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.
Taking advantage of our mild winter, Susan and I planned a "day off work run" in the Gorge to get some harder hills in for our Miwok 100k training. Originally I thought we would run Eagle Creek, but since we had done that a few times I pulled out my Columbia Gorge maps to plan another route. I immediately noticed that Herman Creek connected with the PCT to make a nice loop and that there were several other connecting trails to use to add extra miles. We wanted around 28-30 miles, Herman to PCT wasn't going to be quite long enough, so used Gorton Creek to add extra miles to, which made a perfect loop. I had hiked Herman Creek and Nick Eaton Ridge before, but I had never been on Gorton Creek, so I had no idea what to expect as far as trail conditions. The one thing I knew was that we would gain 4000+ feet over 9 miles.
The days leading up to the run were pretty warm for February and we got spoiled running in capris and light weight shirts. Living in our spring time bliss i…
After Susan and I ran the Three Sisters Loop, Susan asked me if there was a loop around Mt. Jefferson. I told her I didn't think there was, but of course once I got home I pulled out my Mt. Jefferson map to verify. There isn't, but looking at the map it jogged my memory of previous Mt. Jefferson backpacking trips I have done in the past. Knowing that I was going to have a low key Labor day weekend, I thought if by chance I could get an overnight pass to Pamelia Lake, I would go camp and do a run and head back to Portland. By some luck I was able to secure a camping permit for Friday night. I originally thought that I could run the Hunt's Cove loop but come to find out the trail is closed due to a forest fire. However the PCT North and South were open, so I thought I could run to Jefferson Park and back which is ~15 miles. I emailed Karrla and asked if she wanted to join me on this short trip, we backpacked Hunt's Cove years ago, but we haven't trail ran together. S…
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…
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.
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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