Tuesday, July 8, 2014, 8:32 pm
6.6 mi, 594 ft gain, 1:10:45. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1. With dogs. Altra Superior 1.5
Ankle still a little sore from rolling it on Sunday. So I stuck to the more even surface of the logging roads. Let the dogs splash in Olney Creek. Took a different spur off the main road. Heard a bear crash off into the woods from the clearcut below the road we were on.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014, 8:03 pm
8 mi, 1327 ft gain, 1:36:47. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1. With dogs. Altra Superior 1.5
Had 10 miles planned. Ankle started loosening up after a few miles. Saw the same chocolate color phase black bear that I saw a few weeks ago in the same clear cut, on the uphill side of the road this time. It scampered up a downed tree and off up the hill. Cut the run short due to the dogs not behaving very well, not wanting to push my ankle too much, and I didn’t want to push the ankle as it got darker.

Saturday, July 12, 2014, 5:09 pm
15 mi, 3548 ft gain, 3:48:12. East Fork Foss River to Jade Lake in Necklace Valley. Solo. Altra Superior 1.5
I had planned 20+ mi. I wasn’t sure if I was going to just rest up or go for a run. My ankle was still sore, but wasn’t worse after either of the runs earlier in the week. I decided to go for at least 10 miles, and see how it went from there.

It’s the Necklace Valley trailhead on Foss River Rd off US 2 just east of Skykomish. The first 5 miles have some rolling hills, several small creek crossings, and an older log bridge over a larger creek. The trail is pretty well maintained, with some sections having recent brush work. However, a couple other sections have some foliage closing in, sometimes obscuring view of where I was stepping. I took those parts slow, still babying my ankle a little.

There are a couple camp sites at about 5 miles, just before crossing the east fork Foss River. The old single log bridge across the river has a short stretch of missing hand rail, not that I used the rest of it. I ran across on the way out, but the log started bouncing and I nearly fell into the water. Another bigger fallen log crosses a smaller branch of the river.

The trail immediately starts to climb. Most of the elevation gain starts at this point. My legs felt good and I ended up running more of the steep sections than I expected. The trail was fairly technical with roots and rocks. More technical than Wallace Falls, but less technical than the upper part of Lake Serene.

Jade Lake was beautiful. The water was high, covering portions of the trail that usually skirt the east side of the lake. The lake is in a narrow valley with rock coming down to the water on both sides for much of the length. I only went about halfway up the lake before I couldn’t go around the water covered trail. It was a good time to turn around anyway, so I’d make it back before dark.

My trusty Garmin Forerunner 305 may finally be on it’s way out after 6 years. It turned itself off three times, and lost satellite reception on the way back a little before making it back to the river crossing. Losing reception here and there wouldn’t have been that surprising with all the tree cover in places and being a narrow valley with mountains rising 2000-3000 ft on either side, but it didn’t have any reception problems on the way up. I tried sitting and waiting for a little while, but it just wouldn’t connect. About 4 miles later, it finally picked up reception again, just over a mile from the end. Fortunately, the straight line distance that it plotted wasn’t much shorter than the trail.

The trail wasn’t that busy. The parking lot was full when I arrived. I passed a father and son backpacking a couple miles in. I passed a couple guys with three puppies who were on their way out just before the river crossing. I passed a couple backpacking up to the lakes less than half a mile after the river. Lastly, I passed a group of three backpackers about another quarter mile later. I passed the two groups heading up to the lakes at about .75 mi and 1 mi from Jade Lake. The father and son backpackers had setup camp at one of the sites near the river.

I went with 2 handheld bottles and some iodine tabs to refill along the way. I drank from one at a time, so I could give the iodine time to work in the other after refilling. I had 80 oz water and 2 salt caps. I ate 5 medjool dates and 1.5 dehydrated bananas. After I got back to the car, I had 1 quart water, 1 salt cap and the other half of a dehydrated banana.

Thoughts:
Due to my ankle, I skipped a shorter run on Thursday and a 10-15 mi run on Sunday. Sunday was a little strange. I woke up early to let the dogs outside. As I walked out with them, not only was my left ankle still sore, though not anymore than before, but my right ankle sort of felt like it was cramping. It was super tight across the front, and felt like a muscle cramp. It hurt to move it. I went back to bed and when I finally got up, my right ankle was completely fine.

My left ankle rolled laterally, but it’s sore going the other way. Compared to my right, I haven’t lost any range of motion, and there’s no swelling, but it’s still sore. It hasn’t gotten any worse after running, so that’s promising. The next two weeks I planned to taper leading up to White River 50. I’m sure it’ll be fine by then, but I still worry a little.