6:00 am, a headlamp lighting up the pre dawn fog as I started out heading west on the Mountain to Sea (MTS) trail at Buck Creek Gap (at the intersection of HWY 80 South and the Blue Ridge Parkway). My goal was to get as close to Mt Mitchell as I could with a hard 3.5 hour turnaround time. I collected several thousand spider webs as I made my way, a waning moon to the east and the glow of Marion to the south. 2 hours later I was at the Black Mountain Campground, along the banks of the South Toe River. The trail had crossed the Parkway 3 times. Twice the trail continued straight across the road. At the second crossing, the trail picked up a the west end of the overlook. There was no water from the trail head to the South Toe River Road crossing. After the crossing there were two brisk streams before reaching the campground and the river.
I hit the campground around 8:00 am. A few people were stirring, including a couple just setting out from the campground office. I trotted on, following the signs to the Mt Mitchell Trail. The sign at the trail head read 5.6 miles to the east's highest peak. Having been up and down this trail in May, I knew I probably wouldn't reach the top by my turnaround time, but I was determined to go as high as I could. At one point the trail forks, with the "Old Mt Mitchell Trail" continuing straight, while the "Higgins Bald" route branched to the left (the trails rejoin after a couple of miles). I chose the Higgins route, which is a little longer but more runnable and we had camped up there when Luke was young. Lots of fond memories in these mountains. There was no water running until quite high up (almost to the first power line crossing), but that stream was still running strong. The couple I started out ahead of must have been moving pretty well as I heard them behind me several times during the climb. These were the kind of folks who must never shut up and just be quiet in the woods. I dunno. Pet peeve of mine, but it kept me moving hard up the mountain.
Promptly at 3 hours and 30 minutes of moving I stopped, tightened my laces, and turned to head back down. I figured I was just short of Commissary Ridge. Passed a bunch of people as I made my way down. Labor Day weekend and all. Several groups had 10 or more people. About a mile from the bottom, a group of 20-somethings were sitting at a switchback. As I passed a woman called out, "Sir, are we almost there?" I laughed, "No ma'm. You aren't." I noticed that I didn't see anyone carrying water as they climbed up the mountain. I don't know how many were planning to go all the way to Mitchell, but if they were, they were going to be thirsty. Day had warmed up substantially as I got back to the lower elevations. I made it back to the campground office at 4:40, elapsed. I stopped, filled up my Camelback in a bathroom sink, bought a Coke and a pack of crackers and jogged on across the bridge.
The climb out of the campground was tough, but I took my time and tried to stay relaxed. Legs were still feeling pretty good. Crossed back over the South Toe River road at 5:20. There I noticed a sign (only facing one way) that read 6.2 miles to Buck Creek Gap. Only 10K back to the car. Didn't see a soul the entire way back to the trail head. Emerged out of the canopy at Buck Creek Gap in 6:48, elapsed. I'd hoped to negative split the day a little better, but I'd done a bunch of climbing (more than 12,000 feet it turns out).
Stats
25 miles
12,200' elevation change
6:48 moving time; 16:20 min/mi
Gel or a bar every 30 minutes after the first 90 mins.
Water every 15 mins on the out; every 10 on the back
Bonus calories: 10oz of Coke and a pack of Nabs at the campground
Shoes: Altra Lone Peak 2.5
Submitted by Rush 9/6/2015 1441573042
Had planned to go from Bolens Creek trail head to Mount Mitchell and back. Didn't quite make the distance in the time I allotted myself. An epic day nonetheless.
On the trail at 6:15, lighting my way with a small handheld light. A yellow moon hung low in the west. Took it easy up Bolens, running where it felt manageable, but not pushing, knowing tons of vertical lay ahead. Topped out in about 1:38 and enjoyed great views from the side of Celo Knob. Day was warmer than I thought, but relatively low humidity and very little breeze. That first mile or so, along the western side of the ridge is delightful running along gentle, rolling trail. Once past Gibbs and onto Winter Star, the trail is an endless series of steep climbs and descents as you bag one 6K peak after another.
Made it to Deep Gap about an hour after topping out on Bolens. I hadn't been past Deep Gap since Lisa and I backpacked the length of the Blacks many years ago. The trail continued on relentlessly technical. Rocky, rooty, twisting and turning. Very difficult to settle into any kind of running rhythm. I relived the Quest for the Crest 50K that I ran back in May, which went out to Deep Gap and then turned down the Colbert's Ridge Trail.
A note to fellow runners, hikers and backpackers: THERE IS VERY SPOTTY DATA/CELL COVERAGE. DO NOT DEPEND SOLELY ON YOUR PHONE. BRING A REAL GPS DEVICE. (Verizon subscriber)
I pushed on knowing that I probably was averaging more than 20 minute miles across the peaks and as such, I would fail to reach Mt. Mitchell by my self-imposed turnaround time. I ended up in the saddle Balsam Cone and
Big Tom Gap in 3 hours, 40 minutes of steady movement. I hadn't seen a single person. Turning north, I was a little disappointed, but filled with wonder at how rugged and forbidding these mountains are. The journey north is punctuated by the LONG climb out of Deep Gap. Gads, that goes up and up forever. I was grateful the day stayed overcast. The temps probably were near 70 and absolutely no wind.
Made it back to the top of Bolens at 5 hours and 50 minutes and stopped the watch at my car in 6:56. I had planned to come into this run a little tapped out. I hadn't run the day before (Friday) and Thursday I'd done 15 hilly miles in Asheville. Had I planned the whole week around this run, I might have made it to Mt. Mitchell, but I would have ended the day completely wrecked. The roughly 20 miles held about 14,000' of elevation change.
I stopped not far from the Big Tom Gap side trail (going up and down that during the Quest for the Crest was INSANE) and started thinking about turning today's run into a really big loop:
Submitted by Rush 8/30/2015 1440959976
Ran on some new-to-me trail two weekends ago; the Big Butt Trail. I accessed the trail off of HWY 197 and ran south. The trail begins with steady climbing over quite number of switchbacks. After 30 minutes of steady effort, the trail starts to peak and run more along the ridge line, offering stunning views of the Black Mountain Range to the east after about an hour's effort. Didn't see a soul. Good spring (running strong in late July) after 45-50 minutes from trailhead. Several steep, well built, wooden staircases on several of the descents (I'm thinking these are descending Brush Fence Ridge.
I did this run rather late in the day. I was heading back down to the trail head, around 7:30 pm, when a large Black Bear ran across the trail maybe 25 yards ahead of me. I clapped, hollered, and blew the whistle on my running vest. I'd seen two bears the day before running very early on the AT, north of Sams Gap. I grew up in Madison County and spent countless days in the woods and never saw bears in the woods. After Lisa and I married and started our family, we spent many days and nights camping, backpacking, hiking, mountain biking, and we never saw bears in the woods (though we did see several while driving in our cars). I've been trail running for two years now and hadn't seen bears in the woods until, boom, I saw three bears in two days. The Black Bears seemed very shy and skittish, which is a good thing. I tried to make as much noise and nuisance as I could to try and reinforce that they should stay away from people.
A few pics from Big Butt:
Submitted by 8/4/2015 1438722328
Man, it's been a while. Quick updates:
Submitted by Rush 8/4/2015 1438720732
Joe Uhan writes fantastic articles over at iRunFar. His latest, 6 Things That Elite Ultrarunners Are Doing That You Are Not made a whole lot of sense to me. In summary:
Well worth the full read.
Submitted by Rush 6/13/2015 1434209425
Full results are posted here. 141 souls started the race. 35 DNF'd (that's 25% of the field). I finished 58th in 10:07. I had conservatively estimated my time at 11:00. Had I not fallen, cut my hand, and needed patching up, I probably could have come in a hair under 10. Something to shoot for next year. Maybe my sesamoids will have healed by then, though they stayed tolerable all through the race.
In the Male 40-49 group, 35 guys stared, 8 DNF'd, and I finished 11th. So it was definitely a middle of the pack kinda day.
Thanks to Jon Cremers for sending me the picture. John and I ran quite a bit of Buncombe Horse Trail together, including the climb up Big Tom Gap to get our numbers stamped, where he snapped this picture. John passed me about a mile after we got back on BHT, and the only times I saw him after were fleeting glimpses of him one or two switch backs below me going down the Mt. Mitchel Trail.
Submitted by Rush 6/6/2015 1433551045
When your day starts at 3:00 am, you know you're going to do something special. Normal, average, typical days don't start three hours before sunrise. The day did not disappoint. I feel like I finally did something epic in running and just overall effort.
Up early to push in about 500 calories with enough time to digest. Dressed and out the door by 4, headed out to South Toe River Rd, and the Black Mountain campground. Had to park about .6 miles from the entrance. We boarded school buses (couldn't remember the last time I'd been on a big yellow bus) and rode 20 minutes or so toward the start. We were dropped at the intersection of White Oak Creek and Shufford Creek roads. Imagine 90 or so runners, geared up for a long day, just sitting on this winding country road at literally the crack of dawn. Can't imagine what the locals thought. The last 2 buses arrive right at 6:00 and the race started some 20 minutes later.
In order to get the group spread out some before we hit the trail, the race started six tenths or so down the road. The climb up Woody Ridge was epic as always, just with a lot more people. Heard some fantastic comments about the nature of that trail. In training, I've been doing Woody between 1:15 - 1:20. Even with the additional distance tacked on at the start, I made it to the top of the ridge in 1:18, not feeling that I over-exerted. Made the familiar transition over to the top of Bowlens Creek. Saw two falls as people got ahead of themselves losing the vertical. I was about halfway down when the lead runner came flying back up. He had about a 15 minute lead over the #2. I kept count of all the runners heading back up and I hit the bottom of Bowlens at around 2:20 in about 84th place. Was in 79th when I made it back up to the top and headed toward Deep Gap.
The trip out to Deep Gap is a series of short, steep ups and downs. I was still picking off runners, but willing myself not to push too hard. Passed Jus' Running's Adam and his son hiking north on their camping trip. About 30' from the bottom of Deep Gap, with the trail turn off and the two EMT's stationed there in sight, I slipped and gashed the top of my left pinkie knuckle. With my heart rate probably pegged around 170 bpm, I was bleeding like I'd been shot. Blood running down my forearm and dripping off my elbow. The EMT's saw me and were like, "cool, now we have something to do!" They got me cleaned up, wrapped and bandaged. I asked, "Can you do anything about my wounded pride?" and the response was, "Sorry man, you're just gonna have to run that off." Very grateful to those guys for being up there on a Sunday.
Colbert's Ridge trail is so steep and technical at the top that I ran into a logjam of runners. We stayed together for 30 minutes or so with lots of 3 points of contact scrambling happening. The trail finally flattened out and we spread. I was running in the low 70's positions and getting hungry for some more solid food. Hit the Colbert's Creek Rd aide station around 5:20. Coke! Ginger Ale! Chips. Restocked my vest from my drop bag. More Coke! Grabbed a couple of cookies and headed down the asphalt (yuck!) to the Buncombe Horse Trail. Ran with a young couple from south of Atlanta. They'd run or crewed on several of Sean's (Run Bum) other races in north Georgia. Ran quite a bit of the lower portion and fell back when things got steep. Very familiar with this trail. Day felt warm and humid, no breeze in the trees. I fell into a low point, but kept pushing. After some time I caught up with this older fella who I'd seen a couple of times and I struck my how calm and serene he seemed; no sense of panic or stress, he was just cruising. I stayed maybe 50' back and just fed off his zen-like energy and it was totally what I needed. It really lifted my spirits. He stepped off the trail to get something out of his shoe. I paused and told him that he hiked with a real calmness and how much it had just helped me get over a rough patch.
Breaking cover a the top of BHT and the view opens up into this gigantic bowl of the Mt Mitchell massif. Just stunning. Skies were overcast with some rumbling and I was pleased because this section can get hot late in the day. Made good progress around the rim to the Big Tom Gap spur. That hump was everything I had imagined it would be. A seemingly endless series of big step-ups and scrambling. A few twitches in my left thigh but nothing broke loose or cramped. Got my number stamped and very, very slowly picked my way back down. Topped off both water bottles (thank you, again, EMT's) and headed on. BHT stays level to rolling for several miles before the turn off to head down the mountain for the last time. Some guy had hiked up to the intersection with Cheerwine and strawberry Fig Newtons. With about 4.4 miles to go I was right at 9 hours in and a 10 hour finish was doable. I kept trying to find that edge of running as fast, but as safely as I could. Realized I was going to run out of water so I pulled my Sawyer mini water filter out and stopped and sucked a good dose of ice cold water out of a spring and headed off. Finally, I heard a whoop, saw the bottom, ran the gravel walking trails over to the Briar Bottom field and crossed the finish, tired but exhilarated.
Thanks to the kind soul who saw me walking the mile plus back to my car and picked me up.
Another unexpected gift the day brought was coming down the Mt. Mitchell trail, I passed by campsites that Lisa, Luke and I had camped in when he was little and Lisa's health was good. I was overwhelmed with sadness and joy as memories of hiking, camping and backpacking on these trails just flooded over me. Luke is now 20 years old and Lisa is disabled, but years ago we spent wonderful days and night romping around those woods.I ran for maybe 10 minutes with tears streaming down my face, just feeling blessed to be there and experiencing all those emotions. Lisa was the driving energy behind those trips and her efforts have added a richness to our lives.
Numbers
Errata
(My longest duration race prior to today was 5.5 hours at the 2015 Frost Foot 50K)
My thanks to Sean Run Bum Blanton for pouring his heart and soul into organizing this race. I cannot imagine how much time and money he sank into this event and he made it EPIC!
Submitted by Rush 6/1/2015 1433171647
20150523 - After dropping our son and his girlfriend off for a two night backpacking trip on the A.T., I headed out to the Buncombe Horse Trail for some mid to late afternoon running, probably my last long, steep run before the Quest for the Crest 50K next Sunday. BHT stays very shady with little exposure until you get up high, out of the rhodo and spruce. We haven't had a ton of rain in the last few weeks but there was plentiful water. Tried to focus on just staying steady, not pushing, but running wherever I could run.
Made it up to the Big Tom Gap trail in just under 2 hours. I went up the boulder field about 8 minutes then turned back, needing to keep my time commitment with my wife. Made it back to the trail head in 1:40, just cruisng the 6+ mile descent. About 13.5 miles with 3500' up & 3500' down. Felt strong but my sesamoids are still really tender so I'm probably going to have a very light week. Writing this two days later and I'm noticing my calves have stayed really tender.
Looking ahead, the weather looks like we could be getting some rain this week. Hoping race day is cloudy and cool. I'm excited about this race, more excited than I've been in a long time. It's a chance explore how far I can go, how deep I can dig. I've run every section up to the last 4-5 miles or so. It's been 10 years since I've been on the Commissary Ridge trail. The two big climbs right at the start, Woody Ridge and Bowlens Creek, will set the tempo for the rest of the day. I've done both of those trails multiple times. I know what they hold. I think just slow and steady will be my best bet to cover that climbing without totally shredding my calves. This will be my third 50K. The New River 5OK (Oct, 2014) is all rails to trails grade; very flat. The Frosty Foot 5OK in January is all hills with a few short steep climbs. The race next weekend has massive vertical compared to the first two 50's. But, I run these trails a lot. I know what's coming.
I've added up my times running over the different sections, pretty conservative estimates, and I'm staggered to think that this race could take me 11 hours. That's 11 hours if nothing major happens; no bad falls, no bad cramps, my sesamoid doesn't fracture, etc. It's hard to get my head around that number. Relentless forward progress!
My little review of the Sawyer Mini Water Filtration system. I really like this. Small, compartmentalized, literally fits int the palm of my hand.
Loved my new Buff as well!
Video from today's run.
Submitted by Rush 5/26/2015 1432602178
About 1 week out from the Quest for the Crest 50K. Sean, the RD, recently posted this elevation profile / map.
I think he's trying to psych us out. Should be fun! #oldmanrunning #questvk50k
Submitted by Rush 5/22/2015 1432324396
20150516 - Today's installment of the Woody Ridge, Bowlen's Creek over and back began when the alarm went off at 4:30 am. By 5:30 I was on the Woody Ridge trail, headlamp illuminating the rocks and roots. Adam at Jus' Running told me yesterday that when brought his kids to hike on Woody Ridge that they had discovered a camouflaged door in a walled off rock overhang. A little spooky. Too dark to see doors on the way up so I just focused on keeping a steady, relatively easy pace up to the boulders. The sun was just coming up over 7 Mile Ridge as I started the first steep (some rock climbers give this a 4.9) climbing. The view from what I call the 'view rocks' was spectacular, the valleys covered in dense fog, the peaks lit up in the clear morning sky. Topped out in 1:18 into deep very wet grass.
A few minutes later I was descending Bowlens Creek trail, trying to keep around a 10:00 minute pace. Hit the bottom of Bowlens at 2:14 elapsed. Quick stretch and I headed back up. Back to the top at 3:40, and back to my car at 4 hours and 30 minutes, ten minutes faster than when I did this route a few weeks ago.
Training for the Quest for the Crest 50K on May 31st. The cutoff times are:
Bottom of Bowlens Creek: 3 hours
Bottom of Colbert's Ridge: 6.5 hours
Overall 12.5 hours
The race front loads much of the climbing:
Woody Ridge - 3000' in 2.2 miles to start the race
Bowlens Creek - 3000' in 4.4 miles for the 2nd climb
Buncombe Horse Trail and Big Tom - 3000' in 6.5 miles for the 3rd climb
The only section I haven't run is up Big Tom, over Mt. Mitchell, the down the 5.5 mile descent to the Black Mountain Campground. Should be interesting!
Submitted by Rush 5/16/2015 1431805551
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