Seattle Weekend

I flew back to Seattle for Dawg Dash weekend, and Waffle Fest.

• Hike


But first, I met up with my friend Carrie for a hike. We mailed back and forth setting it up: I definitely wanted to hike, but I wasn't sure of any good routes, since it had been quite some time since I moved away. We settled on 6-8 miles with ~2000 foot elevation gain, which sounded reasonable. She brought more friends and we drove out to the Teanaway forest area to hike to Navajo Peak.



IMG_0076
Originally uploaded by klbarrus
These three are serious hikers!


What we wound up doing was 13 miles and ~4500 foot elevation. Carrie is a strong hiker - I think she goes every weekend all year long, sometimes both days - and perhaps overestimated my hiking fitness in her ambition to summit, and probably didn't measure the route too carefully. ;) It was a tough hike, and I was dragging a bit by the end.



IMG_0092
Originally uploaded by klbarrus
Navajo pass. The summit is another ~1200 feet up.


The view at the top of the pass was spectacular, and worth the hike. I was ready to turn around at this point, roughly 5.0 miles in with ~3200 feet of gain - that would have been enough for me. But Carrie wanted to summit Navajo peak, and it was "only" another 1.5 miles and ~1200 feet... so we headed up. It was snowing at the top, so the view wasn't too good. Despite how tough the hike was (for me at least), it did feel good to reach the summit.



IMG_0101
Originally uploaded by klbarrus
Just below the summit, as fog and snow moved in.


I don't think I slowed them up too much, but I know I did. We got back to the trailhead as the sun was setting so it was good timing overall. Afterwards, e were famished and ate at a Mexican restaurant in Cle Elum.


• Dawg Dash


The next day I ran the Dawg Dash in the rain. We were lucky: it rained lightly before the event, and poured afterwards, but during the event it didn't rain much at all.

The Dawg Dash is a fun event because it is dog friendly, and one of the UW homecoming events. After the race we retreated to Francesca's for Waffle Fest, a UW themed waffle brunch hosted by Francesca. Yum!

Corn Maze

I drove up to Thumont, MD for a hiking group meetup at the Lawyers Moonlight Maze. The theme this year was... Iron Man.

Ironman Corn Maze
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

Giant Robot pumpkin targets.


I had about an hour before sunset, so I headed straight for the maze(s). They had 3 set up, each of different length, with several checkpoints to find inside. I did the blue and green ones on the map, finishing up in the darkness, which was a lot of fun. I made it out in time to catch the movie, Iron Man 2, and I stayed to watch a few minutes... but since it was late I decided to leave.

North East tri

Maryland is filled with blunt names for various landmarks and places: for example there is Gunpowder Falls State Park with an associated Hammerman swim area. The swim of a popular tri over in Cambridge, MD occurs in the Choptank river... for months I'd hear people mention "getting ready for Eagleman... planning on a swim in the Choptank". I thought it was a natural wave machine. But no, it turns out that is the name of the river, the Choptank River. It may indeed be shallow and windy with lots of choppy waves.

So in the northeast corner of the state is a city named... North East, MD (amazing!) which puts on a sprint and olympic tri. Some friends signed up so I did too.

Six of us wound up going: four doing the sprint, two doing the olympic. What made this interesting is one friend, Amanda, loves to camp so she suggested we all stay at Elk Neck State Park and camp beforehand!

Now I like camping. I do. I also like to sleep in a real bed before an event. Plus I have no camping gear anymore, I had offloaded most of it to various friends before moving from Washington to Florida (I was NOT about to sleep on the ground in Florida!). But since everyone else was camping, I joined the group after some hesitation. I was able to rent a sleeping bag and split a tent so that was taken care of.

North East tri
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

Me, Amanda, and Mike after we finished.


The event was fun and the weather was great - cloudy and cooler than normal. It sprinkled lightly and later that afternoon the skies opened up for heavy rain. But during the event it was fine and we all had a good time.

I did an overall 1:48:12, good for 10th out of 19th in my division.

The camping was fun as well - we munched on chips, lit a campfire and made smores, got to sleep early. However I think I'll go the luxurious route of getting a hotel room before future events.

Hashawha Hike

To start off the holiday weekend, I carpooled up to the Hashawha Environmental Center near Westminster, MD. The hike featured an easy loop in the surrounding forest, and a "raptor center", where injured birds of prey are kept and nursed.

The raptor center was less than a mile from the hike starting point, and while we were there we saw a few of the birds. The bald eagle drew the most attention.

Bald Eagle
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

This bird got his own large cage.


They had several species of owls, including this pair of Great Horned Owls.

Great Horned Owls
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

We set off again following the trail, and came to an old cabin that is probably in use as a storage area.

Historic Cabin
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

Our loop was a figure-8, from the raptor center we passed the historic cabin, then into the woods around past the cabin and raptor center. From there we added on a flat ~1.5 miles to a lily pond and enjoyed sitting there for a few minutes.

Lily Pond
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

I saw some people fishing, but didn't see any frogs.

Hilton Area Hike

I drove up to Patapsco Valley State Park, Hilton area, to meet the hiking group for a mid-week after-work hike. Since I enjoyed myself on the previous trip, I bought a state park pass and got to use it for the first time.

Brook
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

The hike was a nice short 2.5 mile loop with a few decent hills. The trail went from a forested area across a utility right-of-way, back into the trees and then back across the clearing again. It was a nice sunny evening with no bugs and low humidity, a great time for a short hike.

Fallen Tree
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

Celebration Sprint Tri

I looked forward to this event, the Celebration Sprint Tri, my first tri in about 2 years (I missed the 2009 season in Florida for various reasons). It was a challenging, hilly bike course, and I'm happy with how I did.

2:10:39, 51/104 in M40-44, 329/667 M, 548/~1400 overall

• Swim - 0.62 miles (1000 m) in 28:25, 67/104 M40-44
  
  Yeah I'm a slow swimmer, finishing in the 65th percentile. The swim at Centennial Lake was okay overall, low visibility, but the water quality was much better than expected. Race officials clearly skimmed the surface of algae and plants before the event.
  
  
• T1 - 4:03
  
  Transition was a flat field, but the bike exit was up a grassy hill. Had to step carefully or slide.
  
  
• Bike - 17.5 miles in 1:05:27, 64/104 M40-44.
  
  I've been biking the course nearly every week since the middle of April, so there were no surprises. It is a hilly long course for a sprint tri, making it fairly challenging overall.
  
  
  
  Karl Barrus at Celebration Tri
  Originally uploaded by georges
  On the bike course...
  
  
  
• T2 - 2:17
  
  Had to be careful again, this time going down the grassy hill without sliding.
  
  
• Run - 3.3 miles in 30:30, 31/104 M40-44.
  
  I was able to hold a good pace for 2 miles, at which point I had to slow and walk for a few seconds. It was sunny and hot, but it was the hill on the way back in that did me in. Despite these problems, I somehow managed a run time in the top 30th percentile of my age group!
  
  
  
  Karl Barrus at Celebration Tri
  Originally uploaded by georges
  Running in the shade...
  
  
  

A net result in the middle of the pack is good for me - I seem to remember a lot of bottom 20th percentile finishes previously.

The Mid Maryland Tri Club had fantastic support, everything from bike pump patrols in transition before the event, to tons of volunteers, to a very nice tent near the finish line, with smoothies and refreshments, BBQ, snacks and drinks. WoW! On top of that, two club members took photos of every competitor they could, put the pictures up on Flickr, and are tagging them bit by bit.

Hang Gliding

One activity I always wanted to try was hang gliding. So when I saw the DC/MD/VA Adventures meetup group plan a trip out to Highland Aerosports for tandem hang gliding, I signed up!

I arrived a few minutes late, but in time to meet the group and receive the flight briefing, which covered the basics of hang gliding including how to steer. 14 or 15 people signed up to hang glide so we split into two groups. I was in the 2nd group which turned out to be six people.

hang gliding group
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

Saturday's second group of pilots.


Since Highland Aerosports is located on the Eastern Shore near Ridgley, MD, and the area is flat in general, our hang gliders were towed aloft by ultralights. No running launches off the side of a hill or cliff! Instead, the instructor lay in a hammock-like bag, we got in our own on top, and were towed to the right altitude.

hang gliding launch
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

Waiting to be towed aloft.


The tow line is basically fishing line, and once we hit the proper altitude (I chose to do 2500 ft), we disconnected.

hang gliding ascent
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

Soaring above Ridgley, MD.


At this point, the instructor did a few turns and let me practice a bit. With a hang glider, shifting your weight controls everything. Pull forward to speed up, push back to slow down. Pull right to turn right, pull left to turn left. In the picture, I am holding the frame and doing the moves as he called them out.

hang gliding steering
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

Grabbing the frame to control the glider.


After getting comfortable with steering, I flew over farms, taking gradual turns and heading over other landmarks. Steering wasn't too difficult, but I found accuracy was tough - the glider takes a few seconds to react, so I would continue to turn past the heading I wanted. More experienced pilots can compensate for this oversteering by coming out of a turn a few seconds early and make smaller adjustments.

I had 12 to 15 minutes aloft since the glider constantly descends. If you are license to fly solo, you can try to find thermals and stay aloft for as long as possible.

The overall experience was a lot of fun, more enjoyable to me than the tandem skydiving I tried - that was all adrenalin, where this was calmer. I felt like a bird, soaring over the countryside and making slow turns to change directions.

hang gliding descent
Originally uploaded by klbarrus

Coming in for a landing, circling the airport.


Once we dropped to low enough altitude, the instructor took over controlling the glider and landed us. Tandem gliders have a frame with wheels, so we didn't need to land on foot, stalling the wing and the right height and dropping. Instead we landed like a plane and it was very smooth.

Everybody really enjoyed this trip. Sunday's group is larger, with 40 or so people signed up, and I bet if the feedback continues to be so positive they'll schedule another trip out.