not this time.

i'm still in seventh heaven.  i'm still basking in the experience of running through yosemite.  i'm not tired.  i'm not beat up.  actually, i'm itching to do more.  but before i dive into more adventures, i need to tie up loose ends with this challenge.

first off, the rest of the story about yosemite.  after my soak in the river, i caught the shuttle over to yosemite village to get some much needed grub into my body.  i ordered up a huge multiple meat sandwich and gorged myself.  well, not really.  i found it hard to eat too much and i had to take it a little slow.  after eating, i bummed around the village a bit, walking slowly around and just soaking in the ambiance.  yeah, it was crowded with summer visitors, but still, it's yosemite.  everywhere you look there's something fantastic to just stare at.

my plan had been to try to thumb a ride up to tuolumne if i'd finished early enough, but i was in that grey area so i opted to just hang out and relax and take the YARTS back up to the trailhead.  for eight bucks, why not?  while i was hanging out at the bus stop, i listened to conversations of fellow park visitors and ended up talking to two guys who were just on their way through the park with no plans of staying.  they had this crazy story about how their travels had been going so far.

they had started out a couple days earlier in georgia, coming from berry college, flown into san francisco, bussed out of the city to the train, ridden the train to the end of the line, missed their next bus due to their luggage, caught a taxi to yosemite valley that happened to break down en-route and thumbed their way to the YARTS stop just in enough time to catch it to mammoth.

why mammoth, i asked.  well, turns out they're both runners and will be spending a month at an elevation training camp.  this is the same area that most of the us olympic marathon team trains.  so, they'll have to opportunity to run the same routes as [if not WITH] the likes of deena kastor, meb, ryan hall, josh cox, etc.

on the bus, we chatted quite a bit and i found out that david was planning a missions trip to prague later this year with athletes in motion.  what a cool way to get involved; living life as an example through the medium of sports.  i really hope he has a great experience over there.  when i found out that they were heading to mammoth and camping on the outskirts of town, it became apparent that they were going to arrive in the dark and be stuck putting up their tent with headlamps.  i figured that if i could cram them and all their gear into the mini, i'd be able to get them there an hour earlier and give them some sunset and dusk light to set up by.

when the bus dropped us off at the trail head, it was a gamble, but i figured at worst we could open up the sun roof and have one of the guys stand up and put his pack on the seat.  fortunately, with some tetris like activities, we were able to pack all of our gear into the car with just barely enough room for passengers.  off we went!

matt had never been through this part of california, so he was in for a treat as we came down tioga pass just before sunset.  as we wound down from the tioga pass gate, we all ooh'ed and aah'ed as the lakes, mountains and then mono unfolded below us.  a short while later, i had the guys in mammoth and there was still plenty of light for them to get things set up.  good luck at camp, guys.  run hard!

so, thus ends the salomon xt wings challenge for me.  i summed everything up in a video collection of clips and photos from the experience.  which leads me to my next bit of cool-down.

the nokia n82.  for those of you following along for a while now, you know that the whole point of the phone was to use it as a story telling device; take pictures, video, twitter, log workouts, etc.  well, i've been using it regularly for the past couple months to do just that and i've been thrilled with it's performance.

aside from battery life, the phone has surpassed what i thought it was capable of.  the gps workout tracking is brilliant [for shorter workouts - say up to 3 hours or so] and it's live tracking feature is a blast.  i use the phone to twitter when i'm starting a workout and people are able to hit the nokia sportstracker website and follow along.

the web and other standard features on the phone work as expected and having access to gmail and google maps is very handy.  but the biggest aspect of the phone that has blown me away is the quality of the lens on it.  all of the pictures from my training, video of trails and everything you saw in that video above were taken with the phone.  that 5mp carl zeiss lens is just brilliant.  the whole 365 days of thunderclap is being shot with the phone, too.  i'm daily impressed with it's quality.

of course, i wouldn't be able to take great pictures of the places i was going if i didn't have the gear to get me there.  the salomon xt wings have been, hands down, the best trail shoe i have ever owned.  i have put well over 200 miles on them so far and the best thing i can say about them is that i don't notice them.

when it comes to gear for the outdoors, if the gear performs as expected, doesn't cause you problems and enhances the experience, then you've got a winning piece of gak.  these shoes do that and more.  from fit to torsion stability to shedding of moisture to the uber cool red colour, i'm a fan.  i walked away from 26 miles of highly technical trail running with a net downhill of 9,700' with nary a mis-step or slip and amazingly, NO BLISTERS.  i was able to enjoy the enviable aspect of trail running...being able to ignore my feet.

so, the salomon xt challenge is done and it was a blazing success on all fronts; fitness, experience and gak.  my guess is, though, that i'll be using all of these tools again to do even more of the same.  after all, my mug is still full and i'm itchin' for it to overflow.

meep, meep, meep.

beep, beep, beep.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.

i slowly emerged from my sleep coma to realize that my watch alarm was going off.  it took a few seconds to realize where i was as i silenced the watch.  i looked at the clock.

4:05am

i could only remember waking a handful of times during the night, and the last time i'd looked at the watch, it was 11pm.  wow.  i must have been out hard if the alarm took 5 min to wake me up.  and my arm wearing the watch was under my head. 

i quickly got up, packed the liner, bag and thermarest, got dressed and took down the tent.  within minutes, all my gear was packed back into the car.  i pulled out the trusty ol' pack stove and boiled some water and before much longer, i'm downing my oatmeal.  by 5am, everything was packed up, i was lubed up, coated in sunscreen and bug repellant and on the road.  it was a quick drive to the trail head, but i made an important stop at the visitors center [to drop the kids off at the pool] and that put me on the trail by 5:45ish.

the sun was just beginning to crest lambert dome as i set off on my challenge.  it was a brisk morning with the temperatures in the high 30's.  i was bundled up, but layered well so i could shed clothing as it got warmer.  the nokia was safely packed for shooting photos and video and the salomon xt wings were snug on my feet.  off i went.

the first couple miles were a challenging climb from tuolumne meadows at 8600' up to the cathedral lakes basin at 9500'.  the trail was brutally steep in some sections, so i ran when i could, power hiked when it got steep, and continued to remind myself not to go out too hard at the start.  the cool air kept me comfortable on the climb, but by the time i hit cathedral lakes, i was shedding clothing.  i stopped to shoot a couple photos at about 3.5 miles in, and was quickly swarmed by mosquitos.  swarmed is a mild term.  they were landing on exposed skin in waves and it was all i could do to keep them at bay.  i shot some quick footage and then was off again.

after the pass at cathedral lakes, the trail moved out of the wet areas and the mosquitos seemed to take a little longer to catch up when i'd break for food or to refill a bottle, but their numbers still necessitated my continual movement.  the trail continued to climb and i finally topped out at 9900'.  by mile 6, a slight decent started and i new i was finally dropping into sunrise meadow.  about this time, i saw my first backpacker.  it was a welcome sight.  i enjoy running solo in these types of places, but it's always reassuring to know that there are other people out and about.

i cruised through sunrise meadow without stopping.  i knew the bugs would be bad and i didn't need to refill any bottles.  the trail climbed back up around 9700' and i cruised along at that elevation for a while before rounding the big bend in the trail and popping out on the ridge that looked down into little yosemite valley.  running along the ridge, i caught my first view of half dome off in the distance.  i had hit a pretty good groove over the last few miles as the elevation had leveled out after dropping over 1000'.  i continued to run along as the trail wound down through some thick forest of fir, pine and cedar.

i was feeling quite well and had been religiously sticking to my fuel plan.  i was carrying my osprey pack with 100oz of water and one handheld with 20oz of gatorade endurance.  i was going through the handheld roughly every five miles and re-mixing a fresh one.  my fuel consisted of the normal gu and i had brought along some clif bars and home made chocolate chip brownies.  i had completely spaced and placed my matisse & jack's order late, so i was somewhat stuck with off the shelf products.  i'll tell you what, though, nothing taste better than a mooshy chocolate chip brownie mid way into a run like this.  mmmm.

the trail continued to drop elevation as i neared the trail intersect for half dome.  i began to see more and more backpackers out on the trail and passed several groups that were breaking camp and getting ready to head out for the day.  by mile 16 i was at the half dome intersect and began the steep two mile climb up to the saddle.  virginia tech had a couple of people on the trail performing a survey of hikers to evaluate fitness, preparation and climb times.  apparently there is a push to have the half dome trail permitted in order to limit the number of people on it at any given time. 

i did my best to billy goat up the trail and keep from walking, which i did until i hit the rock stair section.  the footing was too iffy to risk running it and it was lung-busting steep anyway.  at this point on the run, the backpackers had completely vanished and were replaced with day hikers.  since it was still early in the day, most of them were moving at a decent pace and seemed mostly fit.  before too long, i was up on the half dome saddle and decided to take a quick break for some chow and to take in the view.

 i chatted with the vt volunteer about the survey and recounted my experiences with the trail and just how crowded it can be at times.  fortunately, there were hardly any people on the cables today, so it would be a quick ascent without having to wait for people descending or freaking out over vertigo.  i finished up my clif bar, put on a pair of manky gloves and headed up the cables.

the climb up the cables went quickly and without incident.  within a couple minutes i was up on the summit and taking in the picture perfect day.  holy wow.  the sky was clear, it had warmed up to the mid 60's and i was just soaking in the experience.  i flipped the nokia into online mode and checked for a signal.  i was getting full bars from an antenna in the valley, so i gave smsmh a ring.  i gave her a status report and her response was, "take a picture and flickr it right now so we can see what you're doing!".  so, i did. 

it was 11am and i really wanted to finish up well before 2pm, so i hopped back on the cables and headed down to the saddle.  the return took a little longer than the climb, as the cables were starting to get some more traffic and about half of the people coming up were having issues with the vertigo.  i kept patient and gave words of encouragement where i could.  back on the saddle i began the cruise back down to the main trail.  i went to mix a bottle and realized that i only had enough water left in the camelbak to mix about 2/3rd's of a bottle.  the next water was at little yosemite valley and the merced river.  i guestimated that it was about 3-4 miles away.  not a concern, really, so i headed off.

the trail really began to drop elevation like it was on fire.  i watched the garmin read out 8000', 7000', 6000'...and before i knew it, i was running past the little yosemite campground and popping out of the woods onto the bank of the merced.  thankfully, the mosquitos had vanished and i was able to filter a full camelbak without being bothered by bugs.  as i pumped water, i noticed a tiny frog sitting on the rock by my foot.  i had the distinct urge to prod it a bit and make it jump.  but then i thought to myself, "self?  you're about 20 miles into a challenging run.  would you like it if someone came and prodded you and and made YOU jump?"  so, i left mr. froggy alone and enjoyed his company instead.

with fresh (and oh, my, soooo tasty) water in the bladder, another gu in the belly and a quick stretch, i was ready to tackle the remaining trail.  from where i was at, i had about 4-5 miles left to go, but it was going to be very steep descending and lots of technical sections.  i'd be lucky if i could run even half of it.

back on the trail, the route wound down the caynon wall, following the merced as it dropped over nevada falls and made it's way toward vernal falls and then the valley floor.  at this point of the run, it was a little past noon and the number of people on the trail had significantly increased.  not only had the number increased, but trail etiquette was completely out the window and people were very slow in reacting to someone on the trail moving quickly.

i ran when i could, but it was mostly a controlled fall as i bounced down the rock stairs and rocky trail.  by the time i hit vernal falls, i had entered into a mass of humanity.  it was a stark contrast to the previous six hours of running where not only were the encounters with people few and far between, but they had been social, encouraging and on a couple occasions, comical.  now, it was like navigating coagulated bodies, moving in slow, congested blobs up and down the trail.

the further i descended down the trail, the more alive and better i began to feel.  it was a combination of the drop in elevation and that whole "horse to the stable" phenomenon.  no, i didn't want the challenge to end, but i knew i had plenty of juice to use, so why not use it.  each step down i made, i began to pick up speed.  each step down i made i encountered more people.

the faster that i wanted to run, the more difficult it became to keep pace.  i had the distinct feeling of descending into "thickness".  almost like a salmon swimming against the flow of water.  i finally hit the paved section of the mist trail and was off of the rock steps and could really open up my stride.  for the last mile of the run, i really let it fly.  i was zipping in and out of people, calling out, "on your left" every couple of seconds and often times going of trail and into the rocks to avoid the wandering masses.

before i knew it, i was down.  done.  on the flat.  i continued to run along, not knowing really how much further i should run.  should i run all the way to the visitor center?  to the tram stop?  where?  eventually, i came to the bridge that heads over the merced river.  the tram stop was right ahead.  i looked down at the river and the thought went through my head of just how good that water must feel.  that was it.  i ran over the bridge and down the far embankment.  i tore off the pack, my shoes, socks and immediately sat down in the ice cold flow.

i was done.  i had done it!  i felt great!  well, my bits were freezing in the water, but aside from that, i felt wonderful.  the garmin said something in the realm of 23+ miles, so i guestimated that the total distance was right around 26 miles.  the wonderful thing was that i had plenty of energy left.  i could have easily done another 10+ miles.  as i sat in the water, i looked at the map and kicked myself a little for not adding clouds rest to the run, but there's always next time.  being in the park at elevation, running some of my favorite trails and just having the opportunity to take part in this challenge was reward enough.  the run had energized me and left me with a mug filled to the brim of awesome.  one that i'll be able to drink from for quite some time to come.

*edit*

thanks to mr.k, i was able to load the data from the garmin to the salomon website and the run profile is here.  thanks again, mr.k, for letting me borrow the garmin, even if it did autopause on all of the steep stuff.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Let The Bells Ring (Lausanne) Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds The Abattoir Blues Tour

that meant heading out across the california desert around noon.  ack.

since smsmh needed the xterra while i was gone, i packed all my gak in the mini and was ready to pull out of dodge at 9am.  i took a quick detour by the ymca where mr.k had a garmin 305 to loan me for the event.  by 10am i was on my way and headed out of town.  by 11am i was heading through the victorville/adelanto area and onto the 395.  i had a couple hundred miles of hot driving to do before i hit bishop.  i knew the temperature would drop off once i was there, so i set that as my target city.  i was anxious to turn off the ac and drive with the windows/sunroof open!

i took a quick pit-stop in lone pine and had lunch at a small mexican diner.  out of the big pane glass window, i could see mt. whitney.  there were two areas of concern that caused me to cancel the whitney run and change the route.  the first was 99 switchbacks which is a steep section of trail with, you guessed it, 99 switchbacks.  that whole section was under snow/ice so there was no trail to follow.  the other was the chute.  the chute is an incredibly steep area of scree and talus that even when dry is challenging.  i was reassured of my decision when i could see with the naked eye that the entire chute was full of snow/ice.  there was no way i'd be able to descend that without ice gear.

after lunch, i continued on with the drive.  when i reached bishop, the air finally cooled off and i was able to drop all the windows and let in all the mountain air.  climbing elevation up to mammoth and june lake with the smell of pine pouring through the car was such a welcome change to the artificially cooled air.  i rolled into lee vining by 4:30, made a quick pit stop before climbing the 120 to tioga pass and then was off again.

the plan was to stop at the camp sites along the 120 outside of the park and find a vacant spot to set up camp.  if they were all full, i'd head back down the 120 to the blm land adjacent to mono lake and just pitch at the first turn off i could find.  as i headed up the 120, i thought, "heck, i might as well go ahead and enter the park and get the entry fee paid and save a couple minutes in the morning."  through the gate, the thought occurred to me that i should probably check the camp ground at tuolomne meadows and see if they had any vacancies.

sure enough, my curiosity paid off and within minutes i was parked at spot b48 in the tuolumne meadows campground.  i was really excited for two reasons.  first, this meant that i'd be able to cook dinner with the sun still in the sky and not have to fumble in the dark to set up the tent.  second, and most important, was that instead of getting up at 3am to break camp and head to the trail-head, now a 4am wake-up would be sufficient.

i set up camp, moved all my gear and food into the bear locker and set to the task of preparing my gourmet dinner.  i had loaded heavily in the carb department at lunch and opted for something a little lighter for dinner.  i cracked a can of chicken noodle soup and tossed that on the trusty ol' pack stove.  with that in my belly, i realized i was still quite hungry.  i rummaged through my gear and pulled out a standby package of ramen and cooked that up as well.  at least my sodium levels would be topped off.  haha.

with dinner done, i prepped everything for the morning.  sorted all the gear, staged fluids and fuels, organized clothing and last but not least, tested the alarm on my watch.  with everything set and ready to go, i crawled into my sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep well before 8pm.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Car Catherine Wheel Like Cats and Dogs

over the past month, i was closely watching the conditions on the mountain and reading people's summit reports.  the general consensus was that above 12k, ice gear was required.  in some cases, teams had even roped up because of the conditions.  well, ice gear i have and i wouldn't mind going up on the mountain with axes and crampons, but that would mean no salomon xt's and definitely no running.

i made a command decision and scrapped the whitney run.  sure, i'll try for it again some other time, but again, spring/summer is not the time to try to run the mountain.  i spent some time evaluating my options.  after all the training i'd put in and the simple fact that i was doing the event to specifically promote the salomon xt wings, i needed to find a replacement challenge that was worthy.

i finally settled on something that has me quite excited.  the route i picked has epic qualities along with easily recognizable features.  saturday morning, i'll be driving up to yosemite.  specifically, tuolume meadows.  the route will take the cathedral lakes trail down to sunrise meadow, toward upper yosemite valley, but with a quick detour to the top of half dome before dropping into the main valley by way of the mist trail.

i've seen several estimates of the distance, and it looks like the route could be anywhere between 20-30 miles.  i'd like it if the route were closer to the 30mi side, but i'll take what i can get.  the best thing, though, is the fantastic scenery that i'll be running through.  i should be able to come away with brilliant photos of half dome, yosemite valley, vernal and nevada falls, cathedral pass, etc.  i am SO pumped!  i can't wait to get started.

so, like i said, i'm off tomorrow to head up to tioga pass to camp and then i'll get running at the butt crack of dawn on sunday.  keep an eye on my twitter and flickr feeds for photos and status updates.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Allegro con fuoco Antonin Dvorak Symphony No. 5 "From the New World"

smsmh and i had been flying low and under the radar for a while.  the last thing we wanted on tuesday was enemy aircraft or ground fire.  we'd been sticking to strict radio silence.  when we saddled up for our mission on tuesday, we had our fingers crossed that everything would go off without a hitch.

when we arrived for our mission briefing, we were informed that our sortie was second in the queue.  there was a slight mix up with our documents, but our mission coordinator had backups, so we were covered.  we scanned the horizon, checked the intel reports, and everything looked smooth.  when the green light was given, there was no turning back.

we stepped into the court room, surrounded by his grandparents, his godparents, two of his aunts and a cousin.  we stood before the judge, answered his questions, signed all the documents.  shed tears, laughed heartily and dropped our f-bomb.

within minutes, the mission was successful and over.  we were now a family.  in under the radar, took no hostile fire and left the battle zone without a scratch; mom, dad and son.  we are now official.

being a former marine, one of the things i've enjoyed about my time in the military is the fraternity that it gives me access to.  having that in common with someone is a free pass to circumvent any class status barriers.  i've walked up to rock stars, politicians and media personalities and have been able to strike up lengthy conversations by asking the simple question, "what unit were you with?".

i'm finding out that the adoption community is almost the exact same way, although with a much more compassionate and supportive face.  we get support and affirmation from the most random people, and it is a wonderful thing.

tuesday was a happy day as we joined a new fraternity.  we celebrate tuesday, june 24 2008 as our family day, or, for humour's sake, f-day.  thank you to everyone, friend, family and random members of the adoption community for your continuous love, encouragement and support.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	My Iron Lung Radiohead The Bends

on wednesday, i tried my hand at trying to find a place to run.  i was somewhat successful in locating a shortish trail that ran out through the debdale park and golf course.  i could have repeated the run on thursday, but i thought i'd explore a little bit more so i looked up the local running club and gave them a holler.

turned out that the east cheshire harriers have a group training run on thursday evenings, so i invited myself along with them.  i turned up at the club house in enough time to meet a few of the guys and pick a group to join.  i opted to run with dave and phil and eight other runners. 

we headed out and were quickly on a towpath along one of the local canals.  i'm telling you, these towpaths are the bomb for running.  they're flat, dirt and offer a neat view of any town.  nearly every town has a network of these things.  they're just plain brilliant.

phil lead us all over the place on a long 7ish mile loop.  he was constantly coming up along side me and telling me about the history behind one place or another.  he was the perfect running host.  as the run progressed, i was able to chat with a few of the other lads running with the group.  kevin and glen to name a few.  i didn't catch many of the names, but every one of them was welcoming, encouraging and just plain enjoyable to run with.

near the end of the run, phil lead us through a track behind some homes.  it had become quite overgrown and featured blackberry creepers reaching out and trying to snag clothes and bare skin along with a copious amount of nettles.  as we moved along, i could feel the numerous spots where the nettles had hit my shins.  as the stinging increased i made the joke, "so, is this how you welcome people to england?"

the run ended too soon, as the company had been great.  at the end of the run, each of the members took the time to shake everyone's hands and congratulate them on a good run.  this is why i love the model of amateur athletic teams in england.  camaraderie, encouragement and fitness.  it doesn't get any better than that. 

thanks lads for a wonderful welcome to the manchester area.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Has Anybody Here Seen Hank- Waterboys Fisherman's Blues

the thing i enjoy about staying in congleton is that there are quite a number of trails and canals to run on.  after a short bit on the roads, i have access to an endless number of options for running on dirt.  for the days run, i planned to run for 20ish miles or around 3 hours.  i loaded the pack with gu, gatorade endurance mix and 100oz of water, grabbed a hand held, put on the salomon kit and i was out the door.

after the long layover in phili the day before and 97f highs with 90% humidity, the 70f and relative low humidity felt wonderful.  the trail i had picked was mostly shaded by trees as well, so even when there was full sun, it was only briefly.  the grade was a mellow uphill on the way out and was a welcome change from all the long, hard climbing i've been doing over the past few weeks.

by the time i hit the turn around it was close to noon and the day was actually beginning to take a turn for the warmer.  the breeze had died down a bit and the temperature had crept up into the 80's.  as i headed back, the warmth, lack of sleep (2 hours in the past two days) and constant sitting in terminals and airports was beginning to take it's toll.

really, though, it was some of the best training i could have done.  continuing to run when it was getting warm and i was completely fatigued will prepare me for the long challenge of next week.  two thoughts kept running through my head as i continued back down the trail.  first, i continued to remind myself that it never always gets worse.  at some point, conditions will reverse.  and if they don't, then i'm dead and it doesn't matter anymore.  second, only mad dogs and englishmen go out in the mid-day sun.  i guess that makes me rabid.  maybe i should change the sub title of the blog.  haha

i finally cruised back into the car park behind the hotel, stretched and headed back to the room.  i was tired, a little sore, but thankful to have logged a solid 20+ miles (nokia died again after 11.4 miles) after a rough trans-continental/trans-atlantic journey. 

cleaned up and into the local pub for some dinner, i started nodding off while watching a darts competition.  at that point, i wasn't sure if it was due to my fatigue, or to the boredom that is watching darts.  at least it wasn't a cricket match.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Manchild the creatures Boomerang

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!

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	lick: hipsters: wax:	Song for the Fields Fields Everything Last Winter

so, thunderclap newman smith is officially one year old.  to celebrate, we threw a big gala at his uncle's place so everyone could enjoy the pool.  we had a great turn out with a bunch of friends and family.  when i showed up with the birthday boy, there were only a handful of folks there, so tc and i jumped into the pool and played around for a while.

as the day wore on, party-goers with kids needed to head out to stick with their own respective child schedules, so we plopped tc into his high chair and began the opening of presents.  it's funny...i received a couple phonecalls prior to the party asking what tc wanted or needed for his birthday.  my stock response was, "well, he's really into tupperware, cardboard and extension cords..."  but when it came to opening gifts, nobody followed my suggestions.  oh well, maybe next year.  the little guy made out with some really cool loot, though.  seriously groovy stuff, like percussion toys, rubbery big lego blocks and books out the wazoo (no, not THAT book).

immediately after the presents, it was time rock the cake.  yes.  THE cake.  he tentatively played with the frosting for a bit until grandma took both of his hands and shoved them down into the cake.  from that point, it was all over.  he tore through the cake and finally figured out that it was edible, at which point, he proceeded to put himself into a sugar coma.

it was a fantastic day of family and friends all gathering to celebrate our little guy's special day.  buon compleanno, mia scimmia piccolissimo!

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	lick: hipsters: wax:	Ocean Rain Echo & the Bunnymen Crystal Days 1979-1999

friday morning, i met up with mr. k and we tackled some of my favorite hills and single track in el moro and laguna coast wilderness.  we did a 16+ mile loop from ridge park including a trip along the rarely traveled serano trail and into the nix center, over to the james dilley preserve and back up to bomber via laurel canyon and willow canyon.  the weather was on the brink of raining the whole way, but it kept from dumping on us and the temperatures stayed perfect for running.

mr. k and i tackled all the hills aggressively and turned in a real quality run.  i took the nokia n82 along for the ride and captured some photos, video and a gps track of the workout

i had hoped to turn in a 20+ mile run on saturday with lambert to complete the back-to-back long runs.  i made the 3:30am treck out to idyllwild and met up with him at 5:30.  we drove up to the devil's slide trail head and were greeted with fresh snow as we climbed elevation.  at the trail head, the snow was covering everything and about 3" deep.

hello, opposite ends of the spectrum.

yes, last weekend's run was in the 90's.  the temp at the trail head was 34.  i was fortunate enough to be prepared for extreme weather, so i geared up and lambert and i went out for a quick 5mi out and back while we waited for his friend, eric, to show up.  we dropped down about 500' over the 2.5mi and then climbed back up to our starting elevation of  6700'.

we rolled back into the trail head a little late, but the timing was good because eric wasn't there yet.  when he showed up, we geared up again and were off to climb up to the saddle and run along the ridge.  we were running about 45 minutes late, so i figured we'd loose about 4 miles or so from the total mileage

the thing i didn't take into account was the view.  every turn revealed a new snow covered view.  and every new view was photo worthy.  we made a good number of stops over the course of the run so we could take photos and video.  some of those views just can't be done justice by a photograph.  the view over suicide rock when we got above the clouds was a once in a lifetime type experience. 

we climbed up to the saddle at 8200', headed out for a couple more miles and then turned around due to my time constraints.  total mileage for the day was only 13.1, but it was all up at altitude with some significant climbing.  really, though, on days like this, training takes a back seat to the experience. 

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	lick: hipsters: wax:	Nilleshna Lisa Gerrard The Mirror Pool

as if that wouldn't be challenging enough, mother nature decided to hand out some heat training in the form of temperatures in the 90's on sunday.  i recruited a few folks from the socal trail headz but unfortunately, dmitri was feeling 'upbeat' (that's russian for my legs are still trashed from my 50mile race last weekend) so it was just greg and i that would tackle the summit.

we headed up holy jim, which is a beautiful piece of single track with a constant and challenging uphill grade.  greg and i cruised along at a pretty good clip.  the sun stayed behind the ridge for most of the climb, so we were spared any direct attack, but we could feel the air already beginning to warm.  after five miles, we gained access to the main divide trail and started the three mile climb to the peak.  i've never run this section of trail before and was surprised how steep sections of it were.  we ran most of the way, but there were a couple sections where we were forced to walk.

but not for long.

when we slowed to walk, we were attacked.  flies.  midges.  ugh.  the midges would congregate around our mouths and faces in dark clouds and the black flies would start their biting.  okay, i pride myself in being a pretty tough guy.  i can handle the heat.  i can handle pain.  i think i've got a pretty solid mental fortitude.  but, those freakin' six legged crawling on my face and buzzing up under my sunglasses DRIVES.ME.ABSOLUTELY.INSANE.  no, you don't understand.  i can't handle it.  i nearly snapped and started yelling and howling and then started running faster to get away from the stupid things.

up on the summit, there was a slight wind blowing, so the bugs backed off a bit, but you can tell from the picture of me that there are flies and midges everywhere.  you can actually see a couple in the frame.  greg and i quickly topped off our bottles and ate some chow and then boogied on down the mountain to get away from the madness.

on the way down, we passed jessica on her way up with a couple people from her trail club.  we said hi and warned them about the bugs.  i had to be silly and comment on her nice shoes, too. 

we headed south on the main divide toward west horse thief , climbing the couple of steep sections before we hit the trail down.  at one point, we passed a couple back packers resting in the shade.  i looked at them with a concerned look on my face and asked, "have you seen my sheep?".  they looked confused so i elaborated.  "my sheep.  a little black one about yea high."  still confused so i continued, "if you see it, i'm heading this way on the trail.  can you let it know i went this way?".  and then i was off again.

soon we reached the top of west horse thief and began our descent.  this section is a steep and rocky bit of single track.  since it was late in the run at about mile 15, the legs were starting to get tired, so footing was important.  my knees were starting to feel the effort from the day, so i took it easy headed down.  up until this point it had been hot, but both greg and i were being smart about our fluids and the heat hadn't been too much of a factor.  down in the canyon, though, the air stopped moving and it turned into an oven.

at the bottom of horse thief, we were getting cooked and it was all i could do to keep a respectable pace to the end of the run.  usually, this section is one that i like to fly on, but today i could only manage around an 8-9 minute pace.  we finally bottomed out and hit the dirt road that leads back to the trail head at holy jim.  i seemed to forget just how long that section is because it just seemed to go on and on and on.  eventually, we rounded a corner and saw the trailhead and trotted to a stop.  in the car on the drive out the thermometer read 92 degrees.  ouch.

i noticed a couple cool things about the run in the heat.  i switched from packing gatorade endurance in the camelbak and instead opted for water.  i carried two hand helds and just mixed the gatorade powder as i went.  this gave me some water to use for cooling purposes other than drinking.  having the visor to shield my eyes along with the sunglasses made a huge difference in how i felt in the sun.  i also carried a bandana and kept it tied around my neck and wet.  even when the air felt really hot, i didn't seem to really 'feel' the heat.

finally, the shoes.  when i accepted the gear for the salomon xt wings challenge, i was really hoping that the equipment would work out well so that i'd be able to give a favorable review.  these shoes are turning out to be the best pair i've ever used.  they had great traction on the climbs and stellar grip on the descents.  more importantly, though, is that i didn't notice them.  on a run like this, you have enough to worry about, let alone gear that chafes, causes blisters or malfunctions.  no hot spots, no foot slippage, no blisters, no worry.  even in the heat, that is something to celebrate.

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	lick: hipsters: wax:	The Weeping Song (Munich) Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds The Abattoir Blues Tour

i thought i'd take the salomon xt wings out for another spin and see how they did on a shorter run.  again, they held up to the initial review i gave them after saturday's 18 miler on the pct.  they were solid on the steep downhils, no heel slip and great footing on the climbs. 

we ran from the ridge park access gate and down to the laguna coast wilderness center.  the return features a 1.5mi climb that has some pretty steep sections on it.  mr.k and i were feeling frisky this morning and we both ended up pushing pretty hard up the climb.  we also hammered the return back to the cars and i was pleased with how well the shoes responded when we switched over into high gear;  light enough for quick turnover and aggressive enough tread to handle the loose trail surface.

when we finished up the run.  mr.k was joking around about the colour of the shoes and how coordinated it made me.  i noticed that my garmin was red and so was my car.  i like how thoughtful salomon was in ensuring that the shoes matched everything else i own.

[quick aside, the above picture was taken with the nokia n82 and immediately uploaded to my flickr account.  super cool feature.  and, no, dmitri, it's a one at a time upload thing.  no batch uploads and no queuing.]

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	lick: hipsters: wax:	Ballad of a Running Man Catherine Wheel Wishville

when tc woke from his nap we quietly ate while smsmh kept sleeping.  we then loaded up in the jogger and headed down to the park to hang out for a while.  we played in the grass, which tc loved.  i had to be super vigilant because there were tiny mushrooms growing everywhere in the grass.  tc would be crawling along, grab a mushroom head and try to shove the thing in his mouth.

after a while of getting our knees grassy, we headed over to the swing and tried our best to throw up our lunch by swinging as high as we could.  i say we, because the higher he'd swing, the higher the likelihood that he'd kick me in the stomach and force me to spew, too.

after tc's second nap, we loaded up and headed to smsmh's folks place where my mom and both of my sisters would be meeting us.  i hopped on the bike to ride over while smsmh took tc in the car.  i tried out the sport tracker software again and had much better success.  my workout didn't completely stay live (must have lost signal somewhere), but it definitely didn't eat the battery like saturday.  i arrived with full battery bars after an hour of riding.

the afternoon was great with a wonderful dinner of smsmh's world famous lasagna, lots of moms to celebrate and a gaggle of kids going wild with the tissue wrapping paper.  for such a blah beginning to the day, it sure was a brilliant finish!

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	lick: hipsters: wax:	I Don't Like Mondays The Boomtown Rats Great Songs Of Indifference: The Best Of Bob Geldof & The Boomtown Rats

up at zero dark thirty and out on the road by 4am, i rolled up to the forest service road just before 6am and met lambert and judy.  we all hopped into lambert's truck and headed up to the fobes trailhead.  it was a brisk 33 degrees, so i bundled up a bit.  i started up the sport tracker software and we were off.  we had 15-18mi on the pacific crest trail planned, so i was running a huge risk of running in the xt wings for that distance without breaking them in first. 

the first mile and a half were a hard uphill haul.  no warm up here, it was scrape your nose steep.  what better way to shock your body into being warm, though, eh?  before we knew it, we were up on the pct and heading south toward lion peak.  after about another mile, judy turned around and headed back down the mountain since she had an 8am cut off time.  lambert and i continued on, constantly headed up.  ever time we made a quick stop for bio reasons or to re-fuel, i'd check the phone to see how it was doing.  it seemed to be recording the workout just fine, but the thing i did notice was that the battery was being eaten alive.  after an hour, the battery was almost completely gone, so i shut the phone off.  after review, i think the problem was that there was spotty cell coverage and the phone was working hard to establish a connection.  i'll try the sports tracker with the wireless option off next time and see how it does.

  i snapped a couple photos at the trail intersection with the nokia and realized that self portraits are not it's forte.  it kept focusing on the things behind me.  haha...i guess the phone knows best, eh?

lambert and i cruised on, having a blast of a time running along and just constantly marveling at the beauty around us.  each new summit provided us with a new amazing view.  i commented at one point that there was too much world for me to take in.

the shoes were brilliant.  they were stable, gave good arch support and were lightweight enough to allow for a quick leg turnover without fatigue.  i hardly noticed the trail through the sole.  the pct in this section is fairly rocky, and not once did i 'feel' any of the rocks. 

after a couple hours of running, we came to the top of the cedar springs trail and decided to head on a little further down the pct and then turn around and head down the cedar springs trail and back to my car.  this seemed like a good option for time, since it would put me back at my car when i needed to be there and give lambert a couple more miles as he ran back up to his truck.  we estimated that we'd be looking at somewhere around 14 miles for the run with that option.

well, the pct has this magic way of foiling the best laid plans.  our short out and back before heading down ended up turning into several more miles than we'd planned and next thing you know, we're dropping down cedar springs trail with only minutes left before i need to be back at the car...and something like four miles left to go.

fortunately, we hit road pretty quick and we were able to run much faster than on the trails.  i'll tell you what, though, the singletrack down cedar springs was so worth all the climbing we'd done earlier.  it was great to let the legs fly and do all the fancy footwork through bolder strewn creek beds and along the grassy meadows.

the salomon xt wings were great on the road, too.  we were really flying on the downhill and i was able to run comfortably in them at a 7:20 pace.  i had a slight hot spot develop on my instep, but after removing the sock, realized that it was because of a bite in the sock fabric, not the shoes.  on all the fairly technical downhill and climbing, the shoes never let my foot slip in the shoe and the toebox was plenty wide enough for my feet.  in comparison to my sauccony trail shoes or my vasque trail shoes, i'd say they're better than both.  better on the toes than my vasques and more solid and better fitting than the saucconys.

anyway, lt and i hit the main road and ran the 2 miles back to my car for a total of 18+ miles.  we were out on our feet for just under five hours (that includes all stops) and all the gear held up incredibly well.  i'll beat the shoes up some more and give a more detailed report at a later date, as well as the phone, but at a first pass, everything worked pretty groovy.

once again, lambert took some fun photos so stop by the scth website and take a look at them.

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	lick: hipsters: wax:	Fisherman's Blues The Waterboys The Best Of the Waterboys '81 '90

so, the gear is here just in time for another altitude training session on the pacific crest trail tomorrow.  lambert and i will be tackling a section between spitler and lion peaks in the san bernadino national forest.  i'll wear the shoes and shirt and try out the nokia sportstracker software.  if you're a twitterer, i'll try to sort out the logistics for sending the details in a tweet so you can watch our progress if you like.

you know, i really like the concept of letting real life bloggers test out gear and post their honest opinions about the products.  sure, there's a "free stuff is cool" aspect, but more important is the legitimate feedback that others are able to obtain.  at the same time, it is an honor to be picked to participate in this sort of event.  i feel like it's my responsibility to put the gear through the wringer and give a detailed, unbiased review.  i hope that all of us picked to participate in this challenge can live up to that challenge! 

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	lick: hipsters: wax:	Camel Walk Southern Culture on the Skids Dirt Track Date