Fat Dog Strong

This year I had not planned to race  Fat Dog in the Cascade Mountains, but I had friends who did. I had planned to volunteer. For those who don't know, the Fat Dog is a series of four races. The longest and signature race is the 120 mile (196 km) event, that starts just outside Keremeos in the Okanagan, crosses over four peaks and ends at Lightning Lake in Manning Provincial Park.  The 70 mile (115 km) event starts at Blackwell Peak and joins the 120 mile course at the Heather/Bonnevier trails intersection and goes over two peaks to Lightning Lake. The 50 mile (80 km) starts at Cayuse Flats in Manning Park and the 40 mile (64 km) event starts at Sumallo Grove in Skagit Provincial Park.

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A wildfire on Placer Mountain closed the Ashnola Forest Service Rd, which provides access to the start and several aid stations, about two weeks before the event, which meant that the 120 mile race could not use the Keremeos to Bonnevier section. The race director Heather MacDonald rerouted and shortend the 120 mile route to 103 miles by adding a loop over the imposing Frosty Mountain in Manning Park, and by starting the race at Bonnevier.

Then the really bad new. Two days before the race was supposed to start Skagit Valley Provincial Park and Silver Skagit Forest Service Rd were closed due to a wildfire on Silvertip Mountain. There was nothing to do but cancel the races.

Fat Dog flagging with reflectors for night running. On Heather Trail.

So what to do. We decided to go anyway. Heather had planned informal runs on the open sections of the course for the hundreds of runners and support crews who had travelled from 12 countries and were already there or on their way to Manning Park.  The race flagging would be left in place until Sunday, and water caches were still on course for use of the runners.

Friday August 10, 2018 - Heather 32 km Out and Back Run, 1030 metres elevation gain/loss 
Friday morning, Kent Ainscough (who had planned to run the 120 mile race), Charlene Waldner (who had planned to run the 40 mile race), Lisa Fehr (who had planned to pace Kent over Skyline and Frosty on the revised course) and I headed over on the 7 am ferry to Tsawwassen.

Friday: Filling our water before heading out to run Heather - it was 30 degrees in the valley and smokey

The smoke from the wildfires was pretty bad as we drove through Skagit Valley Provincial Park. At Sumallo Grove and up to Cascades (location of two Fat Dog aid stations) the visibility was down to a few hundred metres.  It got better as we headed over the Alison Pass but still smoky at Manning Park Lodge.

We drove up the switchback road to the summit of Blackwell Peak and started our first run at about 3:30 pm. Our plan was to simply run and out and back on Heather Trail. This is one of the most beautiful sections of the race course. The 70 mile racers would see this in daylight, but normally for the 120 mile runners they're up here through the night or watching the sunrise while up here.  We ran fast on the down hill to Buckhorn Camp, then hiked the climb up to Bonnevier/Heather Junction.

at 2000 metres ASL - in the alpine meadows on Heather Trail

We met volunteers hauling used water jugs out and they told us that there was a water cache for Fat Dog runners at the location of Heather Aid Station, about 1 km down the Bonnevier Trail if we needed it. We didn't. We had our mandatory gear and lots of water on us, plus I had my water filter if we needed to fill up along the way.

I felt slow running, but I think it was partly the altitude (2000 metres) and the dust and smoke in the air. At times we could smell smoke, but mostly up there the air felt quite good. The views were obscured by smoke, but as the evening wore on, the smoke thinned and views opened up.  Heather trail flows mostly through alpine meadows in full bloom, but it also runs along some spectacular ridge lines. We met a lot of runners up there who had come for Fat Dog. Some had ran with the organised run that morning from Bonnevier to Cayuse Flats and were running it back to get the distance they wanted.

Heather Trail

We had thought about getting as far as Nicoman Ridge before turning back, but I had underestimated the distance. We wanted to be back by 10 pm mainly so we could eat and sleep. So after 3 hours, we still had 5 km to go to get to Nicoman Ridge and decided to turn back. Our pace was slowed mostly for picture stops and to enjoy the views.  We certainly were not in race mode.

The "Star Wars" section on Heather Trail near Third Brother

On the return, Lisa went on ahead and it ended up being me Kent and Charlene running together. At Bonnevier junction, we met two hikers who gave us a message from Lisa that she would keep going to the the parking lot. With no cell coverage or wifi, that's how we pass messages to each other on the trails.  The sun had set so we stopped to put our lights on. We knew that it gets dark quickly up there, and sure enough once we dropped down into the trees we needed the lights.  We arrived back at Blackwell Peak about 9:40 pm and headed down to the lodge to check-in and find food.

Sunset over the Three Brothers - Heather Trail

The restaurant closed at 9 pm and the pub didn't serve food. So dinner was whatever snack we had brought with us and a pint of IPA in the pub.  We had missed the Fat Dog BBQ, which started at 4 pm, but the run was certainly worth it.

Saturday August 11, 2018 - Skyline 25 km Loop Run, 1000 metres elevation gain/loss
We slept in a bit Saturday morning, but were out the door and ready to run by about 9:00 am.  Today we drove to Lightning Lake, the location of the Fat Dog finish line.   It was sad to see the Fat Dog trucks leaving, the finish line all packed up. The weather forecast for later in the day was rain and thundershowers, so there were no plans to celebrate at the lake. At the lake the smoke was quite bad and I actually wondered if it made sense to try running today. We couldn't see Skyline from the lake, though it is the mountain immediately west of the of the lake. We decided to go anyway.

Along South Gibson Trail to Strawberry Flats

We set of running along side Lightning Lake heading west on Lone Duck Bay Trail. We went through the campground, then joined Lower Gibson Trail that took us up to Strawberry Flats.    The race organizers has kindly flagged the way to Skyline 1 trail, that would take us up to Sky Junction, where we can join the Fat Dog course and "run" the course back to the finish line at Lightning Lake.  We had a beautiful run through Strawberry Flats before the trails started climbing up to Sky Junction.  At this point the pins that hold the strap on my left brand new Black Diamond Carbon Fibre trekking pole broke. I was not impressed. That should not happen.  We used duct tape to fasten the strap on the pole, and that worked for the remainder of the trip (tip: never ever go on a wilderness trail run without your essentials, and this should always include duct tape, it can be used to fix anything). This well constructed trail was easy to climb and above the tree line some nice views from the alpine meadows. High up on our left we could see the summits that the Fat dog course goes over and we would soon be climbing over too.

Sky Junction - site of the last aid station before the finish line on the Fat Dog race course

At Sky Junction we found race marking and we found the water cache that had been helicoptered in earlier in the week in preparation for the race. Sky Junction is where Skyline 1 and Skyline 2 trails meet on the edge of the mountain, near the summit. It's a spectacular location. I've only seen Sky Junction at night - the first time around 10:30 pm on the 50 Miler, and the second time around 2:00 am on the 70 miler.  Running on a mountain top at night, all you see is what you can see in your headlight, the rest is left to your imagination.  However, I do remember that between Sky Junction and the start of the long down hill to the finish line there were at least five false summits, and some incredibly long steep climbs.

Running along Skyline over the five peaks

I enjoyed doing this in daylight and on fresh legs. While the climbs were steep, they did not feel as bad as when I climbed them after running 100 km.  And while during those races at night I imagined we were on a ridge, it wasn't how I imagined it at all. The ridge in reality was narrower and longer. And I finally got to see the burnt out forest. Once over the peaks, we had a fun run down to Lightning lake, where we followed the race course flagging back to the finish line area.

On Skyline descending after one of the false peak, heading to the summit of the next in the distance

That afternoon, we went to the pub at 4 pm and met with Heather. We volunteered to take down the flagging on Windy Joe and Frosty the next morning. Dinner at the pub. An early night as we planned to get up on Frosty early the next day.

Rainbow Bridge - one mile to the Fat Dog finish line

Sunday August 12, 2018 - Windy Joe/Frosty 34 km Loop Run, 1570 metres elevation gain/loss
We were up really really early and at the trail head by 6 am.  We ran in and joined the Windy Joe/Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) course. This time as we went we took down the flagging, signs and reflectors used to mark the course for the runners.  The smoke had cleared but clouds had rolled in. Perfect day to climb a mountain.

Running part of the Pacific Coast Crest Trail

The first 4.5 km was a steady climb on a wide trail to the junction where the PCT and windy Joe trail split. Taking the Windy Joe trail we followed the trail to the summit, where there is a Forest Fire Lookout building. A woman was camping in it when we go there. There was no view today as we were in the cloud. As we were about to leave the woman mentioned there was a water cache behind the trees. The water cache was for the Fat Dog race. So we drained all nine containers of water, deflated them and used the Fat Dog race flagging we had collected, and duct tape (see, never forget your duct tape), to tie them to our packs.

First Aid at Windy Joe/PCT trails junction

The down hill run was fun and fast on the wide smooth trail. Until the last turn, when I managed to trip on a small stone and went flying down the hill.  I was actually able to turn my body to lesson the damage caused by the impact with the trail, but I did slide down the trail a bit, taking skin off my knee and hands.  I stood up a bit shaken and had to walk to let the adrenaline subside.  Back at the trail junction, Charlene and Lisa patched me up. They bandaged my hands mainly but I wanted to leave the wound below the knee open. Bandaging it would have made it painful to run as that's the area the skin constantly move.  Besides the blood running down my leg looked badass. I got quite a few comments of concern from passing hikers later when we were heading down from the summit of Frosty. I'm not sure why blood running down my leg would be a cause for concern.

Running through the forest ascending Frosty Mountain with deflated water jugs from Windy Joe

We followed the beautiful smooth single track of the PCT, then took Frosty trail as it started the long climb to the summit.  This part of the trail was in forest and it was beautiful, but nothing spectacular. It rose up gently, then down gently making t quite runable. Finally, we got a view of the imposing bulk of Frosty, rising to a rocky snow patched point over 2400 metres above sea-level. The trail broke out of the forest onto alpine meadows and then started climbing steeply on switchback. The meadows give way to rocks and boulders and the steep rocky face we were climbing looked impossible. Only, we could see the race flagging high above, taunting us that we had to climb.  on a narrow ridge in places. The steep drops on both sides were vertigo inducing.  We finally reach the dramatic summit of the trail. We're not quite a the true summit, but close enough. A sign at the top warns of "Extreme Hazard beyond this point, use caution".  It was extreme hazard on both sides of the sign, so I thought it an odd place to put that sign - at the bottom before climbing up the steep rocky mountain might have made more sense.

Climbing to the cloud shrouded 2400 metres summit of Frosty Mountain - de-flagging the detoured Fat Dog 120 route

It was cold at the top of Frosty. Some of us had put layers and gloves on earlier. I hadn't, but I did now. We made only a brief stop to remove the race flagging, then we headed down the other side, equally as steep. There was a snow field on our left in the shadow of Frosty's summit, and our trail headed down another ridge. The top part of the trail was all loose rock and very slow to make our way down. Once off the steep rocky face, the trail became quite runable and we made decent time on the 10 km back to Lightning Lake.  I arrived at Lightning Lake just behind Charlene (who was having a strong day running) to find her with the Whiskey Jacks (Grey Jays), who had come to greet us.  Kent and Lisa arrived. Just before the lake Lisa had fallen with her thumb taking all of the impact. She later learned she had sprained it in three places and fractures it in two places. Good news is she is cleared to continue running.

Frosty Mountain ascent down from the summit

We still had to run along the river and de-flag the course as we went, and then back to the car. Once there we drove to Heather MacDonalds' home to drop off the flagging and water jugs, give her a hug and thank her for the weekend.  Then back to Manning Park Lodge to use the recreation centre showers and to change.

Descending Frosty Mountain

Heading home we hit the usual traffic congestion on Highway 1 that we always seem to get when leaving Fat Dog on a Sunday afternoon.  Last year the highway was closed so we had to take back roads. This year the highway was hardly moving from Chilliwack all the way to Langley.  Google directed us off the highway in two location to use parallel roads. At Abbotsford we left the highway and drove around Abbotsford closer to the Fraser River and rejoined the highway just after Langley, where the traffic was now flowing freely.  We arrived at IKEA in Coquitlam an hour before closing, and the ferry terminal at 8 pm to find a two sailing wait. We made it on the 10 pm ferry, making for an extremely long day but fun day.

Thanks Heather MacDonald and your crew for putting on an awesome weekend of running in the wake of having to cancel the races. We'll be there next year.

lightning Lake

Seven Lakes Basin

On Saturday July 28, 2018 three friends (Lisa Fehr, Charlene Waldner and Karen Laberee) and I went over to Washington State and ran the Seven Lakes Basin in Olympic National Park.  This is a 27 km loop from Sol Duc Hot Springs trailhead, up past Deer Lake to High Divide, then 10 km along High Divide, before dropping back down into the Sol Duc valley via Heart Lake and Bridge Creek. 

Woke up ridiculously early to walk with Charlene and Lisa from Cook Street Village to the Coho ferry terminal on Belleville Street. We bought return walk-on tickets, went through immigration and on-board the ferry for the 6:10 am departure.  The crossing took 90 minutes and this one was through dense fog, the ship's horn sounding every 2 minutes. We also ran into Andy, Elaine and Colleen who were doing the same run.

We arrived Port Angeles on-time. We walked off and picked up our rental car from Budget. They used to be located right across from the ferry terminal but had moved, leaving number to call for a ride on the door of the old location. Luckily their car garage is still there, so they drove us to the office a few blocks away. From here, it was a scenic one hour drive down state Highway 101, then along the beautiful Sol Duc Road. At the start of Sol Duc Rd we paid entry into the park (US$30) and 15 minutes driving later came to the trailhead at the end of the road.

We started our run at about 9:30 am. The first 1.2 km was on a wide well worn trail to the triple Sol Duc Falls. We crossed the bridge over the falls. This was where 95 percent of people from the trailhead turn back.  After crossing the bridge we set off on a narrow trail and soon figured this was not really a trail.  It's the type of trail we're used to running, but it wasn't a constructed trail. Turning back we found the correct trail climbed up the side of the mountain.

From here we switched back up the side of the mountain, following the course of a stream in the valley deep down below us. The trail was quite rocky but not terribly steep, so a pretty easy hike.  A short distance up I decided to try my new carbon fiber trekking poles.  Hearing good things from those that use them, I'd been resistant to buying poles, mostly from worry of not fuelling properly if my hands were not free.  On these climbs I didn't find the poles made much difference, though they did help stabilize on some questionable sections.

As we climbed, three women ran past us, making me feel slow. I was quite happy when we passed them at Deer Lake and never saw them again.   Deer Lake was a beautiful wooded lake. We ran around it and across peat boggy type meadows to the start of the climb to High Divide. Deer Lake was about half-way up, elevation-wise from Sol Duc to the start of High Divide. 

Along this section we ran into a strange sight. A young man standing on a rock wearing a dress shirt with tails and no pants - just boxer shorts and shoes.  His name was Andrew, or as we now call him "Pant-less Andrew". He claims United Airlines lost his luggage, so rather than sit in the hotel room, he decided to do his hike anyway. It was too hot for pants, so he took them off.  Guess I have no room to talk. Years a go when I was a road runner and leading group runs from Frontrunners, I forgot to put my running shorts on and didn't notice until I got to the start of the run on the peninsula - so I ended leading a group run wearing just boxer shorts and running shirt.  Anyway, Pant-less Andrew hiked up to High Divide with us. After taking a picture of us for us, I dragged the girls away from him and we started running the beautiful single track on High Divide. Pant-less Andrew couldn't keep up.

The trail crossed the ridge and followed the fall-line on the west-side. As we ran, the sun was hot, but we started to feel blast furnace winds as hot air raised up the alpine slopes from the Hoh Valley on our right.  After gentle climbing for some distance, we came to the junction of High Divide and the trail down into Seven Lakes Basin.

We turned onto the Seven Lakes Basin trail, over some rather spectacular rocks and then once through them our first view of Seven Lakes Basin. We could see Lunch Lake and Round Lake down below us. We set off down the switch back rocky trail that led to Lunch Lake.  I found the trekking poles useful on the down hill as I could use them to swing my legs over the top of many rocks and boulders.  We soon arrived at the shore of Lunch Lake, a beautiful alpine lake with Bogachiel Peak behind it.  Alpine meadows still with patches of snow surround the lake. We stopped here to cool our feet and filter water to refuel for the next part of our run.

We returned to High Divide the way we came (this is the only trail that connects Seven Lakes Basin with High Divide, so we had no choice). Once back at the junction the trail climbed steadily all the way to Hoh Trail Junction near the summit of Bogachiel Peak.  We turned up an unofficial trail that led to the summit. There was some scrambling around rocks but we were soon on the square flat summit. From here we had 360 degree views. West to the White and Blue glaciers of Mount Olympus, east we could see all of the lakes in Seven Lakes Basin, and Mount Appleton and Appleton Pass, and thousands of mountains in all directions. Simply stunning.

We toasted our summiting of the peak (1730 metres) with Fireball. We were not as high as Mount Angeles (1950 metres) nor Klahannie Ridge (1800 metres) but the views and alpine environment were just as spectacular.

It was a hot day with temperatures around 25 degrees up there, and very little wind. We followed the built trail down that rejoined the High Divide Trail south of Bogachiel Peak and ran along High Divide heading south. After another climb we came to a small snow field just off the trail. We stopped here, dug down in the snow a few centimetres, and then filled our bottles and bladders with the snow. In the bottle it was like a slushie, ice cold water.  The ice in the bladder felt great on my back and helped cool me during the run. It soon melted though.

We continued south along High Divide and came to the trail down to Heart Lake on our left. We could see the lake and it was shaped just like a heart. We continued along High Divide, intending to do an out and back to the entrance to Cat Basin.  We got pretty much there before encountering a big black bear. The bear was just off the trail lying in the shade on a patch of snow. He or she was pretty chill and just looked at us as if to say "this is mine and I'm not moving".  We turned around here and headed back to Heart Lake. I was at the back now so I had this image of a big bear breathing down my neck. I looked back often. This trail went thorugh some beautiful flower meadows, and their colours and smell was wonderful.

At Heart Lake we stopped to cool our feet and refill our water, using our water filters. I was out of water so I filled my bladder and bottle, about 2.5 litres of water. We spent 20 to 30 minutes here, enjoying the sun. Unlike Lunch Lake, which we had to ourselves, this one was quite busy with people swimming in their underwear or just relaxing in the sun.

From here, we followed the trail down following Bridge Creek and through Sol Duc Park (a meadow - all the meadows are called parks) then into the forest. The trail was very technical so was slow going, but the poles helped a lot. We crossed the creek in a few places by fording it, and the cold water felt so good on my feet and legs.

At the bottom, we crossed Sol Duc River on a bridge then the trail followed the river. We soon joined the Appleton Pass trail and continued down the Sol Duc river. I stopped several times along here to eat salmon berries, blue berries and huckleberries. At times the trail was steep, slow and frustrating,   at other times it was smooth and beautiful soft fast single track to run. The last 6 km was a joy to run.

We were soon back at the Sol Duc falls and then the last 1.2 km on the well travelled tourist trail back to the car park. In all with stops, we spent 8 hours, 15 minutes on the trails, climbed about 1600 metres and covered 36 km.  The loop was only 27km, we added distance with two out and backs. 

Back at the car, we drove back to Port Angeles and arrived at Next Door Pub by 7:15pm. I dropped the car off at the Budget garage next to the ferry and walked over to the pub. They had really good food here, so I had two pints of local IPA and the Nutty Professor burger with an egg (that is beef, bacon, cheese, peanut butter and egg).  You've got to remember, I've been fuelling on Tailwind energy drink all day, so I was starving and wanting something solid. 

At 9:10 pm we left the pub and staggered over to the Coho Ferry Terminal, two blocks away, and boarded the ferry. We set sail at 9:30 pm. I had another beer on the ferry (IPA of course). Through customs in Victoria and then walked home and sleep by 12:30 am.  A long but fun day of adventure running.  A good training run for Brigade 50 miler in September. 

I have no pictures due to accidently wiping my phone at the pub. Somehow I accidently hit a key combination that caused the phone to reset and wipe the flash drive. I only lost pictures I'd taken that day. Everything else, including contacts, logins, passwords were all backed up by Google, so the reinstall was simple and automatic.

Pictures can be seen in an album on Facebook setup by Lisa Fehr with contributions by Charlene Waldner and Karen Laberee.

Not sure if this link will work for everyone:
https://www.facebook.com/lisamfehr/media_set?set=a.10156938864230016&type=3