In awe

Tag: TWOT

  • [681] July 4 Hike – BP (TWOT)

    I have been on the Twot loop, as it is known among us local runners but its real name is the Wild Oak Trail, many times either hiking, running, racing what not, except for biking and swimming boating or fishing.  

    It was the trail that I earned my backpacking badge.  It was my earliest known trail even before I hiked Signal Knob or Massanutten or Bull Run or the Seneca Creek trail. 

    I don’t write about it specifically, because the two races there the TWOT 100 or 200, and the Grindstone 100, I was not able to do yet to this day (to finish with an official time) even though I have run so many hundred mile races.  It does rub the wrong way for me to be on my home court and couldn’t finish it.  The trail is way harder than the Massanutten.

    But I have run, hiked, trained, and camped there many times.  Hone Quarry is near there and I visited it during the past late winter and spring this year.  (Hone Quarry 40, preview run, Grindstone 100).

    The Wild Oak Trail (TWOT) is located in Spokeville, VA, about 10-ish miles from Harrisonburg and Staunton.

    It is a place I prefer more than the Shenandoah, mostly to avoid the crowd since we are so close to the cities in east coast, primarily the DC area.  

    The AT is fine place to hike, camp and run, but the TWOT is my favorite place.  The views are just as good if not better than many places.

    Last weekend, just off the cuff, I wanted to go for camping. I did have an ulterior motive.  Since I DNF’d at the last Grindstone race, I wanted to go back to know and experience again why I did not do as well as I anticipated in it.  I knew already from my race report, but I wanted to walk back on the ground to see if there any stones I should uncover or memorize.  So it was going to be a holy experience for me.  I had intended to go back there several times after my race last September but whatever the reason I was not able to until the Fourth of July weekend.  I dragged my friend along for the fun of it. Misery loves company they say.

    I have not done a real backpack trip since summer 2021, when I visited the Smoky.  I don’t remember if I posted any about it.  Usually, I don’t like doing a write-up for things that are not running related.  If I find it, I will link it here in the future.

    I really wanted to get back into hiking/camping.   One of my big goals and always have been, is to backpack the one of the very long trails, like the AT, PCT, or CDT, or the one that goes from east to west of the country, for thousand of miles long.  The mountain is always calling me.  Except I just don’t have time.  Running have taken over my life the last few years.

    This year July 4th fell on a Friday and it was a great opportunity to do it for a long three day trip.

    I had in mind to check out or have refresher of the Grindstone 100 course, and the race is coming up in a month or so.  I would like to have a weekend on the course. 

    The short version was everything kind of worked out.

    Thursday night, Campsite unknown

    I left work a little later than I wanted.  We did not get on the road until after 8 pm.  I knew the campsite would be hard to find after dark.  Indeed, I could not find it, the one I camped at in November.  In the end it was already midnight, and we were tired. 

    We drove in the park over an hour turning at one wrong turn after another arriving at who know where.  I actually reached the place where we were supposed to leave our water around halfway through the course.  The original plan was to drive there in the morning to drop off water first before starting out. 

    We could have gone without leaving water since there is a creek nearby and a gas station too about a few miles away, but that would leave some uncertainties and extra hiking to seek water. 

    Since I had a friend with me, I did not want to cause an alarm about not having water.   (As luck would have it, we did run out of water, or due to poor planning on my part, we leave that later).

    At the moment we were in middle of the night without a camp, so the first order of business is still have a place to sleep.  We could sleep in our car until morning, which is kind of bad because we intended to do “real camping.  So I pulled the car into a place at a trailhead and dropped off the water jugs.  Then I decided to hike a little bit into the trail in the middle of the night, from memory there should be a place to camp.  I was unsure how far though.  We lugged all our packs along just in case we needed our things but I knew we would come back to the car in the morning to head to the real trailhead we original intended to go.

    We might have got to our camp after 1 am.  Then quickly set things up and went to bed.  First night was uneventful.  The night was hot.  Moon was out.  So were stars.  We just did a hike that got our blood flowing.  Now we needed to sleep.  I kept the canopy open, we slept under the stars, till it got colder and then I went out to close it.  First night usually is hard to fall asleep for me.

    Friday, the next day. A real hike.

    The next day was our first long day.  We had some decisions to make.  Since the course was a loop, we could actually start from where we camped.  However, the rest of our trip, and where we stay, and where we get water would need to be adjusted.  I felt that was too many things to change on the fly.  Again, if I were on my own, I don’t mind, but since I was with someone, we had filed a flight “plan”, we had to stick to it, you know in case something happened, people can search for us.

    We headed back to our car and drove to the orignal trailhead — the Twot Lot, and started from there. In broad daylight while driving back, we saw all the campsites we missed the night earlier.

    I signed in at the guestbook, noted other people on the trail that weekend.  Not too many maybe two other parties and we did not encounter them at all.  My friend later commented, that Frozen Ed (a famous runner in our community) checked in there a few weeks ago. It is interesting to know who has been there.

     We then prepared our breakfast in the Twot parking lot.  It seemed like cheating and not real camping experience, but we needed our calories.  The day would be long.

    A little past 8 o’clock, we started our hiking for real, going clockwise. As my convention, I gave my friend a choice of going either left or right.  I decided beforehand already of going “left”. This was to climb Lookout Mountain first instead of the Grindstone Mountain.  I have done in the counterclockwise many times but seldom hiked in the clockwise direction except for the Grindstone 100 race.  I actually like this direction because the camping and water points work out fine, as also more ways to change midway.

    The planned course was a 50 mile-ish trip.  Later, once on the trail, wisdom dictated to cut it down to half, which was part of the plan too, a plan B.  This course has several ways of making it shorter, such as heading to Camp Todd or to the start at Twot parking lot by road if needed to instead of on the trail.

    First, we went up onto Lookout Mnt, then crossed over on Hankey Mnt, was to descend to Doswells Draft, and to cross over to Chimley Hollow, then up on Crawford Mnt, down into Dry Branch, climb to Elliot Knob, to descend into Cold Springs, and hike on forest road back to Crawford to climb it second time, backtrack to Chimney Rock, up over Doswells Draft to Hankey again, (we skipped all those) but continued on the TWOT counterclockwise loop to Magic Moss, climbed up on Dividing Ridge to Grind Spring Ridge and passed over Big Bald, descended to Camp Todd, up Little Bald, and was to travel to Reddish Knob if time permits then find our way back to the Todd Lot either on Tilman Rd or through one of those trails like Reservor or Tower trail. It is a lot for the weekend.  Generally, would have to run it to cover everything on the Grindstone 100 course in 4 days instead of 2. For those who want the GPS file, they are available on the Grindstone 100 mile race website.  For future trip, if we want to make it longer, it could join up with the Hone Quarry 40 loop, to make it into 140+ mile adventure.

    So actuality, we stayed on the Twot loop our whole weekend, just 25 miles and cut out all the Crawford loop and Reddish Knob loop. 

    There were no rush for us since we had three days to do it, even out to about 9 miles a day.  I realized we couldn’t do 25 miles a day for three days straight.  I had on near 50 lbs pack.  So it was not going to happen to push the pace.

    By noon on Friday, we just reached the top of Lookout Mountain, maybe about 4-5 miles.  We decided to stop for lunch. I unpacked and had a proper hot meal. I calculated we likely reached our campsite by 4 pm. 

    After lunch we continued climbing up to up on Hankey Mountain.  By 3:00 pm we reached Doswells Draft Trail.  I was out of water by now.  I estimated it might be 3 miles to descend off the mountain to a water point (where I did the water drop the night before) or we could continue climbing up Hankey to a place I know there is a very nice campsite.  Valley always bring to mind flies, gnats, ants and other bugs.  And the place we stayed the night before seemed to have lot of ants.  I was trying to avoid it.

    After talking over with my friend, who had some water left, we went up the ridge to set camp.  There were about two liters of water shared between us.  We still had to cook plus over 16 hours left before we reached our next water source.

    There were no water to clean or wash anything.  The climb up was extremely hard but we were glad we made it. Yes, had to go to bed sticky and dirty.

    I was tired so the first thing of business was to set up camp (the tent) and then changed into dry/clean clothes.  Then I had a small meal since water was lacking, and everything I cook needed a lot of water.  I did not want to make a fire since there was no water to put it out if in an emergency we needed to (Yes, I was taught by others to pee into the fire to put it out if necessary, generally not an appealing task to do). 

    It just meant we headed to bed early.  A slight passing rain came through but nothing was really wet.  In a sense, I was hoping to refill our bottles from the rain, but it did not rain very hard.

    The next day, we headed off to an early start skipping breakfast.  I wanted to head to our water source first before having breakfast.  A side note, our mountain camp was full of spiders and ants, exactly the kinds of bugs I wanted to avoid in the first place.  The view though made it up. Plus the night was cooler. Air smelled better.  We were not disturbed up on the ridge.

    Saturday, 2nd full day.

    We descended back to where we left our water (2 Gal) Thursday night.   The water crisis was now resolved. The two water jugs were still there and in good condition.  I might have stayed two hours here to cook and rested.  The campsite actually did not have any bugs and we could have descended the night before and stayed here. It was a fairly big site for two of us and could have fit 4-5 people.

    After the big breakfast/lunch we headed up to Big Bald. This was our first hard climb of the day.  While climbing up we saw some race ribbons, likely from a past race or something.

    The afternoon was uneventful.  We friend pointed out the Bear Bog, called Bradley Pond (not the same one on Bradley Rd).  I never recalled there was a bear bog here, but I have not been this way for a long time since Grindstone course doesn’t go through here.  We took some photos and continued on.

    We reached over the other side, which was Camp Todd.  We filtered our water (actually a full gallon, 4L).  We probably needed 6L, but 4 L would do.  We then lugged the water upto Little Bald where would be camping for the night.

    It was 4:30 pm as we started off from Camp Todd.  I knew it would take a very long time to get up to the Ridge, and was hoping no more than 3 hours. 

    It was just constant climbing.  We arrived around 8 pm, backpacker midnight some call it.  We set up camp, cooked, cleaned, by the time I went to bed it was 9:30-10 pm.  It was very late and I was tired.  I think I immediately felt asleep.  This site though had very little insects, but we were drenched by the heavy dew.  So the tent was very wet the next morning.

    Sunday, last day of the trip

    Sunday, we had 7 (but felt like 8) miles remaining.  It would be all descending.  I estimated probably took us 4-5 hours to descend.  I had a lot of food left over, so instead of carrying them back down the mountain, it was good to eat them. I had a feast.  My friend had a meal package left (intended for me).  I had maybe 1.5-2 days of food myself, even after I had my big breakfast. 

    The descent was fast initially.  But the day wore on. Sun shone down. At the last part, it was not all descending but some climbling too.  Maybe we got to two miles at the end, we had to climb up maybe a mile.  That really worn us down.  We did reached the parking lot around noon and that was a good feeling we got the weekend wrapped up early. 

    We had plenty time to head home, then we cleaned up and then enjoyed a good Korean BBQ before the day was over.  There was nowhere better than home.

    Conclusion.  Backpacking doesn’t have the excitement of getting to the finish line like in a race.  It is something that takes a lot of time to plan, prepare and execute.  Like running, sometimes we have to make decisions on the fly, such as what to do when running out of water, or that we are carrying too much food, or what if we got lost. 

    Time seems to flow differently while on the trail. Like with running, a four day weekend seems like only one or two days, yes, I wish I would take a day or two off to make it into a 5 day weekend trip. 

    The TWOT loop was like my backyard kind of camping trip.  It provides just the right amount of challenge but also nearby. In no time we were home and back to the society.

    Afterward, another friend of mine reached out, asking if I be interested in backpacking in Colorado and if I have any backpacking experience.  Do I!? 

    I won’t claim myself to be an expert but I am all for going out to Colorado.  I have not done something like that, other than going to the Smoky, Patagonia or the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.  I am looking at 60,000 ft climbs and descents and 100+ miles, with the highest point at 15,000 ft. 

    We haven’t settled on how many days, we would do it in.  Likely 4-5 days or 6-7 days, plus couple days to get acclimated. (Location is the famous Silverton for the Hard Rock 100). If the trip is successful, I will do doing a lot more stuff out in the west.  Montanta, I’m looking at you and Grand Canyon.  I have plenty of trips I want to do in the high sierra, slot canyons, JMT, etc. Mt Elbert too. Until next time.

    I don’t think I ever did a proper twot write up, so I did it here for memory and reference. And indeed, some day, if I have a week time, to attempt a 140-150 mile backpacking trip at Twot.

  • Day535 TWOT run (full report)

    I happened to check last year, Day463. This time it is almost the same. I had my training etc, but it was so satisfied. I wrote a short version hopefully captured what I wanted to say. Here is a much longer version of what I mean having a good life, that is, to be out on the trail and run.

    Happiness is brief and hard to grasp. Often time, stuff at work and life drove me to insanity. Respite comes when I am out at the trail all by myself. Sometimes, I don’t even know why I am out there. But being out there seems to calm me and solves all my present problems. True, it is an avoidance mechanism, but one that works.

    Last week, I was at the Wild Oak Trail. I mentioned it a few times before and wrote about it maybe couple posts back when I went out to the trail few weekends ago, but in the end called it quit after going 7 miles in.

    This week, I went back out. It was the TWOT official race day. The 200 mile race started on Wednesday. The 100 mile started on Friday and the 25 mile version took place on Saturday. As mentioned before, I got to know both the RD (Race Director) and a 200 mile runner. It was like meeting my idol or a heavenly being. Never in my life, I thought I would meet someone like that. Not only do I get to know them, but the exciting part is they know me now. I was wondering, oh, is that how they said we should make connections back when I was in college.

    Anyway, I like this race for a weird reason when I had my first backpacking trip back in 2017. That time, we encountered runners running loops around us. I believe they were practicing for the Grindstone. Yours truly will also be running the Grindstone this year, and hence the reason why I was at the Wild Oak this weekend.

    My friend and I finished the loop too in a single day with a 40-lb bag on back the whole way, because we made a dumb decision of not stopping before nightfall. We ended up doing the whole thing without camping at all. However, we met a runner who looped us couple times that day.

    On surface this seemed like easy because we were able to do it in a day. However, it was not so. This was the hardest hike I did in 2017 and even subsequent years, the loop has not gotten any easier. Sure, they flattened and straightened the trail at a few places, but over all, it is still 8000 ft of climbing in 26-ish miles in one loop. Runners do multiple loops to have their fill.

    At the time I was not a trail runner. I didn’t start running seriously on trails until 2019, when I did the JFK 50, and that was not even a true trail run. It was not until 2021, when I did Laurel Highlands, I could say I dabbled into trail running. 2022 was the year of MMT, and that I have fallen completely into this mountain running thing. You can say, I went hardcore.

    When I learned people actually race on this trail, I wanted to do it too. Full disclosure, I haven’t able to truly run on it yet (actually it’s ability-challenged, not an opportunity problem). I applied last year to run in it, but I did not get in. I did not mind, because I did not get into many other races too. It was no big deal.

    Couple weeks ago during a MMT Training run, I met the TWOT race director and also one of the guys (Tony) who was running in the 200 mile race of this year. It hyped up my interest once again.

    This weekend, I went out. I did not want to interfere with the actual race, so I only planned to show up afterward, thinking they already should be over.

    I messed up with my math and arriving at 7:30 pm, which was only 35 hours into the 100 race. Their last person finisher did not arrive until past midnight (40-ish hours) and that is a very good time. It might have taken me more than 48 hours to do them if that even possible.

    I saw a blazing camp fire. I walked to it, but for some unexplained reason, I did not recognize the RD, and was thinking he was Tony, and was there just relaxing after the run.

    It was then two runners came in finishing their 100 mile run. RD told me two more runners were still out on the course, plus another one doing a fun run. It was then I realized I goofed up. RD handed out awards. I said my goodbye.

    RD was seriously thought I was going to run that night, because why not, everyone who showed up there is capable of doing it. I had no intention though to run it even as a “fun” run that night. Since, I think it is rude to bandit his race. The race was supposed to have no aids, no crew, no spectator, no pacer, no bailing, no rescue, etc. It was a hardcore, you by yourself and the trail. I did not want to spoil the atmosphere by running and meeting other runners. They deserve their bragging rights of being along in the dead of night while everyone is sleeping.

    So I hiked up the opposite direction to the first peak on Grindstone Mountain, orginally I was aiming for Little Bald, 7 miles away, since there is a nice open place to camp. After a mile hike, I came across a camp site on Grindstone. I totally forgot this spot. It was perfect. By then it was around 9 pm. If I had continued on, I would not have reached Little Bald after midnight and by the time I could sleep, it might be 1 AM or later. And planning-wise would have ruin my next day event, had I continue to Little Bald..

    It was a good choice to stop early because temperature was dropping. The night was beautiful. The stars were bright. I set up my tent. It took me a few tries because it had been a while since I went camping. I already ate, so I did not need to cook. I hung up the bear bag, not that I needed to, but rules are rules (not like bears would be arpund in the winter). By the time I finished everything, it was past 10 pm. I crawled into my sleeping bag. Then I remembered I had to use the restroom. I didn’t want to get back up. I cursed at myself of not doing it earlier before getting into the tent. I tried to sleep. I know I have good bladder control and in the past I had slept through the night without needing to go.

    After couple hours, it became worse, like I was about to explode. I had to get up even though it was freezing. It was not any colder, but still getting up was not fun. I put on my clothes, layered up, added a jacket, gloves, wooly hat, socks and shoes. Actually, I couldn’t make it to the socks and shoes. l had to rush out the tent barefoot and tried to find the nearest tree and almost didn’t make it because I felt it was leaking out while I was still in the tent. Cursed at myself. Hobbled to the nearest tree but couldn’t reach it and quickly pulled down my pants, doing it off the cliff, finished my business and crawled back in for a good night sleep. Again normally, I could hold till morning, just not this time.

    Next day, was pretty much a normal day. It was a beautiful day. It dawned early. I woke up around 7 am at first light. I actully slept in a bit, but knew I had a long day, I got up. Cooked breakfast. Packed the tent. Ate. Ate while packing up. Here I am mad at myself for forgetting my spoon here and did not packed it out. I knew when I left I should do a person-equipment check and police the place, but I did not.

    I had an excuse because during packing, I had a strong need to use the bathroom, and this time, it was number 2. I quickly got out my cleaning kit (toilet paper and stuff), digging tool, and rushed off to the side of the mountain. Luckily the ground was easy to dig. But I couldn’t get it deep enough. I think 4-5 inches is the requirement, a cathole. After like two inches, I hit rock. It just had to do, I was about to burst again and there was no time to find a new spot with deeper soil. Pulled my pants down and did what I had to do. I was alone on the mountain with a good view of the valley below. After I done, I covered it with dirt and put a rock on top. The rock was probably over doing it, to prevent people or animal of stepping on it. Of course, I still packed out my used toilet paper.

    I am proud of myself. This is the second trip that I actually digged a hole. Note, I thought I was so smart to stop at a rest area before arriving at TWOT and used the facility first. Little did I know, that I needed to go again so soon. When you need to go, you need to go.

    By the time I got down from the moutain, everyone (runners from the previous night) had gone home. I saw they cleaned up well. The fire ring was gone. They took care of the ashes. They poured a bucket of ice over where the fire ring used to be. The ice were still there when I arrived. RD said he left at first light, so I think maybe 7 or 8 o’clock. It was now 9 AM. I put away my camping things. I put on my running hydration pack. I still planned to run on the trail, since that was the whole purpose of me being there. Camping was just incidental. I had drank all the water while on the mountain that night so I needed to refill my hydration bag with water I had in the car.

    I wanted to run on the mountain, to do a loop of the Wild Oak Trail. I wanted get some early training for the Grindstone 100. This time, I was three hours ahead than I was there two weeks ago. I was hoping I could do the loop in 10 hours and finish it by 7 pm that night. In hindsight, I was mad at myself that I didn’t start the run even earlier like at 7 am instead of 9 am.

    I started climbing up on Grindstone again, this time without the 30 lb pack. For some reason, I like doing this trail in counterclockwise direction. It was so easy now in the morning. At night, I stepped on every puddle there because I couldn’t avoid them, but in the daylight I could see them clearly and it was easy to step on the rocks.

    It took me almost the same as last time to reach Little Bald. It was noon by then. I was 7 miles in and already used 3 hours. I hoped to reach Camp Todd by 1 pm. Note there were a lot of blow downs. It took a bit time to navigate past them.

    When I got to Camp Todd, the River was too wild to cross. I could cross it, but it would be hell. And why risk being swept by it? I wanted to keep my feet dry too. RD said if I go to the right I don’t have to wade across the river. So I went back up on the trail and saw where the trail the split and followed that for about half a mile and indeed, I avoided the river crossing, except I was now half a mile out. It put me on the road. I ran down the road was not too bad. By the way, I met a cyclist and a runner on this section. Later, I met two more hikers. These were all the people I met that day.

    From Camp Todd, I hiked up to Big Bald continue on a counterclockwise direction. It was not the hardest climb but it took a lot effort. One of the thing I regretted was I did not fill up my water at the river crossing. Now couple miles in I felt I wouldn’t have enough water to finish the loop and I was not even halfway in. Meaning later on, like the last four hours, I would be very thirsty. From memory, there wouldn’t be any water until the very end.

    Luckily after I got passed Hiner’s Spring, there was a trickling of water flowing on the trail. I squatted down, literally crawling on the ground to filter water. It was slow going but I made sure I had a full bag before setting off, plus I filled up my tiny 8 oz gatorade bottle I had. This was a miracle of water flowing from a rock.

    I think I got to Big Bald by 3 ish. It was a bit late. Big Bald is like the halfway point. I would have liked to get here by 1-ish. However, I felt the trail should get easier on the second half. I remembered from memory there should be some flat sections soon where running is possible. I believed I could still finish by 6 pm that night with only 13 miles left. I, in the past, was a strong runner on flat easy section. Today though, I was still nursing an injured foot — it’s gotten a lot better, but on occasion, it still hurts, so I couldn’t go at my usual speed.

    Running down from Big Bald was fun. It was where the shin scrapper section is. It was steep. I loved it. Of course going up on this was not fun. The guys cleaned the area well before the race. I think I was on the Dividing Ridge. This part was known to be wild and had thick overgrowth filled with torns. Yet, I did not get tangled up with bushes. It was mostly downhill. I got to the second road crossing. To me, it was kind of boring.

    After crossing the road, the climb was not tough initially because they put in a lot of “dumb” switchbacks. It used to be straight up. Now it was gentle up hills for hours. I think it was around 6 pm I got to the top of Hankey Mountain. To my surprise, the last quarter mile up before the Doswell Trail was the hardest. The view was incredible.

    I knew I was behind schedule. There I started downhill but there was still a bit of climbing left though not hard. The sun was setting. I was wishing that I could get to the fire road before nightfall.

    The trail on the this section was runnable. I think we had 4-5 miles. It took me forever, but I knew I was on the Lookout Mountain at the time. The sun was already set but I still could see without having my head lamp turned on. It got cold. I put on my jacket and gloves.

    Silly me at this stage, I was hoping to get off by 8 pm. In my rush, I got “lost”. In my mind, I believe the next turn should be on the left. I was running down the fire road and it had been a while but still no turn in sight. The road splits, one goes up and one goes down. In my mind, I knew the turn was on the left after a short climb. And at the time I saw the blaze to the right but it looked purple of my light. I immeditately discounted it, thinking it couldn’t be right. For some reason, I refused to stop to checking the map, because I was so certain the next turn is on my left.

    I went down to the left. Sun had set by now and complete darkness had set in. I turned on my headlamp. My spider sense started taking over, saying this road doesn’t look right. It is too wide and I started hearing rushing water, meaning I was near the base. At that time, I came to my sense to pull out the map. I know in the wild, you have to humble to trust your 9th or whatever sense you got. Sh*t, I was no longer on the road where I thought I was on. I figured where I made the wrong turn and how far down I went, maybe half a mile or so.

    At the time I had a choice. I could continue down on the road. I saw it would reach a camp at North River. From there I could use the roads and get back to my car. Or I could backtrack, climb back on the mountain, make the correct turn, and continue on the Wild Oak Trail.

    I weighed the pros and cons. Down on the road was new to me. I could get run over by cars, since people drive fast here and likely they wouldn’t see. Plus I could get lost again on the road. The distance between taking the road and trail is about the same. Road might seem a bit longer. I estimate might be 9 miles on the road, but with trail, I probably only have less than 5 miles left. I felt I would be safer taking the trail. Also the whole purpose coming out was to run on the mountain and not walk on the road. So I turned around and started back up the mountain. I had decided to keep to the trails. No matter how long it would take, I would go back up on the mountain. Besides, that is the runner motto, if you get of trail, you have to return back to where you got off without getting a ride on a bear or a yetti, or having a spaceship teleporting you back.

    I was actually happy when I got back to the top of the ridge. Stars came out the second night. I heard wild animal calls, not sure if those were cats or dogs, or raccoons, but it got me moving fast and at the same time excited.

    I saw the town below lit up. This always give me encouragement, knowing I will be down there soon. It was just five miles away. It might be Harrisonburg. At the time I thought was Harrisonburg but now it couldn’t be.

    Night from Lookout Mountain

    A runner called this section the Rock Garden, an apt name. We kick rocks because it was the most rocky part. It was mostly downhill. I hopped around. A few times I almost slipped but I recovered. I was proud of my balance. Yes, the whole purpose out here is for my feet to know how to do it even without light. My lamp was dimly lit. I couldn’t see much.

    Eight o’clock passed. Definitely, I should be down by 9 pm, I encouraged myself. The trail went on unendingly. My water and snacks were out by now. Eventually, I got to a bunch of switch backs. I knew by now, I was definitely descending. I messaged my mom and friends, letting them know I would be fine and would be off the mountain soon.

    The descent probably took me another hour. I had to step on a few puddles near the end. I cursed myself for not seeing the water before feeling it. Oh well, I was so close to the finish, a little wet feet wouldn’t matter. My throat was dried and hoarse since I hadn’t spoken the whole day. I had some blisters at least on my left foot. I almost tripped several times. Yet I was so close. I heard the river once more and came to suspension bridge. Basically at most quarter mile left. No way it would be a mile to my car.

    I reached my car around 9:30. The first order of business was to change my shoes and put on dry socks and put on some clothes and a jacket I had in the car. By the time, I left the lot was closer to 10 pm. I was trying to get to the nearest McDonalds, however, they closed at 10 pm (though google was saying closing time was 11 pm). Anyway, it was a long way home. I did find a McDonalds at the next town over, and wolfed down a double quarter pounder in like two bites and was still hungry. Anyway, I was happy. McDonalds was my happy meal to celebrate a successful trip. Next order of business was to get back home.

    What I accomplish on this whole trip: I camped out. I lost my long handle titanium spork on the mountain, the one I had for over last 5 years. It was specifically designed for reaching into Mountain House deydrated food packages. Oh well.

    I had my run done. It was the hardest “25” miles run I ever did, ended like 27-28 miles from the extra milrs I put in. Rock-n-the-Knob and Catoctin 50k were not as hard compare to this one. This was more like a 32 miles or more. And it took me over 12 hours. This was a run and not a hike. My exact time was unknown. My friend Caroline told me later that she did this loop in 8 hours in her younger days (of her fastest loop) and she even did two loops once. I couldn’t imagine anyone doing more than one loop, much less 8 loops for a 200 mile run on this trail. It was hard even for a single loop.

    Of course because my friend said she did it in 8 hours, I have to get my time down to 8 hours, to be badass.

    That’s Little Bald. Kind of showing my appreciation of climbing 7 miles to get up there. Now I got down and was able to look back across to the ridge
    No clue where this is. I think about halfway up Chestnut Ridge. It could be Lookout Mountain on the other side (middle ridge), where I would be coming back on

    As for other events, I ran the Holiday Lake 50k. A lot can be said about that race. And before that I ran a 5K last weekend, “for the love of it.” I could write about that too. Out of the three events, I enjoyed my time at the Wild Oak Trail the most. Also, I like the driving.

    What it means to be alone. What it means to be great. I don’t think I am that high up there. I met people who exceed me by heads and shoulders. There was a lot of thinking. In the end it was jist pure joy doing what I like to do.

  • Day534 overflowed

    What an interesting week! Where should I start? I wish I had broken this into four or five entries. There were just so much.

    The proposal: TWOT

    The number one thing I was asked if I want to run in October the Wild Oak Trail. I wrote about this in the last two posts. I went out to Wild Oak couple weeks ago to do a test run. At that time, I arrived late in the day and I rolled my ankle at the first mile and the run was pretty much over.

    This run and a race was what I wanted to do last year ago, but I did not get in. I have been eyeing it all the time. It is hard.

    As mentioned, I got to know the race director in the last training run for the MMT (Massanutten). This weekend, the race director asked me multiple times, if I want to run it this October, he will save me a spot.

    If anyone else, they would immediately reply to the guy, Yes save me a spot! I wanna run it.

    To me it is like winning a million dollar prize too. Yet now I am asking myself can I do it? So this weekend I went out there on my own and tried to run it. I finished 25 miles in 12 hours. You know, people who run this normally do it around 8-10 hours. And they have to keep that pace for four loops (for 100 miles). Note, it is not actually 25 miles but somewhere between 26-27 miles, so four loops, would be over 100 miles.

    Enough said. I will sleep on it.

    II. TWOT. The run – I arrived Saturday night while TWOT 100 race was going on. TWOT is the Wild Oak Trail Race. I had thought the race would be over by then, thinking normally a 100 mile race usually over by the second day in the afternoon. A normally 100 mile race, people finish around 24 hours.

    The RD saw me, and he recognized me from his training run the week before, and asked if I want to run that night. People showing up at the Wild Oak are all hardcore, they could run any time. He was expecting me to say sure, it was only 8 pm, let run on the mountain and see you next morning, a loop, might take 10-12 hours.

    I was not that bold. I did however started the next day at 9 am. I did not finish until 9 pm. Everyone already left by Sunday. I knew. I did not expect anyone to be there since I wanted to do it on my own. There was a special feeling when I felt it was only me on the mountain.

    It was an awesome adventure. The scenery was popping. At night, stars came out. Wild animals howled. There were sounds I never heard before, probably coyotes mating or bobcats. What surprised me was I thought I could have done it in 10 hours, but pretty early on, I realized it was not going to be fast. It took me 3 hours to go the first 7 miles. The trail was about 4 times that, so ended up with 12 hours. I did get lost a bit, but also I was glad to have enough sense to realized I was lost and was able to find my way back.

    New sign – not where I got lost. I got lost on a section I was too sure was the right way, but wasn’t
    Camp site
    Just so beautiful
    frozen pond. In the summer, it is a bog and very yucky

    III. The Race: Holiday Lake 50K – As I said, there was so much going on. I had a 50K and I went down to Appomattox, VA, last month to run around the lake. This weekend was the real thing. Friday night after work, I drove directly there. I arrived late and missed the dinner and opening ceremony and the Race Director’s briefing. All I left to do was go to bed. I slept in my truck. It was not too bad. It was toasty, and I had my windows down to regulate the temperature (25F, cold). I had my 32 F sleeping bag, so it was good enough.

    The next day, the race started at 6:30. We had 200+ runners. The 25K runners ran counter clockwise around the lake and we 50k people ran clockwise on the first loop, and counterclockwise the 2nd loop. What happened was we would cross path halfway and were able to see everyone.

    I met the Race Director Kevin and his wife Ann from Iron Mountain, a race that means a lot to me. They both were in this race. I was one of the few they knew by name. I will do IMTR again this year, and hopefully will finish it. RD Kevin was so strong when I saw him on the trail. He ran the MMT 5 times, a guy I totally respect. Also Kristen and Chris, who I ran with on the training run, were there. I ran an hour faster than my training run on my first loop, but Kristen and Chris were faster still. They blew me out of the water. Note, in the past, I was faster than them but they improved. I finished in 7:07 and I am happy with my time, though I was the last few who came in. Everyone was so fast!

    A word about this race. They provided dinner the night before, breakfast the morning of and lunch after we finished. They were all buffet and good food. Also during the race, the Aid Stations’ food was so good. Next time if I do this race again, make sure to eat my fill!

    IV. For the Love of it 5K – You might ask one more race? This was run on Feb 14 weekend. Yes I ran it. I ran Run your Heart Out 10K and this For the Love of it 5K, almost every year. If you do one and you have to do the other. I arrived pretty much at the right time, 30 minutes before the race. It was a cold morning. We had a snow shower right about when the race was to start. I stayed in my car, thinking what clothes to wear. Should I put on a rain jacket? Should I wear a fleece? Neither. I put on a shirt I just got from the race swag, and lined up. There were many people. Off I went. I don’t remember my time now, but I was able to do it under 30 mins (I think I got 28). I was racing with a 12 year old boy, I won by a hair. It is bib time, so he might still bested me. I know sooner or later, he and others will be faster than me.

    This reminded me I met Jeff at the Holiday Lake race. This is a different Jeff than one I met the previous weekend at the MMT training. He is maybe 60 year old and he passed me when we had about 6 miles left. I tried to keep him in sight but soon he was out of sight. My goal was to finish near 7 hours. When I came in I saw Jeff already had a plate of food in his hand. So I asked him, if he finished under 7. He said, he just missed it by a minute. We sat down and talked about races. He mentioned he did Massanutten twice, twenty years ago. Must be an amazing runner when he was my age. I asked if he still wants to do MMT, but he said those days are over for him. He had run many 100 miles races.

    Note to self. I met #72 too. She and her friend will be at BRR (Bull Run Run 50). She volunteered last year. I was too. This year she is running it. And she was at the MMT volunteering, Camp Rossevelt. She was saying she ran Holiday Lake last year while 5 month pregnant and was the last to come in. This year, she was much faster, for sure. She will be at the MMT too, running it this time. We are likely be on course buddy since her pace and mine are about the same.

    Conclusion: There’s none. I had such a full weekend. I got back on Monday, Presidents’ Day. I slept for 12 hours. I was sick afterward. But my heart was overflowed with joy of all the races and runs I did and so many new friends I made. Looking ahead, I will be traveling this coming weekend. I will write about it once done. I’m excited. I like to keep it kind of a secret, though my race schedule is not a secret.

  • Day366 Wild Oak Car camping

    I ended up going to Wild Oak. This place has a lot of memories for me because it was there where I got my teeth cut for my first backpacking experience.

    My hiker friend back into 2017 planned the trip to go there for like over half a year. I didn’t know her then. However, every time she decided to go, something happened, she had to reschedule 7-8 times. From her write up of the trip, it was supposed to be a super hard trip and it was to be done in the winter with numerous water crossings (she mentioned like twelve). Unfortunately for her but fortunately for me, the trip was postponed till mid summer, when it was just me and her. Like most trips we did, instead of canceling again, she decided to move it forward.

    So I got to do the trip with her, and my first ‘real’ bp. There were only two river crossings. One of them has a bridge to walk across! We ended up didn’t backpack at all but hiked the whole thing in a day, partly my fault, since I was super excited about my physical endurance having just done my first marathon early that year. I was ready to show the world what it like to walk 26.2 miles. It was one of the toughest hikes I did, with a full pack. We were supposed to drop pack and camp midway but our hike was super fast and by evening time, we thought we had only couple miles left (it was like 10 instead because they remade and extended the trail and added like 4-5 miles, and we were using an old map). We laughed at it every time it is mentioned, because it was so stupid, to carry a heavy pack and did not use it and for 28+ miles no less.

    Since then I have gone back to this place year after year. Last year, we were there during the Columbus Weekend and we happened to encounter a race happening that weekend. If you know anything about me, a race is like the reason for my existent. I almost couldn’t control myself to run with runners instead of backpacking that weekend. So I said to myself, I got to come back this year to run with them.

    There is a tradition for this race, not sure since when, maybe for 10+ year, the Virginia Happy Trail people would come out here to fatass this trail – that is to unofficially race on the trail but without requiring signup or payment. If you remember I recently did the ‘VDM’ with them last weekend. All their races are kind of weird/informally done like that. They are really too old school for my taste, especially with the no-signup thing of a year in advance. I think because it is on government land, they are not supposed to have an organized race, but they got around this by having a group of informal private citizens that happened to gather during a particular weekend. Now the race is no longer tied to Virginia Happy Trail (I think to avoid being sued), but people still informally come on Columbus Day Weekend to run it.

    So this year, I decided to go there on Columbus Day weekend to run. I ran on the trail by myself last year when I had the Lyme disease. I think I did it in 8 hours, which was pretty good (I think is the par for the course). But this time I did it in two laps. The first was on Saturday at 3pm and I didn’t finish until midnight, which took about 9 hours. In the morning the next day, I ran another lap, started at 9 am but didn’t finish until 8:30 pm. It took 11:30 hours.

    The Virginia Happy Trail people didn’t show up in force though. They decided to have it the next weekend instead, which I think kind of nice to us the holiday visitors because the parking lot was kind a small (can only hold about 10 cars). There wouldn’t be enough space to park if everyone showed up.

    I ran into three other people, who were also running the whole loop. They were fast. I think it probably took them under 7 hours. They ran in clockwise direction while I did the loop counter-clockwise. We met up around 2 pm. I was at mile 11, about 1/3 of the way while they were probably at mile 17 or 18 (2/3 of the way). I told them I probably wouldn’t get back to the parking lot until 8 pm. I had 6 more hours to go, while maybe only 3 more hours for them. Lucky! Though secretly I was hoping to finish by 6 pm (at the 9 hour mark). I didn’t want to be caught on the mountain in the dark on a cold and rainy day.

    But as luck and my ability would have it, I ended up spending seven more hours out there. They told me hope I can descend before dark. It was good I tossed a small handheld flashlight in my hydration pack before setting out, thinking just in case but likely I wouldn’t need it. The last hour coming down the mountain in pitch dark was something I don’t want to do, but ended up doing. The light from my handheld was just barely enough to lit the few steps in front of me. It has barely enough light to see anything. I think it was the fog and my beam was not penetrating it. I think there was maybe just a candle worth of brightness. It flickered on and off and I was praying hard, please have enough battery to last the trip down.

    The trail was not easy. It was not the hardest trail there is but they have enough steep uphills and downhills and there are portions that are rocky and technical. The first climb was over 7 miles! The last descend was 5 miles long! Quad killer indeed. Ankle and knee killers too. It was not a hike for the average city folks.

    I rolled my ankle twice on the first lap around at mile 8/9. On my second lap in the same place I rolled my ankle twice again. I tried to stop to find the stone or root that tripped me. The sad thing was that part of the trail was gentle and smooth. There were many places that were rougher or tougher. I usually roll myself at the easiest places. The part that is hard to accept is on my second lap, I had my poles with me – this kind of rolling shouldn’t happen because my weight should have shifted to my arms. I had to pause to consider should I quit, since hiking 8 miles back is easier than doing 20 miles forward. I decided to risk it by moving forward (sunk cost fallacy). Luckily I didn’t roll again, but that was a pretty gusty decision.

    One thing I did that almost put my life at risk was the tropical storm Delta (down graded from Hurricane Delta) arrived at our area that morning. I knew about the rain and wind. I packed a rain jacket but at the start of the run, I felt I don’t need it and left it behind. It was not raining then. When I did the first lap (in the evening), I was not cold. I was hoping the temperature would remain constant. But on the second lap once the rain came, and temperature dropped, I was freezing. I was halfway through by then distance wise, with the time around 3-4 pm. I was thinking how I wish I have my rain jacket with me. I might go into hypothermia and it was late Sunday. If something bad happens, no one will be on the trail to rescue me until maybe next weekend. I got to get off of this mountain myself before my body freezed.

    Throughout the run, I dared not think of the time remained to the parking lot because even if it takes an hour, it was just too long to accept. I was focusing on the distance instead. I was at mile 15, and in my mind I told myself just need to get to the next peak which was like 3-6 miles away. I knew the trail is about 27-28 miles long. I kept thinking in that line to give myself hope.

    Maybe the cold and tireness affected my thinking. I got lost on the next peak, Hankey Mnt. When we went there as a group, we got lost there too. The night before though I didn’t get lost because – my hiking friend told me she fixed the sign and I found her small beaten fixed sign and followed it down. With full confident that I wouldn’t get lost again on Hankey in day time I ascended (I could bypass it that peak if needed). However, when I ascended I found the campsite my friend told me about (something I didn’t see the night before), but her sign I didn’t find. In place of her sign I found a new and official trail sign clearly marked ‘WILD OAK TRAIL’, so I took the left turn there. I thought it was a left. This is where the confusion came in. Apparently by taking the left I ended back up at where I was about a mile away. Exactly, how on earth did I hiking backward on the trail without realizing it! I think though the backtracking was on the *old* trail except it was newly blazed or earlier I was on the old trail while ascending! I blame the forest park people, why blazed an old trail. They got the sign confused there. I was at mile 18 earlier. However the extra backtracking added an extra 3 miles (an hour more).

    If anyone is reading this and planning to hike The Wild Oak Trail, don’t ascend the Hankey Mountain, leave the Wild Oak trail take the Betsy trail instead to go around it instead because there are some confusing signs up on the top that would loop you back around. The funny thing is they don’t blaze the other side of Hankey Mountain where Wild Oak merged into Betsy (or Betsy into Wild Oak Tr), so even if you are on right trail you won’t know it until five miles later. So just avoid ascending Hankey altogether.

    I kept telling myself only one more peak to go (Lookout mountain at mile 22). It took maybe 7 more miles before I got there (and that was about 3 hours later). The time then was 6:30 pm, that was original my goal to finish by. However, I was not upset. We get there when we get there.

    I was pressing for time. I didn’t know how long it would take to descend Lookout mountain. My guess was 4 miles. I know it would get dark by 7 pm. The mud was slick and I was not wearing my trail shoes but the normal road running shoes. So basically I was skiing, sliding, and slipping all over the places. Based on the previous day, it took me an hour and half to descend. So I tried to do it again this time as fast as I could. But I didn’t have a bright flashlight on me this time. The one I had I could hardly use to see. I kind of make out a shadowy path in front of me.

    At one point I almost went over a cliff. Thank God, I stopped in time. That was mostly my fault too. The previous day, the city light below the Lookout Mountain was beautiful, and I tried to see if there were any light (It was foggy). While trying to look, I walked straight out into the edge because the path has curved at that point.

    Over all it was a good experience. I had 27 miles the first day and 30 miles the second.

    I brought my tent but too lazy to use it. I slept in the car both nights, a real definition of car camping. The first night, I sleep in the flat bed of my truck. I was not afraid of bugs. The second night was rainy and I slept inside. The backseat only fits half of me. I slept in like hammock position, V-shape. My head was up and my legs were up. I didn’t get much sleep. I left the rear window opened for air.

    I think I was not supposed to sleep/camp at the trailhead, but there is no one around to enforce it. This was kind of reminescene of the first trip where we had a tent but ended up didn’t use it.

  • Wild Oak Trail BP

    Day 182

    It was a wild and wonderful weekend. On Friday I was supposed to be headed down south to Roanoke for a tripple crown hike/camping trip (McAfee, Tinker Cliff, and Dragon tooth) but God (or the hike lead) had a different plan. Plan was changing from the start. I was supposed to run the Ultra High Bridge 50k but instead I went for this trip. In the end, it was not meant to be.

    As we were headed down to Roanoke, my hike lead was not feeling it. Instead at the last minute, we changed our plan to a nearer location. I don’t force her or mad at her fo a change of plan. Hiking any where is the same to me as long as we are all happy. The new location would still be just as hard, It has about 30 miles of hike and around total 8000 ft elevation change.

    This place is less well known for backpacking. It has become a mountain bike trail and trail runner heaven. Ho and behold, as we pulled into the Wild Oak Trail head, the parking lot was packed. We got out, what to do and thinking what was going on. Normally, no one comes to this place after dark.

    The guy who was tending at the parking lot quickly approved us to explain they were having a race going on for the weekend. We could stay and park on the side of the road as long as our car tires are completely off the road.

    We were camping at the trail head with a race that was ongoing. The race started at 8 in the morning / or at night (I don’t remember). They were running 100+ miles). The trail has a 28-30 miles loop and they were running it 4 times. Through out the night as runners passed through the parking lot (an Aid Station as well as the starting and ending point) we heard cheers and applauses. Needless to say we had very little sleep.

    As for me, I was trilled. I have read about races at Wild Oak. There was the Grindstone 100 and this was the hot TWOT. To finally be at ultra 100 miles race was heavenly. It was like shaking hand with celebrities. I might do the cold TWOT next February.

    The next day we proceeded with our hike. My friend and I did this loop about three years ago. That time was my first backpacking trip (my friend disagreed) but I had plenty of memories from it because we did the whole thing in one day with a full pack on our back (and we were very miserable). This second time around we did it in a more relaxing way. Instead of hiking 28 miles in one day, we only hiked about 16 miles on the first day and finished the rest on the second. We camped somewhere in the middle. It was a good campground. I built a fire and tended it until backpacker midnight (when the sun went down and got completely dark) and I put it out and on the next day I bravely put my hand in the ash to make sure the ambers were completely out. Water was not plenty but still I pored water on the coals (I could pee on them, but I don’t think the ladies in our group would like that).

    The next day, we finished the loop except we put in some extra miles after being confused by the signage and map. They changed the trail and the change was not on the map (at least that what we think). We had to rely on intuition and logic to get us ou of the place thanks to a very experience hiker in our group. He had a great sense of direction, otherwise we would still be looping at where we were lost for couple more times! Hey we all have our phones and gps, but none of us could make head or tail exactly where we were. We were lost for about an hour. I learnd some important old school navigation skills (love Sharron!). You don’t need map or signs if you use your head.

    The rest of the trip was uneventful. We got out of the woods by early afternoon. I was in good shape. I ran this loop back in June and hiking it was not a challenge at all. It was no doubt considered one of the harder trail to run or hike, but splitting it into two days was really too easy.

    Don’t ask me how I don’t remember the trail even though I was on it as recently as couple months ago. My friend I should start remembering stuffs. Haha! I really don’t bother remember unimportant stuffs.

    Another thing I did differently on this trip was I carry a 28L bag (like a normal school backpack) and it was small and light weight. I was very light on my feet. It was a bit too heavy to run with, but I could have. I didn’t bring a tent but slept under the stars. It was cold at night but it was not too bad. The temperature was around 50-60F (around 10-15C). Couple times I was awaken by the cold and I had to move around in my sleeping bag to warm up (I slept in my undies). I didn’t bring long johns; didn’t need them. My friend said I must have a higher body temperature. I had my downs sleeping bag though, and that kept me warm enough.

    I surprised myself to be able to pull off being minimalist on a camping trip. It can be quite dangerous because I could have frozen to death.