Neil's 50th

 

My cousin Neil hit his 50th birthday this past week, and celebrated in fine fashion, as noted above, exiting from the Bouncy Castle. Huge barbq with lots of family and long time friends at his homestead. An absolutely wonderful time, on a beautiful Saturday.

I first met Neil in the early '70s, on a family trip to the Northwest to visit. He taught me how to catch frogs, jump off houses, and take the training wheels off a bike. He is the older brother I never had, and I eventually lived in his house when I moved out here. We backpacked and camped as teens, as a family and in youth group. Tonga Ridge, Teeanaway, Potholes, Whidbey Island, Crescent Bar, Moran State Park-- lots of marvelous outdoor places, where I sometimes now find myself returning via trail running. 

Although I see Neil and others in the family on holidays and other occasions, it's never enough. "Don't forget your family!," my aunt clearly reminded me on Saturday.

I've been climbing Chinscraper a bunch in the past week or two. I think it's going to be an all hills diet for me for the next couple months, with some really big hills lined up for September. My ankle isn't 100%, but I decided to sign up for White River, because....well, everybody plays the fool. I'm sure it'll be ok--10 miles at a time, and a fine barbq at the finish.

Buck Creek

I worked the Buck Creek Aid Station on Saturday at the White River 50 miler. I cut watermelon into triangular slices and stacked them on plates. I put peanut butter and jelly on bread slices and cut them into bite size sandwiches. I also sliced Payday bars. It was a fun day!

Easy Pass

I went up Easy Pass in the North Cascades on Saturday, with Dean and Ruth T. This seemed a perfect followup to White River, and the company doesn't get better. Only 7 miles roundtrip, so not a high mileage weekend, but the maximum elevation is 6500 feet and there’s almost 3000 feet in gain. Miners called it “easy”, but hikers don’t--it is steep.
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We left at 6 AM, empty road, with the original intent of going up Cascade Pass, but rainclouds pushed us further east. The Easy Pass trailhead is roughly 2-plus hours east of Mount Vernon, and roughly 6 miles west of Rainy Pass. With our early start, we had the trail completely to ourselves going up. Love it. The trail is exceptionally well maintained, with some great backwoods engineering on log bridges and trail design. I ran/hiked it, doing fine, but interestingly, the weather changed every five minutes—friendly rain, mean wind, hint o' sun, etc. Near the top, I watched clouds pushing into and over the Pass, filling the clearer sky. From then on, we walked in the clouds, in the red heather, and amidst a just amazing variety of wildflowers (lupine, astors, Indian hellebore, Indian paintbrush---I’m learning!), bent Larch trees (native only to this area), and the dryer red rock typical of the east side.

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We saw goat tracks, but didn't spot any. I did see a family of hoary marmots going up, and whistled a marmot in towards me on the way down. Marmots like me. Lots of people going up as we came down. Afterwards, we dropped down into Mazama for lattes—only a half hour further, and were home by 6 in the evening (also allowing for an ice cream stop at the Cascadian Farm outside of Rockport). I want to go back to Easy Pass, soon, both for clearer views, and because there’s a way to run a 24 mile one-way trip over Easy Pass and down to Colonial Creek. Maybe next weekend, but I also have my eye on Desolation Peak.
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Here’s the National Park writeup on Easy Pass:
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http://www.nps.gov/archive/noca/easypass.htm
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White River was fine, actually excellent, as far as conditions go. Mount Rainier was huge, and the wildflowers were as thick as a pricker patch, but friendlier. In particular, at Mile 36 or so, right before Suntop, there was an amazing field, on a flat to downhill gradient, where the plants seemed straight out of Alice in Wonderland. It wasn't too hot, not too cold, just right, and the aid stations were amazing.

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As for the run, I just kind of went out and did it—no real doubts about anything, no real goals. I took the early start, which I think is the way to go, if you’re not likely to get hardware. You leave at daybreak, less crowded trail, you get to get passed by the leaders, then the followers, and you eventually finish earlier. It's great. As for me, not my best “race,” but I don’t get too tied up in that. I finished 25 minutes faster than last year, but I suspect I have a better time in me. For the first 8 hours I had an overfull Buddha stomach, which was fun. I was swearing at Jared, the Subway guy, during the run. Once things settled down, I knocked out the final 15 miles pretty fast. It was a nice prep run for Wasatch. The bar-b-q afterwards was solid, the people good, as always.

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