Graeagle and Lost Sierra

A few weeks ago, Ethel and I multi-tasked and spent less than 24 hours just over the evil California border.  We had two missions: first was celebrating Megan's birthday in Graeagle, and second was volunteering at the inaugural running of the Lost Sierra 50k/22k, organized in part by our friend DFunk.

We arrived in Graeagle when Megan's party was well underway; they'd be going late into the night and we'd be getting up long before their toxins got metabolized.  No worries though, we shared some laughs around the firepit before we turned into our tent for a few hours of fitful sleep.


Murphy stays warm in her alien pod (gets cold quick in the woods!)


The firepit does its thing


Oreo emerges from the shadows

Out of the house without disturbing the sleeping hangovers, we found the start line of the 50k right in Graeagle and spent a few minutes kicking around in the cold before heading out on the course.  Our goal was to find a couple cool spots on the trail to photograph the racers.  We didn't really know where to go ahead of time, but we figured it out, and all was well.

Without pontificating too much, I'll just say that I'm generally displeased with the photos that are offered to racers, so I wanted to do better.


Assembling for a safety meeting


Eventual women's winner SBR is just a few miles into a long morning here


Murphy gathers rays

In between our photo sessions, we stopped in at the ~halfway aid station; it was a quick stop the first time through, but we stayed longer after we came back in from the next photo spot.


Cheerful forest gnomes (this aid station had margarita sno-cones)


DFunk in da house!


Rough duty at the aid station...anyone seen Tammy?  I heard she was missing...

Finished with our official duties for the day, we found the finish line and just missed DFunk's arrival there.  However, we did get to watch SBR come across as first woman; so stoked to see her first ultra win!


Tuukka wonders where he's goin' next...


...and settles for a beer

The racers had loads of good things to say about the difficulty of the course, and there's a good chance that this race will be very well-attended in years to come.  Sign up early!  We hung out for a couple hours in the shade at the finish expo before retreating back to Reno and taking a well-deserved nap.

I'm about to hop on a plane for Sweden for work.  Only be gone a week, and I'm oh-so-curious to experience the 6 hours of daylight we'll be graced with.  Stockholm is roughly 0.99 degree of latitude away from being my furthest point north ever, but certainly the coldest and darkest trip to the north I've ever had...brrrrrrr.

Be well.

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