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August 19, 2006
Day 1 of 3
As of now, I've successfully completed 2 of the 3 days of this weekend. Here's the low-down on Day 1.
We were on-trail by 7:20 am, and it was a cold, crisp morning. My friend and I could see our breath as we ran. We stood at the trailhead for minutes debating the proper attire. It was 40-ish degrees at the trailhead, but it would warm up significantly as soon as the sun came over the hills, but we were also climbing to 10,900 feet. We finally agreed on clothes: shorts, tank tops, and a long sleeve top layer. We shouldered Camelbaks with water and snacks, and took off at a moderate jog.
The first two miles were absolutely flat, and the view of the sun rising on the surrounding mountains was outstanding. This portion of the trail was all in the shade, and we were running through waist-high grasses covered in frost. It was so cold! My thighs and fingers were numb!
After 2 miles, we began a mild climb of 700 feet over 4 miles, following a creek called Glen Creek uphill. These next 4-ish miles rolled along and gently uphill, proceeding through alternating forests and open meadows. We figured this was the perfect time to see wildlife, so we took turns yelling "Hey Bear!" every now and again. We didn't see any wildlife, at this point, at least (Yes, that would be the obvious foreshadowing inserted here.).
After about 6 miles total, we diverged onto the Electric Peak Trail. From this point, the trail, which later degrades into a poorly marked route to the peak, climbs from 8,000 feet to 10,900 feet in 4-ish miles. The first 2 miles were still runable, and we climbed uphill, still feeling great. By now, we were starting to be warmed by the sun, as we were beginning to emerge from the forests and into the open meadows of the high mountains.
Once the trail degrades to nothingness, it becomes impossible to run, as you simply follow a steep ridge up towards the summit. From here, we could spot 2 other people ahead of us on the ridge, and we quickly caught them. This climb was a slog, but we kept moving slowly but continuously. The last 500 vertical feet or so is a series of dicey scrambling pitches, filled with loose rock. There were 4 of us now approaching the summit. Slowly but surely each of us began to stop, when the pitch or the broken rocks became too much. I stopped about 50 or so vertical feet from the summit, as the last pitch was too much for me. Only one of the other 2 hikers made it to the actual summit. From there, we crawled carefully off of the tough portion, and sat down for a rest break, refueling with snacks and Gatorade.
The world near the top of Electric Peak is rather a moonscape. The peak and its surrounding ridges are fin-like, as if they've been pushed upon their ends and into the air. The rock is various shades of red and orange. The treeline is about 10,000 feet or so here, and not much grows atop this mountain. The wind howls and it bites at your exposed skin. In all, the environment is foreign and not entirely welcoming, more like you feel as if you should be a short guest instead.
As we sat there having snacks, my quads felt quite weak, from all the steeps, I believe. I was a little bit aprehensive as we had a lot of descending left to do. However, with a little rest and some food, they felt great again. Resultingly, the descent was a lovely piece of cake. We were able to actually run down the ridgeline, back to the trail. We proceeded down the Electric Peak Trail until we merged again with the Glen Creek Trail, which follows the creek's course back in the direction that we came from. These next 4 miles were rolling downhill and I was feeling fabulous during this time. I couldn't believe how amazing I felt after 15+ miles of running/climbing at altitude. It was during these moments of feel-good adrenaline rushing that we came upon a bigger, better reason for an adrenaline rush.
Grizzly bear. Mom and cub. I was leading the 2 of us when I spotted something hairy and blonde with its head down on the trail about 150 feet in front of us. I came to a dead stop so quickly that my friend ran into me. Instantly I knew it was a grizzly bear, and at the same moment I saw one little cub frolicking at her side. The bear caught wind of us just then, and she picked her head up, wagged it back and forth, and we could hear her snorting, trying to decipher our smell. We unholstered our bear spray, began yelling very loudly, and made a big semi-circle above her on the hillside. She eventually disappeared, she must have dropped into Glen Creek. The whole event (or non-event) was over in about 5 minutes, but it felt like much longer. We made our way back down to the trail, still yelling at the bear.
It took us a while to get our wits about us enough to run again. When we finally started running, about 4 miles from the trailhead, we spent the rest of the run analyzing the encounter, talking very loudly so as to alert whatever else might be out there. We decided that we did everything right: We came upon a grizzly and her cub close, too close for anyone's comfort, within the charging zone. As soon as we were made aware of this, we yelled to let her know who was out there, immediately backed off to give her space, made ready our bear spray, and gave her all the space she apparently needed. We never panicked, we never ran, and we never moved suddenly. By the time we'd mulled the encounter over about half a dozen times, we were arriving back at the trailhead. It was warm out, but I never noticed the heat or the sun as we talked.
In talking with others later that day, I learned that this route was actually remeasured to 22 miles roundtrip. I would say we ran 16 of those, hiked about 4 miles rountrip on the higher part of the mountain, and hiked about 1 mile in the vicinity of the grizzlies. We started at 7,300 feet elevation, made it close to 10,900 feet, and came back down again. I felt absolutely outstanding. Fatigued yes, hitting a wall, none of that.
Posted by Meghan at August 19, 2006 10:04 PM
Comments
i think your readership is starting to get stunned...
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at August 21, 2006 3:40 PM