The Gift of Vagrancy

After the near 6 hour beat down I received on the Appalachian Trail last week, I decided I may take a short reprieve from the high country trails. Instead of running the mist shrouded crest of the ridge, I decided to be a "low-life" and spend some time in the creeks, coves, and highways of the valley.

20.5 miles, 3hr16min

Topping out at Grapeyard Ridge

No one at campsite #33, except this guy

The run occupied most of my AM on Thursday, but seeing as how I "only" ran twenty miles I decided to bike across the county in the afternoon and hook up with my Dad for what turned into an approximately 30 mile ride. He's been a fiend on the bike this Spring in preparation for a 100 kilometer ride this weekend... well, I suppose I at least know where I get it from.

To continue with the low-life theme, Caitlin and I took to the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon for a nice easy 3 hour kayaking trip on Friday. There is an abundance of bird life on the streams of East Tennessee this time of year, we counted over twenty different species while floatin' down the river.

An odd bird

Spring's true arrival

An abundance of good times were had

We wrapped the float trip up at the in-laws and enjoyed a good evening of grilling and chilling out on the deck. A wonderful way to end the trip.

Now I suppose I must unfortunately work for a living for a few days. Guess you can't bum around all the time.

An Ambitious and Foolhardy Enterprise

The East section of Appalachian Trail in the smokies has been the source of a variety experiences in my life. Unfortunately these have mostly been cold and wet experiences. So why should this past Friday have been any different right?

At 9AM Caitlin kicks us out of the car as we are reluctant to step out into the characteristic wind and showers of Newfound Gap. After a few moments of messing with gear and taking care of other needs, we staged for the "before" photo of this journey.

"If I had a dollar for every time I dropped you off at Newfound Gap in the rain"
Caitlin Worth

For this day's adventure we decided to attempt a run from Newfound Gap to Davenport Gap, a 31.4 mile section of trail with approximately 6,000ft of gain and 9,000ft of loss. Local trailrunner and racer Brian Williams also stepped up to the punishment and humility this section of trail has to offer. 

The day begin as I expected. Slowly. I led the trudge until we reached mile 10 at Peck's Corner. At this point,  Brian "The Flyin' Physicist" Williams took over and started running like a cat with a string of firecrackers tied to it's tail. I began to worry what lay in store for the final twenty miles.

Killin' It

A rare flat section

Brian significantly lowered our overall pace between Peck's Corner and the halfway point, Tricorner Knob. We left Tricorner in a little over three hours, feeling that this day could possibly be done in under six hours. Maybe. With a goal established, we began working to maintain some semblance of speed over the wet, windy, and rooty trail that crests the ridge of the smokies.

Thus begins what I refer to as the quiet miles. The moments of pleasant idle chatter are over. Your early morning energy and excitement have left you abandoned. Your ability to form thoughts erodes into merely being affected by passing notions. The wind and rain reduces your fine motor skills to the point where opening a pocket on your Camelbak feels like a huge accomplishment.

Finally, the weather begins to break. For the final ten miles I will only be tired, as opposed to tired and wet.

Proof of the outside world

Running again, as opposed to industrious hiking

Topping out on Mt. Guyout, I knew the worst of it was behind us. The conversation between Brian and I was something to the tune of "The part I hate is over, now all that's left is the section I only severely dislike." From here on out we had full sun and mostly downhill.

Near mile 24 Brian had to resolve some intestinal pressure and informed me that I should press on as it's "every man for himself at this point." I walked the last major climb of the day out of Low Gap and in the process consumed of every ounce sugar, salt, and caffeine I could find in my pack. Feeling somewhat renewed from the calories and walking, running the final seven miles seemed possible again.

North of Mt. Cammerer, Looking towards Mt. Sterling

Pink Lady Slipper at Davenport Gap

Five hours and forty seven minutes after we began, I reached Davenport Gap. What began as a soggy, cold morning was now a warm and sunny April afternoon. A few moments were passed chatting with a thru-hiker named "blondie" (who graciously accepted the spare snacks I had in my car) and then in short order Brian came along, scooting in just under six hours at 5hr58min. After a few minutes of stretching and re-hashing the day we decided we should run together again some time, but it doesn't always have to be so far...

"After"

Charts, Graphs, and Stats:

The Route 

Elevation Profile

Splits:

                                     Net Time    Splits

Charlie's Bunion---------46:01

Peck's Corner-----------2:00:31   1:14:37

Tricorner Knob----------2:28:51   58:14

Low Gap----------------4:37:10   1:38:18

Davenport Gap----------5:47:11   1:09: 58

The Places You Can Go Before Lunch

It's 8:30AM, I'm slightly chilled and staring at the trailhead sign. I'm reluctant to begin my run and try to reason with myself about how it wont be that bad. The best thing that I can come up with is something like "after 11 miles the uphill is mostly over." Finally, I accept that the pile has already been stepped in and it's best just to get moving.

Within minutes of running my mood has changed and I'm filled with the joy of having a sunny Spring  trail all to my self. I momentarily forget that I need to be off the trail by 1PM to meet Dad for our 20 mile afternoon ride. I kid myself about the indulgent life that I lead.

Miles of Streamside Trail

After two hours of continuous uphill running, I'm on the Appalachian Trail, heading South towards Siler's Bald. The site of a guy running through such remote country before noon confuses most of the backcountry hikers. Just before Siler's I'm chatting with a thru-hiker named Bismark, what he think's is idle chatter is really a test. If he's made it here in under three weeks I'll hand over a spare powerbar. He tell's me he started March 23rd. Close enough I guess.

Siler's Bald

One of Many Views 

After miles of repeated ups and downs, I'm happy to part ways with the AT and begin the steady descent of Miry Ridge back to Elkmont. In an hour and fifteen minutes I'll be sittin' in the car drinking an iced coffee.

Singletrack Perfection

Prostrate Bluets

It was my hope to be finished by 1PM, when I'm standing at the car my watch reads 1:02PM. Still time enough to drive home, throw the bike on the car and take off again.

25 mile, ~4,500ft elevation gain

Friends to Get Down and Dirty With

As you may have noticed, we tend to play kind of hard. This can often make finding folks who share your idea of fun rather difficult. But there are always exceptions and Cody "I'm just a pacer!" Zurhellen is one of them. He is a "yes man" in the most positive sense of the phrase. No matter how bad of an idea I may have, he's always game.
Often his exploits are some foolish thing I have talked him into, but it now seems he may share my disease and has gone about seeking torture of his own accord. This past week he decided to take on the local "Trail that can't be Concord" trail race. Perhaps he underestimated the course.

"At first glance this course looks like a groomed greenway with gently rolling hills. That's not the case. What seems like a dinky little ridge can be turned into a monster when the trails are snaked up and down, over and over, like an endless game of chutes and ladders. (With one helluva ladder at mile 6.)"

Cody Zurhellen, Co-captain of The Dutch Oven Nightmares Racing Team

For this torturous 8.5 mile course, Mr. Zurhellen clocked a very respectable 1hr37min time. Not only was this event his first trail race, it was one of his first trail runs period. Not too shabby. 
The overall win went to local speed demon Brian Williams in a time of 1hr13min. This makes for back to back overall wins for Mr. Williams in the local trail racing series.
I'm sorry that I missed this race, but sometimes it's nice to just sit back and let your friends be fools for once. 

I am both intrigued and repulsed

The Toughest Trail Race in the World - Runner's World

A race no one finishes... I think I get it. Maybe.

And Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

I lost a few days and a few pounds due to the stomach bug, but I'm feeling good again and now seem to be hitting the roads and trails even harder than before. Nothing like being sick to make feeling normal so awesome.

The last few days have gone as follows... a twenty mile run on Tuesday, a 36 mile hilly bike ride and 5 mile run on Wednesday, and Thursday a quad and skin burning 15.5 mile circuit of Mt. Cammerer. I have loved every exhausting minute of it.

All week has been near perfect Southern Appalachian Spring weather. There was snow on the mountains and the grass was so green it nearly hurt your eyes.

Brent Worth, showing the bike who's boss

The elder Worth has been hammering out piles of miles on his bike this year. What I thought would be an easy recovery day on Wednesday turned out to be quite the opposite. We parted ways happy, each of us eager to resume our normal (and slower) paces.

Thursday morning I could see no relief was sight. In regards to the days Caitlin picks to go hiking, I have noticed a distinct pattern. She never wants to go to on a day in which I am overflowing with energy. In fact, she seems to want to go on days where I am borderline exhausted even before beginning the days adventure. When confronted on this matter, she candidly claims possession of her intentions and states, "Yeah, its great. It levels the playing field. The only thing better than you exhausted is you passed out on the couch."

So, with my quads feeling as if they had been replaced with bags of sand we began a 15.5 mile circuit of Mt. Cammerer. This hike also begins with about 1,800 ft of elevation gain in the first 2.5 miles on the notorious Low Gap Trail, known for being the steepest official trail in the national park. Wonderful.

We had warm temps, full sun and a steep grade leading me to drop down to a t-shirt on the AT. Perhaps Spring really is here?

Hiking in a T-shirt in the snow, a sacrilege in the minds of many local hikers

The initial punishment from Low Gap trail was set right by views from the lookout tower, where we perhaps idled to long and collected the beginning of what would be an early season sunburn for Caitlin.

Leaving Mt. Cammerer, we were happy to have 2/3rds of the work behind us, but we'd only covered about 1/3rd of the distance. What we thought may deteriorate into a trudge fest was actually hours of great walking in and out of the creeks and coves of Lower Mt. Cammerer trail.

While Caitlin took wildflower shots, I didn't miss a chance to sit a spell

Bloodroot

Dutchman's Breeches

After a little over 7 hours of walking we finally made it back to Cosby campground. Sunburned and out of water for the last two hours we were two happy kids to see the car. Nothing makes a car seat more comfortable than a day full of hiking. 

Now that I've made up for lost time, maybe I'll take a break... but probably not.

Shake Those Dice and Roll 'Em

Everyday we face risk and uncertainty. Some risks we can control, or at least minimize, others we can not. With good judgement and decision making, most of us make it day to day just fine. Oh, but it's this whole good judgement thing I keep getting hung up on.

Here's a little example. On most of my running, hiking or kayaking excursions the issue of how much water/food/gear etc is always an essential series of decisions in which I like to think I find a way to do the most (miles, days, what have you) with the least (gear, food, material items in general). Usually this works out very well for me.

Well we had a little backfire lately. I believe it happened on the Little River float trip. As per usual, I show up for this 3 day trip with a food bag that looks like it could fit in your back pocket, shelter-less and with a trifling amount of fishing gear. Perfect. The problems arose with my choice of water purification. As I have now learned, a few hasty drops of chlorine dioxide just prior to consumption will not treat river water which is flowing through a cow pasture.

What was the result of this poor decision you ask? Well, typically I'm an endurance fiend. Running, biking, and hiking near the point of compulsion in my life. But for a few days, my feats of endurance consisted of crow walking back and forth from the couch to the toilet. My life began to verge on the monastic, no solid foods for days... I even began to think of white bread as an indulgence.

Fortunately for me some magic beans known as anti-biotics made their way into my life and I'm now routinely running myself to exhaustion instead of the bathroom. Not to say the mental effects have totally subsided, I become nervous with every slight tremor in the abdominal region and begin surveying the room for the nearest facilities. Shall we chalk this up in the lessons learned category of life? I think so. I always knew not to drink the water when you're in Mexico, apparently the same rules apply in East Tennessee.

Swim...Bike...Run...The Dutchoven Nightmares Ride Again

Yesterday was a day of first tri's (pun intended). Dave, Cody and I competed in our first team triathlon. Although this was not Cody's first triathlon attempt, it was his first triathlon done as a team.

Cody getting pumped up for the big race.

The game face.

Sweet talking the competition

As a team, we were truly the embodiment of a well oiled, triathlon destroying team. I was the chosen candidate for the swim. Natural choice, seeing that I had not been near a pool in roughly 4 years...it made perfect sense that this would be my best event. I did swim twice this past week in preparation, and am happy to say that I was not the last out of the pool in our heat of swimmers. I finished my portion in just over 20 minutes, for the half mile swim. Then it was out to the transition area...apparently a lovely shade of blue/green and trying not to toss cookies as I handed the bike off to Cody.

Into the great blue yonder.

Cody served as our fearless cyclist, without even a moment on the bike in six months...also a good choice for his respective leg of this journey. Cody was slightly ill prepared for the terrain here Gatlinburg...due mostly to an unintended campaign of misinformation on the part of Dave and myself. We managed to describe the route in such a way as to leave out one monstrously terrible hill and about 4 miles of distance. This, portion, easily the toughest part of this race, took roughly 47 min.

Photo Finish

Then came the run...obvious choice on this event is the Notorious Dave. When planning for this event last week (when we first decided to compete) we really thought Dave would be our ace in the hole...the ringer...the miraculous Mr. Worth, able to potentially bring us out of whatever hole Cody and I had dug for ourselves to close this race with a respectable time....Out of nowhere ...BLOWHEE.... the final blow to our team... Dave is stricken with a nasty case of gastrointestinal critters(diagnosis still not yet received) which puts him on an all liquid diet for the several days before the race...this leaves him absolutely exhausted, albeit determined... and not without his natural abilities.

Dave completes the 5K portion of the race in 18:35...just under 30 seconds off his 5k PR. A success he attributes to his exhaustion induced delirium and rapid weight loss due to aforementioned stomach critters. (Which is, as it turns out, "An extremely effective, albeit controversial method of weight loss").

Happy Team...if only just to be done with the madness.

Overall...although we did come in dead last in the team competition of the day, this event was a rousing success. As usual, the obvious composure and strange obsession with plaid struck fear in the hearts of the competition....no doubt making it difficult to sleep last night without the prodding fear of the DUTCHOVEN NIGHTMARES. --- Caitlin