Yeti spotted on Sugarloaf Mt

Clickbait title I know but that's what the pictures reminded me of when Brianne added the red circles showing where I was.

Making use of the last nice days in this extended spell of great warm and sunny weather Brianne ran/hiked up the side of Ice Box Canyon and I went for another run up the side of Sugarloaf Mt and this time traversed across and over the saddle and eventually looped back and ran home again.  It was one of these days that I felt like a long run but hadn't decided exactly where and how long "long" really meant.  I do adventure runs like that sometimes.  My pack was loaded up with the usual necessities so I had the scope for an all day adventure. 

Since Brianne was one side of the valley and I was at the other she actually spotted me traversing the side of the mountain and took some pictures.  Her blue jacket wasn't bright enough for me to spot without binoculars but she was able to see my bright orange shirt catching the full sun.

This was me just before I headed across the side of the mountain as seen in the next few pictures.

 That's me where the arrow is pointing to.  

Brianne was about 1.8 miles away as the Crow (or Raven as it is up here) flies and looking through the binoculars when I was spotted.  The highest point on my route was just to the right of center where the clearing starts which is about 100 feet higher than the arrow points to and about 2200 feet ASL from where I started out.  There isn't a road/trail to this summit and requires a bit of bushwhacking so that's a trip of its own for another day.

Zoomed right out for perspective.

More zoomed in, but not enough to see me.

In the picture above I crossed over the rocky part in the center, it's where the mountain is crumbling.  It's pretty much a safe route when it's dry, but after some rain or frost wouldn't be a good time to pass.  A bit like a giants bowling alley of you get my meaning!

Closer in and the red circle is where I am.   

I could look down and see a few hundred feet below down gulleys where the rock was crumbling.
Just for the record this is a section I walk.  No running here!

A bit further on in this one.

This was my view and the red arrow is pointing to where Brianne was taking the pictures from.


All in all it was a good day out.  Distance, elevation and route screen prints below.
With all the ups and downs it worked out to 5,599 feet of climbing over 31 miles.  The moving time was just a few minutes slower than my fastest 50k race pace so I was happy with that even though this was just a fun run.  I stopped a few times to speak to a couple of people and admire the views and eat so my total trip time was 6 Hrs 13 Mins.

A bit of a strange route, but essentially two loops connected with one main forest road and a couple of side roads that go to the top of hills. 

This will probably be my last epic fun run this year.  I'll be doing a more concentrated training effort over the winter months leading up to my next ultra race which is a 50 mile trail race in April 2019.

Thanks for reading.  Keep watching for more stuff.

Cannon Beach Ridge Mountains climb

Brianne and I climbed up to the highest point on the mountain ridge South East of Cannon Beach today.  We have had our eye on this point for some time and today's colder but sunny November day was the perfect time to get a crisp clear view from up there.

Here are a few pictures and a video of our mini adventure.


Short video of us reaching and walking along the summit ridge. (select full screen for a better view)

A few of Brianne and I at the summit ridge.

An interesting angle to see the rock from.

Some views of the Ocean showing from Arch Cape all the way north to Seaside and a bit beyond.

The three large volcanoes in the distance.
Mt Ranier at the left, Mt StHelen's in the middle and Mt Adams at the right.

Closeup of Mt Ranier.

Mt St Helens and Mt Adams.

Sugarloaf Mt with Saddle Mt in the background.

This the summit ridge from the side, we were almost there at this point.  It was hard to find because there's not really any defined path up to it.

Looking back up at the summit (2,700ft), we were still at about 1,000ft up at this point.

The red arrow points to where we were.

2018 Elk Kings 50k

Report on my final race of 2018, the Elk Kings 50k Trail Race.

The race location is in part of the Tillamook State Forest with 31.1 miles of forest trails and lots of pretty steep incline and declines, 1,981 meters (6500 feet) to be precise.  

My name and number on the race bib.  There were about 80 others in the race, the numbering doesn't reflect number of competitors.  Trail races are low numbers in comparison to many hundreds or thousands in road races.

Earlier this year I decided to add this race to my calendar because I wanted to include a 50k ultra in 2018.  It was also to gain a bit more race experience before next year's bigger things, like a 50 mile race in April 2019 which I have just signed up to and possibly something longer later in 2019.

As mentioned in my previous race blogs I've actually been doing quite well meeting and even exceeding my target finish times and as it turns out I've been getting quite far up the field at the finish line too, very much to my surprise!  

For a 50k time target I looked at other races and finish times and decided that anywhere under six hours was where I wanted to be, it also fitted with my previous runs of about that distance.  Another point to make is that trail running is much much slower paced than road races because your jumping over roots, through mud and climbing up and down mountains all at the same time.  No flat smooth roads here!

This is at about mile 7, only 24 and a bit more to go from here!  I was inside the top ten lead runners at this point, thinking to myself "did I go out way too fast already?"

The lead up to the race over the last few months didn't go as planned, but endurance efforts rarely go as planned so you have to be prepared to adapt and survive, which is also exactly what I had to do in the lead up to this race.  My intended plan of lots of speed work sessions and hill repeats in the trails behind town didn't happen because of forest fire restriction closures.

In addition to this I had a non running related muscle strain in the month before the race, so that again held me back a bit.  Luckily two weeks before the race I was able to get in one high mileage hard effort training week which got me back up to a reasonable level of fitness and then one pre-race-taper week to get to the start line feeling fresh again.

Due to these setbacks I was not feeling at all confident about this race.  I had a bit of a paradoxical dilemma, do I turn up and not give it my best effort or do I just pull out and volunteer at an aid station to help others?  I'm cursed with a mindset that if I decide to do something then I commit to it and just get on and do it, but at the same time I have to give it my best effort!  Hence the paradox!

Anyway, race day arrived, and after the doubts the night before I was up at 3:45AM for my high octane breakfast of raw porridge oats and nut mix drenched in homemade coconut milk to help fuel the morning.  

Arriving at the race starting location it was just below freezing and foggy, but the weather forecast promised a warm sunny day so that was a plus.  I picked up my race bib number and some free swag, had another high calorie snack and got to the front of the pack at the start line with the mindset of "give it a good shot and see how it goes".  It was all I could do at that point!

It turns out the race went well.  I knew I was still in the top 10 somewhere and I kept pushing hard right till the end, where in the last mile and a half there was a bit of a race going on between three of us.  That really pushed the pace up and we were hammering along at about 6:30 minutes per mile pace, which is pretty fast given that I'd already ran a relatively fast and hard 29 miles!  

I was happy to cross the finish line and have it done and over with.  Another great run done and my muscles burning telling me I worked hard, but it felt really good at the same time.  You have to push really hard for hours on end to get to that point, and you have to have done it to be able to understand what I mean by it feeling good.

You crave more of that too, it's like an addictive drug!

Crossing the finish line 5hrs 33 minutes after starting.

My 50k personal record was 5 hrs 58, so I wanted to meet that or even better it.  I blew that one clean out the water!

I got an age group prize.  2nd place in my age group.  2 seconds behind another runner that I ran with for most of the race who got 1st place, we both finished pretty much together. 

Elevation profile of the route.  Total of 6,500 feet up and back down over the 31 miles.

Course route map.

Thanks for reading.  Keep watching for more of my running adventures.

2018 Backcountry Rise 20 mile race

This weekend Brianne and I headed from home to the beautiful Mt St Helen's area where I participated in a mountain trail race.  

We left on Friday afternoon with the car loaded with the tent and a load of home made organic food stuff for the weekend.  

Arriving at the race location where the event organiser hired the Mt StHelen's Education Center where we had the use of the camping field and all the building facilities.  

With the tent setup it was time for an early night ready for the race in the morning.

On Saturday morning the view from the tent door was stunning, with the double peaks of Mt St Helen's shrouded each with a lenticular cap.

It must have been pretty windy up there on the summit.  The lenticular clouds are formed by strong wind over the rounded summit peaks where the airflow acts like an airplane wing.

View from the tent.  

At the start line keeping warm, where it was pretty cold in the morning up at the 3,000 or so foot start/finish area.  My race started at 9am, I snagged the last spot in the 20 miler when I booked this event.

I had a great time on the run.

Cruising down the hill somewhere between mile 1 and 4.

This worked out really well for me because I always feel warmed up and ready to go by about 5 miles into a run.  The 5 mile area on this course is where it starts to climb almost 3,000 feet in only 4 miles in a constant climb.  Hill climbs are where I excel. 

(Photo credit to Pursuit Films)

At one point in this area I had quite a number of people following me, I guess they must have liked the pace I set for the pack, or was I just going too damn slow... I think not :)  They all disappeared one by one till I got to the first aid station alone.

(Photo credit to Pursuit Films)

I crossed the finish line in 3hrs 39 mins 12 seconds feeling great.  Jeremy Long the race director greets every finisher.  I have a nice new pint glass for the effort and a reminder of a fantastic weekend out in the mountains.

(Photo credit to Pursuit Films)

It took a lot of mental effort to process the fact I came inside the top 10 male finishers and got my name on the finishers board.  There were about 150 ish others behind me so I was elated to get a top ten result (9th Male, 11th overall).  

I've been training for longer distance races and runs, and I went into this race not feeling like I was very well prepared or tuned for a short distance race and I didn't expect to place very well.  How wrong I was!

Along the way I met and ran with a great bunch of like minded runners.  Thanks to all of you who shared the trails with me.  

After the race the RD provided hot food and drinks, which I really enjoyed.  

The elevation profile for the race is below.  About 5,000 feet of climbing and 5,000 feet back down over the 20 mile route in stunning back-country scenery.  It was a privilege to get to run in the Mt St Helen's monument area and across the 1980 Volcano blast zone where the Earth literally turned inside out!

The picture below is a view of the route we took in the race.  It dropped the 500 feet down to the lake, then went clockwise up the lake and at the top end climbed up and over the mountain just to the left of the center of the picture.  The route then headed down and across the ridge at the right rear of the picture, its the second ridge back with the mostly clear top in the center of the right hand side.  Then it went all they way back down and round the lake to make a complete loop then 500 feet back up to the start in the last mile. 

Thanks for reading, If you liked my blog let me know.

50k Run in the hills to experiment with food

This weeks long run was a 50k plus a little extra.

I needed to figure out where I was going wrong with crapping out after 25 miles and doing the walk, shuffle, and slow run dance to finish the route.  I knew it had to be fuel related because after the run I felt fine, no muscle aches or other issues.  It had to be fuel related and not simply lack of strength or endurance capacity.

So today I got a bunch of different food items together and loaded up a new running pack I was testing out with water food and lots of other essentials for a long day in the hills.  The new pack seemed empty in comparison to the usual Ultimate Direction FKT vest.  I'll do a separate blog entry for my gear some time in the future.

Enough water for a self supported six hour day is pretty heavy, but the new pack felt great.

The food I packed is listed below.

2x Cliff Bars - Coconut Choc Chip
 - https://www.clifbar.com/products/clif/clif-bar/coconut-chocolate-chip
Not labeled as wheat free but close enough.

3x Date and Coconut chunks from a local Organic grocers.  About 100 calories each.
1x Homemade Oat Bar, peanut butter and, honey and cocoa. About 100-150 calories.
2x medium sized boiled potatoes with a generous sprinkling of Himalayan Pink salt.
1x Banana.
2.5 Liters of filtered water.

Nothing contained wheat or sugar or processed ingredients.  All pretty much real whole foods.
The Cliff bars are not perfect in that respect, but really convenient and taste great.

My idea was to have  something every 45 minutes and wash it down with water.

I had one of the potatoes at about mile 13, then the other at about mile 20.  The rest of the food I had spaced in between the salty potato.

The end result was I felt great and even about half an hour before the end I had the idea of refilling the water bottles and doing another 20 mile out and back over a hill in the other direction to do a 50 mile run.  I would have done that, but I have a race next weekend and after this weeks high amount of miles that was a really dumb idea, so I bailed on that one.  Plenty more opportunity to do that coming up.

Here are some pictures of the route today.  I added some new paths and forest roads to a run I do from time to time to add the miles on to make it a 50k ish one.


A few random pictures of the route below.

Looking back towards the Ocean.  Where I started from is just to the left of my head down a sea level.

The picture above is from when I reached a dead end on a trail/road but I could see another set of roads below that I knew intersected a road I just passed, so I wanted to get down there to do a loop.  I noticed a fairly well used Elk trail ahead and going that direction so decided to go that way.
Elk have long legs thick skin four wheel drive and as I found tend to jump of 10-15 foot high ledges like they are level.  Not so easy for us two legged human things!

Got there though, and that's where I scrambled very carefully down.  its actually a lot further and steeper than the picture indicates.

Today was a nice temperature and overcast so there were some really nice views of the hills.

 This shows the road behind me that went to the dead end, the road in the left of the picture is where I came up from my Elk impression scramble to get to the roads.

Next time I'm going to run over all of these roads.  Where I got down to. 

Overall a great day out and I figured out how to fuel for a long race/adventure run.  It might look a bit sketchy in places but its actually pretty safe going.  Wild animals don't like human interaction and keep out of your way, its other humans (which you don't see many of this far out) that are the dangerous ones!

The stuff below is the route stats etc.

32.79 Miles
6,143 feet total climbing and loss.
Time:
  Total time: 6 hrs 12 mins
  50k Time: 5hrs 56 mins
My goal has been for a sub six hour 50k, I failed that the last two times.  Done it this time!  Happy!!