Adventures in Onionism

I ran the Plain 100. It was difficult. Plain may be the first 100-miler I had ever heard of in the sense that I actually knew anyone who ran it. My ultra/grad school mentor ZG ran it back in '04 or '05 and not only did he win it, he was the first person to finish it in several years. Plain runs quite a bit under the radar due to its length (108 miles) and absence of any course markings or aid stations. That's right, no aid stations, and no course markings. Less than a month after running a 24-hour rogaine that has the same conditions, that might not seem like a huge deal, but compared to standard hundred mile races, it is. Also note that in my rogaine, I covered a whopping 44 miles without aid or course markings. The other major issue with Plain is that it a very high percentage of the course is on motorbike trails. Motorbike trails are unpleasant to run on for several reasons: Pavement. To prevent erosion, trail maintainers lay concrete paving stones. So you're b...

Modoc. I went to Modoc. I don't have any time to tell you about it. Fine. Very briefly, Amy worked there for the Forest Service fifteen years ago, and she loves it. For her birthday and Labor Day weekend we airbnb'd a place across the border in Nevada, practiced the banjo, watched Stranger Things , hiked in the Warner Mountains, and got frustrated with George for ignoring us and chasing rabbits until he decided he was thirsty. If you're in the area, I highly recommend an end-to-end hike of the Summit Trail in the South Warner Wilderness. View from the cabin Just enough clearance Lassen across Lake Almaden

I did my first rogaine a weekend or so ago, and I guess I won. [See results . Also, editorial note: Read what the hell a rogaine is . Then come back.] If you want to hear it from me instead of Wikipedia, it's an endurance orienteering event where you get to pick your route to numerous assigned locations with different point values to maximize your score within the allotted time. The event was held in Sierra National Forest a few miles east of Shaver Lake. Shaver Lake is on HWY 168 east of Fresno on your way up to Lake Edison or Florence Lake. To me it's a bit of a shame to drive up HWY 168 and stop so far from the high country that lies beyond, but it was still reasonably pretty terrain if you ignore the fact that California is a giant fireball waiting to happen. Seriously, do you remember that one time you were planning to go camping and have a campfire, and you set up camp, only you realized you forgot the firewood, but then realized that a previous camper left a old dead...