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Showing posts from December, 2013

BPA Surprise

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After Ann's little surprise for me-- my least favorite uphill trail at the end of 23 miles-- I decided to return the favor. Ann tries to kick BPA away  Ann's least favorite trail is BPA, and it's easy to see why. From Wildwood it plummets in gravel and nearly-running water right down to Highway 30. And then you have to get back up the hill!  Surveying what's to come Luckily Newton intersects right there, so it's a loop. A scenic, painful, slow loop. Strangely, we saw more people coming up BPA than anywhere else on our entire run. Proving once again that runners are a crazy bunch. View and reflections from BPA Still, it was worth it when Ann asked me at the start of the run how far we were going on Wildwood, and I said "To BPA." Then she asked how far on BPA, and I got to laugh a long, loud, evil laugh, followed by "The whole way!" Priceless! Finishing the downhill For some reason I don't remember Newton from Highway 30 bac

Winter trail running in Bend

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Snowy, icy and sunny!   I was in Bend for the weekend with friends for one of our annual Mt. Bachelor ski and snowboard trips, unfortunately it was too windy and a lot of the lifts were shut down. Fortunately, I brought my running shoes and gear (of course) and decided to try and reach Benham Falls  on the Deschutes River Trail, which Susan and I didn't have time to reach last year . I decided to start a little closer this year at the Lava Island Falls trailhead, since John was with me and he was going to hike while I ran. I told him that I was going run an hour or so out and turn around. What I didn't expect was how much snow and ice there was going to be, which slowed me down a lot. I didn't make it to the falls, I was probably a mile and half away when I turned around, but I was still able to get a decent 11-12 mile run in. I guess the falls will have to wait for the next time Susan and I are in Bend together.   Deschutes River Mt Bachelor peaking out

Nasty ending

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Ann called this "Surprise for you at the end." I call it mean. After 23 extremely muddy, slippery miles of rolling hills, a steep uphill climb on Holman Lane. I think Holman is my BPA. Frozen spillway falls It was much warmer than last week, but many of the small streams through Forest Park were so hard frozen that they were still mostly ice. Luckily for us, the trail itself wasn't icy, except in a few small patches. Frozen creek newtown rd - ww .60 ww - fl5 (26.5-16.5) 10 fl5 - leif .23 leif - maple .15 maple - ww 3.17 ww (14.25) - ww (5.5) 8.75 ww - holman (5.5-6) .5 holman - 53rd .76  total: 24.16

Same temperature same milage

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blowing snow When we started our 22 mile run, the temperature outside was 22℉.  It didn't take long  for the tubes on our water bladders to freeze and for Susan to slip and fall.  I used an old trick that I use to use snowshoeing before I got an insulated tube to unthaw the tubes, put the tube inside of your shirt so warmth of your body keeps the water above freezing. Another trick is to try and blow back into the tube to remove any excess water, but it wasn't working very well for us.  Trying not to fall was a little more difficult since the ice was hiding under the dirt. Luckily we could see where people before has had slid, which made avoiding the ice a little easier. We did our part and left enough "warning" marks for the people behind us.  I think this was one of the first runs where we ran up to the Pittock Mansion and Susan didn't complain about the hills, but only because they were keeping her warm. Unfortunately once we reached the Pittock we

North end loops

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We needed 18 miles, and I enjoyed the far north end of the park the previous week on my own. So I mixed in just about the only two little loops you can do up there without adding extra mileage. The best part was throwing the infamous BPA trail into the mix. We only did a quarter of a mile of it, but it's fun to be able to throw the name in there. 99  Luftballons... okay, just one It's a fire lane bonanza! Hello, BPA. Can't resist another one showing Ann's love for this trail FL 7 to Ridge-- .32mi Ridge to WW (20.86)-- .4mi (.72 total) WW (20.86) to end (ww 30. 16 )-- 9.3mi (10.02 total) WW (30.16) to FL 15 (ww 28.63)-- 1.53mi (11.55 total) FL15 to FL12-- .37mi (11.92 total) FL12 to BPA-- .51mi (12.43 total) BPA to WW (27.45) -- .25mi (12.68 total) WW (27.45) to Newton Rd (ww 26.30)-- 1.15mi (13.83 total) Newton Rd to Parking lot/ FL 10-- .60mi (14.43 total) Parking lot/ FL10 to WW (25.43)-- .15mi (14.58 total) WW (25.43) to Hard