AM- I have a long-standing goal of running the whole Bear 100 course prior to the race. I'd like to do all of it this summer, too. So today, Cody and I ran 22 miles of the course... of which maybe 1 mile was new to me! We left at 6 am and shuttled a car to Temple Fork. Then we drove back to Right Hand Fork and started running the course from there. The run up Willow Creek was nice and uneventful. Then there is a bit of road running followed by some very nice singletrack from Temple Fork sawmill down towards Temple Fork. Lots of amazing beaver ponds in here. We ran smooth, no pushing the pace since we have a long race next week. Reached the car at Temple Fork, about 8.35 miles, in about 1:13- not bad considering it had 1500 ft climb and 1300 ft descend. After a quick bottle refill and clothes drop, we were onto the challenging part- climbing to Tony Grove. The climb up Blind Hollow gains 2400 ft in 5.25 miles. The trail is technical and was generally poor footing from all the moose and horse tracks that churned up the muddy trail, then dried. Lots of moose tracks... at least partly due to the bull moose we encountered! We were within about 20 yards of it when we all startled each other. Cody and I made a bunch of noise, and eventually the moose moved away from the trail and up the mountain. The rest of the climb was uneventful but tiring. At the top, we found a surprise- the 1.5 mile, 500 ft descent into Tony Grove was completely covered in 1-2 feet of snow. We skiied down, making our own path. The lake still had ice and, unfortunately, the drinking water was not yet turned on. We talked to some nice hikers, and they gave us a 16 oz bottle to split. Thanks! With a bit of water, we began the slow hike back up to the ridge. Cody led the way and actually found the trail in spurts- he was proud of his route finding abilities. The descent back to Temple Fork was fairly easy, with the only notable item being that we saw 8 people, our first humans of the day. Finished with just under 22 miles in 3:48:12 (10:33 avg pace), including 5200 ft climbing and 5000 ft descending. Grabbed a Jamba Juice and got home just after noon. Good run, though that's likely my last time on that part till the race. The amount of snow also puts into question our planned high-elevation runs in the coming weeks. 98 miles this week- high for the year.
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