Faster finish and faster field at Paradise

I ran the 11 Miles to Paradise trail race Sunday and crossed the finish well more than 7 minutes faster than last year. While I moved up place-wise compared to last year, the change wasn't as great due to a fleeter field.

My training has been greatly increased through winter and spring as I prepare for the Bighorn Mountain Wild and Scenic 50-mile race, but when a couple of people told me they thought I'd finish Paradise in 1 hour and 20 minutes or less I wasn't so sure. Later, after calculating the pace - 7:37 per mile - it seemed within reach. The course is fairly level, but it would depend on the hillier second half.

I started with a 6:26 first mile - perhaps a bit too fast - but maintained through the hills and finished right at 1:20:2.05, in 34th place overall. Last year, when I finished in 46th at 1:27:53, that time would have put me in 20th place.

Still, I'm pleased, and I'm slowing down to go longer at Bighorn!

11 Miles to Paradise twice, and more

Last weekend marked a big step in my ultramarathon training - it was the first time I've put in back-to-back runs of 20 miles or more. In all, I covered about 46 miles.

On Saturday, a training partner and I ran partway up Missoula's Rattlesnake Valley on road, then continued on trail along the creek through the main corridor of the recreation area. By the time we turned around, we were crossing short patches of snow left from the hard winter. Once back in town, I made a warm, sunny detour to Reserve Street to pick up the car from Jen at work, ending at about 25 miles.

Sunday was something of a treat: Before Saturday's run, we were invited to join a small group in an Easter Sunday tradition of running out and back on the course for the 11 Miles to Paradise race.

After a brief stop at the Runner's Edge store downtown, we met the rest of the group at the Ferry Landing picnic area along the Clark Fork River 11 miles east of St. Regis on Montana Highway 135. The picnic area serves as the finish line for the race and would be our starting and ending point.

In the race, most of the hills are in the second half, meaning our run would put hills at both the start and the end. Our group of eight set out west through the forest, with glacier lilies and trillium blooming on the mossy ground and creeks flowing to the river below the trail. We stuck together to the race starting area, scrambling over a few downed trees and stopping to fuel a couple of times along the way. After a break at the race starting area, we backtracked to the finish a little short of 22 miles, stopping another couple of times and splitting up as legs tired.

When I woke that morning, I was a little concerned about how my legs would feel after the long weekend, but while tired in general I don't feel worse for wear than normal. That's probably a good thing, considering more of these weekends lie ahead on the way to the Bighorn Mountain Wild and Scenic 50-mile race.

A weekend run through Hells Canyon

My running year is officially underway, although the first event was the unofficial Hells Canyon Run this past weekend. While I had a couple of problems, it wasn't a race and I had a great day overall.

On a March weekend, runners from around the Northwest arrive at Pittsburgh Landing on the Snake River, in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area near White Bird, Idaho. There's a potluck dinner the night before, and you board the boat and pay the driver the next morning - the only parts appear even semi-organized. Runners then are ferried upriver to one of two dropoffs - at roughly 15 and 25 miles away - and make their way back along the Snake River National Recreation Trail. There are no aid stations, and you are responsible for your water, food, garbage and safety.

I heard about the run last year and decided to go after learning that this year's event might be the last. Friends let me carpool down with them and share a campsite, bringing the Missoula contingent to about 12 to 15. After the snowy winter at home, it was nice to find spring weather in the canyon - partly cloudy skies, warm days, chilly nights and the season's first wildflowers blooming.



In the still-dark canyon at 6:15 Saturday morning, we boarded the first boat for the longer distance. About an hour later, we were dropped off on the rocky bank below Granite Creek rapids. After getting our gear organized, we started back down the trail in a line about 10 runners long.

The first 10 miles of trail steadily rose and fell through the trees and grassy fields, crossed the occasional creek and passed a couple of historic homesteads. At the first creek, a friend in the lead of our group made it across dry, a few others splashed a foot, wetting the rocks, and I slipped and sank both of my shoes. We kept moving - now in a group of three Missoulians - and after a few miles my feet warmed.

After occasional stops to eat and take pictures, we arrived at Sheep Creek, the dropoff for the shorter distance. A little more than five miles farther and we stopped again to eat and take pictures. Just after we started again, a Chinook helicopter came into view low over the river, which prompted another picture break. We would later learn it was part of a search for a missing man after a boat sank farther upriver.



My real problem came with about nine miles to go, when I tripped and fell, bloodying my hand and knee and dazing myself. I've fallen several times during winter and gotten the occasional scrape, but this was the worst I've done. After a few minutes of collecting myself, we started again with the two bigger climbs of the day ahead.

A short distance later, we were standing on cliffs and looking down at the winding Snake directly below - one of the best views of the day. After dropping back to river level, we reached the historic Kirkwood Ranch and stopped to look in the small museum there that's accessible only by trail. Departing the ranch with about six miles to go, we made our steepest climb of the day up a series of switchbacks to a long traverse high above the river and watched as the search helicopter passed below us.

A couple of miles farther, we dropped to the river for the final stretch along the cliffs back to Pittsburgh Landing. My running partners graciously kept with me until the last two miles as I slowed after my fall, and I ran in with two other people we caught.

In the end we covered about 24.5 miles and 4,300 feet of elevation gain, although my GPS became disconnected from satellites a couple of times and logged a mile less.

Despite the problems, it was a beautiful day, and we followed it up with dinner back at camp in a group of about 10 Missoulians. The next day, we drove out of the canyon and headed for home.



Here are more photos from Hells Canyon.

Canine-friendly cross-country skiing at Como Trails

On Sunday, we traveled south of Hamilton to give the dog-friendly Como Trails cross-country ski area a try and found near solitude, encountering only a handful of people in the first and last mile.

There are plenty of places around Missoula to ski with dogs, but Como is one of only two that allows them on groomed trails. (The other is at Lubrecht Experimental Forest.) It's also the newest cross-country ski area in the region, opening in the winter of 2009-10, and this was our first trip there.

The trails begin above the shores of Lake Como, weaving over and among the ridges to the south. Not being familiar with them, we chose a loop that included Panorama Point, hoping for a good view.



Our route began on a groomed road, then turned onto a narrower trail through the trees. After about 1 1/2 miles, we ascended a steep, untracked section of powder called Uff-Da to Panorama Point. Atop the ridge, we could see the surrounding mountains - the Bitterroots continuing to the west and the Sapphires across the valley to the east - but Lake Como was out of sight, beyond a ridge to the north.

After stopping briefly at the point, we followed a flat trail along the ridge to the next junction, then turned south and skied down to the Chute, which drops steeply to a lower trail at about three miles.

From the bottom of the Chute, it's five miles back to the parking lot on a wide, groomed trail that rolls through a relatively open forest of tall pine trees. Along the way, we passed a couple of parcels of fenced-off property that required a little dog calling - there were horses in one area - but otherwise were no trouble.



We never did get a view of the lake, but there are more trails to explore in the future.

Here are more photos from skiing at Como Trails.

Distance: 8-mile loop. The area has a total of more than 30 miles of groomed trail.

Trailhead: Parking for Como Trails is 12 1/2 miles south of Hamilton on U.S. Highway 93, then 4 miles west on Lake Como Road, above the boat ramp.

Stepping up my ultramarathons in 2014

After a successful year of running in 2013 - including my first ultramarathon, the Trail Rail Run 50K, and the Blue Mountain 30K - I've decided to push myself farther and harder in 2014.

Over the weekend, I registered for a couple of major regional trail ultras: The Bighorn Mountain Wild and Scenic Trail Run 50-mile race and The Rut 50K. The 50-mile race is about 20 more than my longest run and both have significant elevation gain compared to last year's mostly level 50K.

In it's 22nd year, the Bighorn starts west of Dayton, Wyo., and runs back to the town just north of Sheridan. It starts above 8,800 feet, reaches as high as 9,300 feet and runs down to 3,900 feet, with 12,800 feet of elevation gain in between.

The Rut 50K at Big Sky Resort south of Bozeman is in its second year, but has quickly risen to prominence. Organized by local shop the Runner's Edge and world-class ultramarathoners Mike Foote and Mike Wolfe, who both call Missoula home, it recently was named the 2014 Skyrunner World Series Ultra Final. It gains 10,000 feet of elevation over its course between 7,500 and 11,100 feet.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little nervous, but I've been running well for the past year - building speed and distance, and taking to the trails no matter the weather. I've also joined a spring marathon training group through Run Wild Missoula to continue that progress through winter.

There probably still will be smaller races along the way, and as always I'll be posting updates here!

My 2013 in photos

Google+ recently created a slideshow of photos I uploaded to the social network last year - here's what my 2013 looked like:

Climbing out of the fog in the Columbia Gorge

We've hiked the Columbia River Gorge many times, but until this month always on the Oregon side.

While in Portland, Ore., for a holiday visit in mid-December, we decided to spend a foggy day hiking to a couple of waterfalls in Beacon Rock State Park, on the Washington side. We didn't expect to find sun, but we did.

The trail to Hardy Falls, Rodney Falls and the Pool of Winds begins by climbing steadily northeast through the forest, the fog thick among the mossy limbs on the day we visited. After a little less than half a mile, it passes a clearing where another trail merges, then re-enters the forest and continues north.

The waterfall area begins at about one mile, where a side trail provides limited views of Hardy Falls spilling over a cliff and back into the forest. Here, we found mist clinging to spider webs as the sun began to burn through the fog.



A short distance back up the main trail, another side route climbs to a railed-off overlook where Hardy Creek carves through the rock into the Pool of Winds on one side and cascades over Rodney Falls and down a cliff on the other.



The main trail continues down a short distance, crossing a bridge over the creek, and back up into the forest again.

With the hike to this point only a little more than a mile, we decided to continue up the trail to Hamilton Mountain. At two miles, it passes a junction with a trail that continues above the creek.

Past this junction, the main trail steepens and begins swtichbacking northeast up to the first in a series of rocky cliffs that provide some of the nicest views of the hike. When we arrived, we found ourselves above an inversion and could see the ridge on the Oregon side, out the gorge to the east and west, and the top of Mount Hood to the south.



Past a saddle below the rock side of the mountain that overlooks the Bonneville Dam, the trail begins switchbacking steeply through the trees again. At four miles, it leaves the forest at the brushy, 2,455-foot summit of Hamilton Mountain. The view at the top is somewhat obscured by bushes, but Hood can be seen to the south, as well as Table Mountain and Mount Adams to the northeast.

From the top, a loop trail continues northwest then south, returning to the main route lower down along Hardy Creek and adding a little less than 1 1/2 miles to the out and back distance. We returned the way we came, however, then stopped at a viewing platform at Franz Lake National Wildlife Refuge on the drive home.



See more photos from Hamilton Mountain here.

Distance: 8 miles round trip.

Trailhead: Beacon Rock State Park is about 35 miles east of Vancouver, Wash., on Washington Highway 14. The trail begins at the lower picnic area.

Fast-paced Turkey Day 8K

I decided to enter one more race this year at the last minute - and came away with a bit of a surprise.

The Turkey Day 8K on Thanksgiving is the only race less than 10 miles that I've entered in several years. I prefer running a bit longer and on trails instead of pavement - but the hat looked nice.

I crossed the finish line in 18th place out of more than 600 at 31 minutes and 38.38 seconds, a pace of 6:22 per mile. That is, by pace, the fastest race I've run since high school track and cross country, more than 20 years ago. (And if I ran faster back then, it would have been at a shorter distance.)

I don't plan to start entering a lot of short races, but it'll be interesting to see how I run in longer events in the next year.

Golden trees and lower flows at Morrell Falls

Morrell Falls, outside of Seeley Lake, is a classic western Montana hike, and now is one of the best times of the year to see it.

In the spring, beargrass grows thick in the open forest near the start and a torrent of whitewater cascades over the cliff at the end. In the fall, larch on the front of the Swan Range are golden and the water flows less voluminously, revealing more detail.

Recently, we set out from the parking lot northwest through the level forest, the floor covered in the remnants of spring's beargrass bloom. Slowly, larch began to appear - a yellow tree here and there among evergreens.

The route climbed a couple of short stretches, beginning near the halfway point, then passed two small lakes at about two miles. Here, stands of golden trees could be seen around the shore and up the side of Crescent Mountain.



Just past the lakes, the trail crossed a bridge over Morrell Creek, curved back east at the foot of a steep hill and arrives at the falls.

After a break for some long-exposure photographs of the water streaming down the rocks and to let the dogs splash in the creek, we turned back to the trailhead.

The drive back to Missoula, past Salmon Lake and through the Blackfoot River canyon was equally as enjoyable, with more fall colors and bighorn sheep.



Here are more photos of Morrell Falls.

Distance: 5.2 miles round trip.

Trailhead: From the north edge of Seeley Lake, follow Morrell Creek Road east about 1 mile and then north about 5.7 miles. Drive east again 0.8 miles to the end of the road, turning north where it forks.

A fall 30K to finish my race year

I recently ran my first Blue Mountain 30K - Missoula's second longest race and a beautiful fall event!

The course climbs and descends the trails and forest roads of the Blue Mountain National Recreation Area on the southwest edge of town, gaining 3,500 feet of elevation and topping out at Hayes Point. Held in early October, the morning began brisk but warmed as the sun rose in the sky and the forest was awash in greens, yellows and oranges. (Speaking of oranges, the mimosa with a mile to go was a nice touch!)

After running most of the course in September with a couple of friends, I figured I'd finish in about 3 hours and 15 minutes. With about three miles to go on race day, I realized I had a chance at being under 3 hours. In the end, I crossed the line in 18th place overall at 2:53.35.

Blue Mountain was likely my final race of the year, but I'll be back at it in 2014 with some of my favorite events and, hopefully, some new ones.