Oh Hood to Coast, how I love to hate you. I really have mixed feelings about Hood to Coast, but Susan loves it so being a good friend and running partner I agreed to do it again this year. Besides running on the road, getting no sleeping, sitting in traffic jams and inhaling exhaust, Hood to Coast is awesome! Seriously the thing I really love about Hood to Coast is getting to be part of an awesome team of your friends and family and all sharing the running experience together. Unfortunately vans 1 and 2 don't get to spend a lot of time together, so make sure you get all the good people in your van. ;)
I started to get anxious about not sleeping and being in charge of the van a week before Hood to Coast, so to help my anxiety I created daily memes and posted them on Facebook.
I was in van 2 this year, the previous time I was in van 1. I prefer van 2 because you get to run on more back roads, van 1 you run more on Highway 26 and 30.
Everyone in our van got along great, Rick even serenaded us! Sally switched a leg with Rick when his calf started to hurt, she traded my longer leg with me when my stomach got upset. I traded my dad's "hilly" leg with him, since I love hills and he doesn't. I know this is against the rules, but I thought it was awesome as a team we were able to make adjustments to make sure everyone was comfortable with what they were running.
Running on the roads isn't too bad when you average an 8:20 pace.
Maybe next year I can convince Susan to do the Cascade Lakes Relay , if not we better be in the same Hood to Coast van.
Me and Rick in front of the Honey Buckets - Our team name is Honey Bucks and Buckettes
Relay hand off with Dad
Susan and Melinda doing a hand off. A rare moment between van 1 and van 2.
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.
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…
We completed the Loowit trail, 34 miles circumnavigating the volcanic lands and forests surrounding the squat, smoldering Mt St. Helens. It was amazing, but I cannot rightly recommend this route to others.
Not because it's not beautiful, mostly fun, diverse in ecosystems, and full of fascinating wildlife. It is all of those things. But it is also full of washouts and utterly terrifying descents, ascents, and traverses on huge dunes of kitty-litter-esque scree.
Granted, I have a particular fear of scree washouts after our Mt Hood circ attempt. But some of these washouts were incredibly precarious. Each foot placement had to be strategized and the few rocks to hold on to often came away in the sandy scree, sending an avalanche of gravel and dust down the side of the slope, the sound of which reminds one what will happen if you should misstep.
We started at June Lake trailhead, from which you run about 2 miles up to join Loowit trail. From there we had heard there would be lots of walk…
Our first day off to run in 2018 (Wednesday, 4 April), and I was thrilled. While on a family hike a month or two ago, I noticed a trail sign with some good distances on it. I looked them up when I got home, and discovered the Tarbell Trail-- a 24.75 mile loop in southwest Washington in the Silver Star Mountain and Grouse Mountain area. After lots of research, I was excited to have planned our first adventure since it's usually Ann who does the work.
Well now we know why that's the case. After a bunch of rescheduling, we finally settled on Wednesday, 4 April for our run. On Tuesday, Ann called the ranger station and was told that part of the trail was closed for logging and that there was also snow. Last-minute back-up plan: the Wilson River trail. It's a 22 mile point-to-point trail that's safe from snow, we've only run it twice, and it's been three years since we did the whole thing.
We were suppose to run 18 miles this Saturday, but Susan's son got sick and she couldn't run until Sunday. Since I had already planned on running on Saturday, I decided to do a short run and run 18 with Susan on Sunday. Somehow my 4-5 mile run turned into 8 miles and I legs still felt like they were recovering from the 23 miles the previous Sunday. I knew Sunday was going to suck.
Neither of us ended up sleeping well Saturday night and at the very last minute I rerouted the run to cut off 3 miles. Shaving off 3 miles off a loop is harder to do than you would expect, especially when you haven't had a lot of sleep. But as most things do, it worked out just fine and at the end of the run I don't think either of us regretted cutting the run short.
Original Route: dogwood - wildwood .66
ww (8.5 - 13.5) maple 5
maple - leif 3.66
leif - saltzman .23
saltzman - ww .5
ww (16 - 7.90) wild cherry 8.1
wild cherry - out .31
total 18.46 New Route:
dogwood - ww .66
ww (8 - 14) 6
ww -…
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