A flat 20 miler and a newly closed trail

By -
Still recovering somewhat from our Mt Hood circumnavigation, I went back through the blog looking for 20 mile routes and found one that was as flat as I could make it. Whoopie!

This trail is CLOSED
As we ran down Gas Line, the main, sketchy-ish trail straight down to Leif had a big branch across it. We decided to follow the little, unobtrusive sign to the left, pointing "to Leif Erikson." That trail has had lots of work recently. They're obviously revamping it to be a nice, new, switchbacking and gently descending replacement for the other. When we got to Leif and passed where the old trail joined, we were greeted with a surprising sight: the whole thing had been filled in with branches. That trail is definitely closed!

 We decided to deviate from the route after Maple, because 2 1/2 miles on Leif just sounded like too much. Instead, we continued up Maple to Wildwood. We did some quick trail-math and realized that the overall mileage would be just about the same. It was a nice little improvisation and made for a good recovery run.

 Start at Wildwood/53rd

Wildwood/53rd (mm 9.18) to FL7/Gas Line (ww 19.96)-- 10.78 mi
FL7/Gas Line (ww 19.96) to LE (8.03)-- .28 mi (11.06 total)
LE (8.03) to Maple (le 6.44)-- 1.59 mi (12.65 total)
Maple to LE (4.22)-- 2.66 mi (15.31 total)
LE (4.22) to Dogwood (le .92)-- 3.3 mi (18.61 total)
Dogwood (le .92) to WW (8.47)-- .34 mi (18.95 total)
WW (8.47) to 53rd (ww 9.18)-- .71 mi (19.66 total)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Three days in Wonderland

By -
Image
Mt Rainier, glaciers, alpine forests, and a trail through the heart of it all 16-18 Aug 2015 No run has reshaped the borders of my soul like circumnavigating Mt Rainier. No run has infiltrated my dreams like spending three days just running and not much else, in the middle of the longest summer in the Pacific Northwest's recent memory. No run has made me fall so deeply in love with the magical combination of mountains, wilderness, and summertime. Like all of our great long runs, Ann researched and planned this one. She discovered that most people run the 93-mile Wonderland Trail clockwise, and that we could split the route into three days with a cushy hotel stay each night. We, however, would run the route counterclockwise to start with the longest day of running first. We had a beer with our friend Heather McGrath, who had run around Rainier the previous year, to hear more about her trip, get tips, and make sure that our plan wasn't too crazy.
Read more

24 for 2024

By -
Image
Top of Saltzman 2024   Susan and I decided to run 24 miles to kick off 2024. As I was looking through our previous routes, I found one called ' 24 mile taper run ', which seemed perfect - how hard can a taper run be? I didn't scrutinize the route closely. Nine miles in, I realized we had to run from the bottom to the very top of Saltzman. Who does that as part of a taper? Apparently, we did, ten years ago. Upon reaching the summit, I had Susan take a photo in the same spot as before. It felt great to push ourselves, which we plan to continue in 2024. Same route, different year -- 2014 Honesty, I love that we are still running routes we created 10 years ago, may be a bit slower though but who cares. I love that for us! 
Read more

Elk Mountain - Kings Mountain loop

By -
Image
Friday Susan and I did our "long run", since she was leaving on Saturday for a 2 week vacation to Ireland.  A long run meaning an incremental increase to what I did the week before, since I am slowly easing back into running because of my herniated disc . We ran 2.5 hours / ~13 miles in Forest Park. With the long run done and the long 4th of July weekend ahead of us, I planned a few harder hikes for John and me to do. The first being the  Elk Mountain - Kings Mountain loop . From the top of King Mountain
Read more