Run Rabbit 50 Miler - Steamboat Springs, CO

Silver Creek Fire as seen from the trail

Are you ever exhausted but unable to sleep? This race report comes to you in that frame of mind, my apologies in advance.

CR inspired me to write down some thoughts on the race, and I thought it better to do it now before I romanticize or forget what it was really like.

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Twelve hours before the race, at the pre-race briefing, two grandfatherly race directors made grandfatherly jokes and informed a small crowd of people that the course may have to be rerouted. The Silver Creek Fire had jumped the Continental Divide and was encroaching on the course. Options were to either start at 3am, reroute to some variation of the 100 mile course, or wait and see. At 5:59am the next day, in the dark, on some dirt road near the base of the Steamboat Springs ski slope we were corralled to line up, informed "the course has been rerouted, be nice to each other, you have 30 seconds, any questions?"

Any game plan I had went out the window, but then I'm not sure you can have a game plan for an ultra other than to roll with it. Aid stations were now spaced 8-9 miles apart, slightly farther than the 5-6 mile gaps of the original course, this turned out to matter to me a great deal emotionally. 

The first and last six miles of the race were the same, heading out we climbed the mountain, a long dirt road gaining 3500 ft of elevation. Then into to woods for 8 miles of rolling technical trail. This was perhaps my strongest section of the day. Trailed by half a dozen men and convinced they were going to come crashing down on me as we navigated the rocky downhill, I spent the next hour trying to get away from them without falling. From here it leveled out and became quite uninteresting. Miles of primitive, rolling dirt roads on the edge of tree line.  Some boy who rides bikes with my good friend and coworker ran a few miles with me and became my only real interaction of the day. The heat didn't start to bother me until mile 23, and by this point the dirt road had led us back to some nice, highly exposed, single track. Somewhere around mile 25 I caught my friend Andrew who had started the 100 mile race the previous morning. Quick math told me this was a rough day for him. We shuffled along for a mile and a half together, Andrew slowly unwinding the night's trails before he insisted I leave him. The trail took a steep uphill grade at this point and the 9 miles from 27-36 were some of the least pleasant of the day. From here things were largely uneventful. I ate a few salt tabs, made it back to the mountain, and navigated 6 miles down the dirt road we'd run up that morning, decidedly less enjoyable than I had been imagining all day. Turns out 3500 ft of elevation loss isn't much easier on the legs, especially after 46 miles. I crossed the finish line some time near 5pm, the grandfatherly race director hugged me, and all the emotions I had been repressing the past ten hours came out in giant tears. 

Overall, the race was low drama, I'm happy with how I managed nutrition and fatigue. FDK told me after her 50: there are going to be some easy miles, take what you can. For the most part that proved to be a highly effective strategy. 

A few random thoughts:

• CR: does Tailwind make you thirsty?? I added half a scoop to my 1.5 liter bladder, I was too worried about the heat to go all day with only water. I think this was the right choice to replace salts, electrolytes, etc, but damn it made me thirsty. 

• True discipline is getting to an aid station in 87 degree heat and not drinking a liter of ice water. Around mile 27 my stomach stopped processing water as fast as I was drinking it and I was still thirsty, which left me with a sloshy stomach and a dry mouth.

• Random things would hurt and then after a few miles, with no explanation, go away. I am unsure if this is mental or if my body actually fixed itself. My back was bleeding from my pack chaffing the skin up to mile 15 and then it stopped being an issue. I rolled my ankle hard somewhere around mile 27, I thought my achilles was going to pull apart my heel all over again, but a few miles later that pain also disappeared.

• My nutrition for the day was: a smoothie-filled cliff bar, half by mile 6 the other half by mile 13, a peanut butter sandwich spread out between miles 23-37, a few lemon-lime salt tabs, and ~2.5L of water.

• No one talked to me out there. I ran the majority of the race alone. This is the first ultra where I lacked any real camaraderie with the other runners. I missed the witty banter and dark humor.

• This course is not as stunning as the Grand Traverse. The Grand Traverse was a joy. If you wish to run an ultra in Colorado I cannot recommend it enough. 

Sunrise as we ran up the ski slope

Long Lake - good lord was I happy to make it back to this aid station, mile 37

post-race doggos, waiting for Andrew to finish

Pear Lake Hut?

by fdk (with a few comments by CR)

Unless you count three-sided shelters in the Catskills I’ve never done a proper hut trip, and as I’ve been dabbling more in winter sports I’ve been increasingly interested in the promise of a lovely little shelter out in the wilderness surrounded by snow to play in. You don’t have to carry a ton of stuff or sleep on the snow, and there’s a stove and wood? Too sweet! So, back in November 2017 when CR started planning a trip to Pear Lake Hut in the Sequoia National Park backcountry I was in. People love Pear Lake for the lovely alpine skiing around the hut, but I figured I’d try to apply my nor-dork skills the best I could, and get to hang out around the hut either way. This is not how it all shook out.

The old saying goes that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. This weekend it was more like if life calls to say there are no lemons to be had, you’d better start planning some tasty non-citrus beverages, because you’re still gonna be thirsty! The planning went awry from the beginning, with the seven initially interested people slowly winnowing down,  with some additions and substitutions, to three. There was so little snow through February that we thought the whole thing might be a bust, but then a miracle March and April brought a good late snow pack. But the final blow to the plan came on Friday afternoon when CR received a call from the NPS informing her that the Pear Lake Hut would be closed this weekend for “classified reasons”, and that no one had died, but giving no more information to protect the identities of the those involved. The speculation was endless: wild party? Broken snow bridge? Hantavirus? (CR:Interestingly, GG wants to add that we should add carbon monoxide poisoning to the differential diagnosis, maybe the hut is having a ventilation problem.)

By then I was already in the Bay Area enjoying a lovely cruise up Mt Tam with Billy

and then popping up at the Palo Alto train station. CR and I picked up some backcountry XC skis for me and called the third member of the weekend crew, the lovely Rachel, to tell her the bad news about the hut. We met in a Stanford parking lot and pulled up a mental map of the state of CA to decide what we were going to do instead! After considering preferences (thumbs down on winter backpacking, skiing over climbing,thumbs down on crowds) and available gear (thank goodness for CR’s gear closet) we had a realization: Spring is volcano season! So we headed north to some of our favorite volcanos.

For almost six months of the year the main park road through Lassen is closed for snow, and you can camp for free on the snow at the visitors center and travel by foot into the huge park. We decided to drive out there Friday night and then climb the highest point in the park, Mt Lassen, on Saturday. It bears mentioning that on the way out there we got some really delish Indian Pizza. If you have not experienced this delicacy I cannot recommend it highly enough. The butter chicken pizza is quite a treat, and will still be welcome the next day. Also, Lassen is in the middle of nowhere and the stars are amazing.

With the road closed the trip up to Mt Lassen is long— 13 miles, much of it on snow, with ~5000ft of gain. We suited up with our skis only to discover that the road after the locked gate started out very plowed.

After schlepping skis ~3 miles up a plowed road (including some cool geothermal features) (CR:BOILING MUDPOTS!! The name is worth mentioning)

we finally hit snow, and skiing up this road was the only time I managed to put my Nordic skills to any use, and even then it was a mixed bag!

After coming to Helen Lake we turned to head up the mountain for real. CR and Rachel were doing well skinning up, and I put some skins on my XC skis for a while, but at some point I bailed, ditched my skis, and proceeded to boot my way up. Honestly, it was more efficient.

The climb was serious business and I found myself wishing, not for the last time, that I had brought an ice axe with me. CR says a ski pole is a poor man’s ice axe, but I went to school for a long time to be able to buy such luxuries as an actual ice axe, which was back at home, because the hut trip wasn’t supposed to include much actual mountaineering! (Of course CR had an extra ice axe, which I made sure to bring along on day two.)

Rachel is smarter than the average bear and wanted to save some energy for the way down, so she paused part way up the final ridge while CR and I continued to kick steps up to the summit to take in some really lovely views including the neighbor to the northwest, Mt Shasta!

Summit Selfie

Then CR put her skis on, and I continued to walk, now downhill. What can I say, I don’t have a lot of skills.  The snow had softened a lot, so plunge stepping was more secure than I expected, but I was still paying very close attention to my steps when CR swooped up behind me, sending a few little snow wheels cruising past me. Wheee! Rachel dropped into the gully and skied down with CR, and I finally stopped being such a weenie and sat down to glissade the last few hundred feet. It really was a lot of fun, even if I felt like I was my own personal wet slide. Here's Rachel doing some actual skiing.

After finally making it back to the parking lot we saddled up and headed off to get milkshakes en route to volcano number two— Mt Shasta!

We decided that the crowds on avalanche gulch didn’t seem that interesting, and I wanted to try some very easy AT skiing, so on Sunday we worked our way around to the west side of Shasta, up into Hidden Valley below the junction between Shasta and Shastina, at about 9000ft. We headed up through Horse Camp with me on snowshoes and CR and Rachel skinning. We moved up as we worked around the mountain and started traversing some big gullies, switching to crampons and ice axes as we moved higher up, with gradually increasing exposure, and beautiful views.

Trinity Alps in the distance

Rachel with the Trinity Alps.  She's quite fond of those mountains!

We met a very cute Australian Cattle Dog that seemed to be having no trouble at all in the snow!

Blue loved to fetch snowballs

For as long as you would throw them. 

Hidden Valley is a lovely little gem of a spot, and we should plan to camp up there someday.

Walking into Hidden Valley

CR was so excited that she raised her arms. 

While we hung out and enjoyed a little piece of paradise I borrowed CR’s skis and tried downhill skiing for the first time in ~15 years. It was fun! And even though I couldn’t figure out turns on my backcountry XC skis I was able to handle a few gentle ones on AT skis.

Isn’t this how everyone learns to ski?

We made our way down on softer, easier snow with a combo of crampons, skis, glissading, and running, and really enjoyed losing all that altitude we had worked so hard for.

Now, Mt Shasta is the point on the N/S line where I start to feel the pull of Oregon, and while we were gear sorting in the parking lot I realized that I could just make the Greyhound bus headed up to Portland. After a little bit of rally car driving by CR I got on a northbound bus headed home, still buzzing from the sun and snow.

I think we managed to make some really delicious volcano snow punch (which should be a tiki drink) out of this weekend, and we get to pick a weekend for Pear Lake next winter without entering the lottery! Clear your schedule now! Here’s the real question: What happened at Pear Lake Hut??

Thanks for a great weekend, ladies!

Moab in the off season

This is poorly written, but sometimes we go on trips and never write anything down. For the benefit of our future selves I added some notes on our recent trip to Moab. Thank you for coming out to Colorado <3

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I signed up for the Moab "Ultra" under the pretense of upholding a challenge: run one trail race every month of 2018.  Trail races in January are scarce, you almost have to go to the desert to find a decent course. Moab offered not only a quirky half marathon but the opportunity to see an endangered monument and climb some of the most renowned routes in southern Utah. Plus I had a pretty good feeling it wouldn't take much to get the WCAC women out here for the ride.

Three women, from three different states flew to Denver for this trip. I cannot tell you how awesome it is to have friends willing to fly to my home state and drive 12+ hours to run, hike, climb to the point of exhaustion. Who can say that??? You ladies are the best.

We drove from DIA to Grand Junction for a shake out (cough-6mi-cough) run before piling into the car for 90 more minutes to Moab.  All told the trip out was ~6.5 hours. FDK's article on the benefits of tripping on acid was greatly appreciated entertainment.

Utah only serves 3.2% alcohol on tap - weak beer, burgers, and bed were in order. We got up at 7a for the race the next day. Much to my delight the weather warmed significantly before the start. If you run the Arches Half Marathon know that pacing yourself is a poor strategy. 5 miles in you'll hit 6 miles of slick rock, and unless you are CR this surface demands a slackening in the pace. Note to 2019 Kelsey: go out hard, recover on the rock, then bring it home the last two miles.

Once the race was over we headed home for real breakfast and an 8 mile hike through the canyons and arches of Arches National Park called Devil's Garden. The "most strenuous hike in the park" is not as daunting as it sounds. Four women who ran 20+ miles in the morning completed the 8 mile loop in a little over 3 hours. 

Crack climbing in Indian Creek was on the agenda for Sunday. We're lucky to have resident climbing expert in CR. Her patience and expertise are unmatched and I wouldn't have been able to berate crack climbing sufficiently without her.

Cracks are not my game. It doesn't make much sense to shove my hands and feet into a tiny crack and pull myself up repeatedly. I have a lot to learn in this technique, give me crimp-y holds and open slabs any day (in 2018 I vow to learn proper slab climbing outside and invite you ladies back to Eldorado Canyon). Regardless, Nat and I, shepherd by CR and FDK, were able to complete a few beautiful cracks. The view didn't suck either and left me wishing we had another day to explore Indian Creek.

CR got to live the dream in the desert for a few more days, so we dropped her at a random house in Moab and drove away, back home to catch God-early flights on Monday morning. (Instagram suggests CR met up with GG and had a grand time in the canyon lands).

Layers of discomfort and magic

FDK and CR started a day ahead of me so I will have to ask them to append a preface to this trip report 

TL;DR the Eastern Sierra proved to me once more its ability to kick my ass, blow my mind, and fill my heart. We hit up Whitney and some hot springs, then hogged through Yosemite before driving back to reality. 

You can see all of my pictures from the trip here. 

Saturday
fdk &CR, preface:

CR: After picking up FDK in Reno we drove the whole length of the eastern sierra down to bishop, with FDK trying to keep up some sort of 'clean living' initiative where she tried to sleep the right amount and eat not-garbage, while I tried to drive all night and also had a car full of pie and pizza. Health is all about who you hang out with, I guess. 

fdk: I'm training for a marathon, unfortunately, so I kept sneaking in extra running, and CR and Kelz were very nice to accommodate it.  When CR and I woke up Saturday morning, ostensibly eager to go find some nice rocks for climbing, it was COLD, like 20˚F cold, like I am not getting my feet into climbing shoes with no socks cold.  That's fantastic because running is great in a wide variety of temps!  So we went for a quick (2h) jog up Bishop Creek Canyon (I think), and I quickly remembered that running at 9000ft always sucks when you live at sea level. Still, if you're in the neighborhood it's a nice run over Piute Pass (11,423ft)for a view of Summit Lake, and you'll catch your breath on the way back down.

CR: We wheezed and coughed up to Mt Emerson, where we met a lady wearing old school glacier goggles who encouraged us to keep going to get views of the Humphrey Basin, which turned this short run into rather a long one. 

One of the lakes headed up to Puite Pass

CR: We then hustled back down to get to Cardinal Pinnacle, which is home to some of the greatest moderate crack climbing I have ever done. My goal always in climbing is to complete climbs WITHOUT DRAMA (this means no screaming at your partner, no truly fearing for your life, no peeing on your partner, minimal loss of skin, etc etc you get the picture). FDK says I should get a hat that says ___ days since last climbing drama. Fortunately we can add one more tick to the hat, since this was a pretty drama free climb. This was also the first climb where FDK and I did a double-rope rappel together which means we both got to spend >30 minutes trying to untangle my demonically-possessed pink rappel rope (damn it, pinky!). Also FDK got to look  and comment "Really?" when I tied  the two ropes together with the uninspiring-looking "European Death Knot"

(http://blog.alpineinstitute.com/2009/03/euro-death-knot.html)

Fortunately the EDK did not live up to its name and we lived to climb another day and more importantly, meet up with KD in Lone Pine!

fdk: There are two reasons to do this climb: lovely hand jams and a stunning belay station. I really hope to get to come back and convince CR to lead the whole thing for me. 

The view while belaying.  Who can be expected to mind the rope with those aspens?!

Back to Kelz:

I started God-early in Redwood City and drove 7 short hours down to the lovely mountain town of Lone Pine to meet up with FDK and CR. We drove a short way to the Alabama Hills to climb The Fin and recreate the image below at sunset with Whitney in the background. 

We wanted to be as cool as this chick in the tie dye

fdk: It is a pretty sweet spot. 

CR on the fin

For me this ascent began in tennis shoes because despite bringing my life in a 60L pack I lacked several key pieces of gear. We climbed a couple of 5.8/5.10 routes on the face and much to my benefit CR switched out shoes with me. Then it was up to Whitney Portal for dinner and an early bedtime. 

Sunday

The line between God-early and middle of the night is a thin one. Up at 330, we started our 22mi day by 430. Carrying an average of 8lbs each we hit the summit around 10am.

Harvest moon over Whitney and the Needles

The thing about 14k+ feet is it hits you gradually. The altitude effect layers the discomfort slowly. It can start as a nagging pain somewhere between the temple and the back of the head and grow to a lightheadedness, inducing (sometimes severe) nausea, and an odd emptiness, that leaves me sure there is nothing left to give the mountain. The effects for me were moderate but I still began to feel more as if I were floating than trudging, full of emptiness with a head weighing about 100lbs. Water and food are never less appealing than in the throws of altitude sickness. I am told whiskey and sour worms are a great remedy to this discomfort.

Mt. Whitney summit!

After a toast and an endearing chat with a through hiker Giggles we headed down from the summit. To the dismay of several older gentleman on the trail we were moving fast!  (fdk: turns out running is a faster way to descend than walking, and gets you some extra mileage) Their great consternation led them to mansplain to us that under no uncertain terms "hikers going up the mountain have the right of way!" being young, female yahoos we were not respecting this internationally recognized rule and needed to rein it in. Needless to say we continued to run down the mountain. In all fairness I don't think we were really disturbing anyone, often hoping off trail to bypass people and greeting everyone coming up the opposite way. Nonetheless their multiple reminders were evidence that radical feminism in this world is still a worthy pursuit. 

Looking over the giant basin that leads to Kings Canyon and beyond

Once back at the car with La Croix in hand we booked it to the Frosty Chalet for soft serve and gear division. CR is a good kid and had to go back to work. I am less committed and convinced FDK to stay out another day. 

sorta-secret hot springs somewhere past Bishop airport

This extra evening led us to some secret hot springs with a magical view and a night at the Mobil which has my eternal admiration for its cuisine and free camping accommodations over looking Mono Lake. 

Campsite above the Mobile looking out at Mono Lake

Monday 

The morning started at a reasonable hour with pancakes from the Mobil and then a short hike/jog to Lake Elizabeth out of Tuolumne Meadows campground. 
fdk: Hahaha, more surprise running!

We ended up back in Bay around 230, enough time for a run (painfully slow jog) through Huddart and dinner on CalAve. 
fdk: we were back early, so we might as well run a little more, right?

Lake Elizabeth from Tuolumne Meadows Campground

Good pie will last for days in nothing other than the cardboard box you buy it in. We polished off a boysenberry masterpiece purchased somewhere near Bishop that night with CR and stayed up too late  drinking whiskey sours, talking about biology, global warming, workplace drama, running, men, politics...the gamut. Before setting alarms for our god early start to the airport. 
fdk: I'm starting to get used to waking up before 5, it's bizarre. 

Whitney is best done in a day. Apply for permits in April and be sure to reserve a spot at Whitney Portal for the night before the ascent as well. This being my second trip up Whitney I don't think I will summit next year. But the Eastern Sierras are a uniquely beautiful place, I wouldn't say no to a trip up one of the neighboring peaks next fall. 

Alpine lake somewhere on the descent from Whitney

As far as company, I love these women. It is rare to find people of such similar mindset and willingness to trade sleep for adventure. Never am I more alive and exhausted at the same time than when I am with CR and FDK. 
fdk: hear, hear! definitely exhausted.

Thank you for the trip ladies. 
fdk: Thanks for planning, encouraging, and running some extra miles. Are you available to plan the rest of my life?  

<3 kelzzz

The Promised Land (in the summer)

Summer is coming at me a mile a minute, so I will keep this mini-report brief. BG hates making personal decisions, and so he hates presents, both giving them and receiving them. To relieve him of that stress and to save us both the embarrassment of eventually forgetting we decided that we would go on fun little trips for our anniversary each year. This year we wrangled tickets for Hamilton in SF before realizing that our anniversary coincided with the meeting of the National Association of Attorneys and Solicitors General (s?) in Big Sky, MT.  We figured that the OR SG had best attend this meeting where plans would be made, especially in the era of Trump, so we found some takers for our Hamilton tickets and headed to Montana!

The trip was brief-- 1.5 days in and around Big Sky and one day in Yellowstone-- but at the end I was checking to see if there were any vacancies at MSU! Montana is stunning and rural, and Yellowstone is like five great parks in one. High expectations tend to result in disappointment so I am going to try not to sell the area too hard, and instead I will tell you about the logistics and then JUST GO!  But first I’ll tell you just a little bit about why you should go.  

The area around Big Sky, MT is beautiful and has great trail running.  Big Sky is a ski town in the winter, and I really like these one-purpose towns in the off-season when they are quiet and peaceful with lots of cheap vacancies!  We did a few fun things in Big Sky that I recommend if you are in the neighborhood.

1. Trail run by Ousel Falls and on First Yellow Mule and Second Yellow Mule trails.

BG at Ousel Falls

2. Take the ski lift up and scramble around above treeline.  It would be possible to get to the top of Lone Peak, but we didn’t.

BG headed up the ridge

3. Hike Beehive Basin.

Us in Beehive Basin

4. Eat a frickin amazing meal at Bucks-T4 (a little expensive, but DANG!).
5. Run the Porcupine Creek Trail while singing and clapping your hands so you don't sneak up on any bears. If you had more time I think there is a real cool ~20-mile loop you could do here.

The sort of trail that dreams are made from

In Yellowstone there is so much to see it’s a little overwhelming.  Here are the essential parts of the park:

1. The wildlife.  Get there early, bring binoculars, and go to Hayden or Lamar Valleys. There are so many bison and elk that it is almost annoying.

2. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  OK, Artist’s Point is touristy, but it’s so pretty!  Think of it like Tunnel View in Yosemite.

3. The thermal features. The earth is boiling, bubbling, and sulfurous. Pictures really don't do it justice-- you have to see it!

One of many boiling pits

4. The mountains.  The park contains parts of four different mountain ranges, and they are little used-- I think there’s a lot of opportunity for exploration.
5. The huge backcountry.  You can get further from a road than you can anywhere else in the lower 48.  I think that Yellowstone is a backpacker’s park and I am looking forward to getting back out there and exploring it.  One big downside is that the rangers really discouraged me from running due to the large grizzly population. Apparently grizzlies have a chase instinct and will run down runners? This does sound terrifying, but I wonder if it's true?

Which brings us to the logistics. I'm sure there are many ways to approach the park, but here is one easy way to do it:

There are direct flights to Bozeman from SFO, DEN, PDX, PHX, SLC, and SEA at least.  You pick up your rental car right outside the terminal and then it’s a 1.5 hour drive from Bozeman to the West Yellowstone entrance.  On this drive you will go through Big Sky, if you are inclined to sample any of its pleasures. It can be tough to get camping reservations in Yellowstone, but as you drive Hwy 191 from Bozeman to West Yellowstone you will pass ~10 different Forest Service campgrounds as well as driving through a lot of forest service land where you can camp wherever!  You might like having a home base outside the park anyway.

Get up early and get in the park early if you want to see anything that you can drive to, like a lot of the thermal features.  People are lazy, and the only parts of the park that were annoying were parking lots where you could drive up, walk less than a mile, and see a notable feature, and they really didn’t get busy until after 11AM.  I think that we are snobby and are turned off by the idea that Yellowstone is full of buses of tourists feeding Yogi Bear. There are a lot of people that visit the park but they are mostly very very lazy and easy to avoid, and once you get up early or hike more than a mile you are in a wild paradise. Wait, I wasn’t supposed to oversell it.  Yellowstone sucks, but you should visit anyway.  Maybe you’ll be able to meet me there once I move to Bozeman, which is also a terrible place.

PS. I wrote this before a friend of mine warned me that the winters here are no joke. She described it as, "the absolute nastiest of winter climates you will ever experience." And she is from Vermont and loves snow!  So I might need to hold off on buying a ranch just yet.