Work Day Report October 17

Mink Creek in the fall: don't miss it.

Randy, a true pro with his tool of choice.

A strange thing happened Saturday. I was working away on a project when some folks wandered up to the ski area. I usually stop, answer their questions about the area and bid a good day. But these people didn't leave. they picked up shovels, chainsaws and donned gloves. I gave them

some jobs to do and went back to work. Minutes later more folks rolled up ready to get diry. Again and again people showed up out of the blue to pitch in to improve mink creek trails and facilities.

In all about 15 people helped out at the first of two work days at the nordic ski area. We started by cutting 4 new sections of trail, cleaned up the groomer shed and de-junked the base area. As an encore we took out existing dead trees that would be falling on trails and filled a shed with firewood. At any given time at least 5 chainsaws buzzed away and a flock of worker bees followed in their wake piling and hauling brush and wood.

The whole crew waiting for pizza to arrive to refuel and head back out

Thank you to everyone that came out. A lot of new faces were milling around and I tried to learn a few names. It is great to see such enthusiasm.

Trail Run two is through

We had a few more runners out to partcipate in the second race than the first. It may have had something to do with the perfect weather. The morning was clear windless and cool but not cold. The trails were dry and clear but not dusty. Everyone managed to make all of the right turns and no one died. All around it was a great race. I don't have any pictures unfortunately, but I will have results soon.

In the elite class super rivalry I fabricated between Luke and Andy there was a new development. Nick. Nick Green took them both down and looked fairly comfortable crossing the finish line about 18 seconds ahead of Andy. Congrats to Nick on his first win that I can recall. With andy missing hte first race the series title is a one point game with Nick in the lead over Luke.

Here are the results in order of finish- but not divided into categories.

Nick- 37:16
Andy- 37:34
Luke- 39:01
Mark- 40:19
John- 40:52
Randy- 42:29
Murphy- 42:58
Robert- 48:39
Jim- 50:40
Darin- 50:41
Luther- 52:21
Dan- 52:32
Melissa- 52:33
Angier- 53:48
Joe- 54:41
Dale- 58:09
Bill- 1:00:26
Stephen- 1:00:54
Bridget- 1:07:31
Holly- 1:08:14
Jonathan- 1:15:35
David- 1:16:59

Trail Run Deux

Valve House to East Mink Creek via Canyon

The start line shared by the frist 2 trail runs- Mink Creek Rd is in the background.

The second trail run is Saturday. It starts at 9am. Please meet at the mink creek nordic center by 8:30. If you need directions the the ski area they can be found on http://www.pokyxc.org/ .

The map I have is a PDF and will not post on blogspot so send me an email if you need one. here are directions:

The second race starts at valve house and after almost 2 miles takes the first major left, eactly like the high basin run. (do not turn at the newly renovated blind springs trail by the cattle trough) Instead of climbing out of the canyon up the rocky trail just stay straight in the guts of the wooded canyon. The trail eventually comes to a fence. Go through the gate/fence (or over if you are tough like that) and take an immediate hard left onto a somewhat lesser used ATV trail. It leads back to canyon trail and the Nordic center. Don’t turn off canyon, just take the most direct, worn route back.

If you are worried about finding the course it is easier than it sounds. valve house really only has one lefthand turn that is easy to find and no major righthand turns. The fence is an excellent landmark for the only really hard turn and it is really clear form there.

On race day it is marked by big bright orange triangles- and you are unlikely to be leading the pack anyhow.

The men's course record is 35:24 and held by Evan Honeyfield. The Womens course record is 43:55 and is held by Roberta Zimmerman

Trail Run One is Done

The first trail run of the year is in the books, and what a run it was. Not only did it snow before the race, it also snowed hard about 30 minutes in and continued until everyone finished and left. Luke Nelson (36:50) showed the best strategy is to run so fast that the snow simply doesn't have time to start before you finish. Few other runners seemed to realize this, and lagged behind. Nick green (38:52) stayed close though and took home second.

Holly Cree (1:08:44) dominated the women's division winning over her nearest competitor by an infinite amount. Funny enough i saw Bridget Marshall running up mink creek road as we were cleaning up the start line. I thought maybe she had decided to run from home to the start line, and was just a tad late. No such luck.

The sport winner was Mark Burnham (42:06) the recreation winner was Stephen Stokes (1:00:00)

Overall the competition was friendly and relaxed. Most folks seemed focused on survival, minimizing the number of falls and drinking cocoa.

IN THE FUTURE ALL RACES WILL START AT 9AM. THE 8AM THING WAS A TYPO.

I was really looking forward to an Andy-Luke showdown but Andy was already obligated elsewhere. Lukes time was only 40 seconds slower than Andy's record last year (35:58) , but Luke stopped to put fallen signs back up for those that followed- so I'm declaring it too close to call. To preview the upcoming races elite showdown.... The canyon run is very similar to the last run and Luke was very close last year. Luke has improved considerably in the last year or two and has run the trail more than a few times. Advantage Luke. And finally- the potato loop follows the 5k nordic race course plus canyon trails. Being a crazy nordic skiier that know every dip and rise intimately- I have to say advantage Andy.

The sport division is interesting. Mark ran well and won by a decent margin but he doesn't realize that John Taberna is a cyborg, and only gets stronger with age. Because of the fact that he can see age 50 from where he's at now, I predict he will come on even stronger and take the series. Overall the average racer age is higher than I would expect for a course of this difficulty but the times are still really fast. Half the field is 44 or older and a few are looking forward to those social security checks in the near future.

The recreation division is very relaxed. Stephen seems committed to pre-running some of the courses and doing well. So despite the fact that he is a lawyer I predict he will take it all. We all know lawyers can't run fast.


full results, Last names are omitted because I am lazy:
Luke 36:50
Nick 38:52
Mark 42:06
John 43:26
Darin 48:22
Jeff 48:25
Robert 51:01
Dave 53:40
Sherwin 53:48
Joe 54:14
Bill 57:33
Alex 58:49
Stephen 1:00:00
Holly 1:08:44
David 1:22:16

Fall is in the air

The crew and some volunteers headed up to mink creek to lay out the course today. the trail crew from the forest service did some 'trail improvements' and there is a lot of debis on valve house road and the last uphill stretch before high basin. The arrows are up however and it shouldn't be a huge problem. it was really nice out, but my camera was dead. Hopefully it is nice tomorrow.