Harvey peak run - feed the beast

Today we had a great brunch with a bunch of great folks!  I was thinking about this as I was working my way up the steep slopes of Harvey peak from Lions Bay, BC.  I thought of something cheesy, and that should surprise no one who knows me well.  I thought that the brunch was the food to feed the man, and this run is the food that feeds the beast!  Not that I'm a beast or anything, but I do think that all the people out there who are similarly outdoorsy will understand.  If you don't get enough of that time out in nature, whatever that means to you, then you get a little cagey.   Plus you do have to tap into the beast in yourself a little to hike/run these "trails" in lower mainland B.C.

Harvey peak starts off as the most groomed well graded wide track through the woods that I've run all summer.  It's all 3rd growth so there's nothing to intrest the preservationist in me, however it was the most runnable steep trail i can recall being on this summer around here.  I was so surprised i pushed hard for the first 20 or so minutes and passed a few turn offs to other peaks.  When I arrived at the start of the Harvey peak cut off I was not surprised to find a sick steep single track that looked more like a rock scramble than a trial run.  It was steep steep and steep.  Large sections of trail consisted of nothing more than peat and roots. Some decomposing granite made for dreamy traction in lower parts.  I gave it a notch or 2 below redline power hiking effort for the whole way.  I was all but going to turn around after an hour or so, when I noticed the light up on the ridge above me!  I could see bright clouds and a very open patch in through the trees and knew I was with in 600 feet or so.  I kicked it into gear and got up to the top in 1:23.  I was blown away by the Sisters going in and out of the clouds and the 20 or so cascades rushing into the valley below.  Really amazing.  It was not raining and was not too cold.

After drinking the last of my water and tightening my shoelaces I made tracks for the car.  It was 5:05 PM after all!   The decent down that trail was sketchy compared to the accent. Super slick roots and peat made me go from tree to tree for a lot of the upper steepness.  I was lucky and only got lost once and not too bad at that.  I was so focused I was surprised to find myself at the plush lions trail junction after only 30 minutes or so.  I hit that at full stride and was doing 7min pace from there to the car on the ever so runnable trail.  The only thing that had me on edge here was that the trail was covered in huge big leaf maple leaves that had just fallen with our first rains!  This all went by in a flash and I found myself at the car after 2:23 of time total.  The weather along with the fact that my legs have come around after 3 or 4 weeks of not wanting to climb hard made this time possible.

I called Amy to check in and headed for my chocolate milke celebration.  After that it was home to an amazing salmon and chard dinner followed by chores and...well, this blog post.   I didn't really tie this into the feeding the beast thought that hit me on the run today, but I think everyone knows what I'm talking about.  Funny, i was reading a little story about John Muir a few months ago and it told of the late age at which he settled down and got married, and how after some years and a few of their children being born his wife, Louie would shoo him out of the house for sulking and send him to the Sierra.  The story said, that she knew he had to go to the hills for him to be able to truly be at home when he came back.  I feel ya John.  It's not where we make our lives, but it sure is where we feel our life fill up the tanks.  Really, it's just part of a balanced healthy life.  I can't imagine a life without Amy and all my friends and family, but I equally can't imagine a life without time in nature.

2012 goalish type things (sports wise)

Well I'd like to lay out some goals for this year.

1)Current pr on towers is 38:13 I'd like to get that down to 36 by June.

2)I want to run the boulder 4 peak traverse. I've only done the 3 peak a few times but never crossed over and tagged flagstaff.

3)I want to run the 50K in eugene if i get picked in the l0to!

4) ride 66 mile mountain bike route.

5) run a 10 hour 50 mile at squamish

6) do the mt meeker bike and hike

7) do a flatiron bike and hike maybe seal rock or something?

8) climb mainliner, pear butt and fri. 13th at the woo.

9) bench press my body weight (165)

10) road ride 100 miles

11) mtb up towers in 35 minutes

12)...

Goalish type things that i've already done this year:

1) ran the double dipsea

2) ran muir headlands trail

3) biked mt tam!

4) biked bolinas ridge

Edit: Sept 26, 2012
-Ran Mckenzie river 50k in Eugene 5:23
-Road 60+ mile mbt route
-Ran 15 mile squamish instead of 50 2:18 or something?
-Didn't bench press my body weight
-Climbed the Grand wall on the Squamish chief
-Many smaller missions here in BC and many more to come.

California

This year saw the normal few trips to California with the extra bonus of spending two and a half months there doing field work, which took me from the mexican border to Oregon and back again!

For me it was extra special to get to really fill in the gaps with remote and wild areas in the Sierra that I've wanted to get to for a while now. I can safely say that I've seen California; from So Cal urban craziness to Sierra Nevada alpine bliss and every nook and cranny in between. Highlights have to be milsap bar, rubicon river, Middle fork Tule, coastal waterfalls north of san louis obispo, Deep creek in the northern Klamath, Jefferson SP redwoods & Trinity alps, all the area's around Marin, Magee-rock creeks, mill creek/whitewater and last but not least Cuyamaca SP for it's perfect blend of desert oasis and mountain feel.

The strange thing is...after almost 20 years of roaming around California I'm just as excited as I ever was to get out there and experience it again and again.

getting back at it.

Well spring is on it's way here in CO. Sure we'll get some 12" dumps of snow but most likly we are looking at warmer and warmer days.

I'm looking forward to getting out and running and climbing more. Mostly I'd like to climb more this summer. Last year no days at lumpy ridge! that's just not acceptable. I've been getting my legs under me these last few weeks and am getting to the bouldering gym to see about arm strength. I need to hit that a few times a week because right now i'm sore after just an hour of bouldering.

I'd like to hit the trails 2 a week and boulder 2 a week for the spring. I'm thinking about a few 50k's but mainly I'd like to run some historic trails no matter what. Run some parts of western states, some yose trails that I've hiked a bunch. Tetons, some in seattle area. We'll see . right now just getting a good base is the goal.

Schools back

It's about that time again to head back to school after a very fast summer break. It went fast because of the field work to start and the house work and travel to cap it all off here in Aug. We have made great strides with the house and it is nice to have those things done. Only going to do a few small projects and the Radon system before we call it quits for this summer. What a difference a few little changes can make.... having the shed seems to have changed the whole garage. Having the sliding door is the most amazing change this year for sure. It was a worth while thing to prioritize. The fence just changed the whole house for the better. Well worth every penny and every drop of sweat and blood. It will pay for it's self 2 times over.

School is....well, school. It's about 7 months of classes left and I'm going to try to commit much more this year than last. Really try to stay and get all that I need to out of every class and clinical.

As for running and climbing and outdoors things.... that's kinda on the back burner for the next 7 months. It's just the way it is. Bummed about it? yes, but this is part of growing up and taking care of something that I just never could have done in the past. Gota have those letters after your name. This is just my turn.

night run

Just got in from a little night run. It brought back memories of the winter I spent in Index, WA running in the rain. That was really the first time in my life that I found the peace that comes from running.

Last week I really took it easy and only ran a handful of miles while fam was here. Ran bluesky in the rain on Sun. and plan to just go with the flow this week leading up to Bighorn on Sat.

Amy and I are going to go up for the race then go flower hunting all the way across the state after. It's funny, the flower that she's studying and we're hurting for happens to grow on the course! It's been found in a remote part of the bighorns. I'm not sure how much I'll be looking for it on race day but after...

big horn 50 training.

so this training for my first race of the summer has been going ok .. i'm feeling a bit untrained and by most standards I am. I did my long run a week ago and it was a 30 miler so it had all that I think I needed in a long run. I did it at a little bit of altitude so that might help too. I've been doing little 2/3 mile runs these last few days and feel ok about it. Folks are talking about seeing LOTS of rattle snakes on the low trails here in FC this summer so I'm going to try and run up a little higher as much as i can. I really want to run round mountain soon. I think that it'll be a great hill climb to tak the place of towwers while it's hotter and snaky down here.

I'm looking forward to running in Wy a few times b/f the race on fri. It's going to be cool to see this new part of the contry and meet other runners and adventures souls.

My main goals for the summer are:

-yosemite valley to mono lake

-grand canyon of the twolome to white wolf.

-Longs peak double

-Longs peak bike n hike

-climb 3 routes at lumpy.

-run around lumpy

-run in the pc northwest.