Week Ending 08-29-10

I had a solid week, cut out biking due to time constraints with physical therapy. I added in a morning run to make up some of this, while still trying to keep the mileage low. Had a very successful trip to NC. Bagged some summits and took 4th in the masters at the trail 10km national champs.


M – PM Winni 5m – 35:17

T – AM Industrial Park 5 – 36:00. PM 3m o/b at Pinnacle - 21:32

W – AM Ind Pk 5 – 35:06. PM 3m – 21:27

Th – AM Ind Pk 5 – 36:02. PM o/b 3m at Pinnacle – 21:30

F – AM 3m up/down County HP – 30:10, later 1.5m up/down Rendezvous Mountain 14:11, later 5.8 m round trip up/down Flat Top Mountain – 44:30 and final run of the day was 2 miles up/down Tompkins Knop (county high point) – 12 mile day over 8 hours.

S – 2 warm-up, another mile w strides. 6.2 mile US trail 10km champs – 48:58 14th place (4th 40+). 1 warm-down. Afternoon 4m round trip up/down Fishers Peak 37:32.

S – 6am run up/down Buffalo Mountain (VA) at sunrise 45:07, then quick drive to Rocky Knob for another mile bagging the county high point.
Totals
Week = 61
Month = 189
Year =1561
Life = 108,932

More to follow on the race and the county high points....

Week ending 08-22-10

Another week wearing the boot and doing just a little running, getting PT, and biking.  Foot is feeling pretty decent.  Did a quick 400m on the treadmill on Tuesday and pushed it a bit on Sunday at the Mine Falls Moose relay.  May be able to race at the Continental Divide 10km trail championships next weekend.

M - AM bike 1 hour.  PM Winni 5m 34:41
T - AM Ind Park 5m 36:40, PM 3m on treadmill at PT 21:42
W - AM bike 1 hour.   PM o/b on the River with Dan 35:49
Th -AM bike 1 hour.  Later AM 5m on the Freeman Rail Trail 36:08.  PM 3m run in the Merrimac town forest 30:01
F - AM bike 1 hour.  PM Winni 5 34:32
S - AM 63:40 Stiles pond water run.  AM 5m with John Gorman at Stiles 36:24.  AM Bike 1 hour.
S - AM bike 1 hour.  Later AM 1 hour water run with Petey.  Later AM 3 warm-up, 2.5 race, 1.5 warm-down at Mine Falls.

Totals for the week:
Bike 6 hours
Water run 2:03:40
Run 42 miles

Mclaren Rail trail in Merrimac, MA

Moose Relay

My sister set up 4 teams for the Moose 4x2.5 mile relay, I was on board because I had no race planned for this weekend.  Then of course I got injured, but I said I'd still run since I'm running (slowly) every day.  My plan was to run somewhere from 6:00 to 6:30 pace.  I got up before 4AM and hit the bike for an hour.  After that I drove down to Chelmsford and Petey and I ventured into Hart pond.  We ran an hour in the water, then I headed up to Nashua.

I got to pick which leg I'd run so I took the leadoff leg.  That would be the easiest to figure when to warm-up, so off I headed to do the loop as a warm-up.  Mine Falls was busy with lots of folks enjoying the coolish (70's) weather, although it was a bit humid.  I felt pretty good warming up and decided I'd aim toward the 6:00 end of things.

At 9AM we were off.  I headed out in the top five, not sure of who was in the relay and who was doing 10m, and not really caring.  About 400m in Titus Mutinda moved to the front and I picked it up a bit to go with him.  I stayed close through about a mile then Titus just floated ahead.  I tried to close the gap, especially during the last 1/2 mile but never made much headway.  I was pleasantly surprised to hit the line in 13:46, just a tick over 5:30 pace.  That was a lot faster than I'd hoped for and I probably would have been even faster if I hadn't put in a couple of hours of workouts in the morning.

I did an easy 1.5 mile warm-down then went to watch all of the relay teams.  I ended up helping out with the finish line by handing out medals to all of the finishers.

The plantar fascia felt good, before, during and after.  I'll see what tomorrow brings.  I'm a little better than 50/50 that I'll race at the 10k National trail championships next week in NC.  Fingers crossed.

Merrimac trails

Ran on the trails in Merrimac MA yesterday...nice mix of hills and flats (Mclaren rail trail).  Could do a ton of running here, maybe when I'm healthy.

August - old races

I've neve enjoyed racing in August, I hate the heat.  This year it looks like I'll only have the Mt Ashland race in the books.  Looking back to August long gone by…

20 years ago – I ran two track races and two road races, picking up three wins and one second place finish. Started the month with a sub-9 effort at the GLRR track series two-mile. My 8:57 was good enough for the win over Dave Cremin (9:02) and Bob Hodge (9:03) but didn’t even come close the series record (Hodge – 8:50). Ten days later I won in a course record at the Londonderry Old Home day 5k. The first and last mile ran over what is now the Millennium Mile course, so the last mile is a killer! The course record could reach 20 years this weekend unless someone shows who can run under 14:47. Next up was the finale at the GLRR series which was the highly anticipated mile (at least highly anticipated by me). I held off Chamberas, Cremin, and Hodge to win in 4:14.7. My final race of the month was the USATF NE (called NEAC back then) 5km road champs down in Greenwich RI. I lost on a kick to Eric Morse who ran 14:24 to my 14:25.

27 guys under 5 minute pace!

15 years ago – Not a pretty month, I raced four times and the best effort was probably the Exeter 10km (it was also the only pay-day, I picked up $300 for the win). Started the month with the USATF 10m championships at Newburyport. My training log says “felt lousy, 90’s and humid”. I took 5th in 51:26. Nine days later I took 6th at the Corporate challenge 5k (now called Cigna) in Manchester. I ran it because there was a $250 bonus for non-winners who broke 15:00. I ran 14:55 for 6th place. Late in the month I went to Italy where I had a lousy run at the Challenge Stellina, finishing in 10th place. I closed out the month with the win at Exeter in 30:28.

10 years ago – Another four race month, a nice $$$ month with $650 total won. The highlight was probably taking 5th (top USATF) at the Bridge of Flowers 10k in 32:26. Newburyport (51:34) tied my best finish in the 10m heatfest, where I took 2nd place. The other two races were in the mountains of Italy (Susa – 9th place) and Austria (Kitzbuhel – 3rd place) in preparation for the World championships.

5 years ago – I was having trouble with my plantar fascia, which is also my woe today. Doing the Triathlon at Cannon Mountain did not help (I had lousy biking shoes). I was the first person into the transition with a kick-stand on my bike and ran one of the fastest times for the 1,000’ climb up Cannon. My swimming killed me, but 18th place overall was about what I’d hoped for. Next up was the Lynn Woods 10m relay, one of my favorites and a New England classic. It was not my day, I ran an ugly 14:13 for 24th fastest time. A couple of days later I ran the 6km Chamberas race in Carlisle and took 10th place. I wrote in my training log “felt awful, arch crappy”. Sounds like a typical day!

Fast times in 1995

Grand Prix

	10M	13.1M	12K	5K	8m	10K	26.2	Total
MEN'S OPEN
BAA	15	18	15	15	13	16		92
CMS	14	16	16	13	12	15		86
WRT	12	15	13	12	11	14		77
GBTC	13	14	12	14	10	13		76
GMAA	10	13	11	10	9	10		63
	10M	13.1M	12K	5K	8m	10K	26.2	Total
MEN'S 40+
WRT	13	14	10	11	8	13		69
GMAA	9	10	9	8	7	11		54
CMS	14	13	6	10	6	4		53
GCS TRIAD	10	12	8	6	5	10		51
GSH	12	1	4	9	4	12		42

With only one race remaining (the Baystate marathon in October), CMS is in a comfortable 2nd place in the open and third place in the masters.  Anything could happen at the marathon where three runners score....

My number from Mt Ashland

I don't save many numbers, but this one was unique.  I wore it as pictured below.

Week Ending 08-15-10

Started the week with a cortisone shot and a plan to do 5m a day for 3 weeks and then figure out where I'm at.  Finished the week with my own style of tri with a Walden Pond water run, World's End 5m run, and Turkey Hill Reservation 1 hour bike.

M - Flew home from OR late night so no AM bike.  PM Winni 5m - 36:53
T - AM bike - 1hr, PM Winni 5m - 37:18
W - AM bike -1 hr, PM nice out/back 5m - 40:24
Th - 4am Industrial park 5m 39:15, PM bike 45 min.
F - AM bike 1hr, PM nice run after PT 38:38
S - 530AM 1 hour water run, 7AM 5m @ River 38:36, 930AM Bike 1:15
S - 6AM 1 hour water run, 8AM 5m run @ World's End, 10 AM 1 hour bike.

At World's End

Totals
Bike 6 hours
Water run  2 hours
Run 35 miles

State High Points

Here is my latest completion map after the MN, WI, MI trip....

Mt Ashland - random notes from the trip

Random notes:
Stayed at the Econolodge in Ashland – Decent price and very friendly staff. They remembered me from the Lithia Loop. The son of the owner runs as does the owner. She was so sweet, worried about my injury and offered to pick me up if I had to drop out. She gave me her cell number “just in case”. Mom’s are the same all over, even if they aren’t your Mom.

25 minutes from the start and there still couldn’t have been more than 30 people warming up or milling around the start. Would not have guessed that a big race was soon to start.

Seemed like a lot of people were caught standing at the start as the RD didn’t fire a gun or say “go” or anything like that. I’m pretty sure he said something like “okay you’re off” and people sort of assumed the race was under way and off they went.

We went to a fancy restaurant to celebrate Richard’s birthday and the waiter raised his eyebrows when I ordered the Filet Mignon “Well Done”. I called him out on it, told him I saw the raised eyebrow thing and (nicely) said “I know what I like”. The steak was one of the tastiest I’ve ever had. It was perfectly well done…not overdone. When he delivered my meal Richard ask him if I could get Ketchup. That was good for a laugh.

We got a lot of laughs watching the Kia Soul commercial with the hamsters. They are so right…”you can go with this or you can go with that”.

Tivo had a heck of a race, especially since it was his longest race “ever”. He seems to have dialed in the proper amount of food to fuel him for 2 hours of running.

Richard, Tivo and I all compared how swollen our hands were at the finish. I guess it has something to do with the altitude and the effort. All of us had “fat sausage” fingers. Of the three of us I come from the lowest altitude (30’).

Mt Ashland Hill Climb - 08-07-10

Mount Ashland Hill Climb

I had decided back in April while laying on the couch recovering from Topaz surgery (plantar fascia) that I wanted a goal race. I figured that I could be in reasonable shape by August if all went well. I checked some of the National trail championships, but ultimately decided on the Mt Ashland hill climb. It looked like the perfect challenge. One of the longest continuous climbs for a Mountain race in the U.S., and I knew the area having run the Lithia Loop marathon in Ashland last fall. The fact that the race had over 30 years of history made it just that much more interesting. My training was going great right up until two weeks before the race when it decided to flare up badly. I missed 5 days of running and my training was seriously curtailed for the two weeks. I got a cortisone shot, began walking in “the boot” and hoped to struggle through.

Econolodge and OR Welcome Ctr

I got up at 2:30 AM on Friday morning and hit the bike for an hour before heading to the airport. Twelve hours later I was in the tiny Medford OR airport and soon after found myself tooling down the highway in a Kia Soul. The ad with hamsters (or are they hipster hamsters?) going through my mind. Richard Bolt showed up later in the afternoon, driving eight hours from his new digs near San Francisco. He is one move away from being categorized by the census as “transient”. We headed out for a relaxing 4 mile run on the bike path on the outskirts of town. It was 90 degrees and I felt every degree of it. I also was happily surprised that my foot could be categorized as “manageable”. I went from 50/50 to 90/10 as to whether I’d even start the race.

Kia Soul

Race day dawn with near ideal conditions, about 50 degrees and sunny but most of the course was shaded so it would be comfortable most of the way. We showed up at Lithia Park and found very few runners around, someone commented about how different it was from a New England race where the entire field would practically be lined up 45 minutes before the start. We did a nice easy “short 2” warm-up and did our final preparations. The field of about 220 (the Park only allows a permit for 250) headed off for the first couple of miles of paved road. I found myself in the top 15 right behind a group of “gabbers”. I just don’t understand all of the early race chatter, save your breath for later. It made me wish for my shuffle, but instead I upped the tempo and moved into 10th or so. Max King was already out of sight with Eric Skaggs shadowing him.

By the time we hit the first aid station at 3.8 miles (climbing at an average grade of 6.5%) I had moved up to 8th place and was feeling very comfortable. I could see TiVO moving through the pack and I’d passed Richard around 3 miles. I was pretty sure that I was in 2nd in the 40+, but you never can tell. I knew it was too early to worry about place; I just wanted to run as smart as possible. After the first aid station two guys caught me and I started to run with them. I was worried that I’d gotten too conservative and it felt good to up the tempo. My goal was to stay with them to at least the 6.5 mile aid station then reassess.

We passed a couple of guys during the next couple of miles then one of the guys stopped at the aid station and another slowly fell behind. We (me & #85) passed 6.5 miles in 51:39, covering the last 2.7 miles in 23:21 or 8:39 pace. The average grade during that section was 7.5%. I was now in 6th place running with one guy. The course winds so much that cutting tangents is very important, it is not easy to cut 20-30 tangents a mile with another guy trying to do the same. I was happy to be working with this guy, he was stronger on the flatter stuff and I was stronger on the steeper stuff so we each spent a fair amount of time leading the other. During this 3.9 mile stretch I held it together for the first 2.4 but the final 1.5 was super fast with even a little downhill thrown in. I estimated that I was 45 seconds to a minute behind, losing that all in the final downhill mile to the aid station. The average grade for that 3.9 mile section was only 4.5% due to the downhill (actually the first 2.4 averaged 7.4%). I was still feeling good at 10.5 (1:23:16) as I grabbed a water and Gatorade to wash down my third and final Gu of the day.

The next 2.4 was tough single-track with a few switch-backs to help see where the competition was. I couldn’t see anyone behind me and I reeled in #85 catching him about a mile into the climb. I thought I’d blow right by because I’d really made up ground but he had different ideas.   He tucked right in and matched every move I made.  We stayed together to the 12.8 mile aid station which brougth us to the base of the mountain.  The 2.4 miles took me 21:34 (8:59 pace) climbing at an average grade of just under 10%.  I think I was feeling the higher altitude (nearly 7,000' at that point) and the distance of the race was catching up to me.  I had been looking forward to the final steep climb where I hoped to really push.  Now I just wanted to maintain position.

View of the final push from the aid station (on the left of the building) and the finish (by the giant "golf ball").

Checking out the competition

I was running out of gas, but heck I was still running.  Many were reduced to power walking on the singletrack and cat-track on the mountain.  I was still keeping a running form but slowing, just trying to hold on.  I took a look back just before turning on to the final straight up the side of the mountain scramble and was surprised to see four guys pretty close behind.

Just before the scramble

The final part was very steep almost as steep as the Stark Mountain climb (1 mile in 23 min) add to that the 13 miles already covered and it was a leg burner.  I closed on a bandit who had jumped in about 400 meters into the race, but not on any official entrants.  Somehow I managed to hold off the guys closing on me despite my calves, shins, and quads starting to give out.  I staggered across the line, it was so steep that the last few yards had me on all fours. My time was 1:58:05, so the last 1.3 miles were run at 10:12 pace over an average grade of 19%, the final part was well into the 30%+ range.   After crossing the line I moved away and sat down in the shade to try and get my composure.  Tivo ended up having a great race, finishing 3rd overall and breaking the masters record (running a 1:55:33).  I surpassed my stretch goal of 2:00-2:05, and my realistic goal was 2:05-2:10, definitely a surprise to run that "fast.  So all in all it was a sucessful day for me.  Richard Bolt had a solid run in his first race as a master, taking 15th overall (5th 40+) approximately half-way between his two previous times on the course.

View of Mt Shasta

I found the course to be excellent, a classing mountain race (over 30 years old) mostly a steady climb but flatter and steeper sections to mix it up.  After the initial 1.5m of paved road most of the race was on forest access roads (dirt).  There was over a mile from about 9-10 that was flat and down.  The last part was quite steep and the very last unmarked section was a brutal scramble up the ski slope.  Great day, great race.

Splits:
3.8 - 28:17 (28:17) +1,305’
6.5 - 23:21 (51:39) +1,080’
10.4 -31:37 (1:23:16) +940’
12.8 -21:34 (1:44:50) +1,260’
13.5 -13:16 (1:58:05) +953’

Week ending 08-08-10

Week ending 08-08-10
Started feeling pretty good but maybe ran to hard on the Plantar Fascia. Made it through the mountain race in pretty decent shape.

M – Winni 5 32:14 felt great except foot

T – AM Bike 1 hour, PM Winni 5 31:10 felt great except foot even worse

W – AM Bike 1 hour, PM Musquash swamp run 46:29

Th – AM Bike 1 hour, PM Winni 5 – 35:02 felt a bit better

F – 2:30 AM Bike 1 hour, flight to Oregon, PM 4m o/b on Bike Path in Ashland with Richard 32:33

Sat – 1.6 warm-up 13:57, 13.4 Mountain race up Mt Ashland 1:58:05, 5th place, 2nd 40+

The final 1,000+ feet of climb

Sun – 7am 4m o/b on bike Path with Richard 31:35

Totals:
43 miles running
Bike 4 hours

Looking ahead:
Plan is to stay in the boot when not running and stay at 4-5 miles per day for 3 weeks while getting PT and continuing with cross-training. Only 6 weeks until the Mt Whitney trip, so I have to tread carefully!

Richard Bolt approaching the final steep part

Peakbagging in WI, MI, MN

Thursday

Our first day of the long weekend trip to WI, MI, and MN had us headed out the door at 4 AM for the flight to MN. I drew up a plan that would get us three of the four highest county high points in Wisconsin and threw in the second highest point in the state and a few other fun things.

Eric, Al and I drove from Minneapolis airport to James Lake in MI (180 miles). Directions on COHP.org got us to the Taylor County High point (1,840) which was a very small ski area above James Lake. Eric went for a run while Al and I explored a bit. It was nice to get out and stretch after that long just sitting around. There wasn’t much of a view, but the area was well maintained, the slopes were cut even in high summer.

After about a half hour we headed for Timms Hill (1,951), the state high point which was 20 miles east. After a quick hike to the summit and some pictures Eric and I took off for a run to Pearson Hill (1,951) which is the second highest hill in MI. We ran on some nice ATV trails and thought we’d bagged the summit. Our 42 minute run included another Ascent of Timms hill at the very end. Al picked us up and we went back to Pearson for a quick bushwhack in the very open (and very buggy) woods to get the correct high point. The road map in Grauer’s book includes most of the roads but none of the many trails in the area. The Timm’s Hill National trail website includes a bunch of trails but is very hard to match up with what we saw out there!

We headed out from the high point adding another 40 miles of driving east to Lookout Mountain (1,923) for Lincoln County High point. This looked easy, a nice 24 minute run up and back to the Fire Tower and a few minutes taking in the view (hazy). On the way down we ran into the farmer who owns the “first quarter mile of the road”. We apologized for trespassing and he just asked that future visitors check in with him prior to hiking the road. Future high pointers should either check in at the farm or access the summit via the Ice Age Trail which runs over the top and would be about the same distance (3 miles RT) as the road.

Our final high point was another 40 miles drive, east to Sugarbush Hill (1,939) for Forest County High Point. This was a drive up and we took a few minutes on top (no view) to check out the footings from the removed fire tower and the bench mark. The COHP.org trip reports accurately describe how to reach this location. Then it was another 55 miles to Iron Mountain MI for the night.

Totals
Drive 335
COHP 4
State HP 1
Fire tower 1
8 miles of running

Friday
Our second day of Peakbagging started with a drive from downtown Iron Mountain MI to the summit of Millie Hill to check out the fire tower on top. There was no access to the tower (stairs removed) so we just tagged the highest ground and headed on our way. Our first goal of the day was the Dickinson County HP outside of Sagola, MI. Twenty miles of driving brought us to our goal. The trip report on COHP.org is relatively accurate. The road to the HP is overgrown a bit and there are a few turns that should be avoided (stick with going directly south and you’ll be fine). We kicked around the summit and checked out the witness posts and footings from the tower. We took off north and arrived at the tourist information center in L’Anse MI.

After 65 miles of driving we arrived at the visitors’ bureau (located at 755 E Broad St) which has plenty of good information. The woman was very helpful and happy to hear that we were not only interested in visiting Mount Arvon but also heading to Mt Curwood. She was a little worried about us getting lost but we assured her we could navigate (Al and I both brought compasses and are very good at map reading). She gave us a detailed map of the area with the route to Curwood highlighted but much more helpful was the turn by turn directions in the COHP.org trip reports and even better was the photocopy we were given of Roy Schweiker’s edited step by step directions. Unfortunately the signage has been removed, but with great care we were able to drive within about 2.5 miles of the second highest point in the state. There are quite a few new roads that have been cut through the area and others have been recently graded so at times it was not easy to figure out what road we were meant to take. Al is very good with directions and we piled out of the car pretty sure of where we were going. The 2.5 mile (or more?) run was pleasant if a bit buggy. We saw a bunch of bear tracks in the road but no signs of any wildlife. We tagged the summit, signed in and were back at the car in just over 50 minutes of running.

The drive from Curwood to Arvon was not as simple as it looked on the map and we were stymied by a road that is now closed (and by the looks of things has been closed for a few years). We had to backtrack a bit but eventually made our way around toward Arvon. The Kia that we rented probably could have made it to the parking area but I was a bit nervous, so we parked just before a big mud puddle. We were a bit surprised to see 5 or 6 cars parked at the base of the short climb. We were not expecting so much activity on a Friday morning. We ran the little more than two miles round trip in just under 20 minutes. We didn’t spend much time on the summit; it had a lot of trash on it and no view.

Next up we drove about 80 miles to Summit Peak in Ontonagon County. Our goal was the highest point in the Porcupine Mountains, which is also the third highest mountain in Michigan. The trip reports on COHP.org are accurate. Al and I decided to run the 1 mile round trip (just over 10 minutes running) while Eric headed down the road on a four mile downhill run. The run was interesting with about ½ of it on wooden walkways and steps. The viewing platform was crowded and the haze kept us from seeing much of anything. We picked up Eric and headed on our way to Minnesota. 230 miles later we closed out the day in Mountain Iron, MN.

Totals

Drive 420 miles

COHP 3

Fire Tower 1

State Park HP 1

9 miles of running

Saturday
Our final “big” day of bagging started with us driving 10 mile to Pike County to see if we could get close to the county high point. The trip reports on COHP.org were accurate which meant we had a 6 mile run if we wanted to bag the summit of Pike Mountain. I felt this would be too aggressive with my Plantar Fascia problems having caused me to miss nearly a week of running and knowing we had a minimum of 7 miles of running ahead of us at other peaks. We headed northeast 90 miles to Isabella, MN and Stony Tower Hill (2,080’) the county high point of Lake County. The trip report is accurate but the road was a bit too overgrown for the Kia rental vehicle. We parked at a small road junction and ran the last mile to the overgrown path to the top. It wasn’t quite a bushwhack but it certainly was getting to that point. We found the top and some witness markers along with footings from the former fire tower. The bugs were happy to have us visit so we didn’t linger long. The run was just under 20 minutes round trip.

We carefully extricated ourselves from the narrow grassy “road”, tall grass tickling the underbelly of the car the entire way. Next up was a 95 mile drive to Eagle Mountain (2,301’) the highest point in the state. The drive was uneventful and we arrived at the trailhead to find six other cars parked and another couple pulled in as we prepared for the run. This was our first high point that involved some “real” trail running. The round trip was a little over 7 miles with most of the climb/descent in the last mile.

The trail was pretty rocky and required full attention to avoid wiping out at running speed, not that we were running all that fast. It was nice to be out in the woods just moving along. Al would hike while we were running slowly. Al can hike really fast and many times I’ve found myself shuffling along at a trot to match his walking speed. We hit the base of the mountain in just over 30 minutes and cruised to the top in a total of 40:44. The top had a huge plaque but no register. We took some pictures and headed back down. Al cranked the run back, he is fierce on descents and has no trouble running in rocky terrain. Eric and I took a more leisurely run getting back in 42:34 for a total of 1:23:19 round-trip. In contrast to our slower downhill than uphill running, Al ran back in under 36 minutes.

We headed south along Lake Superior but had some trouble finding a hotel room due to the Tall Ships being in town (Duluth). We ended up driving 150 to Moose Lake MN which looked promising with a network of bike paths and ATV trails.

Totals for the day
Drive 340 miles
2 COHP
1 State HP
9 miles running

Sunday
Our final day was the only one that had no peakbagging planned although I had printed up some trip reports in case we were really up for some bonus bagging. Eric and I had tickets to the Twins baseball game so anything we’d be doing had to be early in the day.

Al did some research and I decided to join him for a run to get the county high point near Cromwell. We drove about 30 miles from Moose Lake to Cromwell (Carlton County), nearly running down some deer in the early morning mist. We parked at the Cromwell Fire Tower and quickly ascended the 80’ high tower. Al had a pretty good idea of where we were going, so off we went. The COHP.org trip reports were a bit scarce on detail but fortunately there were a couple of trail junctions with very fancy signage. The snowmobile and ski trail network in the woods was extensive but Al guided us with ease and after just over 30 minutes we had reached the shores of Rogers Lake then backed up and found a couple of likely bumps that marked the highest point. We motored on the way back, funny how when you are sure of where you are you tend to run without any hesitation. We were back at the car covering about 7 miles in just over 56 minutes. We drove back to Moose Lake and picked up Eric who had chosen to put in 90 minutes of running on the bike path in town.

The next stop on our tour was the city high point in Minneapolis, it is listed on PeakBagger.com, and how many times will I be in Minneapolis? We drove about 100 miles and navigated through a nice neighborhood to the 980 foot summit. Well, it really wasn’t much more than a bump and the homeowner watched us closely as we walked on the sidewalk along his property. There were no views, so we weren’t there long. Al headed off for another COHP and a run while Eric and I took in the Twins game (beat Seattle 4 – 0). Then it was off to the airport for the long trip home.

Totals for the day
Drive 175 miles
1 COHP
1 Fire tower
1 City HP
7 miles running

All in all the trip went off without anything worse than a minor hitch here and there. I was glad that my foot held up well enough that I could visit all of the high points I’d planned. Next peakbagging trip will be Mt Whitney in September.

Grand Totals
Drive 1,270
COHP 10
State HP 3
Fire tower 3
33 miles of running
State Park HP 1
City HP 1

A couple of maps for County high pointers

These might be helpful if you plan on visiting.  Turn by turn directiions to Mt Curwood (MI)

A map of the Porcupine Mountains (MI)

A map of the roads near Mt Curwood & Mt Arvon (MI state High point)

Week ending 08-01-10

Started the week with a cortisone shot and ended the week watching the Twins beat the Cleveland Indians. A full week!

M – AM Bike 1 hour, AM water run 1:20 with DQ, AM Bike 1 hour, AM Cortisone shot and back in the boot.

T – AM Bike 1 hour, PM Bike 1 hour

W – AM Bike 1 hour, PM 3+ run – 26:49. Testing out the foot for the trip.

Th – Flew from VT to MN. 5m run at WI state High Point – 42:11 and later in the day a 3m run at a Firetower/County High Point – 24:11.

F – AM 5m run to the 2nd highest point in Michigan – 50:04. Later AM 2m run to the State High Point in MI – 19:57. PM 1m at the County High Point in the Porcupine Mountains – 10:51

S – AM 2m run at a County High Point in MN – 19:21. PM 7+m run to the MN State High Point (Eagle Mountain) – 1:23:19.

S – AM short 7m run in Cromwell MN from a firetower to the County High Point – 56:04

Totals for the week
Bike – 5 hours
Water run – 1:20
Run – 36 miles

State high points #29, 30, and 31…only 19 to go (not really, I’ll never climb Denali)

At the MN high point

Big Trip

Near the highest point in WI

No blogging...a lot of travel.  More to follow, but here are a couple of pictures.