County High Points - Maine

I finished the state of Maine on 09-24-11 with a run up/down the ski slopes at Sugarloaf Mountain (Franklin Co). This was also my final county in New England and also completed the County Prominence list for Maine.
09/30/2006 Katahdin Baxter ME Piscataquis 5,268
08/16/2007 Cadillac mountain ME Hanckock 1,530
11/20/2010 Whitten Hill ME Sagadahoc CO 630
11/20/2010 Clark Mountain ME York CO 1,320
11/20/2010 Pleasant Mountain ME Cumberland 1,880
08/04/2011 Mt Megunticook ME Knox Co 1,385
08/05/2011 Frye Mountain ME Waldo Co 1,139
08/05/2011 Cunningham Mtn ME Lincoln Co 760
08/05/2011 Old Speck ME Oxford Co 4,160
08/10/2011 Pleasant Mountain ME Washington 1,374
08/10/2011 Peaked Mountain ME Aroostook Co 2,220
08/11/2011 East Turner Mtn ME Penobscot Co 2,456
08/12/2011 McGaffey Mountain ME Kennebec Co 1,310
08/12/2011 Shackley Hill ME Androscoggin 1,122
09/24/2011 West Peak (Bigelow)ME Somerset Co 4,145
09/24/2011 Sugarloaf ME Franklin Co 4,240

I've now got 172 county high points in 40 states
By State:
AL 2
AR 4
AZ 2
CA 1
CO 1
CT 8
DE 1
FL 5
GA 2
HI 2
IA 1
IL 1
IN 2
KS 3
KY 1
LA 2
MA 14
MD 1
ME 16
MI 3
MO 3
MN 3
MS 1
MT 1
NC 14
ND 4
NE 1
NH 10
NJ 1
NV 3
NY 19
OH 2
OK 2
OR 1
PA 1
RI 5
SC 1
SD 2
TN 1
VA 6
VT 14
WI 4
WV 1
172

Hovenweep National Monument – 09/16/11 - This park had the worst park map I’ve ever seen.  I ended up doing a road run here due to confusion over where the damn trail went.  The 2 mile loop hike around the site was interesting and had some nice views.

Hovenweep means “deserted valley” and it sure seemed that way when I ran the very quiet road and could see a thunderstorm 20-30 miles off in the distance. 

 

Natural Bridges National Monument

Natural Bridges National Monument – 09/16/11 – This was another cool location, up on a mesa at 6,500’ with deep canyons and three bridges in sandstone formed from what was once an ancient sea.

After hiking to Kachina Bridge (1.4m with 400’ climb/descent) I set off for a run on the Mesa.  The ranger recommended staying off the canyon trails which were muddy and slick from rain the day before.  I decided it was best to be a bit cautious.  It worked out well as the trail from Kachina Bridge to the north trail junction and then from the Sipapu Bridge view and back south to Owachomo Bridge was a lot of fun.  There was plenty of up/down and some great sections of trail to run on.  I ran 4.5 miles on the Mesa trails (46:52) including a visit to Owachomo Bridge.

Week Ending 09-25-11

Only 6 weeks until the US trail marathon championships.  My last 8 weeks have been 100, 91, 93, 87, 99, 91, 96 and 96.  This has been my best stretch of training in a long time.  Hopefully it will pay off.  One more 90+ (I hope) then the slow drop until the big race.

M – Lunch 4 in 31:02, PM River o/b 6 in 46:37.  Felt awful from racing on Sunday

T – 415am

Ind Pk

5 in 37:47, Lunch 4 in 29:35, PM River 6 in 45:58

W – 415am Ind Pk 5 in 37:30, Lunch 4 in 28:09, PM 3m at GCS track workout in 21:27

Th – 415am Ind Pk 5 in 37:21, Lunch home for Ind Pk 5 in 33:26, PM Winni out/back 8 in 56:07

F – 415am

Ind Pk

5 in 37:09, Lunch 4 in 27:32, PM nice relaxing 3m in 27:13.

S - 16 miles on the Fire Warden Trail/AT/Horn Pond trail & 5 miles up/down Sugarloaf mountain

S - 8 miles at Petey's in 64:03

Totals

Week - 96

Month - 335

View, or lack of, from the summit of Sugarloaf (Maine)

 

 

Canyonlands National Park & the Syncline Loop

Canyonlands National Park – 09/15/11 – 30 miles from Moab Utah to the Island in the Sky region of Canyonlands.  Over 300,000 acres of canyons, mesas, buttes, and arches. 

Self portrait

Heed the warning!

I decided to test myself on the Syncline loop trail “a long hot day hike over one of only three loop trails in the district” with 1,200’ of drop including some very steep scrambling into Upheaval canyon.  I should have known better than to do something that mentions “scrambling” but I figured I could handle it.  A lot of the trail followed dry washes and I had to be very “ON” to stay on the trail.  I didn’t see another person out there, but someone had hiked it within a day (I saw some foot prints) and it was fun to see where they went wrong and where I went wrong based on footprints.  I ran the trail clockwise taking only two short breaks.

Start of a very scary section

 The first break was in a really steep section of scramble where I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue on the trail.  I absolutely loved about 90% of the trail, 5% was tougher than I like, and 5% I was scared big time.  This was one of those 5% times and I just sat down, had some water and collected myself.  The views were spectacular and I was actually looking forward to the switch back climb the ranger had mentioned.  I hit the 4.9 mile trail junction in 1:22:28 which was a bit slower than I’d hoped.

I thought I could do the loop in 2-2.5 hours (it is a 6-8 hour hike).  I figured the 4.9 mile would be about half-way because there would be a lot of climbing in the last 3.4 miles.  I really must have been slow on the tough descent, I climbed out in 55:21 and was at the trailhead covering the loop in 2:20:11.  There were two parts on the climb that I was a little nervous scrambling and made full contact with the rock to make sure I didn’t slip.  All in all it was a blast!

heading up

Climbing up this lip was a bit scary

This section is the one I stopped on the way down.  Very rough and steep "scramble".

Arches National Park – 09/15/11 – 5 miles from Moab Utah.  Visited a bunch of overlooks then headed out to Devil’s Garden for a run out to Dark Angel and back including side trips to all the arches along this trail.  Devil’s Garden is the longest maintained trail in the park and accesses eight arches.  “Expect narrow ledges with rocky surfaces and scrambling over slickrock”. 

Mostly it was very run-able, with just a couple of “tricky” spots.  It was a very enjoyable run and I pretty much had the trail to myself (most don’t venture beyond the first couple of arches).  It took me 31:33 to run out to Dark Angel, including a couple of mistakes on the “rock fin” and 41:46 to come back with the added visits to the other Arches along the way.

Scary section of slickrock

Crossing a rock fin

Dark Angel - Isn't that a song by the Cult?

Black Canyon of the Gunison National Park

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park – 09/14/11 - drove the south rim drive and took in some of the views, then headed to the Warner Point nature trail at the highest point on the south rim.  The 1.5 mile out/back section had drops of over 2,700’ to the Gunnison River.

I ran 4 times out/back from 8,289’ to Warner point (8,300’) with 200’ of climb/descent in each direction.  I started out slowly (15:00) for loop 1 then decided that each lap would be faster than the one before it.  My next three laps were 13:50, 13:15, and 12:23.  I felt like I was flying on the last loop and man was my breathing ragged on the final couple of climbs!

Curecanti National Recreation Area

Curecanti National Recreation Area – 09/14/11 - Outside of Gunnison Colorado.  Started with a 4 mile hike from 7,519’ to 7,847’ which featured an up close view of the Dillon Pinnacles and a nice view of the Blue Mesa Reservoir.  Would have been nice to have Paul Low along to explain the formation of these volcanic pinnacles, and Dan Verrington to point out all the different types of vegetation.

Followed this up with a 1.5 mile hike from 7,800- down to 6,750’ and back on the Mesa Creek trail.  The hike is recommended to get a “feel for the depth and narrowness of the Black Canyon”.

Dam!

Great Sand Dunes National Monumen

Great Sand Dunes National Monument - 09/13/11 – Near Mosca Colorado.  Did a hike/run to the High Dune (8,691’) and looped over to Star Dune and then down.  The dunes were 650-750’ higher than the surrounding area.  Although this wasn’t the highest point in the park it was a “Dunes High Point”.

I started at the trailhead in the campground which added over a mile each way.  It took me 11:45 to run to the Mosca trail, 36;51 to the top, 25:33 down, and 10:20 back to the trailhead, I put in a loop around the campground to get 10 miles (1:27:50).

After that I headed out for a run up/down the Mosca Pass Trail, a “challenging hike which climbs 1,463’ into the mountain pass…it offers a good chance of seeing quite a bit of wildlife”.  I didn’t see any wildlife, but it was a very interesting run with all kinds of terrain and every turn seemed to have a different ecosystem.  Topped out at nearly 9,800’. 

Mesa Verde National Park

Ruins at Mesa Verde



Self-Portrait on near the Knife Edge



Mesa Verde National Park – 09/12/11 – 20 miles outside of Cortez Colorado.  Elevation in the park ranged from 6,900’ to 8,572’.  This was the only park high point I visited on the trip.  Park Point Overlook had a fire tower and is the highest point in the park. It had some amazing views.  I had a great time running the Prater Ridge trail.  I started at the Knife Edge trail head and completed the 9 mile run in 1:15:48.  The trail was very run-able and had some nice views; a large portion of the trail was right on the edge of the mesa with some big drops.

Mesa Verde High Point

Ute Mountains

Four Corners - AZ, NM, UT, CO

Four Corners Monument – 09/11/11 – Located 40 miles outside of Cortez Colorado, this is the only place in the USA where four states intersect at one point.  Even more importantly (to me), it is the location of three tri-state points (figure that one out).  Admission $3 to this area run by the Navajo Parks and Recreation Department.

Flying to Cortez, Colorado

Beechcraft 1900 (19 passenger plane) – The workhorse plane of Great lakes Air.  The description of the plane included this cheery note “Our luxurious planes many features include all seats being both window AND aisle seats”.

The smallest plane I've ever been on

The only way to quickly get from Denver to Cortez, CO