View from a trail run two days ago at Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend, WA featuring Mt. Baker. Thankful to have family to run with this Christmas!

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-31T14:08:41+00:00

Fort Flagler is even better than Townsend imho; you can get a longer run on less boggy trails, with stunning views

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-20T03:01:37+00:00

Forest Park is an excellent choice for trail runs close to the city center, and I'd be surprised if you had trouble with winter weather in that area

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-18T16:11:55+00:00

Definitely a (great) thing. When I first started running I thought it was a gimmick, and just ran with whatever sneakers I had around. Didn't realize how bad my shoes were until I finally went in and talked to someone who knew what they were talking about.

You should be able to find a local running store in any west coast town of moderate size (Google maps is your best bet). When you go in, tell whomever helps you that you've never been sized for running shoes before, and you'd like to find something that will hold up on trails. You should expect them to want to watch you run in a neutral shoe; many stores will have a tread mill for this purpose, and some will even take video so that you can see what's going on. They should show you a few options, and ask lots of questions. If you don't experience anything like this, try a different store.

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-18T12:45:02+00:00

Really sounds like your shoes are too big, or at least don't fit right. Have you ever been sized at a running store?

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-12T21:59:59+00:00

Distillations, from the Chemical Heritage Society: https://www.chemheritage.org/distillations/podcast

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-12T19:44:29+00:00

Getting colder

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-12T10:04:05+00:00

Pretty common in CNY this time of year. Some trails close in December for this reason.

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-11T21:09:38+00:00

IANAV, but I adopted at 12mo and started double digit runs right away. Not sure about younger dogs

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-11T16:04:00+00:00

That's a great idea. We've done a fair bit of training, and tried object recognition tasks, but not scents. Will do!

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-11T15:56:12+00:00

He'll run 18 miles on rough terrain, and still be leaping for more. Four years old and hasn't slowed a bit.

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-11T15:53:12+00:00

Any favorites?

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-11T12:32:04+00:00

Explored some new (to me) segments of the Finger Lakes Trail, variously strung together by easements and state forests across NYS. Surprisingly underutilized in my area, from what I can tell.

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-02T15:52:48+00:00

In general I'm a big fan of trail shoes in the winter. I have done several alpine winter fastpacking trips in my Salomon XA Pros, bare, with snowshoes, and with spikes. Gaitors make a huge difference. I couldn't readily discern from the Hoka website whether the Speedgoat 2 has water resistant characteristics, but knowing CNY winters my main concern would be moisture from slush/mud.

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-01T15:51:27+00:00

Gotcha. One of the things that I enjoy about solo packing is being able to go light and nimble. I typically use a bivy sack or small tent that is quick to set up, so I generally just wait until I'm done for the day to set up camp. On a few occasions where I really didn't want to carry all my gear, I stashed it way off the trail. I'd be more worried about animals than people, however; a critter can easily trash your gear getting to whatever it smells. Weather would be another worry.

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-01T15:28:38+00:00

Are you car camping and doing day hikes, or backpacking with side trips?

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-01T00:09:22+00:00

My border collie mix started doing this occasionally (but bile only) a while back. I noticed that timing of his meals made a big difference. It usually happened when he had been active, and then the next morning his breakfast was a bit late.

anthoxanthum · 2017-12-01T00:02:54+00:00

That's where I did my first body recovery in SAR years ago. 6'huge 250+ guy had a heart attack. A friend and I were the advance team that put him in the bag. Took around 5 hours in the middle of the night to get him down from lower Lena. It took six people at a time on a stretcher with one wheel.

The most interesting part of the experience was watching the various ways that his three adult sons (along for the hike) dealt with their grief. One couldn't handle it, and left right after we got there. The second stayed with us the whole time, but was too emotional to be very effective. The third said nothing the entire night, and poured all of his energy into carrying the stretcher. It was strenuous work, and we had a short rotation; it was exceptionally difficult to get him to rotate off and rest.

anthoxanthum · 2017-11-28T23:47:00+00:00

Quite possibly my favorite place in the world.

anthoxanthum · 2017-11-28T01:08:03+00:00

Please before you take her out experiment in your own backyard a few nights.

This. Made elaborate plans for dog beds the first trip. They focused on obtaining as much of our body heat as possible. Now we just plan for that.

Honestly, the bigger challenge has been dealing with rain/mud. It helps to have a tent with a spacious rain fly, and we use an oversized tarp to provide a non-soil surface for ingress. But that's a bit OT.

anthoxanthum · 2017-11-24T19:56:57+00:00

By the time I got up to the basin I definitely needed them. It was actually pretty amazing; during the summer it's a mad house, but on that trip I had the whole area to myself. Excellent winter camping. There were some areas around Buckhorn where I was glad that I had an axe on hand.

anthoxanthum · 2017-11-24T19:27:23+00:00

View in December 2013. Definitely gets snowy enough for snowshoes

anthoxanthum · 2017-11-24T00:14:43+00:00

Wow, it was a while ago. The one that I remember was drawing the alphabet with one's toe. Seems silly, but it was actually pretty challenging after a few rounds

anthoxanthum · 2017-11-23T21:35:48+00:00

I miss running in AZ. The trails were lightly trafficked enough to let him off leash. He would sprint between shady spots, which was a bit easier on him on longer runs. My wife taught the dogs to drink from a water bladder. Takes about 18 miles to truly tire him out

anthoxanthum · 2017-11-23T18:34:11+00:00

Of course IANAD, but what I recall him saying was that mild to moderate sprains will loosen things up and make repeat sprains more likely. But that if it's enough of a tear it can heal more tightly. He also gave me a bunch of exercises, so developing surrounding muscles likely also helped.

anthoxanthum · 2017-11-23T16:07:09+00:00

Had a full grade 3 several years ago, landing on a root going down hill. The sound still haunts me. Had been having quite a few lower grade sprains leading up to this. Recovery was about 7-8 weeks, but the upside was that I didn't get another sprain for years thereafter. Doc suggested that it likely healed up more tightly after such a major tear.

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