2014 Camp Hardrock: Days 3 - 4

You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, 

even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, 

the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. 

You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

- Nehemiah 9:6 (NIV)

Engineer Pass

(This is the second of five blog posts, covering my nine days at Camp Hardrock. Days 1 & 2 are found here.)

After running up the Highland Mary Lakes trail on Day 2, I set aside two more days to explore the Hardrock course before the volunteer work was to begin. After talking to a few people about what section to run, I decided on Bear Creek Trail out of Ouray. There are actually three Bear Creeks on the Hardrock course, the Silverton, Telluride and Ouray Bear Creeks. The Ouray trail starts off Highway 550 and ascends up a series of switchbacks into the canyon overlooking Bear Creek. Passing the Grizzly Bear and Yellow Jacket mines, the trail continues to above treeline and into Engineer Pass. The 7.1 mile trail ends at the top of the pass, just below Engineer Pass road.

As it turned out, I was running the trail ahead of the course markers who completed the marking as I was coming back from the turnaround point. It was an easy trail to follow between the obvious trail and cairns that marked the game trails. The afternoon clouds were rolling in on three sides as I came to the turnaround point and as I heard thunder off the distance, I made a "beeline for treeline" by taking the straightest path I could to the trees in about 20 minutes, which required only one episode of 'shwacking down the hillside back to the trail. Thankfully, it was just some grumbling and no lightning to be seen from my vantage point. 

Folks thought it was 5 miles to Engineer... what's 4 extra miles, right?

Going up the shale switchbacks

Bear Creek Canyon

Bear Creek

Crossed this twice!

The falls above the prior crossing

This is typical on the HR course. Feels good, actually.

Engineer Pass

Wheelbarrow cairn

Looking back

Cairns mark the game trails

Turnaround point

View back to treeline (dark clouds on either side)

Oops... that's the wheelbarrow cairn down below

Found the HR markers on my return trip

I did a lot of praying on this run. Worship is an automatic response in the midst of such majestic beauty. I'm so grateful legs that work and eyes to see the beauty of God's creation. I'm always reminded that a God that's wise and powerful enough to form and sustain the natural world can be trusted with the details of my life that I can't understand or control. As C.S. Lewis has famously said, "He whispers to us in our joy..." and I hear Him talking in places like this -- loud and clear -- and find peace flowing like a river in my soul.

I was good and tired after my 14 mile hike/run. I needed to rest because I'd planned to get my iconic Island Lake picture the following day. Meghan and Doug joined me the next day as we hiked up the 4 mile Ice Lake trail to the top of Grant-Swamp Pass.

The must-have snapshot of Island Lake

Joel Zucker died just days after running his 3rd Hardrock in 1998

Looking at Oscars Pass from Grant-Swamp Pass

I spent the rest of the day breaking down camp, moving to Silverton (where I took my first shower in four days!) and checked in with Dale and Lois regarding any help needed. They needed help with merch set up, so that's what I did for the remainder of the afternoon. Since it was late in the day, the bulk of the work would happen in the morning before runners began check in.

It felt good to be in Silverton as things begin to heat up in preparation for Friday's start of the run. Stay tuned for days 5 and 6 coming up next...

Happy Trails,

Shelby

2014 Camp Hardrock: Days 1 - 2

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, 

for beauty is God's handwriting. 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

(This is the first of five blog posts, covering my nine days at Camp Hardrock.)

This year, I had the fortune of being able to spend some quality time in the San Juan Mountain range during the week leading up to the Hardrock 100. The plan was to do some adventure runs and volunteer at the race, helping Dale Garland and Lois MacKenzie with prep work as well as Bryon and Meghan with iRunFar. If the opportunity to pace a runner presented itself, I was ready for that too. Thankfully, I was able to do all that I had hoped to do and took a boatload of pictures in the process. Bear with me as I get each of these posts out piece by piece over the next week as I continue 100 mile training and running a household...

For those unfamiliar with the Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run, it's an ultramarathon that starts and ends in Silverton, Colorado. The looped course, run in the opposite direction from the prior year, travels through Telluride, Ouray and near Lake City, through the rugged and beautiful San Juan Mountains. The course crosses thirteen major passes above 12,000 feet and includes going over 14,048 Handies Peak. Participants who finish the run and have kissed the hardrock will have climbed nearly 34,000 feet at an average elevation of 11,000 feet. It's considered a post-graduate run and one of the toughest 100 milers in the world. Due to the difficulty of the run, participants are given a 48 hour cutoff to complete the run and earn their finishers shirt and print. It's nickname is Hardwalk, due to the difficulty in running (or trotting) the entire course and not blowing up.

140 participants are chosen from a weighted lottery which favors those that are veterans (completed the run at least five times). Elite runners have the same odds of getting in as anyone else and this year the race was stacked with fast guys, including the top mountain runner in the world, Kilian Jornet, running his first Hardrock.   

My huz and kids flew out to Connecticut to visit Grandma for an overdue visit while I headed to Red Mountain Pass to camp with Eric, Chris, Kari and a few others. This was my first time solo camping and I had a new tent, pad, two burner stove and portable table. I wasn't camping, I was glamping!

I stopped in Ouray (YOUR-ay, as in Hooray) to grab a coffee and change clothes and saw 2014 Western States champ Rob Krar and his ultraunning/food-blogging wife, Christina Bauer as they were hiking in the area. I've really enjoyed watching Rob rise to the top of the sport the past couple of years and think he and Christina are pretty awesome. I've met a lot of the elites in ultrarunning (all super friendly and down-to-earth) and this was probably the first time I was a babbling a bit from my excitement as I fangirled them both. I look forward to seeing them again at Run Rabbit Run in September. 

Rob and Christina

It started raining shortly after I arrived at camp, so I sat in my car for about 90 minutes before finally venturing out to start making dinner and pitch my tent. I managed to get both done just before dark. 

It isn't called Red Mountain Pass for nothing

FR 825 has no sign. This helped.

Photo: Chris Gerber

Photo: Chris Gerber

Photo: Eric Lee

Pitched my tent up on the ridge

View from my front porch

I woke up early and drove to Silverton planning to hike one of the local trails. Ran into Joe and Seb at Cafe Mobius and headed up the Highland Mary Lakes Trail, just past Cunningham Gulch. I got some beautiful shots of the lakes on my four mile trek up and down.

When I got back, I ran into folks at Avalanche and later on I saw Kilian at Mobius. I happened to be wearing my Mt. Marathon shirt and used it as an opportunity to encourage him to run it along with other Grand Prix races in the summer racing series. He seems keen to run it, it just has to work with his travel schedule.

Stellar views on the Million Dollar Highway

Joe Grant and last year's winner, Seb Chaigneau

Little did I know I'd be pacing Robert (far right) this year 

Just say no

The Rock Star of mountain running

Exploding eggs

Chris, who was running his 5th Hardrock and pacer Kari

It was a great start to my week at Camp Hardrock -- meeting and catching up with ultra pals, running beautiful trails, fangirling and discovering that camping is fun. I was excited for the week ahead. 

More adventure running to come in days 3 & 4. Stay tuned!

Happy Trails,

Shelby