New Route - Oversite Canyon Trail

I dropped off the south side of the crest trail down Oversite canyon in a run this morning. This is the first time I have run all the way down to the forest service road that runs along the south side - just a few miles from the Mexico border. The accumulation of trash along this trail is very heavy. At the bottom of the canyon there is a creek - with plastic bottles and food wrappers floating in it. It is overwhelming how much trash litters the Huachucas - pick a new route and you are bound to find heavily littered areas. I also noticed a lot of new trash along the crest trail near the junction with Lutz Canyon - a trail descends from here down to Ash Canyon which is also is/was heavily littered. I say was because someone told me later in the day that there was a clean-up effort in Ash Canyon last week that hauled out 50 large bags of trash!

Apart from the depressing amount of litter - it was a beautiful morning to run. I took advantage of the full moon and got a 4:30 am start. I almost turned the alarm off and went back to sleep when I heard the wind howling this morning but the full moon, clear skies and mild temps beckoned me to the trails.

The sunrise began as I neared Carr Peak trail and about the same time a cloud was blasting across the ridge - I would look left and see a glimpse of the full moon then look right and see the brilliant orange of the sunrise in the distance. And then as I dropped off of the ridge to the south the wind let up and I made my way down finally breaking through the cloud. I wish I had one of this wee digital cameras to capture some of these moments.

The only down side of the run was a tumble I took - I was enjoying a new trail and the fact that it was very runnable. Other trails dropping to the south have a maze of downed trees from a fire a few years ago that make running impractical. Anyhow, I was in the moment and then took a face plant on the trail. Bruised my chest and opened up an wound on my hand again - not too bad this time as I was at least wearing gloves. After sitting in the dirt for awhile to make sure the important parts were all good, I got up and continued with greater focus on the terrain.

It was a tough 15 mile run at about 3.5 hours - but I do plan on this one again. Eventually, I plan on zippering the ridge line on 30+ mile training runs and getting in plenty of tough climbs. Great Wasatch 100 mile training!

Snow Day

Great afternoon run in the snow Friday. I have been consistently working a route in Coronado National Monument for a year now - Joes Canyon trail up to the Montezuma Pass and then pound the dirt road back trying to keep the average pace around 5:30 on the downhill. Makes an old guy feel fast. My best yet is 5:06 pace on this 3 mile mostly downhill portion - it drops over 1200 feet in elevation. With the snow and memories of face planting on this route 2 weeks ago, I backed off the pace a bit this week.

Two weeks ago I turned an ankle on the downhill -looked over my shoulder at a truck coming up behind me and took a good tumble. Nice flapper on the hand, scrapped knee, twisted ankle and plenty of blood. The guys in the truck gave me a lift back to my car and shook their heads.

I have been running down some very technical trails in the Huachucas but my two worst wipe outs are on this well graded dirt road. I am too stupid to give up this workout - I love pounding the downhill.

Flyer - click image to view full size

Wasatch 100 Mile

I found out last weekend that I made it into Wasatch 100 mile. For those of you not familiar with trail running - many of the 100 mile races have lotteries for entrants. I put in for Hardrock in Colorado and Wasatch in Utah. I am looking forward to Wasatch - the terrain and climbs of the Huachucas should be good training grounds.

Trash at Bear Saddle

I am planning a clean-up day at Bear Saddle along the Crest Trail of the Huachucas in early April. I going to do my best to round up a few volunteers. I will get the word out among local trail runners, co-workers, and my church. This area has one of the higher concentrations of litter that I have seen on my trail runs. It is remote - over 4 tough miles and 3000 feet in elevation from the closest road.

There are a few other areas nearby with a high density of rubbish that will can be cleaned up on the same day. More info to come on this event. I have about 8 other littered areas tagged as high density - and I am sure that there must be many more as I have only run maybe half of the trails in these mountains.