A run around Gustavus

I woke up two weeks ago in Gustavus looking for some solitude and adventure. So I decided to run the survey cuts marking the boundary between Gustavus and Glacier Bay National Park. I thought it might take 3 or 4 hours and packed a little food, some iodine pills to refill my water bottle and took off around 10:15am.
Leaving the beach at the west end of Gustavus, near Pt. Gustavus.

You can see from these cuts that the line has been brushed within the last few years. Many of the survey monuments are from 1998, so that may be the first time the line was cleared.

The brushing crew left some things behind. In addition to these loppers, I found a small amount of trash and a few piles of extra orange NPS boundary stakes.

Those blurry white spots are funky little mushrooms pushing up through the duff. Not sure what kind.

There were some wet spots, especially when the line started cutting back east toward Gustavus. (see google map).

One of the two roads I crossed all day. This one goes to the National Park. The other heads to the Falls Creek Hydroelectric project.

A moose hide drug around by wolves or coyotes? Or the sign of a moose shot in the park and drug back across the border? Kinda looks like the former, thankfully.

A sedge darner (type of Dragonfly). I finally got to use my new book "Dragonflies of Alaska" by John Hudson and Robert Armstrong to identify it.

The Salmon River.


The north end of the gravel pits. Supposedly, the pits were dug before the boundary was surveyed and no one knew they were digging in the park.

Found this algae growing on land (seemed very odd to me at the time) north of rink creek road. I photographed it on top of an old General Land Office (them's the homesteading folks) survey monument from 1920.

The most beautiful scenery of the trip. The tri-tone grass made me want to sit down and find my inner Andy Goldsworthy, but the hour was getting a bit late.

Finally made it to the beach. This is near the Bear Track Inn.

Running on home. I made it just after my parents started worrying, but before it was fully dark. In total, 31 miles in 8 hours and 46 minutes. I probably walked 18 miles of it due to wet conditions and the fact that I only brought six 120 calorie gel packs with me for food. The roasting moose that greeted me when I ran into our front yard was a welcome sight.

Wasatch 100

Well that was pretty fun. Geoff rocked it (see his race report and that of his major competitor, Karl Meltzer) and I had fun being his support crew. I didn't get a picture of Katherine, Karl's support crew and a veteran observer of ultrarunning, but she was great company as we waited for the lead runners to come through. Both Geoff and Karl don't rely heavily on support--and probably would prefer races where everyone just uses drop bags and the aid stations, with no personal support crews. At each aid station I would get one of Geoff's drops bags with his nutrition (basically, cliff gels and endurolyte electrolite pills) stuff and put them in a hip belt with fresh water and electrolyte drink. I'd hand this off to Geoff and he'd give me his old belt and keep running, preferably not even stopping at all.

The picture above shows Geoff's drop bag at Brighton, the last aid station where support crew can go. It includes his night running set-up, with two headlamps, one of which is worn around the waist to better illuminate the trail.

At Brighton, I joined Geoff and tried to keep up with him for the last 25 miles of the race. I made it about 12 miles before he dropped me and kept going. He ended up doing lose last 25 miles (and their ~8,000ft of climbing) is a record setting 4:57. I enjoyed running with him while I could, and being left in the dust, tired and alone in the dark on a famously gnarly section of a famously gnarly 100 mile race, was as good an introduction to the sport as I can imagine. Thanks, Geoff!