March Point Half Marathon

I ran the March Point Half Marathon on Saturday. I've done the 10k a number of times, but this was my first time in the Half....and I liked it a lot.

The course starts at the Marathon Refinery, circles March Point, and then does an out and back on the Tommy Thompson Trail to Anacortes. A large part of the route is either next to or over salt water. I saw a family of seals, a big eagle, and a lot of smiling volunteers.  

I'm near ashamed to say that I've never been on the Tommy Thomson trail. This is a trestle trail, pictured above, over water. It crosses what appears to be an estuary, and then continues along the shore into Anacortes. The turnaround point is somewhere by Cap Sante Marina. 

The half marathon had about 50 participants. I like races small with big views, and that's what I got. Affordable price, with a barbq at the finish. I am a fan.

I finished in 2:30, with not a lot of people behind me. I could've gone a little faster, but wanted to have some energy for other activities this weekend.  Hopefully I build from this. It was a good way to spend Saturday morning.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this on. Events like this are great to have around.

Packrafting the Sauk

I tried my hand and paddle at packrafting this past weekend. The people were cool, the setting was gorgeous, and I am not yet good at packrafting.

I had never heard of packrafting until my good friend Seth told me about it. Basically, it involves small individual rafts, which are designed to navigate anything from remote mountain lakes to class IV+ rapids. I think the general idea is the raft is packable, so you can get it far into the backcountry. However, many of the rafts are also designed to act as packs, kind of like kayaks, where you can carry anything you want. I've seen pictures of people floating with bicycles on their bow. More info available at https://packraft.org/.

Our goal for Saturday was to packraft two sections of the Sauk River, which is a tributary of the Skagit, in the Glacier Peak area. It is a beautiful river, clear as can be, full of rounded river rock as the picture above shows. It is not really that wide, but it has a down-slope gradient, and water can move through it sometimes. We had pretty good weather--a bit of rain, and the water flow wasn't that high.

We were with a great group of people--very experienced, with lots of extra equipment, which they were generous to lend. I was really impressed by everyone's disposition and attitude. I rented a drysuit from Yeager's in Bellingham (who were helpful), and was geared up like a NASCAR driver.

I was a disaster on the water, pinwheeling down the river right from the start. It is kind of funny in retrospect--at least I can laugh, now on terra firma. I didn't really know my boat, and the current wasn't idyllic--not anything really tough by any means--but not idyllic. It was a rush, for sure, bouncing through rocks.Very different from kayaking, canoeing, and even rafting with others.

I learned a lot about hydrology, first hand, fast. I learned what a "hole" is, when my boat got sucked into a small one. Someone in our group bounced me out, thank you. I learned about eddies, and the way a river moves around bends. I learned about strainers, and the hazard that wood and trees can present. I got hung up on a tree, and then a rock, and then took a spill where I had a hard time righting my feet in the appropriate crash position.

I called it a day, early, for my own safety and for the good of everyone else. I was whupped, and it was unquestionably the right decision. This necessitated another small adventure, which Seth graciously joined me in: bushwacking from the river to the road. Fortunately, that didn't turn out to be too hard, and we were back to the beautiful Bedal Campground in short order. I'm glad the option was available; remote river runs don't always afford easy exits.

I expect we'll probably try packrafting again, but on calmer waters, maybe down the Skagit. Even if I never go near a river, I see great potential for new fun using packrafts in high alpine lakes.

All in all, a great adventure, despite my inabilities.

Gettysburg and Arlington

Sadly, my father passed away this year. Dad, a U.S. Marine, had the honor of having his ashes interred at Arlington National Cemetery. For this solemn occasion, we first visited Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, followed by a service and memorial at Arlington. Here are a few pictures, for the memory. Dad was the best, and is greatly missed.

Big Island

I'm running behind, but running on. We went to the Big Island a few weeks ago to celebrate five years. I walked every morning, and ran a bit, but it was really a vacation--and a terrific one at that. We went to our first luau, in Kona. We drove to Hilo for the Merrie Monarch Festival, the Hawaiian Islands celebration of all things hula. A visit to the Tsunami Museum, of all places. We went to the top of the island, to Hawi and the Pololu Valley Lookout, pictured below. The Sweet Potato Kitchen was sweet. We toured a chocolate farm, in addition to visiting fruit stands and coffee farms. We watched eight sunsets over water, and left longing for more.
 

Pololu Lookout

Hilo Farmers Market

 

Buried pig, unbured pig, at the Luau

Chocolate Pods

King Kamahala Statue - near Hawi

The Painted Church

Chuckanut 50k

On the last weekend of winter, I was able to get at least one more shot at snow at the Chuckanut 50k. Concerns were high in advance, as the Chuckanuts were holding snow and ice for the last few weeks. RD extraodinaire Krissy opened things up with an early start and moved the cutoffs back by an hour, and I needed all of that time to get the course done. So, rough day out there, but a beautiful day and lots of friends sighted.

I ran my first Chuckanut in 2004. I remember signing up the year or two before that, and backing out. The distance seemed overwhelming. I ran into a few runners beforehand, from out of town, who were making this their first 50k, as so many have. It's been several years though since I last ran C-nut, though I'm up on these trails all the time.

The trails were fine until Cleator Road. As the picture above shows, snow presented somewhere up on the climb. There was a bit of a boot track, with mud spots, which made it not so bad. Much easier than a couple weeks ago, when I was marching around up there. The ridge was pretty clear--no latent ice. The third aid station was moved to the junction at Dan's Traverse, run by Doug, race founder and all around good guy. Snow on the back side, slushy.

I got passed by everyone. It became a little amusing the things people called me:  Sir (?), Bro, Brother, Chief, Boss...  I was basically doing the long walk, with intermittent jogging. I felt stiff, and I made a dozen rookie mistakes in gear, prep, etc. Familiarity may do you in. More training would help, of course. Maybe I can use the experience to learn from, although right now as I ache I'm looking forward to an old fashioned 10k.

Friends were everywhere, volunteering. Krissy as RD, of course--great job, all around. So many smiles. Dean, Terry, and Kevin at AS 1. Adam at AS 2. Doug at AS 3. After that, things went foggy for me. Actually, Glenn on Chinscraper. Great to see Dean and Terry again at AS 5. Terry was all business, warning me about cutoffs. Dean was cracking jokes. Gretchen and Kevin at the end, helping out. Good peeps, these. Thanks to all that made it happen.

The course seems to change slightly year to year. This year there was a brief detour through the 100 Acre Woods to the finish line. Aid stations were moved. Most notably--and maybe this has been the case for years--the final descent was on the Fragrance Lake trail and the last aid station was at that gate.

Views were great from up high.

A Snowy Chuckanut

I got out early Saturday A.M. and did a Chuckanut walkabout, covering the middle 18 except for the final Chinscraper climb. More like 16, I suppose. That was plenty for me, as the whole route/course was covered in snow from Fragrance Lake on. It was a slog climbing Cleator Road in the snow, and then the Ridge Trail was very icy. I was going to bail, but Deb happened to call when I was up top, and encouraged me to go for it, because it was a such a beautiful day. I navigated the Ridge, avoiding ledges, and looking for dirt to step on. Mostly careful walking. One guy passed me and I could hear him swearing, again and again, as he slipped ahead of me.

Both Fragrance Lake (above) and Lost Lake (last, below) were frozen. A younger me might've tried walking across, but I was alone, and it wasn't that cold, so no. Huge icicles hung from the rock ledge back on the Lost Lake Trail, and enormous blocks of ice lay on the ground, having broken off. I've seen it like this back there, but not in a while, and not with those huge blocks of ice. Crunch, crunch, crunch, I went.

I beat most everyone up there by leaving early, but eventually the trails were full of runners, prepping for the Chuckanut 50k in a couple weeks. Ran into Kevin. Spirits were good, with lots of hellos, and overall it made for a memorable day. Sunday is a home day.

Cleartor Rd./Fragrance Lake Connector Trailhead, snow covered

Long clear views from the Ridge

Runner approaching out by Lost Lake

Icicle City

Blocks of ice below Icicle City

Frozen Lost Lake

Woolley Half Marathon

Technically, I finished the Woolley Half Marathon on Saturday. It really was just a pleasant long walk with Seth on the Cascade Trail. Perhaps my slowest half ever. No worries, be happy. We had a great day--beautiful ice and snow, a few birds, many friends, fresh air.

We've had snow this past week--more than in recent years, and folks have come to call it Snowmaggedon. It hasn't been that bad, but the Cascade Trail was mostly covered still, which made for a crunchy time. The standard course was changed into a double out and back, but one and done was the way to go. The temps sat around just under 40 degrees, and for the most part the skies were large, with some interesting clouds, but only a bit of rain.

Always so good to spend time with Seth. Great to really meet Ellen. Also good to see so many of my Skagit and ultra friends---Craig, Terry, Stan, Toi, Delores, Chris, and so many other familiar faces. The after race barbq on this event was/is the bomb. Terry and crew do such a great job.

Afterwards, we visited some antique shops and then made our way to Fir Island, to look at birds. We found ourselves down on the mud flat near Snow Goose. We watched eagles chase each other over scraps of food, chirping, diving, fighting. We saw a large flock of snow geese, lots of swans, a pair of herons, and other anonymous birds. There were a few moments, standing on a log and just listening to the birds fly over head, which took me away.