Notes
An adventurous dazed and confused run with Lia in Capitol Peak Forest! Holy moly this was a crazy run! The DNR map was 'sorta' right, but missing some major new trail info, including completely washed out roads and trails requiring steep scramble traverses and simply didn't have some of the roads/trails, which apparently change every year. PLUS most intersections were NOT marked, or marked in an extremely vague confusing way (e.g. 20 miles to Porter Creek, no label for the actual trailname). With the socked in weather and no sun guidance, a compass might have helped. The same trails loop around the entire park, so for the first hour I thought we were in a completely different section of the park. Together Lia and I scratched our heads and somehow looped around north rim to molly porter to rock candy-either of us alone would probably still be out there going in circles. The map, printed and in a plastic bag, fell apart slowly as we took it out in the rain over and over--luckily we were able to use it until the very end, when we found familiar ground again.
Actually, near the beginning we went the "wrong way" and ended up at an intersection for trail #20-- not on the map. We turned around, but this is the intersection we found at the end of the loop! If we hadn't made the first mistake we surely would have chosen wrong.
It was frustrating because we had a strict timetable, and although it worked out in the end, we were out there much longer than anticipated- almost 5 hours! I didn't start and stop my watch every time correctly -- but Lia's watch said 3:20 at the end, mine 3:43, so we are guessing we actually ran something in between that.
It got cold at the top, and our frazzled brains got loopy -- my thoughts started translating very strangely to verbal words.wa-wa wa-wa wa-wa.
Other than the getting lost stuff and the surprise dead trails -- the trails for the most part were awesome-- very level, gentle uphills, good use of switchbacks. Runnable, but also challenging, perfect for training.
We had a great time, but now we know the dangers of Capitol Peak Forest route finding!