Rub it and Run

Close Encounters with a Black Bear

We have been making a couple of trips to Devil's Den State Park in Northwestern Arkansas annually for the past four years.  This park was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp back in the 1930's. There are many miles of trails, an 8 acre lake and completely renovated rustic wood timber and stone cabins.

We discovered this park about five years ago while on a long weekend getaway.  Our family has been going back a couple of times a year ever since. This has turned into a favorite destination for us.

The past two Memorial Day weekends we have been going with two other families.  This year was extra exciting because we had a Bear sighting.  The kids had been playing in the woods behind our cabins when they came rushing out exclaiming they had seen a bear.  I was slightly skeptical thinking that maybe they had just seen a big hedge hog or something.  They showed me which direction it had gone so I took off in search to see if indeed it was a bear.

I went about 100 yards in the woods and came up on.....A BEAR!  OK, now I was believing the kids.  The bear actually took a few steps towards me but then turned away.  I followed it from a good 50 yards or so back until I was certain it had left the immediate area.  I had my camera, so I took a few shots...thank goodness for zoom. 

The pictures came in handy when making the report to the Park Rangers.  They said there was a bear sighting the week before and a story that someone was feeding it strawberries.....I thought everyone had seen Yogi Bear....."Don't feed the bears"....The rangers thought it was about a two or three year old that had recently been kicked out of the den by its mother.  They estimated it to be between 200 and 300 lbs.  The Rangers said that black bears in Arkansas are not generally aggressive and that the kids should be OK playing in the woods.  If the bear came back to just scare it away......

Sure enough, about three hours later the bear was back and trying to get inside our friends cabin.  The bear was trying to push in the screen of an open window in the kitchen.  I started yelling and throwing rocks at the bear and he eventually ran back into the woods. He probably came back because someone the week before was feeding him.

I was telling my story to Bad Ben before a run and thought I'd received a "you're a future Darwin award winner" or "remind me not to run in bear country with Jim" looks.  I've since read a couple of articles on bears and by some accounts, I was pretty stupid yelling and throwing rocks at a 250 lb plus bear.  By others, that is exactly what you should do with a black bear.  I'm still a little confused but think that staying away from bears is best. 

I'm reading a book, Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.  The book is about him walking the Appalachian Trail.  He talks about researching bear attacks and how to avoid them when he was preparing for his journey and was just as confused.  Seems like it's a matter of the situation and the kind of bear, its mood and whether it's hungry or not.....Bill "says all bears are hungry all the time."  I'm planning to learn more about how to avoid being a bear attack statistic.  I also plan to not chase after anymore bears.  I certainly don't want "Darwin Award Winner" on my Epitaph.

 

Chino Hills State Park - Anaheim, CA

This is another trail the local trail running club The Orange County Trail Runners recommended. The State Park is about a 30 minute drive from the Orange County Convention Center in Anaheim, CA.  There is an access fee of $3.00 paid at the entrance via a drop box.  There are two main entrances to the park and I used the Elinvar entrance on the far north end of the park.  From this entrance you drive about three miles before reaching the parking lot and the nearby trail head.  There are restrooms at this location

The Route / Run

I chose to start on the east end of the Telegraph Canyon Trail. I had only run 10 yards and I saw my very "first ever live rattle snake in the wild."  I took a few photos and then headed off until I came across my "second ever live rattle snake in the wild" a minute later.  I'm started to wonder if this were a bad omen.  I decided to stay in the middle of the trail which is about 15-20 feet wide in most places.  Of course, for the next mile or so, every rustle in the grass on the side of the trail gave me a jump......this soon subsided.  The rustling actually turned out to be little lizards.  They would dart across the trail about 10 yards in front of me.  It was really strange and reminded me of the video game frogger I used to play as a kid.  I also saw another very colorful snake that didn't seem to be poisonous.

I ran the Telegraph trail west to a connector called little canyon trail that takes you up the ridge to South Ridge Trail.  Going up this trail is where I saw my very "third ever live rattle snake in the wild." I was definitely getting my far share of snake sightings today.  After reaching the South Ridge Trail, I headed back east and then up to San Juan Hill (1785ft).  I took a picture of the surveyers marker and kept heading east.  I made it back to the trail head after about two hours and five minutes and a total of 10 miles.  Not bad for stopping a lot to take photos and manuver past a few rattlers.

Statistics

Date:5-21-08, Total Mileage: 10 miles, Total Ascent: 2194 ft, Total Descent:2156 ft

Review

I really like tree covered single track and there is very little of that in this area (at least where I was).  However, I really liked this trail.  I had a good run with plenty of elevation change and the element of danger.  I'd recommend this trail again and would definately put it on my list to return to given the opportunity.

KC Trail Nerd Index: 6 for difficulty   8 for fun

Peter's Canyon - Orange County, CA

I was in Anaheim, CA for a conference on Green Building (Ecobuild). As always I searched out some trails to run and emailed the local trail running club The Orange County Trail Runners. I got a few replies about a few trail options.

Peter's Canyon is a regional park with about 354 acres. There are several trails and fire roads to run. I chose a 6.5 mile loop that travels most of the parks perimeter. This route has about 1200 ft of ascent and 1200 ft of descent over the distance. There are a few short climbs of a couple hundred feet but nothing too major. There is some nice views along the trails. Most of the trails are in the open with just a few short sections of single track that is wooded. One such section is referred to as the Eucalyptus trail.

There are restrooms in the parking area but not much else. Be aware that the park does not open before 8:00am and there isn't really anywhere to park before the gates are open except for a strip mall up the road (which is what I did). More information about the park can be found at ttp://www.bikingdestinations.com/peterscanyon.htm and http://www.goodtime.net/tus/lotus001.htm

Route

I chose to go out on the East Ridge trail then through the Eucalyptus trail and then back on Lower Peter's Canyon trail and around the east side of the lake on Lake View trail back to the trail head

Statistics

Date: 5-20-08

Total Mileage: 6.5 miles

Total Ascent: 1161 ft

Total Descent: 1161 ft

Review

These are nice trails a short drive from the Anaheim Convention Center. They are definitely not remote. There are some short steep hills but nothing too awful. The trails are more like fire roads with very little single track. The surface is hard pack with fine dusty covering on the steep inclines caused from what I believe are MTBers breaking hard on their descents. I would run these trails again if I needed a close trail to where I was staying or time didn't permit exploring other trails.

KC Trail Nerd index: 3 for difficulty, 4 for fun.

Marathon Sustained Endophin Level

I can't explain it but ever since the Freestate marathon (my first....by the way), I have had this extra energy and positive attitude towards just about everything. My running has seemed to have crossed some barrier. I'm running faster, longer and with much more ease than before. According to experts, I should have never attempted to run a marathon, little alone a trail marathon. I had real low mileage and my longest run of 15 miles six months prior.

Like I said, I'm out performing my own expectations...I'm not complaining...just surprised. Being an engineer, I would expect some analysis of data obtained from training runs to explain this new renewed level of energy and performance....but there is none. It's totally anecdotal...something a marketing/ sales guy would take advantage of.....all I know is that I'm having fun and my new energized outlook is having other side benefits at home and at work.....give me another Marathon......50K?.....because I don't want this charge to run out....

Anne Springs Close Greenway - Fort Mill, SC

I went to Charlotte, NC this past week and found some time for a trail run. I had searched ahead of time for a trail to run and found a couple of good sources: Trail Events and Native Trail Gods.

Location

After a little searching, it was recommended by Tim of the "Native Trail Gods" that I try out the Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mill, SC which is about 15 minutes south of Charlotte just across the border in SC. The website with maps and information is located at http://www.leroysprings.com/Greenway.html. There is a listing of maps and trail descriptions here http://www.leroysprings.com/GreenwayTrails.cfm

General Information

According to their site there is about 32 miles of trails (equestrian, hiking and mountain biking). There is a charge of $2.00 for hikers collected at drop boxes located at each of the six trail access points. There are maps at the trail head starting at the Leroy Recreation Center (shown above). The maps are detailed and have 11 different sites of interest marked along the trails. The trails have many swinging and stationary foot bridges for crossing the Steel and Sugar Creeks. However, I prefer the more natural method of stream crossing.

There are many sites of interest such as the Graham Cabin, Southern Railroad Trestle and the Old Mill Stone to name a few. The Leroy Springs Recreation Center is a good place to fill up your water bottle and they do have restrooms.

The Route

I started out at about 1:15pm at the Leroy Recreation Complex Access on the south side of the park. The weather was sunny and about 75 degrees. It was a perfect set up for a great run.

I decided to head north on the Blue Star trail that is marked as hiking only. About 1.6 miles into the run you'll come to Steele Street. To continue on the Blue Star trail you have to proceed east along the road about 200 yards and the trail will pick up on the north side again. It's a little confusing but you head down an abandoned dirt road about another 300 yards before the single track picks back up again. You'll come to the Southern Railroad Trestle at about 2.8 miles. I crossed the river, Nerd style and followed this trail all the way to the Dairy Barn Access.

At the Dairy Barn Access, there are several sites of interest including a couple of cabins. I basically followed the trail through this area and back to the single track at Graham's Cabin. I crossed Steele Creek again and transferred to Purple Trail (Wagon Loop) and then headed south back to Old National Road. I eventually made it back to the Southern Railroad Trestle and crossed the creek again and back onto the Blue Star trail. At this point the trail has a large number of spur trails and it gets hard to tell exactly where you are. Just keep the creek on your right until you get to the site of the old Grist Mill. This is where I crossed the river again and transferred to the School Loop East.

The Sugar Loop is probably the hilliest part of the trail that I ran. From the intersection of the School Loop East and Springfield Parkway the trail gains 1327 feet and descends 1187 feet in about 3.2 miles if you take Sugar Loop towards the south and back up through Complex Tunnel to the trail Head.

Statistics

Total Mileage: 11.53 mi (measured with Garmin Forerunner 305)

Total Ascent: 4199 ftTotal Descent: 4185 ft

Review

The trails are very well kept and the bridges were a nice touch. There was a variety of surfaces to run on including sandy soil, small rocky areas, roots and hard packed clay. There are several areas were crossing the creeks are possible and safe without the use of the bridges. The horse trails I ran on were did not resemble the surface of the moon like others I've run. There really wasn't much elevation on the route I took but I did mostly run along the creeks. I didn't see one single person on the trails although it was mid day. By the time I finished people were arriving and heading out on the trails.

These are just my opinions and may differ from others so take it for what it's worth. All in all, I would run these trails again. However, on my next trip, I'll be looking for some others to try out first. On the KC Trail Nerd index I'd give this one a 5 for difficulty and a 6 for fun.

Phase I of Blackfish Homestead Trail Complete

Well if it weren't enough to run trails.....I had to go and build my own. The land where our home is once was a Farm. We have been told it was Chief Blackfish's farm but we have never been able to confirm that. Although, there is a road the travels through our edition that is named Blackfish.  There is however, a Shawnee Chief named Blackfish with a bit of a sorted past.

There is about 11 acres behind our house of heavily treed land that lies between our neighborhood and the next one. City planners call this green space. It has about 0.3 miles of existing unsustainable trail that included an old abandoned farm road. The kids in the neighborhood have also managed to carve some other trails to forts and other spots where they play. In mid summer most of the trails are overgrown and goes unused.

I had been thinking of building some trails back there and then one day just started doing it. I walked the land a couple of times to decide on what would be the best route and how to optimize the space I had to work with to get the most mileage. I laid out about 0.25 miles where no trails had existed. I started the actual blazing in February.

In addition ,I also built a rock staircase from our backyard down to the top loop of the new trail. The total length including the old stuff is about 0.62 miles. One loop has about 150 feet of rise and fall. It is plenty rocky and there are several trees to jump or climb over. We also built three bridges. Two from an old privacy fence I tore down and one over an area that stays muddy for a long time. I trenched through that spot and then built a rock bridge over it leaving a tunnel for drainage.

I have devised many ways to move rocks that are twice my weight. I read how to build sustainable trails from a book I bought from IMBA. The trails seem to dry very quickly except a couple of spots that are obviously drainage areas from the neighborhood. I'll eventually armorer these areas.

Many kids have walked by when I'm working on the trails and comment about how COOOOL they are. Several neighbors have built spurs from their yards to the trail. I have noticed some folks walking dogs and a few kids riding their BMX bikes.

Phase II is re-routing some of the old farm trails/road to get more mileage. Not to mention create trails that are sustainable and drain well. I think that I can get a full one mile and maybe 1.5 miles. Phase II will commence this fall. I built 0.25 miles in three months by myself and got side tracked on the rock staircase. I'm hoping that through the fall and winter I might be able to get about half what I have planned finished.

The name I've settled on is the Blackfish Homestead Trail unless someone comes up with a better suggestions.

Longer trails ahead, Jim

Chip Off The Old Block

My daughter just passed her blue belt (5th Kyu) in Aikido today. She is half way to her Black Belt after four years of training. I'm really proud that she is sticking with it. She was pretty happy that a black belt told her that two of her techniques looked as good as her Sensei's. Of course they were her favorite techniques. Congratulations Kido!