Adventures in Onionism

Matt Davis Trail Can't be bothered with trails Sitting in a puddle to cool off Pretty happy with his transportation the last 50 feet to the car. Nice 22-mile Mt. Tamalpais circumnavigation today with Yuch and George. George had some big paw issues at the end (pretty much the only time he's ever had any), so he was hurting and I couldn't bomb down the Matt Davis Trail as I normally would have, but it was still a great day.

Despite some obvious issues about my new apartment, the views are amazing.

I uploaded all my videos from Iceland. I realized that I don't have any version of iMovie on my computer (anyone have an iLife '09 DVD they want to send me?) so I couldn't stitch them together or do any editing. Hence they're all in one long playlist on Youtube that hopefully plays one right after the other.

From Friday, August 14 at 10:00 AM to Saturday, August 15 just before 11:00 PM, I ran the Fat Dog 120 in British Columbia, Canada. Outside called it one of the 9 toughest ultras . Previous runners quoted on the race website say the only harder race is Hardrock. Meh. I mean, yeh, it's 120 miles long, and yeh, it has 28,454 feet of climbing, but I really didn't think it was that hard, nor that scenic. I heard afterward that in previous years the race may not been very well organized. I think all those kinks have been worked out. Pre-race meetings were simple and on-schedule, and if you read the instructions, most things were perfectly clear (except for where exactly camping was) and for whatever wasn't, the race director promptly replied to questions via e-mail. Aid stations were well-stocked and almost all volunteers new exactly what terrain was coming up and how far it was to the next station (in both km and miles). The race basically has four huge climbs and desce...

I posted pictures previously, but I've been meaning to do a full trip report, along with some information for others intending to do do JLey's route (or make up their own). Summary I thought Iceland was amazing, and I would recommend it, but I don't think I enjoyed it quite as much as other hikers seem to have. The downsides are that JLey's route includes a lot of roadwalking. The majority of that is near-deserted two-tracks, but there's a non-neglible amount of walking on pavement (near Mývatn) and the dirt/gravel roads from the Jökulheimar hut to Landmannalaguar are endless, monotonous, and quite busy towards the end.  Iceland is a very popular tourist destination these days, so some sections are crowded, and despite a currency collapse during the global financial crisis, it's still very expensive. Maybe not Switzerland expensive, but more expensive than the US for sure. Also there is zero non-bird wildlife. The upside is, duh, that Iceland has some beaut...

Here's some good news about California coastal access. I had a pretty unenjoyable experience at Sea Ranch when I hiked through there in 2004, as their private security tailed me the whole way. I'm glad this public access was restored. http://www.pressdemocrat.com/home/2553533-181/sea-ranch-beach-re-opened-to#page=0

Mostly I'm just testing the Blogger Android app while some Stata code is running at work. I saw this fun chalkboard on the side of a building in Mt. Vernon, WA on my way back from Fat Dog 120. Hopefully I'll post my videos from Iceland, info on the route, and a race report from Fat Dog soon.