Friday, March 07, 2014

SMRG Tiger Mt. "50k"

The short:  Even after raining a months worth of rain in the last 5 days, most of the trails were in really great shape.   The route is a lot harder than it looks.  I got 36.6 miles with over 11k in elevation gain on my Suunto Ambit. There were no views today so some of the trails didn't make sense.


Pros:  You really do get to see a lot of the Mt while staying mostly on single track.  You get to go past the Dieter Spring twice making it a 2 bottle run. All but a few of the trails were mostly dry. I love all the new bridges.  It has a great finish.


Cons:  Since the route is long, the out and backs could be cut/shortened and you'd still be at 50k.  The loop around T2 seems silly while you are running it.  The Hobart-Middle Tiger RR Grade Trail is a real mess.  I almost lost a shoe. I ran out of food about 4 hours before the finish making the Chirico climb a chore.


I would run it again when it's drier.




The beginning!  Why are Monster, Bigfoot and UFO pictures always so blurry?

There are always dangers in the forest.


There were a lot of trails that looked like this.  I fixed 9 or 10 of them by diverting the off.  Most of the time it only takes a few seconds using your heel or a stick.


Beautiful!


I stream was way to high to cross today.  I had to use a broken bridge.  Very slick!


Most of the trails were really good.


Don't trip.


This was as close to a view as there was all day.


More wide open trail.  Not another person insight for the first 4 hours.


But when it was bad, it was real bad.  I almost lost a shoe in here somewhere.


I wasn't going as fast as this picture makes it look.


After about 5 hours the clouds, rain, and wind finally showed up for the party.


No sunscreen needed today.


Turnaround here.


... and they all fall down.  It looked like the trees were playing Rind around the Rosie.


In some places, there was no getting around the mud.


No view today.


Turn around here and head for Section Line. I had to race back to the car so I didn't get locked in.













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