Really big trees

Well, this is about it.  Friday night before the Saturday departure.  Predictably, K and I are both dreading the drive.  The Gals would dread it also if they knew what was coming.

Quiet Friday…..kind of wrapping stuff up, getting everything packed, etc.  Race wise, there was the pasta dinner and trail briefing.  Not much was conveyed, but Baz (the race director) puts on a fine show.

We did venture pretty well off the beaten path, in the context of the Yosemite crowds.  The Sierra National Forest contains over 1 million acres.  There are a series of roads that weave through the Forest, available to the general public if you can figure out where the hell you are.  In fact, there is an 87 mile scenic byway that traverses the area, spelled out on the Forest Service’s website and in printed maps.  We opted to visit “Nelders Grove,” an area containing giant Sequoia trees mixed in with pine and other species. The Shadow race tomorrow will also include a loop through the Grove.

I just love these big trees and the quiet of the forest.  There is an interpretive one mile trail through the Grove.  We were the only ones there…..the traffic on these backroads was about nil.  The obligatory photos:

A really big tree.

Goldens enjoying the sights also.

The trail might have been more enjoyable if the bug spray was on hand instead of being in the hotel room.  Dang mosquitoes were thick.

If I’d had a four wheel drive vehicle, we’d have been a bit more adventurous and visited some other areas….but much of the roads we traveled were dirt and rutted.  They’re great to run on, but dicey to drive over without the right vehicle.  Plus, I’ve abused the rental van enough without getting it stuck somewhere.

The plans for Saturday……K will pick me up at the end of the race.  I’ll take a quick shower on premises and we’re off, with the intent of driving as far as we can.  We’ll see how far that is.

Return engagement

Warning!  Dull post upcoming.  Sightseeing and running.

Sightseeing stuff. This is at least our sixth trip to Yosemite.  We used to come here as a side trip when I ran the Big Sur Marathon (Carmel, CA, last Sunday in April each year) and were of course here in 2007 for Shadow (last weekend in May).  So if the point of the road trip was to see new places this certainly doesn’t qualify.  It’s not real easy to get to (see yesterday’s post) and early today I was sorta wondering why I came back again, other than the upcoming race.

The answer is in the scenery.   One thing about coming in the spring is that the waterfalls are full and flowing.  The difference between the last weekend in April and a month later is that all of the park roads are open.  The high country roads, including Tioga Pass and Glacier Point, are generally still closed in late April, so I saw those areas for the first time two years ago.  Today we drove to Glacier Point, about halfway from the south entrance to the Park and Yosemite Valley.  We were there the first time on a gorgeous clear day.  Today was clear and warm (80 degrees) at the entrance and then…..the temps slowly started dropping and the cloud cover increasing.  By the time we reached Glacier Point (30 miles, plus or minus) it was 49 and a cold rain falling…..even a few chunks of wet snow mixed in.  The rain stopped while we were there, fortunately.

The scenery was still gorgeous, none of which will come through in the pictures.  Gray clouds and rain, the sun shining on the peaks in the distance.  The sheer granite face of Half Dome, the views of Yosemite Valley 3,200 feet below.  I’ll indulge myself with a couple of pictures:

Stood in 49 degree temps and pelting rain for this picture.

"Half Dome" viewed from Glacier Point

An hour or two later, it was sunny and warm in the Valley.

View from the base of Bridalveil Falls....the mist was cold.

Of course, the Goldens were along for the sightseeing.

Looking out over the edge.

The Gals in Yosemite Valley.

Tomorrow will (likely) be more of the same.

Running stuff. The differences between road marathons and trail ultras are very apparent in a race like Shadow.  The last marathon I ran was St. George in October, 2008.  That race is a lottery to enter, which is capped at about 6,500 entrants.  The last big marathon I ran was Vegas a couple of years ago…..well over 20,000 for the various events.  Logistics issues, parking issues, crowd issues, etc.

The 2007 edition of Shadow of the Giants had 80 runners (I finished 16th).  The pre-race course info was given by the race director Baz Hawley standing on a picnic table at the start.  No pavement, no mile markers.  Advertised as a 50k, Baz said it was really more like 54k.  Aw, who cares…..we’re just out for a nice run in the woods anyway.  Many of the California runners knew each other and ran together frequently, so the atmosphere was very casual.  I do remember the 2007 edition being harder on me than anticipated, likely the combination of temperatures (around 80 degrees at the finish) and modest elevation (5,000 to 6,500 feet).

I’m guessing the 2009 edition will be similar in size and conditions, with me being slower for a variety of reasons.  But what will really make it special will be piling into the car after the race and driving 1,700 miles home.  Saturday should be lots of fun.

Murder, Incorporated

I’m smarter than that damn Garmin.

Well, maybe, maybe not.

The drive today was from Grass Valley, CA to Fish Camp, CA our final destination on this ill-conceived trip, before leaving for KC.  Mapquest and Garmin wanted me to take the interstate at least part of the way.  But I looked at the map and CA 49 looked really good, traversing though the mid-part of the state.  All those squiggly lines on the map really looked like fun, compared to that bland interstate.

As it turned out, the drive was  kind of a bitch.  The first part, Grass Valley to Auburn, was typical California driving…..lots of company.  Had I listened to those silly mechanical brains, I would have taken I-80 west to CA 99 at that point.  But I opted to head to Placerville via CA 49.

I never saw so many 20 MPH signs in one stretch in my driving career, at least to my limited recollection.  And legitimate 20 MPH signs, winding through the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.  By the time we’d made it the 25 or so miles to Placerville, I’d conceded. I plugged “Fish Camp” into the GPS and was willing to accept whatever course Lady G suggested.

Alas, it was too late.  From a minimum travel time standpoint, the artificial intelligence mandated that we stay on the dreaded CA 49.  Oh, there were a few diversions, including a county road simply labeled E5.  But mostly it was 49 and mostly it was narrow and curving.  The worst stretch was from Coulterville to Mariposa.  A local later called it “the longest 16 miles of your life.”  I’m not sure it was that, but it was slow, tedious driving.  Worst of all, I couldn’t text, check sports scores or email the whole time. But we made it to Fish Camp, at the pricey Tenaya Lodge, relegated to the “dog rooms” at the far end of the back wing.

The rest of this post will be broken down into running stuff, murder stuff and a random photo.

Running stuff. Auburn, CA is the ending point of the Western States Endurance Run (WESR), which begins in the Squaw Valley ski area near Lake Tahoe.  The WSER is the “Boston Marathon” of ultra running.  It actually got its start as part of the Tevis Cup, a 100 mile horse race.  In 1974, Gordy Ainsleigh found that his horse turned up lame…..so he completed the event on foot.  Thus, the WSER was born.  The race is a lottery to enter, and can have only about 360 runners.  In addition to the lottery, a runner must be qualified by completing races of a certain distance and / or within specified time limits.  I’m qualified to enter the lottery.  It’s questionable whether I’m capable of completing the event.

Murder stuff. I believe K is about to snap.  The whole Paris thing, the 24/7 with me and the Goldens…..well, I think the cumulative effect may lead her to attempt to kill me.  I had a dream(?) that she was standing over me with a serrated knife the other night.  I think it was a dream because we only brought a plain, straight edged knife for fruit and stuff.  But I guess she could have acquired a serrated knife somewhere along the way.  In any event, I’m sleeping with one eye open.  Not restful, but I do want to get up in the morning.  After all, I have a race on Saturday.

Photo. Only one photo, and you really have to use your imagination with it.  I guess if I would use something other than my phone and pay some attention to the light it might come out better.  In any event, the picture is of a sign on a restaurant.  The words, on separate lines are “Breakfast.  Lunch.  Beer.”

Breakfast, lunch and beer.

The place is open from 7 AM to 3 PM.  I like the guy.  At least he understands the three parts of the day.

That’s it for May 27.  I’ll post one or two more times this trip, if I’m still around.

It never always gets worse

On a trip like this, there are high points and low points.  I think K’s low point may have been this morning.

I distinctly remember the words, “I could be leaving for Paris tomorrow.”  This is, of course, true.  Kathy’s sister Diane is leaving for France on Wednesday to pick up her daughter, Lauren, who’s been studying abroad.  K was invited on a “girl’s only” trip.

It probably didn’t help that Madeline was….uhhh….pursuing the horse droppings on the trail.

We’re in Grass Valley, CA, smack in the heart of “gold country.”  Grass Valley was, in fact, established in 1849 in the original gold rush.  The streets reflect this, angling in no discernible pattern, likely following mule paths from a century and a half ago.

The primary activity for the day was a trip to Empire Mine State Historical Park.  Perhaps surprisingly, it was very entertaining.  The Empire Mine was one of the oldest, largest and richest gold mines in California, producing 5,6 million ounces of gold before closing in 1956 (for the non-financial types, this is 5,600,000 x $915 per ounce = well, a helluva lot).  The whole thing was fascinating.  There was a trail back through the forest (horse droppings and all), showing various mining sites.  Then a display of the equipment used, along with a walk down a mine shaft:

Mining site, rail cars and all.

There was also a very pretty tour of the owner’s home and gardens:

The owner's house and grounds.

My flowers don't look this good.

Social implications of these pictures. I think it’s pretty obvious.  It’s the bourgeoisie abusing the proletariat, just as has been going on for centuries.  The “owner” class of fat cats, sitting around profiting from the labor of the working schmucks, who are risking their lives far underground for profits to the owner.

Thus, I’ve decided to become a liberal.  Forgo any thoughts of self sufficiency, taking responsibility for my actions, the whole idea of risk / reward, that hard work gets you ahead, etc.   All that is bunk.  Barack will provide for me.

Actually, what I really want is a federal bailout from this month’s Visa bill.

In any event, as the heading notes, the day actually got better and the rocky events of the morning evolved to a relatively pleasant day.  Here are the gals in a more conciliatory setting:

The gals relaxing in the shade.

Beer d’jour. Could there be any doubt?  We’re in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, heading for Yosemite, in the heart of the Sierra Nevadas…..brewed in Chico, CA, a few miles up the road, it’s

The local brew.

I got the 12 pack.  Sabbaticals are very stressful.

The Sword

Today was a long travel day, at least for us.  Something like 430 miles, a lot for one day on this trip.  Little sightseeing, so only a few pictures.  Even worse, it’s more of those “too much time on my hands” rambling thoughts.

Travel stuff. The general route was to go south from Bend on OR 97, hit I-5 for a ways then cut across on CA 99 and CA 20 to Grass Valley, CA.  The trip on 97 was quite nice….surrounded by forests of tall Ponderosa pines.  We passed Crater Lake, which we’d visited with Chris and Sara about 16 years ago.  (There is a marathon there, the Crater Lake Rim Run.  I’d signed up for it in 1993 on our last visit, but was sidelined by a stress fracture.)  Even I-5 had pretty scenery, if you don’t mind seeing it a 70 MPH.  The trip east across the state was a study in contrasts:  where irrigated, it contained acres of orchards, strawberry plants and grape vines.  Where it wasn’t irrigated, it looked like this:

Miles of brown fields (note the picture from the moving vehicle).

Rambling thoughts. I’ve probably done 90% of the driving on this trip, but K has also pitched in.  This helps with driver fatigue.  It also enables me to exercise my creative accountant side (not an oxymoron, so don’t even think it).  For example, I spent quite a bit of time trying to get a picture of K with Mt. Shasta in the background using the I-Phone as a camera.  I think this looks pretty good:

K, focused on driving, oblivious to the creative genius next to her.

Another benefit of Kathy driving a bit is that it helps her become a better driver.  When awake, I constantly critique her speed, lane selection, etc.  So she really benefits.  The consultants would call that a “win-win” situation.

By the later parts of the drive, K was getting a little pissy.  Here she’s threatening to strangle the girls if they don’t pose for the Memorial Day picture:

No Goldens were harmed in taking this picture.

Really rambling thoughts. My favorite sign on the drive was in the dumpy town of Dorris, CA, the first town inside the CA border on 97.  The main body of the sign was “Bar 40 Saloon,” with the sub-heading “We now serve good food.”  I like it because it manages to get two references to drinking in the body of the sign.  Plus the sub-heading begs the question, “well what have you been serving up to now?”

My second favorite sign was seen multiple times on Oregon roads:  “Don’t pass snowplows on the right side.”  This would seem pretty obvious to me, but you never know.

Although it’s only Monday, the drive home this coming Saturday/Sunday/whenever is hanging over me like the Sword of Damocles.  There’s just no easy way to cover 1,700 miles quickly and painlessly.  I’m regularly considering various schedules and alternatives.  I’m still thinking of the doggie downers.  Plus, I’m in CA, so I should be able to find some little white pills to keep me awake for a week or so, I’d think.

Tuesday is hanging around “Gold Country,” sight seeing in Nevada county, CA.

Golden days ($$)

A quiet couple of days in Bend, OR.  We ended up spending an extra day here rather than trying to make a mad dash to the coast and back.  And Bend is actually a pretty nice place to hang around.

The town has a population of about 80,000 and seems to be very focused on outdoor activities.  Extensive trail system, bike paths all over the place.  Skiing within 40 miles or so.  Average high of 82 degrees in July makes it an attractive summer location, although 32 inches of annual snowfall makes it iffy for a year round destination.

Bend also seems to be a pretty dog-friendly place.  We took the golden girls on the river trail (again) and to two separate off leash dog parks on Saturday.  Mads found (another) ball and amused herself for quite a while.

Maddles at the dog park.

Otherwise, we did touristy sight seeing stuff.  A visit to Crested Butte on the eastern edge of the city:

View of Bend and Mt. Bachelor from Crested Butte.

K and Lola sightseeing.

Family photo, sort of.

We also took the local scenic drive, the Cascade Lakes Highway around Mt. Bachelor and surrounding lakes.  I’ve finally come to recognize that May is pretty early spring in some parts of the country and there is significant snow still on the ground.  At the higher elevations, the snow pack along the road was five feet tall or so.  Which gave the goldens another opportunity in the snow.

Goldens in snow, again.

A couple of (minor) negatives.  We’re staying at a Marriott TownePlace Suites hotel, which is fine.  Unfortunately there is also a little league baseball team here also, along with non-attentive parents, screaming siblings, etc.   The little bast…..er, tykes are really having fun here, apparently.

Lola suffered some kind of minor puncture wound on her left hind foot.  Probably a stick, needle from pine trees, etc.  Lost a chunk of fur.  Fearing infection, we took her to the local animal emergency clinic.  Anti-inflammatory medications, antibiotic, a $255 bill and we were on our way.  The vet also suggested an Elizabethan collar, which we declined.   That would be quite a scene, driving cross country with two dogs, one wearing a big collar.  In any event, Lola seems fine.  I also weaseled some canine sedatives from the doc for the drive home.

Beer d’jour:  Mirror Pond Pale Ale, brewed right here in Bend.  The liberals here are big on ‘buy local,” and as a good liberal I’m doing my part.

Tomorrow is a lonnng drive (relatively speaking) to Grass Valley, CA in the “gold country.”  Have no idea what’s there, but I guess we’ll see.

Hearing voices (mechanical, female voices)

There’s no doubt the GPS has revolutionized road trips, and car travel in general.  A couple of years ago I got a Garmin Nuvi 660, kind of a low end model.  It’s invaluable in urban travel, but also helpful on a trip like this.   The device does sometimes garble words  (Buckeye may be “Bugeye” and 82 East may be “80 Tweest”) but overall it is very efficient.  The female voice is kind of like a person to me, and I refer to the Garmin as “she.”  The voice does sound a little frantic when I veer off course (recalculating!  recalculating!), kind of like a real person.  Sadly, I need her to go four blocks to the grocery store here.

The travel was, frankly, excruciatingly dull today.  Well, that’s a bit of an overstatement.  But I really didn’t realize that eastern / central Washington / Oregon have terrain like they do.   The general route was US 395 south to I-82 east, then Oregon 97 to Bend.  These first couple of pictures are from Washington and are real road trip pics–taken from a vehicle moving at 75 MPH.  Wasn’t really worth stopping for.

Miles and miles of wheat land

Same as above...I just like the guardrail in the pic. Shows the care that went into getting the photograph.

Oregon was even worse.  The only thing of interest was Mt. Hood looming to the west, visible from a long way away.

View from Oregon Hwy 97, Mt. Hood in the distant background

Fortunately, the Deschutes River runs through Bend (the original name of the town was “Farewell Bend” after a turn in the river’s direction) and this brings water and life to the otherwise desert climate.  Plus there is a very nice river trail accessible from downtown and our hotel.

Looking up the Deschutes River from the trail

And, of course, the inevitable:

Maddles soaked after a cooling dip in the river

We’re actually staying three nights here, longest in one place so far.  Then it’s two nights in Grass Valley, CA then on to Yosemite.  We’re still negotiating on the drive home.  Kathy wants some kind of  sleep break in the 27 hour drive.  I think that’s wasted time.  A sedative for the dogs and a stimulant for the people and we’d save a whole day.  Accountants crave efficiency and time saving ideas.

Back in Kansas again?

The short answer is “no,” but you couldn’t tell by walking around outside.

This where the “fail to plan, plan to fail” adage comes home.  It was a late decision to head to Bend, OR, 11 hours or so from Whitefish, MT and too long for a one day drive on this trip.  So I looked for a place about halfway between.  I guess I should have thought twice when Ritzville, WA was described as “an oasis among the wheat fields.”  But here we are.

Travel stuff. Actually, the early part of the drive was very pleasant, and I have talk more about how much I like northern Montana.  When I was at the pre-race pasta dinner at the Choteau Country Club a few years ago, one of the Montana college kids pointed out that the whole state of Montana has less than one million residents….obviously less than many cities in other states.  And the whole state is on one area code.  And good luck getting cell service in much of the state.  It is easy to get off the beaten path in MT…..or alternatively, hard to find it.  I have a hotel reservation in October in Hungry Horse to run the Le Grizz 50 miler, so I may be back later this year.  But my running schedule for October is so full that I may not make it.

The drive from Whitefish retraced about 50 miles of US 93, before turning off on Montana 28…..a skinny state highway with minimal shoulders and a 70 MPH speed limit.  It seems the speed limits in this type of country are suggestions only….hell, there’s no one to enforce them and no other drivers to care.  Some mountains, some forest, some farmland on this stretch.

Northern Montana--farmland with mountains in the background

There was also a very nice stretch along the Clark Fork River valley.

A last look at Montana before crossing the border to Idaho

The small part of Idaho we crossed was also very scenic, including Coeur d’Alene, where one of my partners did the Ironman last summer.

Things started going downhill as we crossed into Washington……trees disappeared, vegetation disappeared and suddenly!  It was like we were back in Kansas.  I thought maybe a tornado would blow through.  Ritzville looks like a clean city surrounded by wheat fields.  The desk clerk at the hotel just told someone the local grocery closes at 8 PM.  Kathy is thrilled with the situation.

Golden stuff. Surprisingly, Lola is the easiest of the dogs to travel with.  Jumps into the van when prompted, either when leaving in the morning or after a stop.  Mostly sleeps on the drive, quiet at night.  Maddles does none of the above.  Oh, I suppose she does jump in the van first thing when she’s ready to go.  But she makes me lift her into it most other times.  In other words, if Mads is ready to go, she can jump in herself.  Otherwise I have to lift my 68 pound golden into the back seat.  I swear violently each time.  Mads does like to make herself comfortable on the road:

Mads taking it easy on the road

Entrepreneur of the day. The lady in Hot Springs, MT who offered yoga, reflexology and operated an RV Park.

Friday travels. I suspect we’ll get the hell out of here at a reasonable time Friday morning.  Bend OR, our destination, was rated as the number one trail running city in the country in 2006.  They supposedly have 51 miles of trails within the city, and hundreds more in the national forest outside the city.

This trip has definitely slumped tonight—the source of the in-room cuisine:

That's right--dinner from "Cow Creek"

You know, maybe 11 hours on the road wouldn’t have been so bad.

Bears, Goldens and Big Mountain

A quiet day in Whitefish.  Some early rain showers, featuring snowflakes at higher elevations and a trace of sleet mixed in.  A change from the record highs of a few days ago.

This is about my fourth visit to the area.  My attraction to Montana started in 2001, when on a whim I ran the Choteau (MT) Marathon, in early August.  I later said that Choteau was in the geographic center of “nowhere,” and I hold to that assertion. (Gunther’s Motel in Choteau, $35/night, had a sign in my room reading, “Hunters, please don’t clean your birds in the sink”). So I made the 90 mile drive from Choteau to Glacier and fell in love with the beauty of the area.  Choteau is sorta known for David Letterman having a ranch there and recently getting married there, I think.

Whitefish is on the west side of Glacier, and is (apparently) the most affluent community in Montana.  It has also grown explosively just in the past eight years, as the borrowing / building boom hit here also.  There are a few vacant buildings looking for tenants, and I would guess the boom has died here like everywhere else.

We first went up to “Big Mountain,” the local ski mountain.  I think an accountant named it, but I have no proof of that.  The picture below reflects the low hanging clouds over the mountain.

Low hanging clouds and a few flakes on Big Mountain

We visited Hungry Horse, and specifically the Hungry Horse Reservoir just outside town.  A number of hiking trails were actually available…..however we were warned by everyone from the hotel desk clerk to the rangers that the bears are awake and they’re hungry.  I’m not sure what a golden retriever looks like to a bear, but hors d’oeuvres comes to mind.  That put the kibash on serious hiking.

We also visited Glacier, briefly.  The main path through the Park is the “Going to the Sun Road,” a 50 mile engineering marvel that cuts through the center of the park.  Gorgeous views, varying terrain.  It was also only open for 16 miles, as snow in the high country has slowed the road opening.  Couldn’t resist taking a picture, although I’m sure I’ve got multiples like it.

The view over McDonald Lake, Glacier National Park

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Every good time management consultant has used this line.  The complete lack of planning on this trip leaves me in a quandry as to the next destination.  Too soon to head to Yosemite, not enough time to get to the coast.  I think we’re heading to Bend, OR with an interim stop in Washington.

Commerce

Today started in Salmon, ID at the Syringa Inn.  I mostly stay in antiseptic, bland chain hotels (fitting for an accountant) so the bed and breakfast thing was new, at least for this trip.  Nice facility, a log home type building, three stories, a very pleasant experience.  Sits up on a bluff above the Salmon River.  The Goldens were (surprisingly) on their best behavior–no barking in the quiet of the night.

Syringa Inn

The drive up Highway 93 was again very pretty.  One more picture……

A last look up (down?) the Salmon River

We crossed into Montana at the Lost Trail Pass on 93.  A planned stop at the rest area but……

Rest area closed....a few feet of snow remained

We’ve avoided any rain since the middle of the night in Dodge City on the first night of the trip.  This picture attempts to capture the heavy clouds obscuring the top of the mountains:

Rain to the east, but not on us

The rest of this post represents the ramblings of a man on the road for a couple of weeks, whose main mental challenge has been trying to out-think a couple of Golden Retrievers, and not always successfully.

Zoning. This appears to be a foreign concept to many towns in the west.  Want to build a self storage facility on Main Street?  Sure, just make them the really ugly metal building type.  Salvage yard next door?  Stack ’em up.  Ahh, and the ever-present taxidermy shop in prominent view.  Probably the only recession-proof business there is in these parts.

Road construction. We’ve seen our share, and on two lane highways this generally means one lane is closed entirely.  I’m pretty used to this sign:

Highway 93, but it could have been 89, 50, etc., etc.

Max Baucus (D., Montana) must have revealing photos of some powerful dude.  There’s a monster project on Highway 93 north of Missoula that made a mess of traffic.  Looks like cost-plus to me.

Beer. The selection of beer in a new city is not to be taken lightly.  I spent at least 15 seconds before settling on “Scape Goat,” a pale ale proudly brewed by Big Sky Brewing Company in Missoula.

Versatile entrepreneurs. These guys/gals abound in small towns, but I liked the place in Salmon, ID (birthplace of Sacajawea) that offered embroidery and a UPS store, all under one roof.

Reason #12 that Kathy can’t get an I-Phone (and is doomed to the Razr forever). Complete inability to operate the I-Phone camera.

Picture of K's foot, taken with I-Phone. One of many disturbing images captured by mistake

No travel on Wednesday, hanging around Whitefish.