Bradbury Breaker

This morning was the 9-mile Bradbury Breaker, put on by Ian and the great trail group, Trail Monster Running. It was an appropriate race name, as the course took us up and down Bradbury Mountain four times total during the two laps. While the "mountain" is more of a glorified hill, it still offered plenty of pretty stiff ups and downs, which combined with the wet roots, rocks, calf-deep puddles and the numerous mud pits due to all the recent rain, made for one tough course.

However, it was also a lot of fun. It was a bit misty at the start, as Ian did his pre-race meeting with the 70 runners gathered for the run. One runner asked if, given the recent rains, there were any parts of the trail that were totally blown out. Ian matter-of-factly answered, yes. The Boundary Trail was the worst, with about 6 puddles to wade through and lots of mud. Seems to be a theme in our running/hiking these days :-)

Towards the end of the Boundary Trail on the first lap, I was caught by George, who, upon further reflection, I am sure I ran with for a bit during last year's Bradbury Bruiser. He was a cheery, upbeat guy, and I tried to stick with him as we descended down to the parking lot before the first stiff climb to the summit. I am not as confident a runner on the downhills, but I did what I could to keep close to him, and we ended up power-hiking in file up to the summit together. After the tough down and up combo, the trail mellows out a bit and winds through the woods, giving runners a chance to stretch the legs and hopefully make up some time, before going up to the summit again and down the Switchback Trail. George and I went through the start area together, in 43:52. Not too bad a first lap.

I was feeling good, and wanted to keep up the pace, but George dropped back a bit, so I was on my own. Still, it was fun to run with him for a while! Later during the second lap, I played leap-frog with another male runner, who ended up finishing about 30 seconds ahead of me. I also got passed on the last steep downhill by two other runners - damn! I have to work on my downhill running! Although the second lap was tough, I didn't suffer too much, and was able to kick it in in the last 100 yards or so, finishing in 1:29:39. Under 1:30, which is what I was hoping for. Also ended up being first in my age group (yes, there was one other 30-something female, so it wasn't by default :-) ) - which was cool. I got a gift certificate to Maine Running Company, which will go to good use tomorrow when we're down there picking up new running shoes!

I feel happy with the race. I had been concerned that feeling so tired and being so busy this week, I wouldn't have much energy, but I felt solid throughout, and it was a fun time. Thanks so much to Ian and Emma, as well as Jamie, Blaine and all the other volunteers, for making this race a good one! A great way to spend a Sunday morning! And good reason to relax on the couch watching the Olympics this afternoon :-)

And for something else fun to watch today:

I normally don't go to YouTube, but I saw this link on Views From the Top, a New England hiking site we frequent, and it seemed too cute to not post! Talk about having fun :-)

End of the Week

I left work early yesterday to head over to my aunt Susie's house for dinner. My grandmother is staying there, and my cousin Sean, Marisa and baby Owen were coming in from Colorado for a visit. But, of course, as is usual these days with the airlines, they were delayed. While we were waiting, we all sat around, drinking wine and chatting, getting caught up on things. Amazing how we're only less than an hour away but don't have a chance to do this more often! We were just about to give up on the cousins and sit down to dinner at 8:30pm when they showed up in the doorway. Owen was all smiles, and seems to be a very happy baby. He also looks exactly like his dad! Sean and Marisa looked great, and it was fun to see them.

I stayed for another hour or so before I began the windy, backroads way home, and finally got into bed around 11pm. What I really wanted this morning was to keep sleeping, but I got up and out for an easy 4-miler in preparation for tomorrow's Bradbury Breaker. Those of us who have signed up for the race got an email from Ian, the race director, yesterday. He said the course was pretty dry when they ran it on Thursday night. In my email back to him, I said I was surprised the course was so dry given all the rain we've been having. His reply was that the course was so hilly, all the rain had just funneled off the trails! Gotta love it :-)

I end the week with 20 miles of running, once again not the world's greatest total, but when you add in our 19.9 mile day of hiking/running along the water logged AT on Monday, the total starts to look a bit more respectable.

Long Day

It's been a long day. I was on the road up to work at 5:30am. Summers are a bit crazy at work, as we hang a new show pretty much every month. This means we either meet up at the gallery early, or stay late. This month it was meet early. So, 6:00am it was. But we did get the place looking pretty nice and there are some great paintings up on the walls. Still, it's a tiring process... and after 4 hours of hanging the show, we opened the doors and the place was nuts all day long. Rainy days are like that.

I did however manage to motivate to get out for a 5-mile run right after work, hitting the Commons at 6:30pm. The motivation was in equal parts fueled by the fact that Snowman got out for a 12 mile run with friends this morning and in part by the fact that I feel the definite need to get in some mileage for this whole marathon training thing :-)

Skies were overcast, and it was a bit misty. I felt quite creaky and unenergized when I started, but loosened up a bit and enjoyed the quiet of the darkening woods. Anyway, after a 12 hour work day and an evening run, which I've never been good at, I'm feeling pretty worn out.... time for bed.... zzzzzz.....

Raymond Road Run

Up and out on the roads at 6:02am for an 8 mile run on Raymond Road. The skies were overcast, and things were a bit misty, but I didn't get rained on. There was a nice early morning light trying to come through the clouds, and things were quiet. Not many birds out and about, but the fields along Pleasant Hill Road were buzzing with insects and peepers. Despite my right IT band being a bit tight from Monday's long hike/run and subsequent long drive, I felt really good. Kept up a good pace throughout. Had to push it a bit at the end to not slow down, but pretty happy with how the run went. 8 miles/1:07:40. And now it's off to work.

Snowman Says: On the AT - East Flagstaff Road to Caratunk

August 4, 2008 | Miles: 19.9
Start: East Flagstaff Road
End: Caratunk

Squish.

20 miles of mud.

In all honesty, the majority of the details from this hike are very blurry due to the relative uniformity of the trail and the constant squish of mud and splash of water. 75% of the trail was either mud or standing/running water. It was really sloppy. Due to the conditions, this section was both completely forgettable and totally memorable. It was terrible and awesome. All in all, just another day on the AT.

After dropping car #1 and a cooler full of trail magic at the trailhead in Caratunk, we picked up a pizza and headed for Round Barn Campsite on Flagstaff Lake. Round Barn is one of the coolest spots around, and, yes, pizza is perfectly acceptable camping food.

Despite the dry evening, it rained most of the night and was still pouring at our wake up time of 6:00am. We stayed in the tent for another 45 minutes, when the rain stopped. After packing up, eating and driving to the trailhead, we hit the trail at 8:00am, about an hour later than planned/hoped. Normally, start time isn't an issue, but today we had to make it to the Kennebec River 19.6 miles away before 4:00pm in order to catch the ferry (canoe). The Kennebec is waaaay too big to ford, so the Maine Appalachian Trail Club has hired a company to ferry hikers across the river. There's even a white blaze in the bottom of the canoe!

As I mentioned, it was wet, muddy, slippery, sloppy and yuk. Due to the conditions, we weren't able to run as much of the trail as we would have liked. D and I each almost hit the deck a handful of times, but no official falls were recorded on the trip. Although D tried to kill herself twice: once slamming her shin squarely into a bog bridge and another time slipping on a rock while fording a stream. Luckily, she caught herself on a rock in the middle of the stream to avoid any actual swimming.

It was a tough day, but it was more mentally hard than physically. It rained on us, at times quite hard, for most of the morning. When, really, more rain was the last thing that the trail needed. The section between West Carry Pond and East Carry Pond was the worst. I was really getting frustrated through here. A couple times, I yelled at the rain to stop. (Didn't help.) Then, just when I was ready to crawl in a mud hole and give up, we hit a flat, level, pine needle cushioned beautiful section of trail. I yelped a WOOHOO and took off running...fast. It was awesome. It was less than a half mile, but it was great. Just what I needed to pick me up, and I was good the rest of the day. In fact, the ridiculousness of the trail actually became quite comical. At times, I'd stop to try to find away around a puddle or mud pit, when suddenly D would crash right through laughing (cackling?) hysterically. After all, once you're saturated, you can't get any wetter.

The day also featured a handful of river fords because...well, why not? There was so much water out there, one of the fords wasn't even listed in the guide book or on the map. In other words, the day was just nuts.

The best news of all was that we reached the Kennebec around 3:15 with plenty of time to catch a ferry ride. Well, D rode. I paddled. Once safely on the other side, it was a quick walk back to the car and dry clothes. My feet were very happy to be out of those wet shoes. After all, they'd been wet for 7.5 hours and nearly 20 miles. Just another day on the AT.

On the AT - East Flagstaff Road to Caratunk

August 4, 2008 | Miles: 19.9
Start: East Flagstaff Road
End: Caratunk

Photos here

Today's hike actually started yesterday. With the logistics of this section, we decided to drive up to Caratunk yesterday, drop off a car (and a cooler filled with gatorade, crackers and cookies as trail magic for any thru-hikers coming through), and then drive back to East Flagstaff Road, where we set up camp at Round Barn, a great rustic camping area on the shores of Flagstaff Lake. The camp area was deserted except for one other couple. We set up our camp chairs looking out at the lake, and ate our cold pizza (purchased at a random convenience store/grill). After dinner we took a walk around, enjoyed a few shoreside blueberries, played some cards and caught the end of the sunset over the lake before calling it at a night.

It rained pretty hard during the night, and was still raining when I awoke at 6am, our designated wake-up time. So, back to sleep we went, at least until 6:45 when the rain had stopped. We quickly packed everything up, had a quick bite to eat and took off down the road to the trailhead. We were on the trail by 8am. An hour later than we had hoped, but still hopefully with enough time to make it to the Kennebec River ferry before the last shuttle across at 4pm, especially since we were traveling light.

So... the hike... Short story: it was wet. Damn wet.


The trail was a river, a mud pit, a stream, a swamp and so on. Basically, our feet were wet from the start to the finish. As was the rest of us, as it rained several times during the day too. We boogied along as best we could, running when the trail was flat and dry(ish), walking as fast as we could when things were wet, slipping and sliding around on the rocks and roots and bog bridges, splashing through the mud puddles and the streams, fording several streams. Between us, we had many slips and slides, with me winning the prize on two counts: 1) for my almost face plant into one of the rivers we were crossing. The stream was flowing with a swift current, overflowing its banks, and up to my knees. I took one wrong step, and couldn't quite right myself. Luckily, on my way down, I caught myself on a big rock, and only got the front part of me wet. A close call, but a good save! and 2) in the bruise department. On one of the many slippery bog bridges, I again, took a wrong step and slipped off the side, slamming my right shin into the side of the bridge. OW! That hurt. It also left a good mark!

The trail didn't offer any mountaintop views, but we did pass several beautiful lakes: West Carry Pond, East Carry Pond (where the trail wandered right along the pond edge, allowing us great views of the pond, a Belted Kingfisher sighting and some yummy blueberry picking), and Pierce Pond. The trail also paralleled the Pierce Pond Stream for several miles before it converged with the Kennebec, and that was quite spectacular as well, especially given the high volume of water.


We hit the Kennebec around 3:15 pm, in plenty of time. The Kennebec is one big river. It looked strong and deep, but very beautiful with tons of milkweed blooming along its banks, and even more beautiful as the ferryman was on the other side waiting for us! He canoed over to get us, and he and Snowman paddled us back across. Then a quick 0.3 miles back to the car and we were done. Hurray! 7.5 hours/19.9 miles. A solid day. Although I was tired by the end, it wasn't a super hard day, just a frustrating one, with all the water. Absolutely ridiculous.

But the best part of the day was that after being wet and muddy, we got to come home, take a shower and put on dry clothes. There are perks to this section hiking deal. And to being crazy enough to do this stretch in one day :-)

Flora and fauna report: Lots of toads and frogs; with two toads smaller than my pinkie fingernail! A pair of Belted Kingfishers on East Carry Pond; a grouse roadside on our way to the trail; Robin and Wood Thrush. Chickadees and several Red-Breasted Nuthatch around our campsite at Round Barn. Lots of Indian pipe, bunchberries, blue bead lilies and lots of yummy blueberries.

A New Plan

The weather forecast is calling for 80% chance of rain tomorrow, as well as flood watches for the area around Rangeley/Stratton. Perhaps not the best weekend to do a hike where we'll be above tree-line for a long stretch as well as fording several rivers. So, we decided to save this stretch for another weekend, and came up with a new plan.

The new plan being: run 3 miles tomorrow morning, go out for a yummy big breakfast, drive up and drop a car off in Caratunk, drive back to East Flagstaff Road and camp out at Round Barn on the shores of Flagstaff Lake tomorrow night. Then Monday morning we'll take off on the AT with our Camelbaks bright and early, and "run" the 19.9 miles from East Flagstaff Road to Caratunk.

The only catch to this trip is the ferry ride across the Kennebec River. The river is very wide and deep, and has unexpected releases of water from an upstream dam; therefore, the AT has hired a ferryman to officially transport hikers from one side to the other. Great, but... the ferry has limited hours, so we have to arrive at the river between 2pm and 4pm to get a ride across. Another hike with time constraints, but it should be a good challenge!

Soggy 3

Got up and out for a mellow 3 miles from home this morning. It was misty when I started, and as I made the turn-around in Highland Green, it began to rain. And then to pour. But at that point I was less than 15 minutes from home, so it wasn't too bad.

Today finished up the running portion of my week: 20 miles. Yes, the mileage is pretty low, considering I'm training for a marathon, but the week also includes the 27.7 miles we hiked/ran in our 2 days along the Franconia Ridge earlier this week, and will also include the 1.8 miles we're planning to hike tomorrow. So, when you look at it that way, I'd say it's been a solid week.

As for our weekend: We're leaving work early tomorrow to head to Stratton, where we will drop off a car at the end point of our hike. From there, we're getting a ride to Rangeley, where we'll hike in to the first shelter for the night. This will give us a bit of a head-start on the next 2 days of backpacking we have planned: 16.9 miles and 13.5 miles. These days will likely be a lot longer than our days last weekend, as we'll be traveling with full backpacks. We've done some of this section of the AT before, years ago, and it almost killed us. (Do you see a theme here?!) Going up and over five of the ME 4000 footers (Saddleback, Saddleback-The Horn, Sugarloaf, North and South Crocker), it is a rough and rugged section, but very beautiful. Somehow I think I'm going to be tired when we finish on Monday night :-)

Early Morning Dozen

Ronnie the cat woke me up a few minutes before 5am, and since the alarm was set to go off about 15 minutes later, I decided I would just get up and get going. At 5:35am, I was headed out of the Bowdoin field house parking lot down Rt. 123. I could not believe the amount of traffic on the road so early in the morning! Amazing. Where are all these people going?

I was relieved to turn off 123 a few miles later and head out into the quiet roads of Pennelville. Mist was rising from the fields along the road, and I scared up lots of sparrows, goldfinch, and what I think was a flock of approx. a dozen immature and/or female Bobolinks from one field. As always, running through this area is a joy. It is so peaceful out amongst the fields. I took the short out-and-back down to Simpson's Point, where I could smell that it was low tide before I could even see the ocean. The water was still, reflecting the sky above, and one lone Great Blue Heron was standing guard at the edge of the mud flats.

My route took me out onto Rossmore, another nice road with ocean and marshy views, and then left onto Maquoit down to Maquoit Bay, where several clammers (or wormers?) were out on the mud flats, up early and working away. I was not looking forward to the next few miles on Woodside, as when Snowman and I had done our 15-miler earlier this month, I felt my energy lapsing as the road rose sneakily to Pleasant Hill. I was a bit tired this time around, but this stretch went better than I had expected, and soon I was out at the edge of Crystal Spring Farm, turning down onto Pleasant Hill.

I cruised down the hill and along the flat, and hit Maine Street. From there, only a mile to go. My pace surely slowed a bit in this final stretch, but overall I felt pretty good during the run, with my legs having bounced back after feeling a bit sluggish yesterday. Finished in 1:50, which works out to approx. 9:16 per mile and is fine with me.

Overall, a good start to the day. And now it's off to work!

Running is for Turkeys

Went across the street for a 5 mile run along the powerlines. Actually, it's a bit more than 5 which is good, as it took me 49 minutes. My legs felt a bit sluggish and protested on the steeper sandy hills. But, it was good to stretch out and I think the run today, slow as it was, will leave me feeling better tomorrow. Hope so, as I am planning to get in between 10 and 12 miles before work!

Lots of birds flitting about - chickadees, robins, grey catbirds, sparrows. Also saw a gaggle of turkeys strutting through our condo complex. The parents were leading six youngsters, still looking a bit fluffy around the edges, through the hostas in front of some of the units. Although very cute, they looked small enough that they might have to take off running pretty fast if they came across any of the large cats in the neighborhood!

Snowman Says: On the AT - Franconia Notch to Crawford Notch

July 27, 2008 | Miles: 13.0
Start: Route 93, Franconia Notch
End: Galehead Hut

The day started early. I don't want to talk about it. Of course, we didn't start hiking until 6 hours after we got up. Here's why.

We had a reservation at Galehead Hut for the evening, and instead of taking two cars, we decided to take advantage of the AMC Hiker Shuttle. Staying at the hut allowed us to forgo carrying sleeping bags, tent, stove, etc., since they provide a bunk and serve dinner and breakfast. The only issue with that plan was that the shuttle didn't drop us off at the trailhead until 10:55. Normally, a late start to the day isn't an issue, but dinner is served at the hut at 6:00p.m. We DID NOT want to miss dinner. This meant that we had 7 hours to go 13 miles...in the Whites. Everyone to whom we mentioned our plan thought we were nuts. Lots of "Don't you mean Greenleaf?" (the hut 6.5 miles before Galehead) and "Oof, that's a big day." Our nuttiness actually worked in our favor because the shuttle driver, who was really, really nice—just a great guy, took pity on us. As it turns out the shuttle stop for the "Liberty Springs Trailhead" does not actually stop at the beginning of the Liberty Spring Trail. It stops .9 miles from the start of the trail. We did not want to go an extra .9. We told the driver our plan for the day, and because he thought we were insane and would never make it, he reluctantly agreed to drop us off where the AT crosses underneath Route 93. (Against "the rules" I'm sure.) This save us a ton of time and frustration and most importantly .9 miles of hiking. He pulled over. We jumped out. Thanked him, and off we went.

The hike itself started with a splash as five minutes into the hike D took a huge wipeout into a mud puddle. Not a very auspicious start. After she recovered, she proved once again that she absolutely rocks the uphills. The first 2.9 miles climb about 2800', and she had a tempo that I could not match. I stayed with her for a bit, but then reality set in, as I would only see her when she stopped to wait for me. That being said, we (mostly her) flew up the trail. We were having lunch at the top of the ridge by 12:30.

Since we were under a time crunch, we had a quick lunch. Plus, we were a bit chilly because it was humid and we were drenched with sweat from the hard climb. Also because of the time constraint, we had planned to run as much of the trail as possible, i.e. the flatter sections. We attached our hiking poles to our packs, and went for it.

The trip along the Franconia Ridge is mostly a blur. We ran when we could. We powerhiked when we could. We walked when necessary. We just took what the terrain gave us, and kept motoring. And, in truth, it was a really cool way to see this ridge. The Franconia Ridge is one of the nicest ridges out there, and we had a blast cruising along it. By 2:00 we reached the summit of Lafayette, the halfway point of our hike. We were 1/2 hour ahead of schedule and feeling good, but we knew that Mt. Garfield was looming. No one likes. Mt. Garfield, it's cranky.

With Garfield on our minds, we completely underestimated the difficulty of the trail between it and Lafayette. This "forgotten" part of the ridge was tough. The descent from Lafayette really slowed us down. It was rocky and tricky. We were slower, but we kept moving. And, as it turned out, the climb up Garfield wasn't that bad. I once again trailed D, but we hit the summit a little after 4:00. If the descent of Lafayette is hard, the descent of Garfield is twice as hard. We were feeling good about the time we had to go the remaining 3 miles to the hut, but we were tired. A rocky, gnarly descent when you're tired is pretty much the least fun thing in the world. It's definitely the terrain that slows us down the most, and the mile to the junction with the Franconia Brook Trail was a long one.

A check of the map a the Franconia Brook Trail led us to believe that the remaining 2 miles to the hut were pretty flat with a slight up at the end. Well, the map is full of lies and deceit. We had hoped to run most of this section, but it wasn't meant to be. There were a couple sections where we could stretch out, but for the most part we were dodging rocks, roots, mud and more roots. Oh, and it's straight up to the hut at the end.

Despite that, we reached the hut at 5:30. We'd done it. We were tired, sweaty and our legs were covered in mud, but it had a been a great day. Definitely a challenge, and certainly a different way to section hike the AT.

July 28, 2008 | Miles: 14.7
Start: Galehead Hut
End: Route 302, Crawford Notch

Last night at the hut was great. There were only about a dozen of us staying there. Coincidentally, one of those was my boss, which was pretty funny. There were also a couple thruhikers, and a nice, mellow group of people. Dinner was great, too. Although I could have eaten twice as much. A little sunset time, and then the earplugs were in place. My bunk was moderately comfortable, and I slept great.

Despite the tasty breakfast, this morning kind of sucked. As I was packing up, I put my pack down on the bite valve of my water bladder and it leaked all over the bottom of my pack. D decided she needed to instruct me on the proper use of a water bladder. (This is the same water bladder I carry on all of our hikes, and this has never happened before.) With thoughts of murder on my mind, we headed up the trail. And, really up. From the hut, the trail goes up South Twin, the anti-switchback. The trail goes dead straight up the side of the mountain. Of course, D motored, and I struggled. We topped out and headed down (not nearly as steep, thankfully), but I still wasn't feeling right. Even though we didn't have the same time crunch, we had decided we were going to run as much of the day as possible anyway. (Most likely, because we're insane.) So, I decided to put my poles on my pack and get moving. I figured this was the best way to get the motor running. It worked, as I felt better almost instantly. Plus, the trail was good for running here, and off we went.

Run, hike, snack, hike, run, run, hike, run, hike, hike, run...you get the idea. We reached Zealand Falls Hut at 11:45, 3.5 hours after we left Galehead. This was a fun section, but we were ready for a lunch break. We refueled, and headed out onto the only truly flat section of the AT in the White Mountains. The railroad grade from Zealand Falls Hut to the Shoal Pond Trail is awesome. We flew, and a good time was had by all. After the junction with the Shoal Pond Trail, the trail gets a little rougher, but the climb up South Twin was the only big climb of the day, so we were still able to keep moving at a good clip. Well, it felt like a good clip anyway. We stopped for our last snack break at the Ethan Pond Shelter at 2:15. We had 3 miles left to go and most of it was a knee crushing downhill. Knees crushed. We reached Route 302 at 3:45.

For those keeping track, it was 27.7 miles in two days, and our total hike time, including breaks was about 12 hours. A pretty solid two days of work, especially based on the terrain. The Whites are rugged, and we were pleased to have moved along at such a good pace. It was certainly a different type of trip for us, but it was really fun. The beauty of the terrain certainly helped, and the running was really cool. The worst part? Waiting to hitch back to car at the Highland Center. Luckily, it only took us about 20 minutes to get a lift. All in all, an awesome weekend. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: New Hampshire is done! Woohoo! Plus, were' under 200 miles left to go! More Woohoo!

On the AT - Franconia Notch to Crawford Notch

Photos here

July 27, 2008 | Miles: 13.0
Start: Franconia Notch
End: Galehead Hut

Today ended up involving a little more than 5 hours of travel time and 5.5 hours of hiking. That's just not right... We left the house a few minutes before 6am, with Snowman cranky as ever, and headed over towards Crawford Notch. The plan was to take the AMC Hiker Shuttle from the Highland Center in Crawford Notch to the Liberty Spring Trailhead on Rt. 93 over in Franconia Notch, and then hike up to Galehead Hut, where we had reservations for the night. This meant the car was at the end of the hike. This seemed like a good plan. The only problem was the shuttle didn't leave until 9:15, and wasn't scheduled to arrive in Franconia Notch until 10:55. This was a late start, even by our standards. And to make matters worse, the huts serve dinner at 6:00pm, meaning we had 7 hours to do our 13 miles over rough terrain.

To make this a do-able feat, we decided to carry our Camelbaks instead of our normal backpacks. The huts provide dinner, breakfast, bathrooms, potable water and bunk beds with blankets and pillows. So we could travel light, but we still needed to carry lunch, snacks, toiletries, the liners we would sleep in, change of clothes, camp shoes, etc. My Camelbak was stuffed to the brim, but it worked.

The shuttle driver was a friendly man, and he actually helped us out a lot in the end. We were the last to get off the shuttle, and the official shuttle spot actually put us 0.9 miles from the Liberty Spring Trail. Today was not the day for any unnecessary extra mileage. We explained what we were trying to do, and asked him if he'd just pull over on 93 and drop us off where the trail crossed until a bridge right along the road. He wasn't quite sure, and seemed to feel we were nuts for going all the way to Galehead. He tried to change our mind, but we assured him we knew what we were doing and what we were in for. He eventually agreed to dropping us off where we asked, and we saved that 0.9. Hurray! And thank you AMC driver!

Liberty Spring Trail is pretty much straight up for 2.9 miles. After I managed to slip on a rock right into the water and mud about 3 minutes into the hike, we booked it up to the top, reaching the ridge around 12:15. After a quick stop for lunch, we strapped our poles to our packs, and headed off running along the ridgeline. The ridge is full of ups and downs, and isn't really flat, but did offer some good stretches of runnable terrain. It took me a while to get comfortable running with a full pack on my back, but I did, and I have to say it was quite a pleasant way to get over the ridge, and made for an agreeable way to get through the miles. We ran when we could, and hiked when it was too steep. Some of the gravel sections between Lincoln and Lafayette were perfect for running and we had gorgeous views along the way. It was a great day to be out. A bit humid, but pretty nice overall. We hit Lafayette, our high point for the day and the halfway point, at 2:00pm. Still 4 hours left to do the remaining 6.5 miles and make it for dinner!

The stretch between Lafayette and Garfield involved a long down and a long up. We stopped for a snack and to refill our Camelbaks with water before our final push up Garfield, giving ourselves a bit of extra energy to reach the top. From there, there was yet another long downhill, full of rock ledges, mud, water and lots of swearing before the final mile or so to the hut. And of course, the last bit was uphill, a nasty ending to a rather quick but tough 13 miles. But we had made it. It was 5:40 and we had time to check in, change and spread out our wet clothes before the bell clanged for dinner. Yeah us!

And what a dinner! We were surprised to see Howie, Snowman's boss, at the hut with a friend. It is truly a small world! There were only a dozen of us staying the night, making it a fun and intimate dinner. Our group included a few northbound thru-hikers, two brothers out celebrating one brother's birthday, a nice woman out finishing up her 4000 footer list, a father and daughter, and one couple. Not to mention the hut crew. They put on a great spread of homemade soup, bread, salad, stuffed shells and chocolate chip bars for dessert. Yum! We had fun chatting and relaxing, and then enjoyed a beautiful sunset. What a civilized end to the day! We should do this all the time :-)

Flora and fauna notes: Lots of diapensia atop Lafayette, wood sorrel, bunchberries and blue beads. Lots of juncos and white throated sparrows around the hut.

July 28, 2008 | Miles: 14.7
Start: Galehead Hut
End: Crawford Notch

I had a pretty good night's sleep, and must have been pretty tired, as Snowman had to wake me up around 6:15. We packed us as best we could, had some coffee and milled around until the 7:00am call for breakfast. Cream of wheat, pancakes and coffee. Yum. I was feeling a bit creaky from our day yesterday, and knew we had another long day ahead of us, but was feeling optimistic that we could crank out another good solid day. The only problem was the day again started with a cranky Snowman, as he had put his pack down on the bite valve of the hydration bladder, spilling water everywhere and getting his pack quite wet. Luckily, we had lined our packs with garbage bags, but it still meant he would be soaked from the wet pack as soon as he put it on.

The day started out with a steep uphill to South Twin. However, I have to admit, it was not as bad as I remembered from our hike along this section many moons ago. But it was once again humid, and Snowman was still having a bad morning. We finally got down below treeline and the trail mellowed out a bit. We packed away our poles and ran along. Snowman seemed to get back in the groove of things, and all was right with the world :-) We moved along pretty well, and were over Guyot before we knew it. We continued on, enjoying the section near the summit of Zealand, running into many people out for the day or overnight. Also ran into the two southbound thru-hikers we had picked up in Bartlett yesterday morning and dropped off at the trail crossing in Crawford Notch. We were able to run a good bit of this stretch, but finally had to stop and take out the poles for the descent to Zealand Falls Hut. We arrived at the hut around 11:45 and stopped for lunch, bathroom break and a water refill.

Then it was off on the one flat section on the AT in NH. The trail runs along an old railroad bed for a few miles. We were able to make some really good time through here, although we did stop a few times to pick blueberries! Soon after the trail got a bit rougher, and we did a fair amount of walking. At this point, I was also beginning to tire, but switching between running and hiking was a good mix, and seemed to break things up just enough. We stopped for a break at Ethan Pond Shelter, but the skies were darkening, and we really didn't want to get rained on, so we soon hit the trail again, moving along as best we could. During the final sustained downhill, about 1.5 miles long, my legs were feeling pretty beat. And then -ta da!- we popped out onto the final stretch, a road walk of about 0.3 miles down to Crawford Notch. And with that, NH was finished! Woo hoo! Stats for the day: 14.7 miles in 6.5 hours. Not too shabby :-)

This was certainly a very different hike for us. No heavy packs, wearing our trail runners and doing some trail running mixed in with our hiking, staying at the hut, repeating a lot of terrain that we've already hiked on various hikes in the past.... But it really was a fun and rewarding way to do this stretch. Going light and doing a fair amount of running allowed us to get the miles done, and really made this section enjoyable. Of course, the good weather and beautiful views helped! Not to mention, it seems like a pretty good accomplishment to have done these 27.7 miles in 12 hours of hiking/running!

Flora and fauna notes: Sheep laurel, blueberries and mountain cranberries. One toad. Lots of birds flitting about.

Birds on a Wire

Went out across the street this morning for a 5 mile run. I turned off the powerlines onto the Highland Green road, took the pavement down to the end, and turned around. Not super imaginative, but not a bad out and back. I felt a bit tired, probably from pushing a bit on my run yesterday, but that's OK.

Enjoyed a few yummy blackberries along the powerlines, but the highlight of the run was the 13 turkey vultures I saw! Yes, 13! And even better, 11 of them were sitting atop one high tension line pole. Two of them were atop the vertical poles, while the other nine were spread across the horizontal pole. Very neat!

In other running related news... It's official: we are nuts. I signed us up for the MDI Marathon up in Bar Harbor on October 19 last night. It was Snowman's idea, but I admit to going along with it. Although as Snowman says, he remembers me telling my mom right after the 2006 Maine Marathon, "Mom, I don't think I'm going to do that again." Well, guess one should never say 'never' :-)

Also signed myself up for the Bradbury Breaker. This is one of the great Trail Monster Running races that Ian is putting on this summer. I had to miss the Scuffle in June, and we'll miss the Bruiser in September as we'll be on the trail in the 100 Mile Wilderness, so I figured I would get out there and run this one. It features 2 loops up and over the summit of Bradbury Mountain. It's going to be a tough one, but should be a good training race!

10 in the Mist

It poured last night, but when the alarm went off this morning it was quiet outside. Maybe I would be able to dodge the rain on this run after all. I headed out from the Bowdoin field house at 6:10am. The sky was dark and the clouds were low, with a light mist falling. Although it wasn't raining, I wound up getting soaked anyway - the humidity must have been 99.9%. I headed out on the route which brought me down toward Maquoit Bay, where I could see the ocean through the mist. From there, I turned onto Bunganuc and wound my way on the quiet country roads back to Pleasant Hill. From there, it was less than 3 miles back to the field house.

I felt good throughout the run, which I find encouraging, considering we hiked for three days and then I did nothing for the two days following. Also, my heel was fine, no rubbing. Hurray for BodyGlide, which might be one of the best substances on earth if you are a runner or hiker.

I'll get another 5 miles in tomorrow morning, and then it's off to Franconia Ridge for a solid 2 days of hiking on Sunday/Monday. Should be fun, assuming it doesn't rain the whole time we're above treeline!

Rain

We had the windows open and as the alarm went off, I could hear it pouring outside. Ugh. Rain. I know I should have gotten up and gone for my scheduled 5-mile run anyway, but I just could not bring myself to do it. My heels are still pretty raw from this weekend's backpack, and I really want them to heal up for our upcoming adventure - a 2-day trip over the Franconia Ridge on the AT. I did not want to be out getting them wet this morning. OK, so that was just an excuse I used to roll over and ignore the alarm, although it is true. The reality is I was being lazy. Ugh again. Oh well. I'll get back on track tomorrow, and get out bright and early for 10 miles, and then 5 on Saturday. It won't be a high mileage week, but two days of running and three days of hiking should count for something, right?

In other news, we came home last night after a yummy dinner at Frontier with a new 32" TV. Our old TV, which still had a built-in VCR and was at least 10 years old, finally died. My parents are visiting, and they took pity on us and asked if we'd like a combined early Christmas/birthday gift of a new TV versus doing typical Christmas/birthday presents this year. We were psyched and happily agreed! Thanks guys! Which is why I'm now staring at the TV knowing that at some point soon Snowman is going to tell me we need to upgrade to HDTV for a better picture quality. I'm telling you, the TV/cable industry has a pretty good scam going on. 32" is a small TV and you always need some other upgrade to see the brightest and the best. Crazy. Maybe we should have tried to be good hippies and gone without a TV. But that wouldn't have been much fun :-)