Looks like a awesome experience. That grizzly print is huge. As always your pictures are really nice.
How heavy were your packs? What shoes did you wear?
running under the BigSky
Thanks!
LB2- it's definitely a "more in" event than your typical long distance race; navigation, traversing deep snow, fording wild, swollen streams all make for an exciting (terrifying? ) experience
I had a SPOT device that I left on track mode (turned off at night) that allowed our spouses and friends to keep track of our progress; at night I sent a canned message "made it to camp- all OK", I also had another message ready to go "change in plans- check route"- this allowed them to see if we were bailing and where to- to be honest there were no really good bail options once got into the middle of the Bob- you'd be looking a 20-30 mile bail at a minimum; the SPOT also has an emergency button if things were to really go to hell, but again no easy rescue, probably looking at a day or two to get a SAR crew in
I think next year I will rent a sat phone, would allow more detailed messages if one was to bail
Looks like a awesome experience. That grizzly print is huge. As always your pictures are really nice. How heavy were your packs? What shoes did you wear?
I was really surprised how much grizzly sign we saw, every single drainage had at least some sign, some drainages (Gordon Ck for one) was loaded w/ sign
packs were in the 25# range w/ food/water, had to carry snowshoes which took away some of my really light packs- also had to pack a little more clothing than normal just to cover the wide array of weather we could face
I wore my PI N2 Trails, a little beefier shoe may have been a little better, but my feet fared better than my teammates and better than most of the other competitors- I'm looking at the Altra Olympus 1.5's as a possible substitute. we'll see
2023 goal 2023 miles √
2022 goal- 2022 miles √
2021 goal- 2021 miles √
Keep Going
Wow is right!!! Amazing photos and adventure!
100 milers are my favorite
Many times, bailing can create more problems than continuing.
LB2
Sue
Wow, wow and wow!!! What an awesome adventure and such beautiful scenery. The grizzly foot...WTF!!!!! John refueling..he looks a little tired. I even loved the picture of the burned forest. How very cool and what LB said about figuring this all on your own with river crossings and lost trails due to snow. You da "Mountain" Man!
05/13/23 Traverse City Trail Festival 25K
08/19/23 Marquette 50 dns 🙄
Ultra Cowboy
Very Cool!
Were you packing waders for the creek fording? Sourdough slippers?
WYBMADIITY
Save
Danke
Rocky- just my trail runners, I thought about running shoe screws to help w/ wading and might if I do again next year
we had dozens and dozens of fords, most of the creeks were ankle to knee deep, the rivers were waist deep- the South Fork that we avoided would have definitely been a swim
our feet stayed wet the entire day, we tried to air them out at lunch and supper for a short while and immediately dried them at camp and put on dry socks (we used produce bags over the dry socks if we needed to get back into our wet shoes for chores- this worked really well) I put SportSlick on my feet in the morning and think my feet faired a little better than my teammates because of it I used to use a product called Hydropel for wet conditions, but sadly it's no longer made