I have adopted a roadless area!  Now I just need to plan a trip to go visit it and take lots of photos.  Check out the map below:

Fall trail running on Mount Spokane

I would probably hardly run at all if not for trail running, so whenever I have a chance I go up to Mount Spokane to run on the trails up there.  In the summer the mountain trails allow me to escape the summer heat.  This time of the year they allow me to escape the monotony of the roads (the trouble with coaching high schoolers is that we're stuck running around the school every day), plus I get to watch the changing of the seasons.  This year I kept returning to the mountain to capture the changing larch trees.

I started out too early for much color.  This was taken on October 17th on Horse Mountain.

This was taken the same day; the color was a little better on the other side of the meadow, but not much.

The color had really improved by the time I ran trail 110 on October 25th.

By November 7 the colors were really spectacular.  This one was taken from near the lower entrance to the Mount Kit Carson Loop Road.

However, by November 8 everything was looking pretty much the same color!

Trail run in Riverside State Park

The team did a waterstation for the Spokane Marathon as a fundraiser (the Bloomsday Road Runners Club donates the proceeds from the marathon to the local high school xc programs -- pretty cool!).  We were stationed along Centennial Trail near the military cemetery, and we were done with the water station by 11am, so I went for a nice run out on the rock trail by the river.  It was like the good old days.  I miss having such easy access to the trail system out in Riverside State Park.  It was also pretty cool to be running along on the trail with no one around but hearing people cheer for the marathoners on the other side of the river. 

Hike-A-Thon

I found out how I did for this August's Hike-a-Thon:  I raised $469.38, hiked the most total miles at 252.5, hiked the 2nd most miles in a single day at 28.6 (the most was 62!!!), and hiked the most miles on a trailwork party at 20.3 (although for some reason it's only showing as 9.1 on WTA website).  

I wish I knew how some of the participants raised so much money.  The most was $3,465, and he had 59 sponsors!  I need to brainstorm some ideas for doing better next year.  The hiking part is easy.  I'm contemplating parts of the PCT through Washington and the Wonderland Trail in addition to my usual trips to the Kettle Crest and the Salmo Priest.  I have also been thinking about doing a long trailwork party for the last couple of years.  I'd like to take the Shedroof Divide out to Little Snowy Top, then drop down the trail that leads to the Upper Priest River (I hear it hasn't been cleared in several years), then follow the Upper Priest to the trail that leads back up through Cabinet Pass and back to the Divide.  It would be a long trip, and I fear that we'd encounter so much downfall that would wouldn't be able to finish it, but it would be a really good hike.  As for the money part, I think I'm going to start by asking people to pledge a penny or a nickel per mile.  I bet a lot of people would be willing to pledge that much, and then I'll just hike so many miles that it will yield a good total.  I wonder how hard it would be to hit 500 miles?   

This picture is of trailwork

on Crowell Ridge, August 2009.

This is where I got the majority

of my trailwork miles for Hike-a-Thon.

Five people hiking/clearing 16.7 miles in three days -- not bad!

I started this thing two years ago, then got sidetracked and didn't even bother to finish the information on the initial trip I was writing about. However, then I did the WTA's Hike-a-Thon during the month of August and had a lot of fun keeping track of all my hiking trips. I think I'm going to try to revive this thing. Not that I'll have very many cool trips in the next month or two; cross country & work & my procrastination with Pro-Cert are all going to get in the way of getting outside. However, I'll do what I can, and then by next summer I'll be ready to keep track of all the trips I plan.