleys evaporated as we descended so we had sunshine for our lunch on the cobbles of the North Mowich river. The trees along the river were among the largest we'd seen during our three days on the trail. Torsten and Camilla, the couple from Golden Lakes, passed us while we were eating lunch, then we overtook them again on the way up towards Mowich Lake. I gave them our water filter and we swapped addresses and phone numbers. They're planning to get home on the 29'th. Rick and I are tentatively planning on hiking another segment of the Wonderland trail the weekend of the 31'st, so that should work out OK.
The hike up to Mowich Lake was hot so I dunked my head in every stream I passed - kept me quite comfortable. The last mile according to the guidebook proved to be only half that on the ground, for which we were grateful. We emerged from the forest into the parking lot at Mowich Lake around 4PM, early enough to get to Ranchito's for Mexican food before driving back to Longmire for Rick's car.

07/25/2010   Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon
Of all the mornings to sleep through my alarm, this is not the one I would have chosen. I went to bed at 1AM and set two alarms on my watch for shortly after 4, planning to pick up Rick at 4:45 and make it out to North Bend with a half hour to set up before starting to check in runners at 6. Instead, I didn't wake up until ten minutes before six. As soon as I saw light outside the window I knew I was in trouble. I made it out of the house in ten minutes and arrived at the start just five minutes before the early starters were supposed to be leaving. A crowd of about 70 runners was milling around on the entrance road to the park. Matt and Betsy had stepped in to start collecting money and registering runners. They're great that way, always stepping in whenever they see a need. We set up tables and the two of them plus another woman named Rebecca helped me get the runners registered in record time. Betsy took half the alphabet and I took the other, getting each runner's name, collecting the $20 and calling out the bib number, then Matt and Rebecca searched through the stack of bibs and handed the right bib to the runner. Within 15 minutes we had all the early starters checked in; 15 minutes laterI gave the course information spiel and at 7:35 we sent them off up the trail.
In another glitch, Leslie's car wouldn't start so we had no race clock. Rick and I started our watches simultaneously at the early start and exactly an hour later, I took a photo with my camera to create a timestamped jpg by which I could determine runners' times by their finish line photos as a cross check against our clock times. That system worked well. Late in the race Rick accidently stopped his watch but mine kept going. When one of the runners a week later raised a question about his time, I was able to verify from the finish line photos (which I was able to get for all but about 10 of the runners) that our times were accurate from start to finish. Rick didn't end up doing much of the timing. Betsy and Matt stepped in as soon as the first half marathoners (who'd started with the early marathoners) began to arrive. They did most of the timing until they had to leave around before noon, then Shawn McTaggert and a friend, Tony's daughter's boyfriend I think, took over until Tony and his daughter finished around 1PM. It was her first marathon and Tony ran the the whole way with her. He was very much the proud dad at the finish, and she was obviously pleased with her accomplishment. Rick took over from Shawn I think, then Trevor and Jon, whom Susan had recruited at the last minute to be course marshal and help fixing/serving lunch, took over timing for the last few runners when Rick and I left to pick up the aid stations. Cody also helped with lunch, and also ran up the course to deliver my shoes to Howard when his Vibram Fivefingers proved unequal to 26 miles of gravel trail. Howard finished strong in my shoes but ran well under his potential overall due to his tender feet.
Between finish line photos and various other activities I kept continually busy; eating lunch took me several hours. Susan showed up right on time and had lunch all set up and ready by 10:30 or so. I was worried that we wouldn't have enough food. We registered about 120 runners in advance and ended up with 105 on race morning. It looked as though we had only enough food for about 70 but as it turned out, we had plenty of leftovers of everything. I imagine a number of people left before lunch and of those who stayed around, perhaps not everyone ate much. Hard to know exactly how many we fed.

07/31/2010 White River 50 Miler   
I've considered running the White River 50 Mile Endurance Run for several summers now but never felt ready for 50 miles; the farthest I've ever run before was 7 1/2 hours and 38 miles. Each time I've run over 7 hours I've begun getting muscle cramps so I figured I just wasn't cut out for really long distances. But White River isn't just a run; it's also a hike with 8,700' elevation gain (and loss) over the 50 miles. Two 4000' climbs account for about 12 miles of the course, so it's really just a long 50K combined with a big hike. That's how I described it to Susan, neglecting to mention the overall distance because she's been opposed to my running a 50 miler. She has a hard enough time seeing me after a marathon, though now that I've done 90-odd of those she's a little more comfortable with it.
Anyhow, last weekend I was talking with Matt Hagen at our Light at the End of the Tunnel marathon and he mentioned that he was doing White River this weekend. Without much consideration I decided to give it a try. Not sure how it would go because while I've been hiking quite a bit recently, I haven't been running much, just a marathon a month with a handful of shorter runs in between. At least my last one, Missoula, was only three weeks ago and I felt fine hiking the next day, so I wouldn't have lost too much distance conditioning and could probably go longer than 26. How much longer, and at what risk of injury - hard to predict.
Susan and I drove up to Crystal the day before for packet pickup, where she discovered I was running a 50 miler. She took it well; I pointed out that my description of the event was not inaccurate, just not quite complete. We didn't really have to go up to Crystal because I could have picked up my shirt at the start on race morning, but having not done the race before, I wanted to get a little more information about where to put drop bags and such. That proved to be a good idea, particularly because I was able to talk with Scott Macoubrey, the race director, for a few minutes about how to run the race. He recommended taking a salt capsule together with a full bottle (20-24 oz) of fluid at each aid station to prevent muscle cramps. The symptoms he described, where the muscle starts fluttering or twitching then seizes up, were exactly what I've experienced. After the Gray Rock 50K, a warm 7 1/2 hour run with lots of elevation gain and loss, half a dozen individual muscles in my legs were doing that all at once. Scott also suggested eating solid food - pb&j sandwiches, bars, potatoes - at the aid stations before the downhill sections, particularly Sun Top, since you could digest them during the aerobically-easy descents. For fluids, he liked carbonated drinks - Coke, 7-up - late in the race for quick energy. I followed his advice during the race, along with a gel every hour in the first half and every 40 minutes or so in the second, and never really got depleted during the entire 12 hour run.
As usual, I didn't get enough sleep the night before the race. Figuring out gear and packing my drop bags took longer than I anticipated. I finally decided to include the extra pair of shoes in the Buck Creek bag at mile 27. I'd start out in Adrenalines and switch to the lighter Racers for the second half, a strategy which worked out well. I put Vaseline, sunburn cream, gels, Gatorade, bars, salt capsules and band aids in each drop bag and needed none of it, except the change of shoes.
In the morning I realized I hadn't planned how I was going to carry adequate fluids. It took me an extra 20 minutes to dig out my old hydration pack and figure which bladder went with it, so I didn't end up checking in until only 5 minutes before the early start at 5:30AM. The 50 or so other early starters left while I was still waiting for a Porta-potty and they were pretty well out of sight by the time I started 5 minutes later. I set out in my Adrenalines, black shorts, white tech T-shirt from the Mid-Mountain Marathon (one of my few other true trail marathons) and lightweight black shell jacket. I figured I'd bring that because of the chance of thunderstorms in the forecast though I only wore it for the first mile or so. I carried my smaller hydration pack with about a quart of water and my fuel belt with phone (in lieu of camera), 8oz bottle, 2 gu's and a small pouch with bandaids, tape, Vaseline, salt capsules, driver's license and car key. In the hydration pack I had 3 more gu's along with more tape and vaseline.
I'd missed the pre-race instructions regarding how the course was marked but that turned out to be pretty obvious, streamers of orange plastic tape and white chalk arrows marked every fork in the trail. Jogging up the air strip I felt clunky and tired, and within the first couple of miles, I began getting a stinging sensation in the soft area at the top of my left foot. In my experience that comes and goes, and so it did during the race, acting up somewhere later on as well but clearing up again too. It took me about a mile to catch up to the first early starters. I passed a couple of women then met up with Jon Yoon and ran with him to the first aid station in the woods at Camp Sheppard, mile 3.9. Shortly after that the trail forks and we began the 6 mile climb to Ranger Creek. I didn't take any pictures there but wish I had. The trail climbs up through a break in the cliffs with tight steep switchbacks, some of them right under the rock face, culminating in a 20' log ladder. After traversing up through open fir woods the trail suddenly emerges on the top of the cliff with a spectacular view out over the valley. Next time I'll carry a camera instead of the cell phone, but I made do with the camera phone. Photo stops probably cost me 10 minutes over the next couple of miles along the rim of the cliff. I was running with Francesca when the first regular starters passed us. Anton, the ultimate winner, was already a minute or so in the lead. He was wearing nothing but shorts and shoes.
I spent several minutes at the Ranger Creek aid station, mile 11.7 and 3:09 into the run/hike. I downed an S-cap along with 3 refills of my 8oz bottle and ate a gel too, I think. After a couple miles through mostly old-growth forest above Ranger Creek we reached the top of the ridge and views opened up across flower meadows with scattered firs. The next several miles up to Corral Pass were a delight both for the scenery and the easy running, though passing oncoming runners where the single-track trail traversed steeper slopes was tricky at times. I averaged 14 min/mile and reached the Corral Pass aid station, mile 16.9, at 4:20. I spent 6 minutes there, eating and drinking. Altogether I probably spent nearly an hour hanging out at aid stations. Next time I could probably trim that to 15 minutes by quickly taking the S-cap and water then carrying food back out on the trail.
Leaving Corral Pass I was 23 minutes behind the 12-hour pace split of 4:02. On the way back down to Ranger Creek I ran about a mile with Rhonda, who's done 23 100-milers in her life but only one marathon in the past 5 years. She went up several times during the awards ceremony after the race, so she must have picked up the pace after she left me. I stopped part way down the 5 mile, 2500' descent from Ranger Creek to tape a developing hot spot on my left big toe. Though I had to replace the tape at Buck Creek, no blister ever developed. My left outer quad started feeling tight on that descent as well so I stopped and massage it briefly. That may have helped because though I had some tenderness there, the tightness pretty well cleared up. At Buck Creek I changed socks and shoes and hung out eating and drinking for almost 15 minutes. That was where I'd planned on quitting if I had to. I didn't have to, though it was difficult to imagine heading back out on the trail for essentially another marathon run. I left Buck Creek at 6:46, 28 minutes behind the 12 hour split. After the Adrenalines the Racers felt tight, particularly on my outer middle toes. Maybe it was a mistake to switch - I guess the next 23 miles would tell, but I didn't feel like going back to change.
The trail is flat along the river and down the far side of the air strip for a mile or more before the big hill climb up to Fawn Ridge and Sun Top. I dunked my head in the White River and was feeling cool, well-fueled and strong as I started up the hill. I passed runners steadily all the way up to the aid station at Fawn Ridge, mile 31.7. Unfortunately I didn't record my split there. I passed a couple of other runners just above the aid station then didn't see anyone for an hour. I'd forgotten the long gentle descent through the woods after the false summit. Were it not for the scattered streamers of orange tape, I'd probably have turned back thinking I was on the wrong trail. Finally I came across the Sun Top road and reached the aid station on top after a 5 minute sunny climb through open woods and huckleberries. I spent 8 minutes there, eating and drinking and enjoying the sunshine. A big gray thunderhead was spreading high over the Cascade crest from the east and we could hear faint rumblings of thunder from time to time but it hadn't come much closer in the half hour since I passed the false summit. Leaving Sun Top, mile 37, at 9:25 I was only 3 minutes behind the 12 hour split though I didn't know it at the time. I'd wanted to be leaving Sun Top at 9:00 but with 2:35 and a long descent remaining for the final 13 miles, I figured I still had a chance at breaking 12 hours.
The descent on the hard gravel forest road passed fairly quickly. I held back some to avoid trashing my legs, which though not exactly sore were feeling a little stiff. Even so I clocked 8:00/mile by the mile markers for the third mile. I slowed some after that due to pee stops and a longer break to clean pebbles and pine needles out of my shoes and socks. I stopped to pee 3 times in the hour long descent; clearly I wasn't getting dehydrated. I had anticipated that if I was going to have trouble with my AT tendon anywhere on the course, it would be during that descent. One reason I'd switched to the Racers was because the lighter shoes seem to minimize irritation to the tendon. I could feel something going on in my lower left shin, hard to say just what. It might just have been the scrape I got around mile 10 backing into a sharp stick while composing a picture. In any case, it seemed to feel better when I ran on the right side of the road, where the surface canted to the right. So I did, except when the gravel was softer on the left. I zig-zagged my way down the hill and reached Skookum Flats at 10:28, just a minute behind the 12 hour split. I left after the usual refueling, and a couple spongefulls of ice water over ny head, at 10:35, leaving me 13 minutes a mile for the remaining 6 1/2 hours of rolling technical (lots of roots and rocks) single track up along the White River if I was going to break 12 hours.
I ran it in 11:50/mile, my fastest split (excluding the downhill sections) of the whole race. About three miles in I began to have trouble concentrating on the trail and began to feel overwhelmed by all the roots and rocks in my way, a clear sign that it was time for a gel. I really didn't feel like eating another gel but I downed one anyhow and emptied my 8oz bottle plus a good draught from my hydration pack and within a few minutes the trail was manageable again. For the last 20 minutes or so I pushed my heartrate back up over 150, breathing hard and only walking the roughest sections. The downhills were becoming a pain in the quads but fortunately the descents were both infrequent and short. At 11:45 there were a few spectators along the trail, a very welcome sight. A couple minutes later I broke out on the road with the finish just a quarter mile away, another very welcome sight. There being no need to sprint, I finished the way I started, trying to run smoothly and easily, picking up each foot and putting it down again in front of the other one, my stance a little more upright than usual to assist with recovery in case I tripped. Crossing the finish line I choked up and couldn't talk for a moment; I haven't been so moved by finishing a race since I first qualified for Boston.