Adventures in Onionism

Didn't manage to get out of town on Friday, since I was exhausted after my first week of teaching and writing an RFP at work, so it turned into an overnighter to Carson-Iceberg Wilderness. Saturday wasn't amazing, as Lake Alpine is crowded and the trails near there were either non-existent or just hard to figure out near the campgrounds. I headed south past Duck Lake, Rock Lake, and over to Elephant Rock Lake and back, a burn made navigation difficult, but the lakes were pretty. Just wasn't really feeling it--hadn't fully recovered from the race last week, and didn't eat enough breakfast or lunch before starting the run, so it turned into more of a hike. Rock Lake Exiting Dardanelles off to the south, I think Duck Lake Looking south from Cape Horn, on HWY 4. Same Sunday was better. Drove further east to Highland Lakes, which are really pretty. Not at all crowded, and I picked a decent 21-mile loop. George saw his first bear, but ...

Since a friend is in Iceland right now, I was reminded that I never blogged about the second portion of my trip to Iceland last summer. You can read about the first portion, where I walked from North to South across the island with Nano, here . Day 1-July 20, 2014 [ blog entry ] I flew from Reykjavik to Isafjurder. I walked from the airport into town, stocked up at the Bonus grocery store, and made my travel plans with West Tours, which is right in the same building as the information office. To take the ferry to Hornstrandir, you have to book a ferry, and you have to tell West Tours your exact itinerary. They were nice, and didn't put up a fight when I told them I hiked 50km a day, so that was fine. I really wanted to walk all the way around Hornstrandir, and then all the way down the Strandir coast to Holmavik, and then catch a bus back to Reykjavik, but I was worried I wouldn't be able to pull it off in time for my flight home. (In retrospect, I should have gone for it, b...

Finally, on the third try, I managed to run more than 100 miles at the Crissy Field 24-hour fixed time event in San Francisco. And finally, after sixteen* 100+ mile races started, I managed to run 100 miles in under 24 hours. The course is a USATF-certified 1.061** mile loop around Crissy Field Marsh. It's half asphalt, and half dirt/crushed gravel/sand. I first ran the event in October 2008 ( race report ), after having only one regular 100-mile event under my belt. I figured it would be "easier to run 100 miles in under 24 hours than it would be to run a 100-miler in under 24 hours," but I was totally wrong. The flat is torture on the muscles, as is the asphalt, as is the monotony. I took a short nap or two, and eked out 82 miles, with an 83rd after the official cutoff. Despite the pain, I came back again in October 2009, and did a little better. I didn't nap, though I did still take my sweet time on a few rough laps in the night. My recovery when the sun came ...