Hauling Bags

I ran up Ramsey Canyon about 3 miles to get a trash bag I left during the clean-up weekend. I found that I can keep a decent downhill trot using two bags tethered on a branch across my shoulders - if only I could get paid for portering trash out of the mountains. My next run I was going to haul out a bag at the end of an 18 mile training run, but ran short on time. So I went back to Comfort Spring a few days later. This was an uphill haul that kicked my butt. Instead of making a short run in and out - I added extra miles by starting at Ramsey. The run in was fine but after hauling the bags 3/4 of a mile uphill I was spent and struggled on the 5 miles of downhill. It tells me that my 50 miler in two weeks should probably start out as a hike rather than a run. Between my back problems and being sick I missed about 3 weeks of training and have quickly realized I cannot pick-up where I left off.

On both of these runs I ran into illegals hiking out through Ramsey Canyon. Busy week on the trails - more trash accumulates.