Big Bend National Park – Texas

Spent a few hot days at Big Bend National Park in Texas! 
Dogs aren’t allowed on the trails here so I had to do my runs in the early morning. First night we had a great view spot of Nugent Mountian to camp. It was also close to Pine Canyon Trail which leads to a waterfall. Pup and I hung out trying to stay cool in the shade of the van. Shade is very limited to find in the park.     Woke up early and ran 4.6 miles round trip to the waterfall on the Pine Canyon trail. Not much of a waterfall but it was trickling/flowing good for a TX desert waterfall. After my run pup and I explored the scenic drives in the park. Dogs are only allowed on roads so we stopped often on the backcountry roads to stretched. Drove from Boquillas Canyon all the way to Santa Elena Canyon, which are opposite sides of the park. Crazy to see views like this in Texas!   On our last day I woke up early to run to the highest peak in the park, Emory Peak. Woke up 15 minutes before sunrise to get to the trailhead at Chisos Basin Village. The view of the peaks as we drove was overcast and cloudy. Emory especially was not visible from the start. Most people would be disappointed but I was relieved. The overcast would keep pup cool in the van incase the forest service mileage was wrong, which it was. Total miles to the rock scramble peak of Emory from the Village was 11 miles vs the 9.8 I originally thought. My view at the top was pure clouds, cool breeze and solitude.     Not in if for the views, I am in it for the adventure!

Mesa Verde National Park Colorado

Explored Mesa Verde National Park the last couple days. It’s simply amazing!
To see the little villages and life style the Ancestral Pueblo people lived puts life in perspective. We definitely live out of our means in today’s society, and nothing is wrong with that, but we just need to take a step back to evaluate what we have and appreciate it all the more.  
  
The Park offers two free self guided tours of the dwellings (Spruce Tree House and Step House). As well as Ranger guided tours for an inside look of three other dwellings. I only did the free tour of Spruce Tree House (Spruce Tree closes in September).   
 
To me I still feel I got the up close feeling with the free tour. Even it to climb in a kiva and a baby tarantula cross my path on the trail! Most overlook trails and the Long House Loop paved trail are dog. There is not a lot cover so be sure to bring plenty of water and sunscreen. 

Maroon Bells – Aspen, CO

Maroon bells may be as picturesque as you can get in CO. It’s a huge tourist attraction drawing hundreds if not thousands of people a day. So beautiful and popular that the National Park Service doesn’t allow cars to drive up to the top between the hours of 8 AM – 5 PM. It is only accessible by a (dog friendly) bus ride to the top during the day. Of course I picked one of the busiest weekends at Maroon Bells to try and run here. Since there is color on the trees folks come from all over to get a picture. This made me have to wake up at 6 AM to get a spot at the top, even at 6AM the lot was filling up quick.Pup and I chilled in the van til the sun started to light up the darkness. I then walked around to stretch pup as I focused on the run. After meeting a few runners the night before I planned on running up West Maroon Trail for about ten miles.Maroon Peak is a 14er and surround by several other 14ers as you are in the meadow near Cater Lake. With the high altitude, breathing is still tough for me while running upward. But I managed to get 11 miles on this beautiful trail.I also had my second moose encounter with a very curious young bull that was b-lining it to the lake.If you are in the Apsen, CO area a stop at Maroon Bells is definitely worth your time.  

You think my toes look bad? You should see the rock I kicked!

You think my toes look bad? You should see the rock I tripped on…kicked it so hard it came out the dirt! 

About 2 miles into a 7 mile run to Minnesota’s highest peak (Eagle Mountain in the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness) I tripped and fell hard. Trying to save my face from hitting the rocks I first hit the ground with my left hand holding a water bottle. I am calling it a pretty graceful fall, as I caught myself semi-sliding with my right hand and knee in a kneeling position. I jumped up quickly and took off running while trying to shake it off. After a the short sprint I slowed to a walk to assess the damage. No visible blood or scratches, just dirt. Only thing was I had a pain in my left heal and my toes felt numb’ish when I pushed off. A smart person would turn around and call 4 miles a good day. Well, being the stubborn runner I am I continued walking up to the summit.  
Hitting an overlook I got a surge of notifications on my phone as I picked up service for the first time in a day. Taking it as a sign I called my Dad. Told him what happen and jokingly said that I might get eaten by a wolf, bear or mountain lion. After hanging up I could feel my foot was starting to swell. I looked around for the summit marker to make my Minnesota’s highest peak run official. I ended up hiking a bit more to find it up the trail. 

On the way down I started to walk/hobble. It only hurt if my toes bent around a rock or root. Knowing it would only get worse I started to run the 3.5 miles back to the van. With luck I only aggravated my toes a few times on the way down.

Getting back to the van I was nervous to see what the pain was all about. Removing my shoe and sock I see my 4th and 5th toes were black and blue. My 4th toe had a small puncture with a little blood where I assumed the cut came from my pinky toenail. Since no bones were sticking out I concluded that medical attention was not needed. I drove to the nearest town to get a bag of ice, beer and some junk food to help ease the pain.

As I near my home town to close out my East Coast journey this is almost a fitting circumstance. A month in I had a incident where I injured my left hand crawling into a cave to see a 35ft waterfall. Smashing my hand into a rock I bruised my pinky and ring finger causing horrific pain for serval days. 

Either way I recovered nicely…free camping with a bunch of left over cut fire wood and a lake view in Superior National Forest. 

Running in Cuyahoga Valley National Park Ohio. 

Big thanks to Chris Koch (far left of picture) for meeting up with me for some beautiful Ohio miles today! Chris is a beast completing three 100 mile races – Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run being one of the three! Even better yet, he is from my home town of Brookings, SD. Who would have guessed two crazy runners would come out of our small town. Super stoked I got some miles in with him as our paths crossed on my journey! Before we started running Matt (center of group picture) happen to see us as he pulled into the trailhead. As any trail runners knows the more runners the merrier, so he joined us for our run. Matt is training for a 100 mile relay race the end of July, the Burning River 100. Love meeting bad ass people as I travel.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park has a great trails system between the two large metropolitan areas of Cleveland and Akron. The trails I have run so far have been in the Virginia Kendall Unit of the CVNP. The Salt Run and Lake Trail sections offer multiple steep hills on some of the muddiest terrain I have run. The exposed root and rock don’t concern me as much as my chances to face plant from the mud. There is also a short tunnel on the east side of Lake Trail that takes you under what use to be a toboggan sledding area back in the late 1930s. Imagine flying down that baby back in the day…sweet! Ledges Trail gives a unique scenery change into massive rock outcroppings. It doesn’t seem to fit into the flow of the trails when you suddenly run up on the big rocks. Personally my favorite as it’s takes your mind off the leg trembling uphills from before. The Cross Country Trail is a open meadow of tall grass around a mowed trail with a few more steep little hills. 

With my Ohio miles officially logged at 7.6 miles with Chris and Matt. Then another 5 mile course preview group for Western Reserve Racing’s Muddy Paws 10/5 mile race on Sunday July 5th. I look forward to exploring more of the trails here in CVNP.

I will be running the Muddy Paws 10 miler so if you see me say hi!

3 Months, 9 States, 6,123 Miles

Life is a learning tool. If we study it by living in the moment we’ll be happy every moment of our lives.
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Walls of Jericho in Alabama Photo Credit Zach Andrews

This weekend marked 3 months into my journey. I have been to 9 states (SD, NE, MO, AR, TN, MS, LA, FL & AL) and put on 6,123 miles! Words can not describe what an amazing experience the last few months have been. Well actually let me try: Thankful, honored, rad, interesting, scary, beautiful, cold, dirty, happy, crazy, emotional, joyful, smelly, loved…I could go on and on but most of all I am truly grateful. Grateful for the words of encouragement, the support from family and friends and for all my new friends I have met along the way.

I can not believe my JAdRunning Facebook page has hit 248 likes! Half the likes are from people I didn’t even know when I started or haven’t even met. Honored to have everyone of you following my adventure!

Also, if there is a place you think I should check out please comment and let me I know. If you think you know someone that may like my page please share it www.facebook.com/jadrunning.
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Zach and I at Kings Chair overlook in Oak Mountain State Park

This weekend in Birmingham I met up with Fellow Dirtbag Runner Zach for some beautiful running because of social media! Meeting people is how I get to see the best of the best in everyone’s stomping ground.

Trust me I don’t mind being stalked…well the friendly stalking that is!!

Sunset, Sand Dollar and Life!

It rained non stop from the time I left Gulf Shores, Alabama until I got to Pensacola, Florida. Pensacola was one of the many places where my Mom lived after my brothers and I moved back to South Dakota with our Dad. Her free spirit gene must have been past on to me since I am now on my own life’s quest. I remember that she loved Pensacola and only left because of Hurricane Ike’s devastation. So after re-aggravating a foot injury in Memphis I got the idea to head south to explore Mom’s favorite place. As I rolled along the coast I could see why she loved it. Even in the heavy rain the white sandy beaches were beautiful! I had a strong consideration sloshing around my brain to run the beach in the rain. That idea got squashed when I came across the National Naval Aviation Museum on the Navy Base in Pensacola. I spent the day walking around the large museum filled with historic planes from WWI to present.

Just as the sun was about to set, the pounding rains trickled to a sprinkle for about ten minutes which opened to a beautiful sunset. Watching sunsets in Florida was my moms favorite thing to do. Catching the the beauty of a sunset in one of her favorite places made my journey that much brighter!
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Waking up early to get to Gulf Island National Seashore was my days top mission. As I was walking along the beach with the pup I was secretly looking for a sand dollar. Complete sand dollars are difficult to find but my mom would always walk the beach looking for some. Only seeing seashells Jayden lead me off the path of where the tide had left most of the good treasures.
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Following him I noticed what looked like a half broken sand dollar, but after I brushed away the sand I found it to be complete! To me the sunset and sand dollar are just signs that my journey is headed on the right path.

After 3 months on the road there are two morals of this journey. Rain or shine we can always find true beauty everywhere. And, break the flow of normalcy and get off the beaten trail!

Five Groups – Five Different Adventures – De Soto National Forest Mississippi

I headed north into De Soto National Forest from Biloxi Mississippi to check off another naked forest shower off my list. When I rolled into Airey Campground it was full of cars and my first thought was to crowed for me. I pulled around to park and I got a friendly wave from a couple relaxing in chairs by their white sprinter van. The friendly gesture helped changed my mind about the crowdedness. I think Jayden (my dog) gets more excited then I do for new places cause he was hyper after the short 45 minute drive from the Gulf. So I exchanged a few quick hellos with the two couples to hit the trail and burn off his energy. Just off the campground lake is Tuxachanie Trail. A 22 mile trail system that leads to an old World War II POW camp and the Airey camp ground is at mile 5.5. Well the pups walk was short lived as we walked just around the bend of the lake til he motioned he was ready to go back. With the freedom I have I now I let pup dictate how far and where he wants to explore when it’s his time. As we came back the two couples were about to head out for a run/hike. My bum foot loomed over my head for a brief little bit til they all said I should tag along. Sold! Doesn’t take much to convince a runner to run even on a bum foot. Along the way the five of us switch around talking and telling stories. We ended up doing a 12 mile run/hike that felt  much shorter because of everyones presents.

Steven and Jen are from Toronto, Canada and now live in a Sprinter van they custom built and converted into their home on wheels. They sold their houses and put life on hold to explore the USA with the intent to see all the National Parks. It was cool to hear that they have had similar VanLife experiences as I have in my short 3 months. You can follow their adventure at www.nomadsinnature.com.

Matt and Chloe are road tripping and pitching a tent on their life’s adventure. Matt has a pretty rad work schedule that gives him five weeks on and five weeks off. So on his five weeks off the two of them drive across the country living life and exploring nature. Chloe is from Colorado so we made joke together about how this areas elevation is lacking how it easy it felt. Matt’s job opened my eyes possible new job field that could allow one to be a dirtbag with a real job.

Rodrigo is a young surfer from Miami, Florida area and was waiting for his girlfriend Kelsey to arrive in Biloxi by bus from Maryland the next day I arrived. He has had the dream to travel to California and then South America in search of waves and a minimal life. Their story of drug addiction at a young age to where they are now is pretty amazing. The plan they have to get them from A to B will be a great story and build great inner strength. They make crafts, bracelets, necklaces and will sell them as they travel to make money. The support they give each other will keep them on the straight and narrow path toward a happy life.

Mr. Bill is great man and a retired Vietnam Veteran. This guy has his VanLife down to a science. He lives throughout the local campgrounds of Mississippi in his van named after his late dog. He has a “tiny house” on a few acres 10 minute from the camp but travels around to enjoy the different nature scenes. Around the camp fire he would tell us stories about the war and the craziness that was involved. One night he recited a poem he wrote as he was going over to Vietnam. It was an touching moment to have a guy who looks hard on the outside open up and show true emotion.

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How high I look, how far I see the world is so confusing to me.
 
People are hard, people are cruel and it seems they've forgotten how to play their cool.
 
They cheat, they lie, they steal, they kill and so my heart tells me I've had my pill.
 
I'm alone in this world and I stay this way til my heart and my mind convince me to stray.
 
I hope and I pray that someday the world will be together again and never stray. -Bill

My foot injury kind of provoked this journey down along the flat gulf coast so I was not provoked to run as much. Again, like a broken record it was meant to be!