Geocaching in Chandler Park

Me and Jake went geocaching at Chandler Park. There are a lot of TOUGH finds there. No silly lift-up-the-skirt-on-a-streetlight caches there. You have to work for them. They are hid in the deep woods under craggy rocks and you have to crash through brier patches to get to them. Or at least that's how I usually get to them, and then seem to find a TRAIL out. Doh!

The first one was a little hard to find, but when we found the army ammo box, there was much rejoicing. (Actually, Jake couldn't have cared less.)

The second cache we hunted was much more difficult. For one, it was getting dark. I got 100 feet into a patch of stickers and I just as well have hit a brick wall. There was nothing to do but turn around and try to find another way. I found a wash that led down to near where the cache was, but ground zero was slick rocks covered by leaves accented by fallen trees.

Fun stuff, especially since the waning light of dusk was slinking away into mysterious shadows. I had not brought my nifty bionic headlamp, but had the flashlight iPhone app. I was just about to call it a day(night), but gave the perimeter one more pass, and found it under a rock ledge partially covered by rocks. Another army ammo box. I signed the log, and fumbled my way outward. Jake had a plan--why I was stumbling around looking for some dumb box, he was scouting the area for trailz. I followed him upward no more than 20 yards, and BOOM--we were on a trail that led right out of the thicket. Woulda been so easy if we had came down this way to start with.

Geocaching is a lot like fishing. Catch a fish, and you wanna stay and cast another time or two to maybe catch another. I found another one to hunt for, and away we went. This one was also down a decline through some rock formations, protected by many briers and fallen trees. (Who hides these things???) This time, my GOS on my iPhone was jumping all around. I was 41 feet away, no 18 feet, no 5 feet, no 61 feet. It was completely dark, and I had to switch from the geocache app to the iphone app many times. The hunting was slow-going, and the terrain was rough--especially in the dark. I looked down into a small cavity in the rocks, and heard something scurry. No, I did not squeal like a girl, but it did startle me. I am guessing it was a opossum. Might have been a raccoon.

I tried to take a pic, but did not think it showed up in the picture when I took it. This was enough geocaching for me. My phone gave me the 20% battery warning, and was fading fast as the GPS and flashlight apps drain the battery fast.

The smiley faces are the ones we found. The two circled are ones that are insanely harder even than the one we hunted today. The one in the square is our DNF. The one by the gate is a new one, and I am pretty sure is has bad coordinates. I would have been the first to find a few weeks back, but it is very clearly not where the GPS says it should be. This leaves four in the area for another day.

Tans and rust and shades of blue

The best way to get from one small town to the next is not always the highway. I had a little time to spare today between stops in Sapulpa and Keystone, and headed northwest via backroads.

I cannot see a road like this without wanting to run it. Each hill seems to invite me, one summit deserves another. What a good way to get clean shoes dirty--but I did not have time to run.

Crossing Rock Creek. There is a geocache here, but I could not find it. This creek was a local swimming hole 50 some-odd years ago. My Dad met my Mom here. Later, when I was less than 2 years old, I nearly drowned in this creek. I still remember throwing big rocks in the water, and then falling and thrashing through the water. I remember vomiting water and coughing until I had hurled all the creek water from my lungs.

This is Pretty Water Lake. There is a geocache here under the bridge--and I did find it.

This lake gets it's name honestly. The water is cool year round--I suspect it is spring-fed.

The lake was formed in the 1930s, the bridge in 1999.

Across the earthen dam, a trail led around the southern bank. Of course, I was excited.

Then I saw this sign that said anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight. So I jumped on the fence and-a yelled at the house, "Hey! What gives you the right?
To put up a fence to keep me out or to keep mother nature in--
If God was here he'd tell you to your face, Man, you're some kinda sinner!"

But I behaved and turned around. The water was calm, the skies blue, and each seemed to challenge the other. It was a picture-takers dream.

A calm place to fish. You cannot really see them very well in these pictures, but there were a few very small ducks enjoying the water.

No nature post from me would be complete without an upshot of a tree. I had burnt enough time, and headed off to Keystone--but there were no better sights there that the vistas of Pretty Water Lake.

Two late season marathons on my plate.

My fall running season has filled out just a little. A couple of very local marathons are on my plate.
The Little Warm-Up Marathon is one put on by folks who want to help those crazy Marathon Maniac and 50 States types sneak another double in. This race in Jenks and Tulsa (a half and full marathon) is November 17--the day before Route 66, a huge Tulsa race.
The Little Warm-up is right in my back yard--literally.
I could easily use my own bathroom at mile 19.5.
I am also considering running to the start, and then running home after the race to tag on an extra 10 miles, making it a good training run. This race will be much smaller than the huge corporate Rt 66 Marathon held the next day, but that's just fine by me.
I LOVE small races. How cool it will be to actually know more than half of the runners there, as opposed to being one in a crowd of 20,000+ at Rt 66?
This race is all on asphalt bike paths alongside the Arkansas River. I run here a lot, so maybe I'll have a little home court advantage. A top 10 in my age group--not an unreasonable possibility.
Just recently, TATUR has lent a hand to the race, so you can bet there will be a party atmosphere at the finish line.

Next on my calendar is the Half and Half Marathon. The brainchild of my friend and running buddy Kathy Hoover, this race is a half marathon on trails, and a half marathon on pavement. Both events start at the same time, and there is an option for those who wish to run the trail half followed by the road half for a full 26.2. I have a special interest in this race as well. It's some home cooking again--and in this one, I'm one of the chefs. I designed the trail portion, and have crafted a course that features mostly easy trailz, few technical sections, aid stations never more than 2.5 miles apart. It includes several trailz that have never been featured in a trail race: the Enchanted Trail (aka the Bunny Trail to some), Jelly Legs, the trail that bisects the Snake Loop, and the Old Boys/HWY 75 Trail. Yes, there will be some ups and downs, but for a Turkey Mountain trail race, this course is FAST.

Kathy promises super cool unique medals for the race. This race has all the makings of a classic event. As an added bonus for me, two marathons where I can not only sleep in my own bed the night before, but I can walk out my door to the start line.

Preview of my next 100 miler

Me, Jake, and the trailz

Jake and I headed out for a few early morning miles on Turkey Mountain.

The leaves are dropping, covering the trail completely in places--but we still know where the trailz are.

The air was crisp and dry, with bright sunlight and blue skies--perfect for picture taking. I just had the iPhone, but in perfect conditions it does great.

I let Jake choose his route. He headed down to the pond on the Blue Trail. I really did not want him to swim, as I'd have to practically give him a bath before he could come in the house--but he looked at the water and kept going.

Jake motors ahead, and every hundred yards or so, he comes back to check on my pokie butt. I should let him wear the Garmin. I bet he does sub 8s, and gets at least 50% more miles than I do on our runs. We grabbed a few pink ribbons from the T&T race that were missed when we pulled the markings. We also found a couple of geocaches. Jake usually does not get into geocaching, but since these were in the deep woods, he scoped out all the animal smells he could find. He was a happy pup.

T&T rambling report

This may b e a very disjointed race report. I am firing on three cylinders, what with RDing a 100 miler, a fun run including a night trek with scary stuff the next weekend, and then marking, remarking, running, and un-marking Turkey and TATURs. I took far less pictures than normal, and none at the start/finish. My mission was to mark a 15.5 mile course with hundreds of turns, any of which would be a disaster if any runner missed. I marked over 200 plates, and I will continue to use these. Nailed to trees, runners see them and go the way the arrow points!! AMAZING!! Plus, you can turn the signs upside down, and they can point left or right.

This led to a new generation of course vandalism. Some jerks turned signs upside down in an attempt to sabotage our course. In addition, a "wrong way" sign was moved onto the course leading people to think that the correct way was wrong. Fortunately, we caught these mean spirited actions before any runners were led astray.

I had great help marking the trailz, and we worked from early til dark Saturday. I had Dee Deatherage helping, Chris Warnken, Russell, and Stormy. We teamed up and tied a dozen rolls of pink ribbon, and almost a mile of yellow caution tape.

The course had to be marked so the 50Kers could follow it on their second lap, which was ran the opposite direction.

Early Saturday morning, I was feeling good. By late Saturday night, I was wasted.

Strabgely enough though, I was stoked to run, and felt light on my feet and actually ran a spirited run in the hours before the sun came up. Edward, Mitch, and I left out at 4:30 running the direction that everyone ran. They split off and finished the 10K portion of the course. Christy and Stormy ran the course in reverse, and all of the course was rechecked before the runners hit is. I found a dozen or so ribbons that were torn down. Stormy and Christy found about a mile of the course where all of the ribbons were torn down. Glad we caught it, but I am really bummed about this.

I had my Petzl Nao, which is an awesome headlamp. It makes a tunnel of daylight through the dark woods.

When looking down, the light dims slightly so it won't be blinding. Only one light shines. But look ahead into the darkness, and the second LED goes to work bigtime. The sensor works flawlessly. The light is well balanced and never seems heavy or bothersome. (A shameless plug--RunnersWorld has these slights as well as a good selection of other Petzl headlamps.)

The 50K started at 6:30--just at daybreak. Thirty minutes later, the 25K took off, and another thirty minutes later, the 10Kers were let loose. Thanks to Nedra for this 10K pre-race shot.

My race was solo and lonesome for almost all of the way. But I started getting passed on the lower yellow trail--around 9-10 miles in.

Two great things about us moving this race from early September to early November: much cooler temps, and great color in the trees.

There are places where anyone can look like a professional photographer. Just point and shoot.

Cole and Kim ran the Top-of-Lipbuster aid station.

This course has a lot of easy trail, and also a lot of rocks.

The next aid stop was at the lower parking lot. From there, the Red Trail was next.

But these pictures are a bit out of sequence.

I could just say this was the red trail, but the locals would know better.

The last manned aid station, manned by Johnna and Danny, probably had more traffic than any other. All runners hit it as their first stop. The 25K and 50K hit it twice. They worked hard all day. I came back and hung out a while with them, but they had it all well at hand.

About 11miles into the run, the wheels fell off. Fatigue set in. I was on the easiest part of the course on the Snake Trail, and slowed to a walk. By the time I made it to taken For Granite trail, I was done. Then, I rolled my gimpy ankle--not bad, but enough that I needed my brace. Stopping at 25K made a lot of sense.

Thanks to the Westside Y for letting us have our start/finish on their grounds. And to Dana for scaring up food all day. She made some killer chili and grilled hotdogs. Mitch spent a lot of the day cooking, as did Brynna. I was tired and oblivious to all that went on. I do know the 50K course record fell, with Daniel Ellis shaving 5 minutes off Tom Brennan's best time here. Lori Enlow also set the course record for thew women's 10K. Results can be found here.

Congrats to Bailey Liebherr for being 3rd female and winning her age group. Congrats as well to Brandon and Cameron Plate for finishing 11th and 14th overall in the 50K, and being 1st and 2nd in their age groups. There were may other fantastic times in all three distances. Mine was not one of those, but I had fun.

It's late Wednesday night, and as of a couple of hours ago, all of the pink ribbon and course markings have been removed from the trailz.