in which our hero is not eaten by a bear

sunday was my last big elevation/altitude training run before my salomon xt wings challenge.  i'll be in on a trip to the uk for the next two weekends.  that means no elevation.  no altitude.  i needed to go out with a bang and get some serious quality for my time.  fortunately, southern california has it's share of tall mountains to play around on and i opted to tackle the tallest.

i headed out at the butt-crack of dawn on sunday and showed up at the mill creek ranger station just outside of forest falls at 5:30am.  i was hoping that lambert had decided to drive down from yosemite to join me, but the parking lot was empty.

i headed on up to the vivian creek trail head and began getting my gear ready.  i'd headed to rei the day before to see if i could find another technical day pack with a little bit more room than my camelbak lobo.  i picked up a new osprey tallon pack and it looked like it was going to be just the right capacity.  it easily held all my food, my 100oz bladder, a light fleece, rain shell, microspikes and electronics.  my treking pole securely lashed to the outside of the pack, too. 

i saddled up and headed out, ready to tackle the san gorgonio summit solo.  i started jogging, headed across the wash that leads to the base of the trail and immediately hit the wall.  the first mile of the vivian creek trail is BRUTAL.  it is easily 1500' of climbing, if not more (more on why i'm not sure later).  i foolishly tried to run this first section.  it's loose and steep and just plain painfully stupid.  my calves were quickly flammed and my shins started to hurt with the muscle tightness.  i stupidly shuffled my way up and finally gained an easier grade. 

once i reached vivian creek, the going was a little easier.  my legs were already trashed, but i was able to jog along the trail.  my pace was abysmal and exacerbated by the altitude and technical sections of the trail.  i ran when i could, shuffled the steeper sections and power hiked the non-runnable areas.  i made good time all the way up to about the sixth mile and roughly 10,000'.  at this point, the trail climbs the spine of a ridge toward the summit saddle and rivals only the first mile in steepness and loose rock. 

at this point, i was relegated to a power hike.  my legs couldn't take even a mild shuffle and my heart was pounding in my head.  it's at this point in activities like this that i'm telling myself, "never again".  really, though, i felt good mentally.  i never got the fatigue tunnel vision, i just realized the reality of what energy i could put out and accepted it.  the last mile to the summit was more of a death march than a power hike, but by 3 hours i was at the summit.

i plopped down in the cover of the rocks (the wind was blowing about 40-50mph and the temps were easily in the 20-30's), ate a bar, filled my handheld and took a couple quick photos.  my head was still pounding an the old familiar altitude headache was starting to set in.  i quickly soaked in the summit atmosphere and then packed back up, eager to stretch out the legs and get back to a manageable altitude.

i shuffled my way off the summit and was quickly able to move along the trail at a respectable pace.  it was still slow going due to how technical and steep the trail can be, but on stretches that had few rocks or roots, i was able to stretch out the legs and have some fun.  i flew down the mountain, compared to the pace i came up at.  around mile 12 or so, the nokia started beeping and i knew my battery was almost cooked.  around mile 13 it stopped making noise, so i assumed it was done tracking.  the results are here.

this bummed me out to no end because right around mile 14 as i was running along vivian creek, i rounded a corner and saw, about 15' from me, the biggest black bear i've ever seen in the wild.  it was huge.  it looked up quickly and then bolted up the opposite hillside.  the thing was beautiful to watch scamper up the hillside.  i could see all the muscle rippling under it's fur as it made powerful leaps from rock to rock.  it stopped after a few seconds, turned and watched me.  it had stopped just past that 'comfort' distance, close enough to still be 'danger close' but far enough that i felt okay turning my back and continuing my run.  my first instinct was to snap a shot, but i remembered the camera had just died.  BOOO.

after the bear, i continued my quick (a relative term) descent down the last couple miles of trail and returned safely to the car, 16.4 miles and a summit of 11,499' under my belt. 

at the car, i performed my typical post run routine.  clean up, change into something dry, eat, stretch, etc.  it's not an anal procedure, but it's one that is well rehearsed and pretty much clockwork.  stuff goes in it's place, all the mental checkboxes are ticked.  so when i took of my recently purchased garmin 305, i thought nothing of it when i stuck it in my gear bag.

except when i got home to pull it out and download the workout.  i was eager to see the detail on that first mile of the trail.  but my watch was no where to be found.  i tore the car apart, all my bags, went through the laundry.  nothing.  bleh.  i'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll turn up somewhere in some unexpected place, but as thorough as i am with my routines, i was equally thorough with my search and i fear it is gone.  it's a good thing lambert will be coming along on the whitney run.  i really hope to get a good profile and map of the adventure.

from here it's off to the uk next week and lots of flat trail miles, then a quick taper and june 21st i tackle THE mountain.  woohoo!

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Song for the Fields Fields Everything Last Winter