I am sorry that I have been a little lacking in the blog posts as of late. But with all the traveling I have been doing for work plus some big weekends it has been tough to get some time to sit still and write an update. So this morning I am using a flight to Carlsbad NM as my chance to get some writing in. I will share what I can and maybe in a few post we can get caught up to current.
One of the biggest highlights for the last few weeks was the fastpacking trip we did for Shannon's birthday. Shannon for those of you who do not have the pleasure of knowing him is a great person with a great heart, and on of the reasons we make so many trips to the northwest Arkansas area. Being a big time trail runner there was only one way in his mind to spend a birthday, and that was in the woods with friends. The previous year he took on the Buffalo River Trail solo and had a bad fall coming up short on finishing. This year we (John, Pip, Stan Ferguson, and I) came along to offer support and ensure that he got it done. So on Friday the 12th of February we headed to Rogers Arkansas to crash at Shannon and Jody’s for an early departure to the trailhead. I had John and Pip with me for support and that night when we go into Rodgers we met Shannon and Jody at a cool dinner spot in town.
Shannon and Jody
Pip eating all the bacon as a sacrifice for all the non-meat eaters
When we got to Shannon's house after dinner we found a massive stash of GU products that we stole most of. Just in an effort to punish him for his hospitality. Before we hit the sack I asked Shannon about the plan for the next day. You know the kind of thing normal people would do before driving to another state with limited supplies and whatnot but we are geniuses. So we ask after we cannot do anything about it. “Will this be a trail run or a hike?” He was adamant that it will be a fast pack. Which in my tired state I took as hike, rather than asking questions of clarity. Now if I had bothered to do one second of math I would have put together that if we were going to cover 34 miles in one day before it got dark we would have to run. But I am dumb. So even in the morning when I got up and saw that Shannon, John, and Pip were all in running clothes I still dressed like we would be on a slow hike all day. And it is not like we were in a rush, Shannon had got up to cook us all breakfast before the departure, and Jody’s 11 cats made sure everyone did not need an alarm clock. About 1 mile into the trail I regretted every choice I made on gear, but those are the breaks and we had a big adventure ahead of us so no time for looking back.
Pip and John (notice the running gear)
Shot heading to the trailhead
Unloading from Stan's war wagon
Maybe we should have taken a photo of the map
Our plan was to park at the end of the trail and meet up with Stan Ferguson (the RD for Arkansas Traveller) who would ferry us to the start line and join us on the trail. His sister agreed that she would drive up and pick up his car later and move it back to the end of the trail. Not only was this a baller move on his sister’s part but it meant that we would get to share the trail with a running legend. Not the kind of thing you get everyday (the man has finished more than twentyfive 100 mile races).
The entire hike (really a run) was beautiful. Arkansas has some of the most wonderful trail systems in the area and the biggest bonus is they are really not much of a trip from Tulsa. I highly suggest checking them out if you are unfamiliar, it is worth the 2 hour drive. Now my assumption going into this was that we had some kind of plan and Shannon knew the trails. Both of these proved to be false. Despite the ungodly amount of food I was carrying it was just impossible to carry enough water. Now Shannon like a good man came out the day before and dropped some water off on the trail. The only issue was it was 20 miles in. And as we got lost several times the distance kept growing. So only about 8 miles into the run we found ourselves off the single track after leaving a campground and on a country road. And it looking like we were trespassing on a homestead with a SUV parked out front. As we stupidly stood in the middle of the road having a heated debate on who got us lost and where we had the best chance to get back on trail, we heard some shouting from the SUV. Great here we go, I thought, we are going to get killed for trespassing during this run. But rather than an angry landowner we got the surprise of the year. It turned out it was Chris Cantwell, who parked his car facing the part of the trail we should have come out on.
Cantwell's aid station number one
This is the magic of our running community, unprovoked Chris and his wife drove out to the middle of nowhere to guess at when we would be coming by on the trail to provide us aid. It truly was one of the greatest things I have ever seen. So awesome. This would not be the last time we saw them and that evening we even talked them into eating dinner with us. So spoiler alert, we totally lived through the the run. Not only did they have water, the best peanut butter sandwiches you could get (with the exception of TZ’s wife Dana), and Pringles. They also gave Shannon gloves because he did not bring any and it was just cold enough to make that a very bad decision, and they called Stan’s wife to find what aid station food he liked and had his favorites on board as well. It was truly amazing.
Some sites from the trail
More
Steel Creek Campgrounds 11 miles from end of trail
The trail had all kinds of cool waterfalls and rock formations to check out. And as we continued to get lost we got to see all kinds of extra sites. The sites helped to take away from how rough the trail really was. In terms of both technical foot work and sheer climbing. Towards the end of the trail our little group got a little split up, my legs were giving me a little trouble on the downhills so I was pushing it in hopes of banking time in case I ended up needed to walk it in. John ended up having a little bit of stomach trouble as well. So it was late in the day when I suddenly got to a major road and was cursing everything as I was sure I got off trail again. It ended up that is was the end of the trail and the parking lot we had used that morning was just on the other side of the street. It took me several stressful minutes to come to this conclusion. But we all made it in before dark and felt completely wiped. It was a great experience and something I will not soon forget. But it seems to be becoming a tradition that Shannon's birthdays have been memorable experiences for me.
Old Structure at the end of the trail, a great site
In the end we made it back to Shannon's place and talked Jody into getting ready and joining us for dinner before John, Pip, and I headed back to Tulsa. We found a place and John sweet talked us into a table for our large group. The restaurant was very accommodating for a group of 10 on a Saturday night in a busy part of town. The table became a place for good times and stories about the day. It was the perfect end to another amazing adventure, and the best part is we would see Shannon and Jody again the next weekend when they made their way to Tulsa for the annual Post Oak Challenge. So everyone left happy.
From this trip I got some good lessons. First gear is not all that important. Now I would have been much more comfortable with some proper running gear, but at the same time after a few miles it was only a minor annoyance compared to the amazing scenery and wonderful company. This is an important consideration, you will find yourself in a running sanario when you don’t have all the gear or whatever for a race or run. You can let it ruin your day and ensure your running is a disaster, or you can just roll with it and figure out that it is really not that important. Next, downhill running is a difficult thing to master and I will need to seriously focus on it in the build up to Western. Finally, as with most of these stories I have shared, running is the most minor part of it. Truth be told I almost bailed on this whole weekend. I have been traveling so much for work the prospect of spending more time away from home wasn't ideal. But if I had not succumb to peer pressure I would have missed this experience that I will remember forever. Not because of the running, but because of the time with friends. People that I care about and don't most likely don’t deserve to have in my life. I only wish that there was more time to spend with all the great people that I have the chance to be around. Look at this deal with the Cantwell’s I have a whole new level of respect and gratitude for them (even if I already knew they were awesome). They drove out of their way to help some fellow runners. If they had not decided to do that we would have never known any different but now we all got to share this special moment. And at the end of the day feelings like respect and gratitude are things we could all use more of in our lives.
Keep running my friends, and find some people to share the trail with. Hope to see you out there.
Zoe update, she is fitting right in and is happy they we let her be in charge of our whole house. The most amazing part is how well Rush has been with her.