Shortened By Bears

My feet were recovering from the spring.  However, they never got back to 100%.  I pushed my training out to 6 days a week and 12,000 feet of elevation gain last week.  That was too much and now my feet are bothering me again.

Because of that, I've backed off this week.  I took two days in a row off.  Yesterday, I would've run, but we went to dinner.  I decided not to bother with running afterward.  Today, the plan was two Mt. Tammany loops.  I haven't been there in over a week.

The weather seemed like it would be nice.  I wore a singlet.  I was sweating heavy and breathing a lot early on.  I guess the lack of tree cover wasn't helping.  I did feel better as I went along.  I took my shirt off during the second loop.

In addition to running and hiking, I brought my GoPro.  I wanted some cool video.  I have some from the winter.  Eventually, I want to make a video of all the seasons at Tammany (since I'm there so often).  I think I got some pretty cool shots.  It did slow me down though.

I don't know what it was, but I felt like complete shit from the get go.  I guess two days off didn't make me rested.  I was tired, my calves were sort and I had no energy.  I ate before getting there.  I was only doing two loops, so I pushed on.

Some guys were impressed to see me running.  However, that was one of my rare running moments.  The parking lot was packed, but there weren't too many hikers.  When I arrived at the summit, I saw a few.

I ended up hiking a lot of the ridge on the Blue Trail. I still had no energy.  It was good to get downhill.  That was a mix of running and hiking, since I was taking videos too.

I smelled something and saw a lot of flies, but I wasn't sure what it was.  I'm thinking perhaps bear scat, but I never actually saw it.  It must've been fresh, whatever it was.

I saw a pink shirt on my way up.  I never caught it with all my stops.  I saw it again on the way down.  Still, I was stopping too much.  I ran past a family that was loud.  I thought that that was too bad because they were likely scaring away the bears.

I finally caught the woman in the pink shirt.  She was hiking with her daughter.  Earlier, a guy was carrying his son in a pack while hiking.  That would be a lot of work up there.  It was fun to be running downhill, even though my feet were bothered some.

I got to the bottom and stopped briefly at the waterfall.  I took some photos and videos.  A few people were swimming.  I headed back on to the AT.  Then, I was back at my car.  With all the stops, it was a slow loop.

I refilled my water, toweled off and headed back up.  I ran past some people early on.  I was trying to push more this time.  I felt maybe a little better now, but it still wasn't great.  I tried to run a little more, since this was my last loop.

My body felt beat, as I pushed on up.  I was grateful to get near the top.  Then, it happened.  I came out to the flat, false summit and a bear was standing on the trail with two cubs.  It was quite close, maybe 10 yards away.

I had been wanting to see some bears up there for some time.  However, this was probably a little closer than I would've liked.  I simply stopped and yelled "go away bear."  It looked at me and walked away, down the trail.  I yelled a second time too.

I think these bears are too used to people.  I was basically near the top and wanted to finish the loop.  However, the bears really weren't moving.  They went into the bushes a little, but I could still hear them near the trail.  I think the cubs were on the opposite side of the mother too.  I probably could've made it through okay or pushed them out, but I decided it was wiser to turn around.  I was concerned some people coming from the summit would push it toward me.

I went back down the Red Dot Trail.  I almost never do that and it has been a long time since I have.  It was hard to run much, since it is so technical.  That is especially true since I was tired.

The trail is also much harder to follow this way.  Taking the correct route over the rocks is difficult.  In the most technical section, I warned some hikers about the bear.

Later, as I got closer to the bottom, I warned another hiker.  This guy said, "oh, they are there all the time.  Was it a mother and two cubs?"  I guess he hikes there even more than me.  He also apparently had an air horn to scare it if needed.

I ran some near the bottom.  It was over 2 hours into the run.  I got a lot of gain, even if I didn't go all the way to the top.  I was glad to be done and back to the car.  Although I didn't go all the way to the top, I did enjoy the bear encounter (once it was over).

Tomorrow, I'll be taking off again.  My feet need more rest.  Eventually, I think I need to try different shoes.  I'm hoping to get back to Tammany on Saturday.  Anywhere from three to five loops would be great.  I'll probably rest a lot next week, before the Escarpment Trail Run.

7 miles - 2:17:04 (19:35 pace) 2259 feet of elevation gain
29th Mt. Tammany Summit of 2015