Mt. Ascutney… Again

If you recall, I had a fun race report from the Mt. Ascutney race, in which we charged up the auto road to the top of Mt. Ascutney in Vermont. It was 3.7 miles and 2300 ft of gain.

Well, this weekend I went camping there again. This was the weekend of the Vermont 100 mile race and Ryan and I were headed to AS 92 on Hunt Rd to set up and help runners. We decided to camp the night before at Mt. Ascutney State park with the dogs, and take a quick run up the trails to the real summit of Ascutney. Ascutney is ~ 3100ft tall and is very close to the NH border. From the camp, we picked the Futures Trail to the summit, 4.5 miles to the top and then another 4.5 back down.

We got some really interesting weather. It was beautiful in the night, but in early morning, the rain started and we could hear it from the safety of inside my tent. In the morning, we went into town to get some diner breakfast food, then we got back and it started raining again. Oh well! You can’t fear the rain once you’re already wet, right? So we suited up, grabbed some beers for the pack, and then took the dogs are headed up.

The trail up winds with climbs and descents that the auto road missed. We climbed up one side of the mountain, went across the ridge to the other and down. We then came across a trail sign for something called a Steam Donkey:

We obviously had to go see what that was all about and it wasn’t very far out of our way.

It was this rather large device that clearly had broken down on the mountain and was left for dead. Apparently it was used in logging endeavors, to carry things up and down the mountain. I’m not positive how it works but I’m glad we went to check it out and satisfy my curiosity! Anyway, after a brief Steam Donkey intermission, we continued up to the summit.

Ryan and Sky girl

The trails were really foggy, like that kind of vision where when you wake up and you’re still tired so you can’t really see. It was like that for the majority of the hike up. And the summit was of course no different…

really incredible views today

You can see on the poster the views we were supposed to get

Those photos are taken from on top of the observation tower at the top. You couldn’t see really more than 10 yards in front of you in any direction. Oh well! It took us ~ 2 hours to summit. From there, it was a fun run down.. taking about 45 minutes!

It was a good adventure and an easy way to get a lot of elevation in (~3500ft climbing). This month I’ve really surprised myself with the amount of climbing I have been able to get in. I’m not the fastest person on elevation gains but I can keep going without stopping. I think I should just keep going for both distance and elevation. I don’t know, I am just trying to have some fun in the mountains. It’s been a long time since I have had this much fun for a prolonged period of time.I just don’t want to have to worry about anything and when I’m on the trails, I don’t worry. Maybe I should worry about some things but.. I don’t. Nothing bothers me. I just exist.

ISOLATION

Dog and I took another Thursday adventure up to the Whites to knock off my #20 (and Sky’s… #5). We wanted to be out a bit longer to extend our mileage a bit. Originally, I had wanted to try for a Wildcats, Carter, Moriah traverse, but that would require me to hitchhike with Sky, and while I’m confident that I could get a ride, I’m not so sure about the pair of us.

So looking at the map and the list of 48, I decided it would be a good day to try for Mt. Isolation. Isolation is a smaller peak, just barely cresting over 4000 ft. However, it is located just south of Mt. Washington in such a way that it is not the easiest to get to– hence it really is aptly named Isolation. I mapped out about 14 miles of trail. Taking Rocky Branch trail from Rt. 16 out to Isolation Trail and summiting via the Davis Path. After reaching the summit, I’d turn around and retrace my steps back out to my car.

I started just before 9 am. I was really tired. The night before I ended up out at Bukowski’s with my friend Ryan, the infectious Ryan. This time, instead of talking me into signing up for 7 Sisters, he managed to get me to start going for the mug club. So I had a few drinks and stayed out a bit later than I had wanted. I didn’t get the best rest that night but still went for the mountains anyway. I’m always glad I manage to start the drive.

It was a really cool day out. Highs in the low 70s and it was 65 when I started. Very dry air. You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect hiking day. The Rocky Branch trail starts you climbing up and over a range in order to descend and climb again, approaching the summit from the north. The trail was not well used but was still easy enough to follow. It was certainly very wet and muddy, Sky really enjoyed splashing around. There were multiple brook crossings, too. I think the Isolation trail section was my favorite. There was a lot of storm damage and new growth emerging from beneath the fallen trees. It made for quick movement through and up to the summit!

The views from the summit were really remarkable. You get this wonderful view of the southern Presidentials, with Washington at the top and then down all the way to Jackson and Webster (Washington is the tall one in the center and the southern presis onward go to the left in that photo). Washington’s peak sits over 2000 ft higher than Isolation’s and from this summit you had to literally crank your neck and look up to see! Very cool!

You can see how you have to hike around and in from the road

Elevation profile for this hike.

Overall a really great day. ~4:30hrs on my feet… good elevation changes. This is the best way to train for a 50k.

Cranmore Hill Climb & Elevation Challenge!

I joined strava.com. I did it because esteemed ultrarunner and spanish badass Kilian Jornet (winner of everything, including last weekend’s Hardrock 100 mile race) told me to. He is offering something called a Strava challenge in which he has a goal and if I upload activities that reach that goal, I get a prize. I don’t need a prize to accept a challenge, but the prize is a discounted Suunto Ambit 3.. which is a pretty cool and usually very expen$ive watch. I want to see what the discount is and decide from there if I want to purchase it.. but in order to see the discount, I have to win the challenge.

The challenge is simple, it’s to climb 5000 meters of vertical in the month of July. With this in mind, and thinking about my last few hikes, let’s talk about the Cranmore Hill Climb!

This race, put on by the White Mountain Milers, is the 6th installment of the Mountain Goat Series, and the 6th race means that I have technically Goated (although I will run 1 more because… pride)! The race changes the course every year. This year it was just over 8 miles, 2 loops, and 2500 ft elevation gain (and 2500 ft descent).

I was looking forward to this race because of the downhills. I have been crushing those lately and this race was no exception! The climbs were tough– they weren’t as steep as Loon, but they were longer. Each loop offered about 1.5 miles of climb, then a little over 2.5 miles on the downhill.

The day started HOT. The race was at 9am and by 7:30am I was already dreading the heat. The course is mostly exposed, the ski trails don’t offer much cover. Last weekend at Loon, I talked to Zsuzsanna who had run Cranmore before. She mentioned that the downhills were hard because the grass was tall and that there are always tons of black flies eating you. Yay!

I thought the race went well. Matt and Erik of course took off way ahead. Then Sarah and I were together for the most part, but she is a strong climber and beat me to the top. I was ahead of Lauren but I don’t know by how much. On the first down, I held back a little– I didn’t want to blow out my quads. I eventually caught Sarah but we started loop 2 essentially together again. As I turned to head up again, I caught a glimpse of Matt smiling and waving at me as he sat with a big ice bag on his ankle– oh no! It turns out he was still injured and going for the second loop wouldn’t have been doing him any favors so he opted to drop. He saw me and cheered and I pointed out that Sarah was booking it behind me! Off we went!

The top of loop 1

Loop 2 was hard on me going up. My legs were really fatigued. I had spent a lot of time climbing, be it hiking or racing, in the last few weeks without much rest and my legs were really suffering from it. This climb was really sore and really tiring for me. I passed a few people but many more caught up to me. I lost sight of Sarah early, but I kept going. My steps got smaller but they didn’t stop.

Once I made it to the top, I was dizzy… certainly on the route to dehydration. I know that I sweat a lot, and today I didn’t bring a salt cap or anything to counteract the loss through sweat. I hung out at the top aid station too long– drinking too much. I started the descent feeling water in my stomach. That feeling is the worst, it makes me want to throw up. After about a half mile of that, I started to feel better and started to cool down. When I sweat that much, eventually my body gives up and just cools down. Yes, I know this is dangerous, but I was less than 3 miles from the finish. The faster I ran, the sooner I was done. I took off and this time I didn’t hold back.

Happy going down on loop 2

I was flying on this downhill. I passed all the people who passed me on the way up and was trucking to try to catch Sarah. I was fearless and strong and each step felt natural and comfortable. I was smiling for most of those 2.5 miles and I’m happy a camera could catch it. My ankle felt good, my quads felt good, my soul felt good.

I didn’t end up catching Sarah but I was damn close. My last mile was at a 6:20 pace and the last 1/4 mile of that I was sprinting sub 6:00. I have never finished a race like that before, and I think I felt a high from it! Maybe the philly marathon I finished feeling that good and running that fast, but this was different.. I was so happy!

I rolled in at 1:54, Sarah only edging me out by a couple minutes! She had an awesome race and I’m glad she came to run my small trail races with me!

Running is ew

So how much elevation am I at so far in the month of July? Strava says: 3,750 meters so far. I’m almost there! Most of that elevation has come in a wonderful 8 day stretch. I wish my Garmin could pick up the elevation change in my November Project Harvard Stadium step workouts– I think I would be done by now if it did! Oh well! I guess I’ll just have to go to the mountains again on Thursday…

Jiggy J & Chocorua

So much New Hampshire in my life right now, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Last weekend was a whirlwind. Because the Mountain Goat race– CRANMORE HILL RUN– was to be Sunday morning, my friends and I decided to venture up on Saturday to camp out and hike. It turned out to be a good group of 5 of us– Matt and Erik came (as they are also Goating), Lauren and Sarah also decided to come up and race as well! We were unable to reserve a campsite a few days earlier, so we tried our luck at one of the first come first serve sites off the wonderful Kancamangus highway (my favorite road probably ever). We stopped at a silly sounding one called “Jigger Johnson”. Jigger was a logger from New Hampshire who appears to have been one wiley badass. He was a short, stern, rambucuous young man. He ‘tysoned’ someone before Tyson could (i.e. bit off someone’s ear). He was an alcoholic and wore the heart of “LIVE FREE OR DIE” on his sleeve. There is surprisingly little information about this man whose legend is adorned on this campsite.. at least very little that I can find online. Perhaps he is mostly legend. This link to a blog provides some good stories about “Jiggy J” (as we referred to him) : http://blogericious.blogspot.com/2011/02/lost-system-of-jigger-johnson.html

Anyway, Sarah, Erik, & I left early Saturday and were able to snag probably the last site at Jiggy J’s. We set up and Matt and Lauren rolled through not too long after. After we set up, we headed to Conway to get lunch and provisions for later… e.g. lots of hotdogs, corn, and beer.

We then wanted to hike since we had the afternoon to hang out. I proposed that we hike Mt. Chocorua– a 3500 ft tall mountain, the eastern most of the Sandwich range. It is a very popular hike because the trails are not overly strenuous or technical, and the top is bald and has an incredible 360 degree view of the White Mountains to the north and the lakes region to the south. The mountain is allegedly named after a man named Chocorua, a native to the land. Chocorua was friendly with the new settlers and was watching after a new family in the area. One week, he had to leave town and he left his son to care for the family– the Campbell’s. His son accidently drank a poison made by Mr. Campbell that was intended to be used on foxes and the son passed away. When Chocorua came back, he pledged revenge on the family and killed Mr. Campbell’s wife and kids and put a curse on him that went (according to Wikipedia):

“May the Great Spirit curse you when he speaks in the clouds and his words are fire! Lightning blast your crops! Wind and fire destroy your homes! The Evil One breathe death on your cattle! Panthers howl and wolves fatten on your bones!”

Awesome!

So anyway, this hike was AMAZING. It’s completely runnable until the last little scrambles (which are the fun part in my opinion). It was just over 7 miles round trip and look at these views:

 Just an all around great hike. The summit rock reminded me of the Presis and why I love them so much. I would recommend this hike to anyone of any hiking experience level and any age. Absolutely beautiful!

On the way down, we stopped at Champney Falls to see some cool gorge and beautiful rock and water. Stopping here, still 2 miles from the car, made me want 2 things:

1. BEER.

2. To jump in a river.

Luckily for me, we did both of those things as soon as we got out of the woods. We drove to an outlet of the Saco, and sat in the water drinking local Pale ales as the sun set. I can’t think of any more perfect day.

No disasters on Mt. Tom, Mt. Field, Mt. Willey, & Mt. Avalon!

If we recall back a few months, you’ll remember me writing a tale about a dumb Sky girl dog who decided to jump off a snow covered mountain into a big ravine. This same dog needed help off the trail and thereby we stopped our attempt of these 3 4kfooters (plus Avalon).

Well last Thursday I tried to have at it again– with Sky girl– but without the 4 feet of unpacked snow around the mountain. Our route was simple. We would start at the AMC Highland Center in the Crawford Notch. Go up straight to Mt. Tom, then take the Field-Willey trail over to both of those. We’d turn around and head back to Field and then go down the Avalon trail to summit Mt. Avalon on the way out. This way, it was not a total out and back, and I got to see a few different parts of the mountain range.

The AMC Highland Center is not the closest trailhead in the world. And on this particular Thursday I had a doctor’s appointment at 3:30pm. This meant that if I wanted to run/hike for 10 miles at a place 3 hours away, I had to get up pretty @#*@( early. So I set my alarm for 4:30am.. managed to get up and on the road by 5:15am. Got my Dunkin and set the podcasts on while Sky fell asleep in the car and we were on our way. One of the real big perks to waking up and hitting the road that early is that there is NEVER any traffic going north. However, there is always a line of cars backed up on 93 headed South into Boston and it always amazes me how that is possible at 5:30am. Oh well!

So we pull up to the trailhead a little bit before 8am. I like the Highland center because it means I can use an indoor toilet before I start my adventure! So I parked and got out of the car. I was wearing shorts & a singlet because.. summer. BRRR. I panicked because I seemed to have forgotten that I was much further north and that it was actually 15+ degrees colder up here. I looked around at all the other people at the center, in their pants and fleeces and they certainly stared at me like I was some sort of alien. I briefly considered buying some sleeves at the center, but they didn’t have anything besides regular overpriced T-shirts. I thought for a minute about how, if I really were too cold, I could always make the decision to turn around and come back to the car– after all, it wouldn’t be the first time I made that decision on this mountain. 

I got Sky out and we headed off to the trail! The trail starts you on the Avalon trail, then you climb to the A-Z trail, which will take you to both the Mt. Tom spur and the Willey Range trail (both of which I was in pursuit of). The trail starts like most White Mountain trails do. It was beautiful and there were a couple of quick water crossings. As soon as we got tree covered and I got moving a bit faster, I immediately felt comfortable. Thank goodness I didn’t bring long sleeves!

The trail climbed a ways and we made it to the Mt. Tom spur in good time. It was really interesting seeing parts of the trail that I remembered from my snow covered adventure. There are positives and negatives to each type of hike. Obviously the trail is more technical with root and rock everywhere, whereas the winter snow provides a smooth monorail to travel on. You can slip up and fall on either type of trail, but in different ways.

At one point, we passed the exact part of the ravine that I remember Sky jumping into… and I managed to catch her staring back into it as well:

Out loud, I kept repeating “don’t you dare”. She was good though and we continued up to Mt. Tom.

The Mt. Tom spur trail is short and not really all that steep. The trail was really beautiful though, it felt old and destroyed in many ways. The pine was broken and down, perhaps by some sort of fire. I really enjoyed this section and ran it all to the way to the top and back.

From there on out, it was a pretty eventless approach to Mt. Field and Mt. Willey. The gray jays were out on Mt. Field which was fun to see, however, thanks to my fearless hunter, Sky girl, I was unable to get a cool photo with a bird on my head this time. Every time a gray jay landed on my hand, Sky would lose her mind and try to catch it.  Oh well! On to the next…

On the way back down, we stopped at Mt. Avalon, the only mountain on this hike that is not over 4000 ft, and also the only mountain with any sort of view. Here are some offered photos of the summit and mostly of my dog.

The tall one is Mt. Washington, and from there you can see the closer Southern Presidentials and Jackson and Webster.

Overall, it was a really great day! I was on my feet with running clock for 4 hours (I didn’t stop my watch for my summit stops, talking to people, or bird play). It was just under 10 miles on my GPS watch, which sounds about correct. I managed to make it home and with enough time to shower before I had to go to my appointment. After my appointment, I got a salty caramel ice cream sundae from Abbott’s and then went to Night Shift for an arcade festival with Erik. Overall, a really fantastic day in all aspects!

This is the view I had for most of the day… beautiful. 🙂

This makes # 17, #18 & #19 complete.

Loon Mountain Race

Six and a half miles, 3100ft elevation gain, 1400 ft elevation loss– Sure.

As most of the mountain goat races have been, LMR was no exception–relentless! It ends with a climb up a double black diamond slope, half a miles up a 40%+ grade slope and then, once you reach the top, you get to bomb down the otherside to the finish.

Matt and Erik (who are also attempting the series) were racing as expected. However, this race offered a pleasant surprise– Zsuzsanna and some of her friends were in the area for the White Mountains and she decided she would race as well. We caught up for a bit before the race.

The race is put on by acidiotic racing, a New Hampshire based running/snowshoeing club with a great following and support base. LMR starts at Loon Mountain in LIncoln, NH and the course changes every year. This year, the course started relatively flat! The first 5k or so was rolling up and down, through some shaded wooded areas, constantly up or down but nothing too severe. Then, around mile 3, my race took a(n ankle) turn for the worst– damn gravel roads! My left ankle has been weak since I turned it pretty bad over Memorial Day Weekend. I have been treating the swelling and pain and that has been wonderfully manageable, but I still need to commit more time to strengthening the ligaments that are all but annihilated. After mile 3, you climb switchbacks up gravel road and this is where I found my weakness– walking pace. I felt uncomfortable walking much faster than I was, but this is where many people were able to pass me. They had more gusto in each step and were able to go further and faster on the walk. This is where Zsuzsanna caught and passed me, as I struggled on gravel.

Anyway, around mile 4-5 you climb a pretty steep ski slope, but it’s not the Upper Walking Boss. As someone who has never done this race before, I mentally fixated on “if this isn’t the Boss, then wtf is!!?” Anyway, after this climb, you see the finish line at the gondola, but it’s a trick. You pass the finish line, and then descend towards the Boss. After you turn around a bend, you look forward and see only hill. You’ve hit the Boss. When I got to it, I couldn’t see the top–hooray! And there were a number of runners on all 4s climbing, there were runners in the grass sitting and resting, and there were even some full out lying down in anguish! Yay! This is what I signed up for!

So I tackled the Boss with a few different strategies. First, I just put my head down and took little steps. Constantly little steps, looking down and not up. After my calves were properly burned, I turned around and walked backwards up the slope. WOW. This was the best way to do it for one reason and one reason alone– the view was incredible! You look out away from Loon and get a stunning view of Franconia Notch and the Pemi wilderness (where I will hopefully be Pemi Looping in the near future). The view makes these races more than worth it (as if the hills weren’t enough). After a while of going backwards, I switched to small steps again and stopped to rest after a while. The Boss is lined with beautiful wildflowers and I hadn’t even noticed until I stopped for a minute. But, stopping is a dance with danger because the longer you are stopped, the harder it is to start again.

I am feeling better than I look at this point.

When I finally reached the top of the Boss, there were wild strawberries crawling over the summit, but I didn’t get a chance to check them out because at this point, you are so close to the finish. My quads were beginning to feel left out of the fun– so now it was their turn to work! The finish is a large hill down and then a small hill up. Downhills are more and more becoming a stronger point for me, even with tired legs. So many runners were slowly navigating their way down this slope, some slipping on the dirt. Not me! I was flying and able to pass so many people. It was probably my favorite part of the race (other than finishing the Boss).

At the finish, Zsuzsanna’s friend Rocco took this brilliant photo of me that really sums everything up pretty well:

Matt, true to form, was cheering me on through the finish! Erik was there, too– he finished 9th and nearly an hour before me… yikes! Zsu and I took a photo and we all climbed the observation tower, that offered views of the notch and even Washington.

Will I run this one next year??? Sure. It’s July 3rd next year… so that means I can stay up there and Presi Traverse for the 4th 🙂