Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Almost Enchanting


August 18-20, 2006

Last weekend I had an almost perfect and almost enchanting weekend in the mountains. I say it was almost enchanting because I was near the Enchantment Lakes Basin but actually in a completely different basin which has some of the same benefits: rocks, cold clear lakes and high alpine scenery. It was almost perfect because the weather was spectacular and the fishing was a blast, but my fish cooking didn't work out too well!

I went to Leavenworth with the intention of getting an Enchantments permit. Unfortunately I did not win the morning lottery so I had to pick a different destination. I decided to do a thru-hike into the Mormon Ladies Lakes. I started at the end of the Icicle Creek Road on the Icicle Creek Trail, hiked up Icicle Creek and French Creek then took a right on the trail to Frosty Pass. I passed Lake Margaret and ended up camping my first night at Lake Mary which is just past Frosty Pass.

The fish at Lake Mary were really fun to catch even though they were pretty small. I think the largest one may have been 8 to 10 inches (probably 8). These fish weren't afraid of anything. One nearly swam right up to my leg when I was wading in the lake!

On Saturday I continued on up over Mary Pass and dropped down to Upper Florence Lake. I also took a few minutes to run up the ridge near Mary Pass. I can't remember the name of the peak on the ridge but I decided not to go to the top as I didn't really feel like scrambing up the loose rock.

I dropped down to Upper Florence Lake and started to have some lunch. While eating I noticed that the fish were humongous (at least relative to those at Lake Mary). So I had to throw on a fly and try to catch them. It took awhile but I finally caught a whale of a cutthroat off a large boulder at the rock slide. Unfortunately, he slipped away after I de-hooked him as I was thinking about keeping him for dinner. I never quite figured out what these fish wanted to eat but I was able to catch a few (3 on Sat. and 1 on Sun) off a couple flies. These fish were challenging but really fun to catch since they were so large, especially for a high alpine lake. So I decided to stay at this lake on Saturday night and keep stalking the fish.

In the late afternoon when the fishing was really frustrating I took off on a great trail run over to the next lake, Lake Edna. Running on the wide open trails up on the ridges here was spectacular. It was even more fun with Dylan on the MP3 player! After my trail run I came back to the lake and finally landed a pan-size fish; a nice cutthroat of 12-14 inches. I kept him and quickly got to work cleaning and cooking him up for dinner. The gutting, cleaning and filleting didn't go so smoothly, primarily because I didn't know what I was doing and also because my knife was dull. But that was nothing compared to trying to fry the fish on top of my whisperlite. After a lot of burning I finally gave up on creating the perfect fish and just made sure it was over-cooked by setting the pan (lid) on top of a pot of boiling water. I ate most of the fish and a freeze-dried dinner as well.

On Sunday I hiked out passing Lake Edna, going over another pass and descending the Chatter Creek trail. I stopped at Lake Edna for a very cold skinny-dip before hurrying toward the car. On the way down Chatter Creek I met some other hikers: Jennie, Lindsay and Wendy along with Max and Heidi the dogs. After passing them I stopped on the trail for a snack and was surprised to hear loud scratching on a nearby tree. I looked over only to find that a bear cub was up a tree about 20 feet off the ground. Since I had no idea where mama bear was I quickly threw the food back in the pack and headed back up the trail. I waited with J, L, and W for a couple minutes before heading back past the spot where I saw the bear. Then amazingly, less than 5 minutes later I was startled by heavy crashing through the brush. I knew what it had to be. It was the mama bear. The only problem is that I had no idea if she was headed towards me or away from me so I backtracked quickly. After running into J, L, and W for the second time I set off down the trail which was now clear of bears.

An added bonus to the great weekend is that I went out to dinner with J, L, and W at Gustavs in Leavenworth. These three had spent a night up on Chatter Creek and had apparently had a pretty good time as well.

Deron & Erin's Wedding (late post)


August 11-14, 2006

On August 12th I was privileged to attend my good friend, Deron Carter's wedding at Silver Falls State Park in Oregon. It was great to see two awesome people making a commitment to each other. And it didn't hurt that we all got to celebrate by getting drunk and hang'n out in the woods! Erin and Deron seem to be perfect for each other and I wish them all the best on their new life together.

Silver Falls is a beautifull park and turns out to be a great place to do a little trail running. I did a little run on the falls loop trail and had a blast running by something like 10 waterfalls.

After the wedding I took a trip up to Opal Creek in the hills outside Salem. This is a truly special place and would be even more so if it wasn't quite so crowded. But what can you do. When you have both a beautiful ancient forest, a refreshing stream with swimming holes and easy access you're bound to have a lot of people. On the drive in to the trailhead I was absolutely surprised to see a mama lion and her kitten on the road. The mother quickly dropped off the downhill side of the road while the kitten tried to climb the steep and rocky face on the uphill side. Consequently, I got a pretty good look at the baby cougar as she/he knocked rocks loose on the steep slope. The slope was a little too steep for her/his climbing abilities and I felt bad about separating the mother from her kitten so I only lingered for about a minute before continuing on down the road. I felt truly blessed. Now I have seen 3 of the stealthy mountain lions in my lifetime! At Opal Creek I did a little bit of running and hiking and took a short dip in the crick. I also got a look at the Ancient Forest Center. This looks like an interesting place. By the way I met Joe at Deron's wedding who mentioned that he will be working here soon. Quite a rustic looking little settlement up in the woods. Looks kinda like a place I might like to live!

After Opal Creek I buzzed over to Beth, Lance and Caleb's house to visit and hangout for one night. Jen and Vincent and their kids were there as well as Van and Sara. It was nice to get to see these friends and acquaintances, who I haven't seen for such a long time. On Monday morning I watched a little Caleb's football practice with Beth and then took off for the drive home.

This time instead of making the boring trudge back up I-5 I decided to follow the Oregon coast and take in some new views. Although it took a lot longer, I had a great time stopping every once and awhile along the coast and trying out the beaches. I will definately need to come back here and spend some time on the beach, especially around Oswald West.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Relaxing at White River


This year I couldn't run the White River 50 miler on July 29 so I decided to try and help out instead. I volunteered and was assigned to work at the Fawn Ridge aid station (mile 31.7). Like I have done on several other weekends this year I planned to save gas (money!) by going away for the whole weekend instead of taking two trips from home on saturday and sunday. So I planned on staying at White River after the race on Saturday evening and exploring in Mt. Rainier N.P. on Sunday. All went as planned except the weather kinda cooled things off a little.

On Saturday morning I got in a 10 to 11 mile run by running from the Fawn Ridge aid station up to the Sun Top lookout (aid station). I got back just in time to help setup the aid station and before long the front-runners came breezing through the station. Mike Wolfe was in the lead by 2 or 3 minutes and went on to hold onto the lead for the win. He had a pretty impressive race, but I couldn't help but be a little more impressed with his fashion style. He was wearing a snap-button down shirt! I have virtually no fashion sense but for some reason this shirt just seemed to be cool (both figuratively and literally) for the occasion. Here is a very fuzzy photo of Mike.

Unfortunately, I got bamboozled into following one of the runners over halfway to the next aid station. This particular runner, who I won't name, came into our aid station in a slightly disoriented and panicked state and requested that someone go with her because she was worried for her safety. She went on to explain she had a rough patch in the same area when running the race the year before. She had already vomited several times and appeared to be likely to collapse anytime. So without thinking too much about the alternatives I followed her up the trail and ended up running/hiking maybe 3.5 miles with her before I finally refused her pleas that I continue and I turned around. I did not provide aid to her or support her run when on the course. When I made it back to the station I was informed that she had done something similar the previous year. I understand that she made it to the Skookum Flats aid station before she dropped or was pulled from the race. I learned my lesson. I don't plan on following a runner out of an aid station in the future unless absolutely necessary. Next time I will insist that they drop if the feel that they cannot continue without support. In my opinion, an important part of the ultra-racing is that a person understand themselves and their limits. The trick is to keep expanding your limits in terms of endurance, speed, distance and fun without putting yourself into a bad state from which you won't recover. It is an individual sport and as much a race inside your mind as it is on the trail. So for those reasons I think the runner has to take on total responsibility for themselves between aid stations, if not during the entire race.

Anyway, I had a great time seeing lots of runners I know and hanging out with some great characters. In fact I found, Ultrarunner and Race Director extraordinaire, James Varner, lounging in my chair when I returned to the aid station. He had decided to drop since things didn't seem to be going right on that day. It takes a smart ultrarunner to stop before truly hurting themselves. I have learned this the hard way considering that my current injuries are likely the result of over-training and continuing when I should have stopped in my last race. I got to see and talk to quite a few running friends and meet some of the finest runners in the NW if not the country. I had fun even though I wasn't running!

On Sunday I woke up to a slightly wet and gray morning so I chose to take it easy and do a roughly 8 to 10 mile loop hike/run in Mt. Rainier. I went up the Glacier Basin trail, climbed up the Burroughs Mtn. trail and traversed over near Sunrise before dropping back down to the White River campground on the Wonderland trail. I didn't get any real views of the mountain but I did get a little bit of solitude on some sections of a trail which is usually packed with people (touristas). I have got to get back there and run the entire Wonderland trail! Here I am sitting in a rock chair on top of Second Burroughs.