Girls Gone Wildwood

Mt St Helens from Ape Canyon Trail When a coworker described the Mt St Helens trail loop she had just spent the weekend hiking as "great for a run," my interest piqued. I told Ann about it and we searched diligently, finding mostly accounts of mountain biking in the area. But the photos had us hooked-- we planned the route for our monthly summer adventure in July. Mt St Helens lahar path We were excited when plans aligned and our coach, Willie McBride , could join us-- and even better (for us) he would be tired from running 42 miles on the Olympic National Park only two days before. First peek of distant mountains Ann picked me up Monday morning and we were off. She immediately turned to me and let me know that Willie had texted her the night before, saying he was worried about a possible injury and wouldn't make it. We both breathed sighs of disappointment and relief. We were really looking forward to running with Willie and asking him tons of questi...

I arrived in New Zealand early Monday morning. Ann & John picked me up, we returned to the hotel, I freshened up, and then it was time for a run!  Piha beach panorama Ann picked one about an hour west of Auckland, on the coast, that sounded good. It started in Piha, a cute seaside town.  There's a trail up that seastack-y hill, but we didn't take it We ran up the beach until it ended in cliffs and steep hillsides. We ran through rocky tidepools trying to find the start of the track (trail) in the route description. Piha tidepool resident We couldn't find the start of the track and the hills looked too steep to even have a trail, so we started back along the far perimeter of the beach. Ann at the dead end of Piha beach Suddenly, behind a dune and under low-hanging trees, we found the signs. Then it was up and up and up, the air thick with the screech of cicadas and warm summer air that felt alien to me, fresh off the plane from winter in the Pac...