2019_11_02 Deadman Peaks 30 Kilometer Trail Run

Author:  Brent Moody

Cuba, New Mexico “Deadman Peaks 30k Trail Run”

Had been almost 6 months since I raced anything over a ½ marathon, so the 30k was going to be a challenge. Cuba, NM at 7000+ feet elevation to start, sandy single track trails, slick rock and some elevation gain. All the ingredients of a recipe for disaster… LOL! Just kidding, I’m just as much a lover of pain and suffering as my fellow Cyclopaths. This was a race I was looking forward to, as a pre requisite for the following weeks race in Moab, UT. My initial plan for entering this race was to not run to hard and see how I stood for a 30k! The following week's race in Moab was a 30k, but not quite the elevation. My wife and I are traveling full time again, so our motorhome was stationed in Santa Fe, so I had almost a 2 hour drive to get there. Race time was at 8 am, so I needed to leave at 4:45am to get there an hour early at least, check in, and time for warm up. This place was out in the middle of nowhere… When I arrived, it was 6 degrees….brrr. Race time start was only set to only be 11 degrees, so was already thinking this was a training run since I would be dressed as an Eskimo! I did strip down a touch, running shorts, shirt, long sleeve shirt, jacket, gloves, back packet and baseball hat.

Starting Line...

Race time was here, I warmed up…not at all.. My plan was to dress warm, but not too much so at the ½ way point I could strip down. It was set to be 48 degrees by 10am, so shortly after my planned finish time. I was ready to go! Anything on the trail, races over 30k to 100 miles, requires a great running back pack. A few major necessities in there, but not too much as weight is the killer.. I was ready to start and looking around at my competitors, about 100 in this race, I was bewildered!! Must be all these local New Mexicans and Colorado Natives that are used to this. Most were in shorts and short sleeve shirts and one guy was in shorty shorts and nothing else but a water bottle and shoes!! LOL!! That kept me laughing and adrenaline flowing for at least 4 miles of the race!

Off goes the gun, and on our way! I’m a negative split runner, so I don’t go out to fast… Just enough to stay in the top 25% if I can, then reel them in the last ½ of the race. This race consisted of almost all single track and lots of deep sand. This was the first 2 miles, then started the 5 mile climb, thru more sand and slick rock. Reeled in a few people the first 2 miles, and what I could tell, was setting in about 6th place, right where I wanted to be. Competitive spirits kicked in...The guy I stuck behind was running a 9 min mile pace up this bluff. It was a beautiful course, single track sand, slick rock jumping, mesquite and pine trees, and some major bluffs!!! I would have loved to take some pictures, but while originally planning on a training run, this quickly turned to a race. Sitting in 6th place, and I could do well…I’m too competitive to let this go. WE finally made it up to mile 7.  There was a table and water out in the middle of nowhere - up on a bluff. I was just thinking, “How did they get this all the way out here?” We were approaching the top of the bluff and the end of the bluff, so I knew we were either eventually going back down the other side of the bluff or jumping off the edge and straight down we would go. The trail was always well marked and well, the latter is the way we went. Felt like Evil Knievel at the time…. It was about 1000’ straight down the bluff, 10’ switchbacks at a time. I could see the crazy no clothes guy, so I knew we were catching him. I'm a terrible downhiller, always have been; so I knew I would lose some ground on the way down. Once we made it to the bottom of the bluff, it was a mile more gradual of downhill, again single track and deep sand.. The #1 guy I met at a ½ mile to turn around, so he was ahead of me 1 mile already, wow! I cruised into the ½ way spot at mile 9, had to give them a perforated part of my race tag, to guarantee I made it to the check in. Perfect time to shed my coat and long sleeve shirt. Thought it would be fast, but ended up not.. I was fumbling around and couldn’t get my long sleeves packed in my back pack. I could see places 3-5 getting farther away, I estimated 400 yards. But.. I didn’t panic as I knew we had that 1000’ climb straight up and I could gain back the ground. Off I went, feeling good, listening to tunes.

Brent on the slick rock...

As I ran that ½ mile at a steady pace, not even feeling the deep sand, I reeled in Mr. No Clothes, so in 5th place now… I hammered up the 1000’ climb, meeting a lot of runners coming the other direction on their way out. By the time I reached the top, I had caught the original pacer I had been running with and passed him up... now in 4th!  My calves were brutal, rolling cramps were hitting both legs! I needed some carbs and sugar! All I had left were some cheap sugar gummy bears, so I kept eating as many as I could and washing them down while running that next mile… That did the trick! Instant sugar rush for at least the next few miles I would think… The next 7 miles were a downhill, so now was the time to make my move. Negative split time and catch the runners that always go out too fast. I caught the 3rd place guy within the next mile. I looked down at my watch and I had been running a 6:45 mile for the last 2 miles, whoa… slow down, ways to go I thought. I looked at my watch again and my heart rate was up around 160-170… Starting to red line, but I can push through this, just have to relax, deep breaths and listen to the tunes! I have to be honest, those next 2 miles were slick rock and in and out of nearly passing out, starting to see blurry vision… I ate some more gummy bears and drank a bunch more water. The next 1-2 miles were those short and steep bunny hop type of trails, which are super hard on the legs.. but I was still running good and right at a 7min mile pace. Finally out of the woods and out on the single track I could see the finish line, even though almost 2 miles away… I, honestly, had to walk here and there to stop from passing out; but it worked. I could see 2nd place, but couldn’t quite real him in. Ran that last 1 mile pretty fast, and looked back and 4th place I could see, but no way was he catching me. Finally finished, never felt so good.... 2:36 for 18 miles... 1st place was only ahead of me about 7 min, so still about a mile….. but, at the ½ way point, this guy was in 2nd by about a ¼ mile. . I think I made up a ½ mile on 1st place. 2nd place finisher was only about 3 min ahead of me, he was the guy that was ahead of me 1 mile at the ½ way point. Not bad for a 50 year old and rest of top 10 were 20s, 30s and a couple 40s.

This was a great race, but I paid for it the next week of recovery. I ended up running Moab as a training race and pacing my buddy to a new PR. I did run a few 1 mile sprints in between, but kept running back for him to pace him. That last mile felt so good we ran a 5:35 mile pace. All is coming into perfect timing, no injuries, having fun, enjoying life.. This years goal is not the long ULTRA runs, but the track. I do have a few ULTRA fun runs coming up, which the main one is running Wonderland Trail this summer in August, 3 days, 93 miles. Epic bucket list run… Anyways, Track season is here and shooting for some goals to compete in the National Senior games as well as the National Masters Track and Field Championships in the 1500, 3000 and the 5k. I’m still riding as cross training, so a good add to training.

To all my competitive Cyclopath buddies, miss you guys.. The riding I have done with you guys is part of the journey… CHEERS TO A GREAT 2020!

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Comment from Mike Hassur:  for more info on this run click on the link below:

Deadman Peaks 30k Trail Run

2019_09_12 Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier Ride (Dwaine Trummert, Mike Hassur and John Clyde - our new Scottish Cyclopath and Friend)

Author:  Mike Hassur

At some point in August of 2019, Leon Matz received an email from a fellow named John Clyde.  John was a physician from the Edinburgh, Scotland area, AND he was an avid cyclist.  He explained that his wife's best friend lived in Puyallup and that they were coming for a visit.  The "best friend" had done some research regarding cycling in our area and found the Puyallup Cyclopaths (and Leon's contact info).  John contacted Leon and asked if it would be possible to borrow/rent a bike and to go for a ride with some of our group while he was here.  After getting some information from John, Leon referred John to Adam Abrams (they were about the same size, and Leon was hoping that Adam might have an old bike that John could borrow).  Eventually, I received a call from Adam who told me about John's upcoming visit.  Adam was willing to loan John one of his bikes, but he was not available for a ride during the dates that John would be in our area (and Leon was out due to his accident in RAMROD).

I made contact with John via email, got his contact phone number (in Puyallup) and gave him a call once they had arrived in Puyallup.  I told John that I would arrange to pick up Adam's bike a couple of days before our ride and bring it over to where he was staying so that he would have a chance to make adjustments to the fit.  I, also, gave him some ride options: The Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier, Skate Creek Loop, Sunrise (with Cayuse Pass and Chinook Pass as added options), etc.  John said that he was interested in doing about 50-55 miles, and we selected the Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier Ride because it would give him more time to spend with his wife and friends on the given day.  Because of their arrival and departure dates, our only options for a ride fell on weekdays.  After looking at our options (and the weather), I decided that Thursday, September 12th looked like the best option for a nice ride.

After establishing our date to ride, it was just a matter of getting Adam's bike to John and sending a note out to the rest of the Cyclopaths to see if anyone else wanted to join us.  I sort of figured that no one would be joining us given that the ride was on a weekday; but, to my surprise, I heard back from Dwaine Trummert.  Dwaine said that he would like to join us.  The plan was that I would pick up John in Puyallup, we would meet Dwaine in Orting and be leaving Orting on our bikes at around 7:15 AM.

I picked up John on Thursday morning and headed toward Orting where we met Dwaine and were leaving Orting right on time.  As usual, we took the Foothills Trail from Orting to South Prairie.  We continued on the trail a little further past South Prairie before making a slight detour to get onto Lower Burnett Road.  From there, we proceeded to Wilkeson, up to Carbonado and on to the Fairfax Bridge.

Dwaine and John on the Fairfax Bridge

John, Dwaine and Mike (Fairfax Bridge)

I love to brag to anyone who will listen about the fact that this bridge will be 100 years old in 2021; and, of course, I mentioned this bit of trivia on this ride.  As soon as the words were out of my mouth, it occurred to me that John was from Scotland.  He - in a very gentle manner - said that some of their bridges dated back 500 YEARS!!  We all enjoyed a good laugh at my expense (later, as we were crossing this same bridge on our way back to Orting, I made it a point to say that "this bridge will ONLY be 100 years old in 2021").

After stopping at the Fairfax Bridge for a few photos, we headed toward the Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier.  During that part of the ride, we visited about all sorts of things including BREXIT.  Between Dwaine's insightful questions and John's thorough answers, I learned a lot.  This portion of the ride seemed to fly by, and we soon found ourselves at the Carbon River Entrance and on the bridge over the Carbon River which is nearby.

Dwaine and John at the end of the paved road... Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier

After taking a few photos and taking in some food and liquids, we were on our bikes heading back.  On the way back, we took a short detour up the road to Mowich Lake to see if we could get a nice view of Mt. Rainier.  We got a decent view and a few more photos...

We retraced our steps on the way back except that we took Tubbs Road from Wilkeson to South Prairie and enjoyed the fast descent down into South Prairie.  The ride from South Prairie back to Orting went smoothly and gave us the opportunity for more conversation.

From my perspective, this turned out to be a memorable ride.  The weather was great, I love riding with Dwaine, and it was a pleasure getting to know John and riding with him.  Hopefully, John and his wife will return; and we'll have the chance to take him up on some of the passes on Mt. Rainier.

2019_08_23 Skate Creek Loop (aka RATROD) with David Crawford and Dave Wilcoxson

Author:  Mike Hassur

The genesis of this particular ride was interesting.  I’m on Strava like most of the rest of our group, and some time ago I noticed that a fellow named Dave Wilcoxson was following me.  I didn’t know Dave, but it’s not that unusual on Strava for people to be following people that they have never met.  The thing that made this interesting to me was that Dave lived in Indiana.  I figured that, if Dave was interested enough to follow me, then I would follow him so that I could find out more about him.  What I found out was that he rides with a big group of riders in Indiana and that he is fast.  My curiosity got the best of me, so I decided to message Dave on Strava to find out how in the world he decided to follow me.  The answer was that he and his wife had visited Seattle, he had somehow found the Puyallup Cyclopaths’ rides and was intrigued and from there he managed to find my name and follow me on Strava.  I responded that, if they ever were back in our area, I would be glad to take him for a ride on Mt. Rainier.  It didn’t take long.  Kathy and I were having a beer at Narrows Brewing when I received a text from Dave that he and his wife would be in our area in August.  I texted him back and, then, called him.  We decided to do the Skate Creek Loop Route on August 23^rd (which was a Friday).

Once I knew that we would be doing this ride, I sent out an email to the other Puyallup Cyclopaths to see if anyone else was available on that date.  Not surprisingly, most people were working and couldn’t join us.   The night before the ride I received an email from David Crawford.  He had the day off from work and was planning on joining us.  I always enjoy it when David joins us for a ride.  He is a good guy and a fun person with whom to ride.  Here was my problem… we now had three riders (one of whom (David C) was definitely much faster than me and the other who was probably going to be difficult to keep up with)…  still, I was psyched.

We met at our usual Skate Creek Loop meeting place.  Since there are now “No Parking” signs in that location, we ventured a mile or two down the road toward the Nisqually Entrance to Mt. Rainier to find a nice turnout that would accommodate our three vehicles.  From there, we proceeded to the park entrance.

The ride from the park entrance up past Longmire and Narada Falls and, finally, up to Paradise was beautiful (the weather was good with temperatures in the mid-50's and partly cloudy skies).  Since Dave W. had never ridden on Mt. Rainier it was fun pointing out various things of interest as we ascended (e.g. the value of my national park "senior pass" as we passed through the park entrance, Longmire and some of its history as a hot springs destination, Christine Falls, the Nisqually River Bridge, Ricksecker Point Loop, Narada Falls and Stevens Canyon Road running above, and the views of Mt. Rainier as we approached Paradise)...

David C and Dave W and Mt. Rainier...

Dave W and David C at Paradise...

We flew back down the road from Paradise to the turnoff to Inspiration Point and Reflection Lake.

Mt. Rainier as seen from Reflection Lake...

After stopping, briefly, at Reflection Lake for a quick photo; we headed down the east side of the mountain through Stevens Canyon.  Instead of a video, I accidentally had my GoPro taking approximately one photo per second all the way through Stevens Canyon, so I ended up with 1,000 photos of this portion of the ride rather than video.  Here are a few of those photos:

Approaching the hairpin curve just above Stevens Canyon...

The view after rounding the hairpin above Stevens Canyon...

Stevens Canyon just to our right... our road/hairpin can be seen in the distance on the right hand side of the picture...

Tunnel ahead...

Love this rock face on our left...

After the Stevens Canyon descent was the three mile climb over Backbone Ridge, the descent of the east side of Backbone Ridge and passing out of the park by the east side Ranger Station...

David C. and Dave W. passing the Ranger Station on the east side of Mt. Rainier...

From there, we proceeded south past Ohanapecosh for a few miles until we reached Hwy 12 which would take us to Packwood.  We were going fast (~30 mph) toward Packwood when David C. hit a rock which flatted both his front and rear tires (thankfully, he didn't crash).  After getting David's flat tires fixed, we discovered that he had some sort of problem with his chain/rear derailleur not meshing smoothly.  We stopped a few times to try to rectify the problem with no success.  Finally, it was determined that Dave W. and I would would finish the ride through Packwood and back to the vehicles (~30 miles) and that I would return with my van to pick up David.  

The remainder of the trip to Packwood was uneventful which left us with that last 25 miles or so on Skate Creek Road (including a 12 mile climb) to get back to the vehicles.  Unfortunately, Dave W. had a flat heading up Skate Creek Road!!  We got that one fixed (with one tube and two CO2 cartridges left between the two of us) and made our way back to the vehicles.  Happily, David C. had gotten his chain problem fixed and arrived just a few minutes behind us.

This ride is always one of my favorites, and today was no exception (in spite of a few "misadventures").

VIDEO: SKATE CREEK LOOP WITH DAVID CRAWFORD AND DAVE WILCOXSON

2019_06_15 Sunrise Visitor Center Triple/Quadruple Ride

Author:  Mike Hassur

This ride is always a little "strategic" (i.e. we try to pick a date where the road will be open to cyclists but not to motorized vehicles - which, usually, means the middle of June).  We had picked June 15th as the date for this ride, and the weather forecast looked pretty good (no rain and decent temperatures at both the base and top of the climb).  The weather forecast turned out to be correct as it was perfect weather for our ride (and for taking photos).

The plan was to be on our bikes and ready to be heading up this climb at 6:30 AM which meant that I was up at 3:50 AM and leaving the house at 4:45 AM.  I planned to stop along the way to take some photos on the drive up:

I arrived at the turnoff from highway 410 toward Sunrise at about 6:00 AM.  Adam and Dwaine had passed me not long before the turnoff, and I followed them past the Sunrise Ranger Station (no Ranger was on duty yet).  We stopped at the facilities for a quick bathroom break, and I was surprised to see Scott Larson as I headed back to my vehicle.  Scott and his family had just returned from three weeks in Australia, and he was the last person that I expected to see that morning.  Our small caravan headed on up to the base of the Sunrise Visitor Center Climb which is located at the turnoff to the White River Campground.  Soon, we had a small crowd of riders getting their gear ready:

We got started around 6:40 AM and made our way up the climb for the first of three or four repeats that we had planned for that morning.  When we got to the Sunrise Lookout, there were some spectacular views to be had:

From there, it was a short and easy ride up to the Sunrise Visitor Center for a quick group photo (at least, some of the group...

Tristan approaching the Sunrise Visitor Center...

The descent, again, yielded some nice photos at the Sunrise Lookout Hairpin (always a good place for photos):

From there, it was an eight mile, fast descent back to the vehicles.  We were pleasantly surprised as we neared the bottom to see two of our Puyallup Cyclopath buddies from Seattle, Jim Wilcher and Chris Fox.  We hadn't seen them for a few years, so this was sort of a "reunion". 

The second trip up was uneventful, and we found ourselves - once again - taking some photos at the Sunrise Visitor Center:

The second trip down the mountain was fast and uneventful (thankfully).  There were no photos taken on the third time up and down this climb as the photographer was getting tired.  He had just enough energy left to snap a few photos at the end of the ride (though a few of our group had enough energy to make a fourth trip up and down the mountain)...

This was a very enjoyable experience.  It's pretty extraordinary to convince fourteen people to get up early enough to make a 1.5 hour drive into the mountains and to be on their bikes starting a ride at 6:30 AM.  In addition, the weather was about as good as you could hope for when riding in the mountains in mid-June.  Looking forward to our next adventure...

Click on the following links to see the entire photo album and video associated with this ride:

2019_06_15 Sunrise Visitor Center Triple/Quadruple Climb (Video)

2019_06_15 Sunrise Visitor Center Triple/Quadruple Climb (Photo Album)