Thursday night we found a hasty camp just of highway 191 about 20 miles south of Moab. Jake Brakes sung us to sleep. This is Friday morning
First on the weekend's agenda-Owl Rock, a cool 100-foot tower in Arches National Park. Approaching the base of Owl Rock
Mom making the final tough move up the tower
Congratulations, Mom, on your second desert tower climb! (We climbed South Six Shooter about a year and a half ago.)
Me on the summit. Mom and Allison had already rapped down
Busting out “The Crow” on the summit.
In the afternoon we baked ourselves at an area called the Ice Cream Parlor near Kane Creek. This is a 5.6 crack line that offers a good intro into crack jamming.
Lil' buddy
Mom sets off on her first real crack route
Textbook crack climbing. Nice!
Another angle of Mom on the 5.6 crack
Allison sets off on an unknown (5.7ish) bolted face route
Probably “off route” but that flake over there looked so damn cool she couldn't help herself
Final moves up through the last section of varnish
Saturday I ran in the Moab Alpine to Slickrock 50 mile race. At the start line at nearly 6:00am
The course is amazing! It starts up in the La Sal Mountains and follows great, steep dirt roads and trails up to over 11,000' before eventually heading down to the Slickrock Bike Trail parking area. 11,000' feet of climbing and 12,000' of descent. This is the view from the first aid station, Squaw Springs, mile 14.3.
The views in the early morning light were phenomenal. Just awesome.
Race director Greg Poettgen scratches his head while two others hang tight
Great light on the fin of rock down south of Moab and the Mill Creek canyon in the foreground (I think)
Me coming into the Squaw Springs aid station at mile 14.3 at 3 hours, 11 minutes
Coming into the Geyser Pass aid station at mile 20 in 4 hours, 42 minutes
Leaving Geyser Pass aid station
Awesome! Coming into the Warner Lake aid station at mile 26 in 6 hours, 10 minutes
I think that's Haystack Mountain (~11,600') in the background but I don't know for sure.
Leaving the Warner Lake aid station
That rain cell hit me in the La Sals a bit before the Miner's Basin aid station (mile 28.3) and it felt good
The finish line at the Slick Rock Bike Trail parking lot
That's me coming down the road. The last ~7 miles follow the Sand Flats dirt road (with a short bit of pavement at the finish).
Glad to be finishing up! It was in the 80s on the dirt road to the finish but there was a light head-wind at times which helped
Wow, I'm embarrassed. I didn't know I was showing off that much of my ass
Allison and I at the finish. I was pretty beat since I hadn't run a run longer than 14 miles since mid-July.
Crazy tan lines. Or dirt.
Since I hadn't run this race before I carried a cheat sheet on my water bottle
