Trail Runner Photo Contest

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One of our photos made it into the Trail Runner Magazine monthly photo contest! Now just click like, so we can win. :)

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Hiking the Dolomites - Alta Via 1

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Our family hiking trip this year was to the Dolomites, more specifically Alta Via 1. John and I have done several hut to hut hiking trips in the Alps and planned them all ourselves, we never had any problems. As I started to plan our trip to the Dolomites, it became clear to me that it might be easier if we used a local company to help us book our accommodations and transportation. That way when questions came up from family members there was someone we could ask. Also letting the ultrarunner of the group plan the daily hiking itinerary probably isn't the best idea. 



I ended up contacting Dolomite Mountains, I sent them my itinerary, the places I had already booked and a few other specifications and Monica created an agenda pretty similar to the one I already had in mind. As much as I like to plan things myself, it was nice to have someone local and not feel responsible for 5 other people's vacation. Plus if they thought the hike was too hard they couldn't blame me. 





Staying…
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Circumnavigating Mt Hood

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Ann's story (the planning) Ever since I did my first multi-day backpacking trip 10 years ago, I have wanted to circumnavigate Mt. Hood. We actually planned a backpacking trip to do in 2007, but after doing some research realized part of the trail had been washed out and was closed. So the Mt. Hood circumnavigation was put on the back burner until I started running long distances.

I mentioned to Susan last summer that we should do it, but it wasn’t until early this year when we were trying to find a race during the summer that was 40 – 50 miles and fit both of our schedules that I mentioned we should just do Mt. Hood. It worked out great, since we could do it during the week when there is less traffic on the trail and we wouldn’t have to give up a weekend day with our families.

I really love planning hiking, backpacking, and running routes / trips. I loved being able to pull out all my maps and books, and comb through them for training runs and the circumnavigation, but single mo…
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Three Fingered Jack circumnavigation

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In keeping with doing all new routes for our adventure runs, for August we decided we would head out to the Willamette National Forest area. My first thought was to run the loop around Broken Top, but the Ranger Station said that the snow was still pretty deep. My next thought was to do the loop around Three Fingered Jack, but the temperatures were predicted to be in the high 90s the week we were planning on running and most of the route around Three Fingered Jack was burned during the B&B Complex fires in 2003. Wanting more tree coverage I decided on Pamelia Lake to Jefferson Park and the Hunts Cove Loop. 



Pamelia Lake is a limited entry area and you must obtain a permit from recreation.gov beforehand. Normally you need to get a permit months in advance, but by some stroke of luck we were able to obtain one only a week in advance, it probably helped we were running on a Monday, not a weekend. I have been wanting to show Susan Jefferson Park for awhile, we tried in 2015 but we didn…
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Three Sisters Loop

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11 years ago my first multi-day backpacking trip was the 50+ mile loop around the Three Sisters in Central Oregon. Since then I have done multi-day hikes all over the world and in the Pacific Northwest, but the Three Sisters trip still remains one of my favorites and most beautiful. I have been back to the Three Sisters Wilderness several times in the last 11 years for overnight trips and even to climb South Sister, but never to do the full loop. Once Susan and I started talking about doing the loop around Mt. Hood, I knew if we completed that we could do the Three Sisters. 

Mt. Hood is shorter distance wise (~40 miles), but it has almost double the elevation (10,000 feet), and it has the Eliot Creek washout. We almost completed the full Mt Hood loop in 2013 and we would of completed it if it wasn't for getting lost and running out of day light. Even though we didn't complete the loop we still ran about the same distance and were confident that we could do the Three Sisters lo…
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Mary's Peak 50k

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I've heard of Mary's Peak 25k/50k/50mi for a few years, but it hasn't been on my radar as it's not near a mountain or widely known as particularly scenic. This year, with our "A race" in mid-August, the 50k stuck out to us a a good training race with decent climbing (about 5,000 ft), only a two hour drive from home.


Ann drove down in her van to camp, and I drove down with my family to spend the night in Corvallis. As is customary, Ann picked up the race packets for both of us since I didn't make it in time. In a surprising move, however, I had my family drop me off early at the start at Blodgett Elementary School for fear of always being late, and I was one of the first people there.

The race director was hanging out and very friendly. He made a point to chat with everyone, and offered his cell phone number in case we needed anything during the race. We loaded up on two school buses and made the slow, windy drive on a narrow, gravel road to the start.

Aft…
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