Viva Las Henderson?!?! - Lake Las Vegas Xterra Trail Run, April 24, 2010

A burro-less sunset.

The series of races that I’m competing in right now is the Xterra Trail Run series, and since I live in Southern California, I’m doing the Southern California portion of the series. (http://www.xterraplanet.com/xduro/index.html; http://www.trailrace.com/ ). I think Xterra puts on a great series of races, as the courses are always challenging, and the competition is usually fairly strong. I learned about their trail run series last year when I competed at the Mission Trails 5k with some friends. (http://www.mtrp.org/events.asp?actiontype=showdate&the_date=2/1/2009).  At that point, I was coming off some knee problems, and in the middle of the race, I was passed by some younger runners, which made me start seriously swearing at myself. Despite that, I had a decent race, and even though I was out for a while after that, I was motivated to come back stronger than ever for the 2010 series.

After running a couple Xterra races earlier this year, I was super pumped when I was offered a chance to race at Lake Las Vegas for free. (http://www.xterraplanet.com/xduro/lakelasvegas.html). I considered the offer for about thirty seconds before I decided that I was definitely going. And, after doing a little research and making a few plans, I had strung together a nice little series of events to do before and after. As a result, last Friday found me making camp near the Nevada border. Around eight o’clock, I watched the early stars come out before I went to bed. My plan was to get a good night’s sleep, since I would have to get up early to finish the drive, pick up my bib, and make the starting call. While it was a great plan, it didn’t work out, mainly because of some jackasses – literally.

Around one-thirty in the morning, I heard some crazy noises, which, when you’re camping alone in the middle of nowhere, is never good. In this case, everything turned out fine, as it was merely two wandering wild burros, who turned out not to be dangerous or hostile. In fact, after I fed them apples, we were the best of friends. In fact, we were such good friends, they wanted to continue hanging out, while I merely wanted to get back to sleep. After I got rid of the burros, I laid awake for a little bit, and then was shocked awake by my overly loud alarm.

As I drove into Las Vegas, I watched the desert glow and burn with the rising sun. By the time I arrived at Lake Las Vegas for the race, I was ready to go, albeit a little more blurry and tired than I would have preferred. I also had a lot on my mind that morning; people; questions about people; and general uncertainties about events in my life. As a result, the song running through my head was probably more along the lines of Elvis’ You Were Always on My Mind, completely sappy and slow, than my usual upbeat in your face warm ups of the Propellerheads or Rage Against the Machine. As I stretched it out, I took a minute to try and clear my head. While I couldn’t banish the uncertainty away in the thirty seconds of slow breathing, I did manage to reach a place where I could use it to motivate me. Which, as a semi-veteran runner, is my tip for this post: almost anything in your life can be motivation, if you look at it properly.

With my head mostly clear, and my body mostly not tired, I hit the start line. The race wasn’t as busy as some of the other Xterra events, and I found myself in a good starting spot. The course for the five and ten kilometer was the same; with the exception being that the ten kilometer was a two circuit loop and the five kilometer was a one circuit loop. The course led out through streets near the lake, before hitting some “rough” (I use that word loosely here) patches on the hills. After previewing the course, and then running the course, I have to admit that this wasn’t really a “trail” course; and in terms of other Xterra races, it probably was the worst layout I have seen. I make this point because most courses in the series are well positioned and metered. However, complaining doesn’t get you anywhere – especially when you’re running.

The race started, and I found myself packed in the lead group, heading up a hill immediately; before settling in. After the initial ascent, it was a slightly hilly course. Around the mid-point marker for the 5k, there was a semi-steep decent, but overall, the course was not overly challenging. Despite this, I found myself behind the fourth place finisher approaching the finish. I had been pushing it for a bit, and had shaved off a substantial amount of time between him and I, but despite how much my brain was telling me that I could catch him, my lungs were complaining loudly. Prior to the race, I had been concerned about how the altitude difference (Sea Level compared to 4000 feet) would affect my performance. I had tried to acclimatize to a higher elevation the days before, but due to a variety of activities, hadn’t spent enough time at a higher or equal elevation to make a great difference. (As a matter of fact, I had spent time at an elevation lower than that of sea level – doh!). Sadly, I didn’t catch him. In retrospect, I think had I made my push sooner, I would have had a better shot, but one never knows. Fifth place overall wasn’t a bad result, and it provided me with great experience for my next race, coming up on May 8, 2010 at Malibu. So, if you think you can school me or want to race with me, I’ll see you on the trail there! (http://www.trailrace.com/malibu.html). 

Smoke 'em!

I have the devil’s luck. By the “devil’s luck”, I mean that I can find trouble, adventure, excitement, or anything out of the ordinary without even trying. In recent weeks, I’ve changed tires, provided first aid, given directions, and more for total strangers. To be honest, that’s not even a comprehensive list of situations I’ve found myself in lately. That list leaves out things that might not be funny; and things that are personal, such as rough spots in my life, problems that friends have, and professional situations. Fortunately for everyone, while I have the devil’s luck in finding these situations, I don’t act like the devil, as I always help people. I’m a problem solver. It’s what I do.

The problem with solving problems is that, after a while, it becomes tiring. Whether it’s physically tiring, like wrestling rusted bolts of a tire, or mentally tiring, in dealing with a difficult problem, or emotionally tiring in dealing with a complex set of personal issues, the fatigue builds up. I find – for me – that one has to have an outlet to deal with these stresses – whether it’s offbeat jokes, or something else, that outlet has to be there, otherwise I find one goes something something crazy at the slightest provocation down the road. Since I don’t want to go bat-shit crazy or something something crazy, one of my outlets is running.

In this respect, I’m lucky in two ways. Number one, I like running. (Seriously, if you don’t like running, don’t do it. You’re going to hate life. Trust me.) Number two, I live in Southern California, where I can run outside, well, every day, realistically, as the weather is never bad enough to stop it. In the past, I’ve always relied on it as a great way to decompress, think things over, and in some cases, come up with ideas. This year, however, I’ve really gotten back into running as a sport, and not just as a way to reduce stress. Last year, I didn’t run much – in part because I took damage on some of my trips; and in part because that damage took a while to heal.

This year, I’m back, and back with a vengeance. So much so that I’ve been out and about competing in a number of races. While I’ve been doing really well, overall, there’s still room for improvement as I go along. But for the runners out there, and for the interested parties, I announce the first ever “Race Week” here on the blog, where I’ll detail some of the races I’ve participated in recently, talking about the courses and providing what insights I can. And, if you’re ever in the Southern California area, you might see me out training at Torrey Pines State Reserve, or Mission Trails, or anywhere where it’s outside. Just don’t stop me if you have a problem. Just kidding. I’ll probably already be stopping and offering you help. So, see you out there, competitors!

A blog shortage? Are you serious? Well, maybe not yet. But soon?

It’s dangerous – it’s deadly – we may have to start rationing – whatever will we do – there might be a panic – or it might be a sign of the apocalypse. Yes, readers, ABC News are reporting what I suspected back in this post here: http://last-adventurer.squarespace.com/last-adventurers-fieldnotes/2010/3/6/interregnum-where-to-go-from-here-the-map-is-blank-part-i.html : that the amount of blogs is potentially declining. ABC news has picked up on the point I was discussing a couple weeks ago – that in an age where 126-500 characters is a lot, it’s difficult to get – and retain a captive audience who wants to read 500 to a 1000 words. The article also reverses that point and looks at it the other way, in that in the age where thoughts are shared succinctly, it’s difficult for people to condense their knowledge into that small of a space; and in a similar fashion, that it is difficult for some people to be forced to write 500 words on a weekly or daily basis.

I find this interesting, because first off, there is no solid empirical data on how many blogs there are out there – or were out there. It may be possible that the high point for blogging may in our collective past. Similarly, it may also be true that the high point may be coming with greater broadband access to hardware, software, and connectivity. I certainly think there’s some interesting statistical data that could be collected by parties that are savvier than I, but until then, I – and the rest of the blogosphere will be left to wonder whether we’re contracting or expanding. As for the larger quandary of whether the changing field is a good or bad thing, I’ll take the safe route here: everything evolves. Not everyone can write a recurring narrative – and that’s fine. Some others may not be able to fit their thoughts into 500 character equations – and they shouldn’t have to. Creativity is best expressed in the format that the mind wants, not in some pre-ordained design. In any case, it’s certainly something interesting to watch.

Read the ABC article here: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/blogging-peaked-facebook-posts-twitter-tweets-growing-easier/story?id=10088992

Mt. Baldy, California – February 28, 2010 – Fresh pow pow glide!

Remainder of the freshies, Baldy, 2/28/10

One of the hardest things about living in Southern California, for me at least, is dealing with the lack of quality skiing, snowboarding, or freeheeling (telemarking), and to a lesser extent, cross country skiing. Now, I know what people will say – 1) Southern Californians will complain about anything; and 2) that Big Bear is great skiing. To the second point, my response is simply this: “no”. Big Bear is not great skiing. I’ve skied Chile, New Zealand, the Alps, Utah, Oregon, and the better parts of California. Big Bear, quite simply, is not great skiing. Big Bear is skiing, I’ll give you that. If you want – or need to learn – any of the resorts up there – Bear Mountain, or Snow Summit, are probably great places to learn. The terrain is not that steep, and there’s a lot of novice runs. Also, if you want to hang out with your friends, or not drive the six to eight hours to the Sierras, it’s decent for a day.

However, if you are above intermediate skill level, and like to get out there, Big Bear is not the place for you. Unfortunately, there are few other options in the area – you can go full on backcountry on a number of ridges and mountains, assuming there is enough snow, and also assuming one likes a hike to get up for your run. I would know, since I try to backcountry ski San Jacinto at least once a year. Great open runs – but lots of work to do. The other solution: Baldy. Baldy is a semi-little known resort here in Southern California. I say, “semi-little” because while it was a locals only type resort for many years, the word is now out. It is hard to keep such a secret from all of LA and San Diego, though, to be honest. The resort bills itself as the “steepest terrain” in all of Southern California. This is one case where the billing is correct. The runs are steep, challenging, and best of all, provide great access to several great backcountry areas. Last year, my friend and I bombed down a narrow chute from near the summit ridge to almost the bottom – a truly great experience. This year, even though we got out after a recent storm (the best time to go, for sure), the coverage was not quite as good, so we stuck to some more traditional routes. If you do decide to check it out, note that it’s a true old school resort with no high speed quads and fancy trappings. But, no matter what, there’s always an adventure to be had there – whether it’s finding questionable bags, meeting interesting people for a pint, or getting in some quality runs. For information on how to find your way there, check out their site here: http://www.mtbaldy.com/,and be sure to enjoy the best part of Baldy: riding/skiing in t-shirts by the end of the day as the sun cooks you and the snow

Sunrise, January 1, 2010 – Garnet Peak, California

 Sunrise 2010, Garnet Peak

The moon was cold. The road shone with pale crystals. I winced inwardly and flung the door open, breaking the dark silence of the early morning. I placed one booted foot out, then the other and shut the door behind me. I waited. It didn’t seem that bad for the first day of January 2010, even though I was at five thousand feet. Then, I breathed. Pure, cold air poured into my lungs. I shivered, shook myself and grinned. It was cold. In the quiet, my boots clomped noisily across the empty road onto the hard, frozen trail. Within a matter of minutes, I had turned off my headlamp, as the moon was overpowering the sky. My pupils slowly relaxed as I quickened my pace to stay warm. Every bush, rock, and feature on the trail was lit in ghostly light, making it look spectral and ephemeral.

Briefly, I wondered if I was dreaming, and had merely fallen asleep at the New Year’s party I had just left. After pinching myself – just to be sure – my thoughts turned to when I had last slept. It had almost been a full twenty-four hours, a day prior, a year prior, and a decade prior. No wonder I was tired. Yet, as I rolled down the trail, I felt good, relaxed, and excited to see the first sunrise of the new decade. Then I saw them – twin shadows flitting ahead on the trail. By the time I had fully determined that they were also people, I was upon them. Quietly, they shifted over to the side of the trail, startled, as I blew by with a jaunty wave. At first, I thought it was rude that they hadn’t said anything, and then I considered that it was the early hours of the morning, and we were all hiking without lights in the middle of nowhere. I had probably just scared the crap out of them. I grinned, and tried not to laugh out loud. The sky turned from pale black to purple, to pink, as I powered my way to the rocky summit. Off in the east, the sky rumbled with colors, while in the West, the moon stayed stubbornly fixed in its full radiance. For a brief moment, I wondered if the sun would rise, and what would happen when the first rays of the new year caressed my face. Before I had time to come to a definitive conclusion, burning yellow and orange seared the sky, as the sun poked its body over the rim of the planet, leaving me to stare in wonder and amazement in the serendipity of the moment. 

Moonset, 2010, Garnet Peak

Interregnum – Where to go from here? The map is blank, Part II.

After I had told a number of stories, I began to realize that there were a couple problems. First, there was the time problem – I picked a spot in the past as a place to start, because it was logical, and a great introduction – but it also left me with a huge amount of material to cover, when sometimes all I wanted to do was talk about the present. As a result, I branched out and added another blog with fresher material. Then there was the content problem – when I began blogging, everyone’s posts were loooooong. Average posts at the time were easily 2000 words plus. Today, with the advent of Twitter, and other such devices, posts are 162 characters; and only the best can expect someone to read a post over a thousand words. I’m not going to bemoan the evolution of content – in some respects it’s easier to write a 500 word piece than a 2000 word piece. I also shouldn’t complain about something I can’t fight, just like gravity. (http://www.lastadventurer.com/last-adventurers-fieldnotes/2010/2/22/interregnum-the-problems-behind-the-great-content-absence-of.html). Also, I can't honestly say that things were horrible or worse when I posted less content.

The third problem was almost the blog killer. Writing this blog was taking away from my dream. You know, that dream to be a writer. Sure, blogging is writing, and writing can be used to blog, but when I say that I wanted – and want to be a writer, I mean that I want to write about the worlds in my head that exist in no known dimension. My dream is to tell those stories – and this blog was taking away from that, if not preventing it. It was preventing it because, surprisingly, there is not enough time in the day to do everything, what with having a real job, and doing real mundane things. This problem was the back-breaker, along with the fear, and the complacency, and while I pondered it, time wasted too fast.

Fortunately, seven hundred and seventy seven days is a lot of time to ponder a solution. It would have been easy to walk away from this, and just focus solely on writing about those imaginary worlds. That solution was unsatisfying to me. Sure, it was practical, but in my experience as a writer, nothing is ever that simple. There may be days where it is unerringly easy to write about mythical mountains and lost lands, but there may also be days where one simply wants to talk about how that last Thursday was completely ridiculous. Also, there’s that nagging desire to be known, and that pesky feeling of having something to contribute to the information overload of the world.

My solution was that I’m going to keep the blog for now as an outlet, but things are going to change. By now, you already know enough about me, so I’m going to move away from the backstory. (http://www.lastadventurer.com/last-adventurers-firering/). Having said that, there’s probably going to be a point where I want to finish telling some stories of back in the day, and I will – so, if you’re that interested, check in occasionally to see if there’s anything new. The main area, here, is going to be a lot different. It’s going to be non-linear, for starters – and it’s going to talk about things other than just adventuring around. Shocking, I know.

Never fever, however, there still will be plenty of talk about adventuring. It’s just going to be different talk, in that there will be more of a focus on photographs. While photographs aren’t memories, they’re great for capturing the unique – and for inspiring and aiding people to do many things, including get out and see these things in what time they have, and in what time the things have. Photographs are great timeslices. In conjunction with more visual images, there’s going to be less text – because less text equals less time, and frankly, because that’s what people want in a blog these days. I know there are probably at least one or two doubters out there, wondering if I can keep my posts under five hundred words, but frankly, I think I’m up for the challenge. This is not to say there won’t be longer stories, because eventually, I’d like to incorporate snippets of those far off places of the mind here, but overall, things will be short and sweet. My analogy at this point is that for the first five years, this blog has been in two dimensions – words, and more words – and has followed the line of time. In its new iteration, it’s moving to three dimensions – words, memories, and photos, and is going to navigate the stream of time between the present and the past as it chooses. So, strap yourself in, mythical reader, because the ride is going to be interesting, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have and will.

-the LA

Interregnum – Where to go from here? The map is blank, Part I.

Everything is unique. Not everything is relevant. One of the interesting things about “relevant” is that it’s subjective. Another interesting thing about “relevant” is that it’s something that we, as people don’t always care about. But, in addition to being unique, we as people have an innate desire to be known. I could speculate endlessly here about why we want to be known in rambling philosophical ways, but the short answer is that I don’t know. We may want to be known, based on an absurd compunction to try and share the unknown; it could be a reaction to our mortality; or it could be a selfish desire to aid our genes; or maybe it’s where I started, that it’s something unquantifiable; like the number forty-two; or something extra simple, like a desire to be famous and have a different life from our mundane yet special existence; whichever it is, I still don’t know. What I do know is that now, thanks to the interwebs, more people have the opportunity to share what they do know with a larger audience. I also know that I have no idea what the state of the “blogosphere” is now, or how many people there are out there blogging – and frankly, after doing a small amount of research, I’m not sure anyone does – there’s a lot of people out there, each acting in their own distinct way (for purposes of simplicity, I’ve lumped all social media here – tweeting, blogging, and other things into this category, even though it’s not technically correct). (Also, Technorati.com provides information on the blogosphere each year, but after reviewing their 2009 recap, I could not find any “hard” data on how many people were out there blogging, despite all the graphs they provided: http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/).

The irony of wanting to be known, and trying to be known is the information overload – by all of us trying to impress on each other that we are unique, we are all somewhat similar, if not the same. Yeah, I’ll be honest - that last sentence is a trite point, and it is a fair amount of the pot calling the kettle black, and yes, I am part of the blogosphere that I just was attacking. I don’t see it as an attack though. I see it as a positive thing. In a city; country; continent; world; galaxy and universe where everything is completely unique, it’s nice to have some continuity at times. Continuity isn’t all bad – it prevents us from going insane, because if we were to constantly focus on how things are always different and unique, make no mistake about it, we would go insane – and fast. These concepts are just too complex to constantly fixate on.

It’s easy for me to admit that when I started this blog, I wanted some continuity. I wanted to be known. Mainly, though, I wanted to write this blog to preserve my memories and my stories. If you’ve read any of these posts, you, the reader know that I’ve been lucky by cheating death in many ways. There isn’t a day that goes by where I take any of that luck, skill, and other things for granted. After feeling grateful for being alive, I feel fortunate that I still have the capacity to remember everything that happened. Life is fickle. When I began, I wanted to put down my life’s stories so that I would always have them, despite what would – or could happen to the imperfect storage device of my brain. After all, logic – and the laws of probability indicate that sooner or later, either that age will catch up and eat large holes in the files, or that my infinite luck will run out.  

A cynical person would say at this point would say, “Yeah, right. You, like everyone else wanted to be famous. (Insert sneer here).” Sure, being famous would be great. I’m not going to lie. At the end of the day, though, what I always wanted to do was tell stories; it’s just something you’re going to have to take on faith. That’s what I always wanted to do – hear and tell stories. Whether it’s with a drink in hand at a noisy club, where every third word is obscured, or around a fire where the silence catches every letter’s inflection, I like to tell and listen to stories. In that respect, it was always my intent that you – the reader, pictured this blog as a conversation, with me as that oddball quirky friend that you shook your head at for being utterly ridiculous. For a second, I’ll allow myself a self-congratulatory moment, and say that in many ways I’ve accomplished that. There are some posts I’d like back to re-write and edit more (http://www.lastadventurer.com/last-adventurers-firering/2005/8/13/episode-ii-the-ill-fated-beginning.html) and some posts that I’d probably like to redact period (http://www.lastadventurer.com/last-adventurers-firering/2006/3/3/episode-xxxviii-in-terms-of-trickiness-i-get-an-extra-d12-roll-for-guile.html), and some that I like (http://www.lastadventurer.com/last-adventurers-firering/2006/1/30/episode-xxxi-this-wondrous-invention-does-everything-it-slices-it-dices.html). The problem with self-congratulatory bullcrap, however, is that it hides the problems.