Mahogony MikeE

MikeE's back in town at least for the summer so he and I did a burly-ish 3 1/2 hrs on Saturday afternoon up Mahogony Canyon where we could run directly from the house he's living at, then went back out Sunday morning for another majestic 2:15 in the Snake River Range south of the valley.

Mile 99 with 2010 Western States 100 winner Geoff Roes

Phenomenal. Extraordinary. Exceptional. Amazing. Call it what you will, Geoff's performance this past weekend surpasses just about everything. A win. A new course record. And even after 99 miles, he still looks fresh! And to think Anton was only six minutes back at this point! Both these guys had an outstanding race. Anyone who finishes a 100 miler is outstanding. This guy just does it faster than anyone else.

(Not sure who the guy is who filmed this, but thanks for putting it up on Youtube so quickly and nice work on shooting the footage while riding a bike and not having any mishaps in the process! It's nice for us humans to see what that last mile was like for Geoff.)







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Table Mountain in June

Got my monthly Table Mountain ascent in for June last Friday. Things are finally beginning to open up in the high country. It'll still be a month or so before the majority of the high country trails are passable to foot travel (sans snowshoes), but nature's progress is being made.

The gate at the mouth of the canyon opens to car traffic on Mermorial Day weekend, but even with it open, I've grown to enjoy the extra 4 mile approach as well as the return trip so I plan on making that my standard Table Mtn Trailhead.

The snowpack on the west facing side of Table became solid around 9,500 ft and was riddled with suncups. Not very big or deep, but could become akward if they continue to grow. And there already were pronounced channels where melting snow had carved out a trough in it's quest for the easiest possible way downhill. These are one of the most fascinating features of snow to me.

Rocks poking through!

My most pleasant summit experience so far this year! I spent fifteen minutes on top.

The aspens up at 8,000 ft are just now starting to break out their summer attire.

You can't see the snowshoes strapped to the back of my pack, but in a full run, my elbows would smack into them and they became a little cumbersome. This Salomon pack (The '07 Raid Revo 20) does a nice job containing bounce with almost any load.

I always expect to see a moose here, but I think I've only ever seen one, maybe two. Total trip time was 4 hrs, 10 min (with 15 min on the summit).

Table May I?

Ok, so this is a little late, but I still wanted to post it just for the record. Yes, I did summit Table Mtn on Wednesday, May 26th, which marks my seventh month in a row with an ascent up Table. This was my final prep for the Pocatello 50 three days later. Taper? Nah.




As you can see, it was as gray a day as all of May had been which is a good reason why I hadn't made it up there sooner. I prefer going up in clearer weather to enjoy the views, but this was probably my last chance to go up for the month and I figured going to 11,000 ft three days before a 50 miler would be good altitude training.




Nearing the summit, it really wasn't all that cold (as far as cold can be in the Tetons), but it was practically a white out in a cloud with a bitey south wind.




It cleared just enough at the top to be able to see the big peaks.




I took this photo facing south and I used the flash to light up all the gale-driven snow particles. (I didn't realize it at the time, but training in these conditions would prepare me well for what was in store for us at the Pocatello race that weekend.)


Three days earlier, I drove over to Jackson with a bad case of cabin fever (since it had been pouring rain almost every day the prior week and all the trails in Teton Valley, ID were greasy clay). I was hoping the trails around Snow King and Cach/Game Creek would be in better shape. And they were!

Five years ago, when I first began this whole running journey, this was one of my favorite routes:

Begin at the Town Square. Run to Snow King on King St. Run up Snow King. Run the ridge going E/SE from the top to the trail that drops down into Game Creek. Run up Game Creek to Cache Creek. Run the Put-Put trail down Cache Creek to the end at Nelson St. Then finish up with the last mile down Broadway back to the Town Square. I need to measure the distance, but I think it's somewhere around 18-20 miles most all of which are on beautiful, blissful singletrack.

Jackson, WY

A week prior to that, I spent the weekend in Boise and got in a long 4 1/2 hr run on Saturday starting from Fort Boise and following the Shafer Butte 50 route all the way up to Bogus Basin. It was a warm day and I was able to get in about 5,000 ft of climbing. On dirt! Mostly...

The snow was still very present on top of the ridge leading north to the summit of Bogus Basin.

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That's Bogus! No, really, it is.

2010 Pocatello 50

So by now, there have been a number of people who have written race reports on this race so that's not what I'm going to do here. For those who are curious and don't already know, try these links:

http://challengeofbalance.blogspot.com/2010/05/2010-pocatello-50.html
http://mountains00.blogspot.com/2010/06/p50-adventure.html
http://amysproston.blogspot.com/2010/06/pocatello-50-miler-turned-50k-2010.html
http://ajwsblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/pocatello-50-dnf.html


In short, the race was cancelled due to blizzard conditions on top of the first two climbs which caused a number of runners to become lost, hypothermic, confused, miserable, and in need of much more assistance than they had planned for. Jared and Ryan, the race directors did a wonderful job with the decision-making recognizing the need to make sure any lost runners were found and focusing their rescources on making sure everyone was safe rather than continue the race into even more remote and dangerous conditions. Nonetheless, it was a sweet 50k and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Buddy was going to run the whole thing with me on his three legs, but decided against it at the last minute when he opted for the luxury bed setup in the back of my parents' truck.

A deceptively dry start did not prepare anyone for winter's last onslaught.

After coming down from the first big climb up to 7,000 feet, I knew I was going to want my Marmot Essence Jacket for when we climbed right back up there again. I honestly don't know how anyone made it through that stretch without a wind/waterproof shell. Or why they didn't have one in the first place. It was, by far, the nastiest, windiest, snowiest, most un-springlike conditions I've ever run in.

This was a vehicle that had just come down from what would have been the last aid station.

A Wet Wet Wet Spring in the Tetons

While I'm here, I might as well continue this recap into June, which, for the record, has got to set a Teton Valley rainfall record for the month by month's end. I don't know how this couldn't be the wettest June of all time. Below is a picture I took of Game Creek just outside of Victor whilst out on an evening run early in the month. It had been raining for days and days and days and this swollen creek would've quickly sent me downstream had I attempted a crossing. I turned back at this point after 3 miles.

On Tuesday, June 8th, Mike Ehredt arrived in Driggs on his cross-country Project America Run. I caught up with him the following Saturday and ran with him in two different sections (the first 10 miles out before I ran back to the car and the last 9 miles after I drove to his finishing location for the day and ran back to meet him and ran with him back to my car.

Five minutes after we began, we got stopped by a cattle drive.

And then it was the long climb up Togwotee Pass.

Planting a flag every mile to honor each of the fallen soldiers in Iraq since the war began.

On top of Togwotee Pass on the Continental Divide at 9,500 ft.

His hosts for the night were the absolutely wonderful people at Triangle C Ranch who were also so generous to allow me to stay the night as well. (Mike had it in mind that this day was to be 26 miles long, but it ended up being 34 so he got done a tad later than he had anticipated and seeing as we had both been out in some nasty weather for quite some time, we were both keen on getting showered, warmed up, and fed. And I just can't say enough about the great crew of people living and working there for the summer. If anyone's interested in a real-life dude ranch vacation, come here cause I don't think you'd find a better experience anywhere else.

The next morning, we all set off with Mike for his first few miles of the day. There's alot going on in this group here so I'm sure we got more than just a few quizzical stares.

Which brings me to the first day of Summer and another trip to Jackson to run my favorite Snow King/Game Creek/Cache Creek route. Almost the entire Game Creek stretch is being re-routed and another couple miles of sweet trail added in the process so I'm looking forward to going back when it's finished to help break it in! Thanks to all for the great work on these trails!

I arrived back in Jackson just after sunset on a beautiful first summer night.