August 20 - August 26, 2012

Monday, August 20:  
Today is when things start to get tough--it was the first day of cross country practice!  Practice is always hectic on the first day, and then we had to shop for the annual camping trip (food for 25!).  I wasn't able to fit my own run in until late afternoon; I repeated my run up to the top of Antoine Peak for 5 miles.

Tuesday, August 21:
Today we loaded the buses at 8am and took off for Liberty Lake for our annual camping trip!  We were in for a bit of a rude surprise: the county has completely changed the camping area, and the new camp host was not particularly easy to work with.  In the past they've always given us a special rate since we're there with a school team; this year we had to pay close to $100 (just for the girls team! it was more than twice what it cost last year!) for one night of tent camping.  That was way out of our budget, but there we were with two buses full of kids.  We had to cover it for this year, but I'm already thinking of different camping plans for next year.

The girls had the annual two-mile time trial in the morning, but in the afternoon I took them for a trail run on the Edith Hanson Riding Trail.  We did 5 miles, and ended at the little creek to sit in the cold water for 20 minutes--it made my knees feel much happier!

Wednesday, August 22:
It's another tradition to wake up early following the camping trip in order to run to Liberty Lake Falls.  When I first started coaching at U-hi that was it: to the falls and back.  A couple years ago a few of the girls finally started doing the full loop; this year, all of the girls who made it to the falls also finished the loop (there were a couple girls who were hurting and turned back before the falls).  The team is getting tough!  Even the newbies didn't question it: of course they were doing the same route that the boys do!  This also gave me 7.7 trail miles as I ran with them!

In the afternoon I went up to Mount Spokane with a friend to work on the backside trash project.  We managed to sort all of the trash at the second illegal camp--a pile of trash and a pile of scrap metal.  We hauled out as much trash as we could carry, and now things are ready for the next work crew--probably next week.  That added another .5 mile on Northwest Passage.

Thursday, August 23:
Today the team met at Camp Caro to run the Dishman Hills trails.  I sent the girls on a "wander run" (their favorite) while I did Goldback Springs to East/West Pond and out beyond the ponds before returning to Camp Caro.  3.5 miles.

Friday, August 24:
The girls had a hard workout today, so I didn't run with them.  I arrived at practice with the car fully packed and ready to head to Winthrop--it's Cutthroat Classic weekend!

I wanted to find a good trail run enroute to Winthrop, but I didn't have much luck.  I stopped at Bridgeport State Park thinking that they'd have some good hiking trail there, but they only thing they had was the Dune Trail, a paved interpretive trail.  I really wanted to stretch my legs, so I did a short little one-mile run, but I didn't want to run pavement any more than that.  I ended up running 3 miles on the Early Winters River Trail after setting up camp and picking up my packet for the race.   

Saturday, August 25: 
Race day!  I got a mile of countable trail running on the Rainy Lake Trail for my warm-up (plus another one or two that weren't countable just running around the parking lots).  Then it was race time!  It was quickly apparent that I have plenty of endurance with very little speed right now.  I guess I really should do some speed work every once in awhile!  At any rate, I felt pretty good during the race, but I wasn't very quick.  Afterwards I found out that I was the 11th finisher in my age group, which made me a little disappointed until I found out that I was also the 12th female finisher in the race!  I certainly was in one tough age group!  At any rate, the race was 11.1 miles, which I completed in 1 hour 45 minutes (59 minutes and change for the first five miles to the top, and 45 minutes for the six miles that followed).

Most people would have been satisfied after that, but I wanted more mileage today!  We were camping at Klipchuck campground that night, which is adjacent to the Driveway Butte trailhead.  We all set out to hike it that afternoon, but the others turned back early.  I got a little lost, and afterwards realized that the high point I climbed wasn't Driveway Butte--I think I got lost at about the 3.5 mile mark, so I got 7 trail miles plus who knows how much wandering up to a nearby high point.  It was a very pretty view from the top, so I was satisfied.

Sunday, August 26:
Today we planned a day hike loop from the North Cascades Highway: Maple Pass with Lake Ann and Rainy Lake.  The hike from Lake Ann up and over the pass was beautiful!  It was a little weird to come down the other side and see the highway the whole way.  Rainy Lake is very pretty, and has a paved walking path all the way to the lake--that's where we saw the majority of the tourists: people who were driving through and stopped long enough for the easy walk out to the lake viewing platform.  This hike was 7 miles.

On the way home I tried and failed to find one state park, but I did find Alta Lake State Park.  It was actually a little disappointing.  I'm spoiled by Mount Spokane and Riverside, and I've come to expect lots of trails in my parks.  Alta Lake really caters to the speed boaters and has only one trail--and close to 150 camping spots!  The RV spots look like they're in a giant parking lot with all the RVs parked side-by-side.  I can't quite imagine that kind of camping--it just doesn't look like fun! 

I followed the directions on the map posted by the parking area, walking through one loop of the tent camping area to access the hiking trail.  The trail turned out to be a gated access road for the first quarter mile or so.  When it finally turned into a regular trail, I met some people coming down who warned me of a rattlesnake coiled up in the middle of the trail just past the first switchback.  I decided that I would just hike up a little ways and turn back before I got too close to the snake!  I only got an extra mile from this stop.

Stats:
Running: 34.3 miles
Hiking: 8.5 miles
Weekly total: 42.8 miles
H-a-T total: 228.14 miles