[KateMD]

Things on the Northern most reaches of the Oregon coast have been in an uproar. All of my trail running has had to be severely curtailed until who knows when. Most folks probably didn't hear much about it, but we were struck by the remnants of a hurricane on December 2nd and 3rd. The winds blew sustained at 100 mph with gusts in town (10 miles from the beach) at 120+ and at the headlands 147 mph. It blew hard for over 30 hours. Severe devastation was the result. The whole county lost power, of course, and most of the roads were impassable for days due to downed trees and power lines. Hardly anyone didn't have some house damage. We were lucky and just lost a few shingles (120 mph guaranteed), a tree crunched our gazebo and demolished a hay barn as well as stripped clean the roofing off the goat barn. Neighbors up the street lost their whole house when the forest behind them came down like a clear cut. Our downed trees mostly just fell in the yard without damaging anything. Luckily there were only 2 two deaths attributable to the storm.<br><br>
Our whole landscape up here is predominantly forest and huge swaths of forest look like Mt. St. Helen's blew through. I went out to my trails to look around and the trails are completely impassable. I tried to bush-wack out onto the one I use 6 days a week and after about 50 yards the downed trees were an impenetrable wall and I couldn't recognize anything. I had trouble finding my way back. The pine forests near the beach look shredded. It will be many months before there is any order out there and until then I'm stuck out on the road in the dark dodging cars and dogs. I've obviously had trouble motivating myself to keep up with my training.<br><br>
The power came back on after 6 days, 911 service and phones after 4 and I got the cable internet back after 3 weeks. FEMA is here and blue tarps on roofs abound but we're cleaning up.<br><br>
SO - be thankful for the trails you have and enjoy them every day. Enjoy your health and your ability to run at all!<br><br>
Kate

 

[ctxcrossx]

Thanks for sharing your story Kate. This is a good time to be thankful for what we have (not only trails). I hope your community can bounce back from this quickly.<br><br>
Chris<br><br><br>
PS Get training on those roads!

 

[kestrou]

Holy Moly - you want we should send FEMA in so that you can have a <b>REAL</b> disaster?! <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif"><br><br>
Glad to hear you're OK - been wondering where you were at?!<br><br>
kestrou

 

[KateMD]

Sadly, FEMA is already here. K

 

[Thomas07]

Kate; I did not see any of this on the news here, I'm glad you are alright, trails can be repaired life can not.<br>
Tom

 

[altoids]

Kate, wow, I had no idea. I'm glad you are okay.

 

[KateMD]

Here's a great compilation of photos and stories from the website of our local paper.<br><br><a href="http://www.dailyastorian.com/main.asp?SectionID=155&TM=60033.07" target="_blank">http://www.dailyastorian.com/main.as...55&TM=60033.07</a><br><br>
Kate

 

[merigayle]

wow, those pictures are scary <img alt="sad.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/sad.gif"> I had not heard a thing!

 

[pithydoug]

Lady K,<br><br>
Does that mean you have to suffer on the roads until they clear the trails? We already have ice and snow on the "right' coast and relegated to roads and it's not much fun.<br><br>
With FEMA invloved and their ability to mess up just about everything, I hope they give the local folks the funds and let them do the work. <img alt="s-chainsaw.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/s-chainsaw.gif">

 

[hahaoya]

We had wildfires in the area a few months ago and a popular trail running/mountain biking trail is nothing but soot and ash now. What was once a beautiful densely blanketed (by trees and vegetation) is shorn down to nothing. The fires came relatively close to my favorite trail, and had it engulfed it...well it would have devestated me. Taking away a runner's trail is like taking away youf favorite pillow or pair of flannel pajamas.

 

[Hippo]

I missed this Kate. I knew what you'd been through but hadn't heard about the trails. I'm sorry. BTW, are you going to run a race with Karen this year?<br><br>
If I bug you again about running Pac Rim, would that be motivation? I've been shifting some of my miles to the TM and for the moment I actually think that's a GOOD thing.<br><br>
I know, Longview is just too far for you to go... Passports, planes, boats... <img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif"><br><br>
For anyone else who might want to come: Pacific Rim One Day (24hour) Lake Sacajawea in Longview WA on March 15. I haven't run it before but it has a good reputation; not a lot of publicity but it's been around for years.

 

[jholtthief]

I happened to fly into Portland for a week on Dec. 1st, so I heard and felt it. Mostly just heavy rain where I was, and I did manage to get out on the Wildwood Trail for a few good runs. I hope everyone out by you can recover from the storm quickly. Happy New Year, and be well.--------John

 

[KateMD]

Pete,<br><br>
Karen and I are going to do Hagg Lake (she the 25K, me the 50K) and then in May a 50K in Forest Park. I might be convinced to do the little circles around Lake Sacajawea. Need to see how that might fit into my training plan and let you know. It's not a bad idea...or is it? <img alt="uhoh2.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/uhoh2.gif"> No, wait, let just not start analyzing things this way or we're all in trouble.<br><br>
K

 

[mykemp1971]

Kate, I don't want to scare you, but after Hurricane Isabelle came through Richmond, it took 3 years for all of the trails to be back to normal. This happened before my running days, but I had friends that were mountain bikers.<br><br>
The local Mountain Bike club did a fantastic job of restoring trails, but sadly they are a volunteer effort, and had limited resources, so the popular trails got restored first, then the least popular trails, so some of the trails closer to my neck of the woods didn't get touched for quite a while.<br><br>
I hope your town returns to normal quickly, and I hope your trails are runable soon! I'm glad to hear you are OK!

 

[teamslug1]

Kate,<br>
Thanks for reminding us how fortunate we are. Sometimes as life passes we tend to forget just how important the small things are. Small things like awakening, getting out of bed, and being healthy enough to do what we love to do. Life is short, and enjoying each moment should never be taken for granted.<br>
You're in my thoughts and prayers.<br>
Huggs, John

 

[mudrunner]

Youch!<br>
We had a similar storm blow through here at the same time last year. We lost power in our house for 6 days...no heat, no hot water, no stove...fortunatley, we are avid outdoors people with warm sleeping bags & cooking gear (the kids thought it was pretty cool that we were camping indoors).<br>
Though the devastation to the trails was nowhere near what Oregon got this year, the impact is still obvious. Perhaps the most notable are the thousands of downed trees in Stanley Park...it looks like a clear-cut & they are still cleaning up. In fact, it took a full year to repair the damage to the seawall....a much renowned & visited stretch of oceanfront within downtown Vancouver. Knowing that this park is a huge draw to visiting & local Vancouverites, the city put a full effprt into cleaning up the mess. If it took this long for such a relatively small impact in such a highly visible to get repaired, I can't imagine how long the Oregon trail system will be affected.<br><br>
Kate...remember Tim Twietmeyer's words at WS100 this year? How long did they work to clear out the Star Fire area? One great thing about Oregon, is the number of outdoorspeople & organised user groups. Hopefully, there will be some organized trail clearings.<br>
In the meantime, howsabout a trip up to Canada? We have a nice Fat Ass 50 coming up on New Years Day!

 

[Hippo]

Awesome! I should be volunteering at both those races: Hagg Lake for sure.

 

[fatozzig]

Hey Kate - Karen told me you guys were running Hagg lake. I'm jealous! And it's on my birthday, too. I'd try to meet you guys there, but I have too much going on in Jan/Feb as it is and, unfortunately not much of it has to do with running. <img alt="sad.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/sad.gif"> I will, however, get to try and run in Prague here in a couple of weeks. <i>That</i> should be interesting. I've never run in snow before and am going to try and do it only in my trail shoes as I don't want to spend the $$ for shoes I probably won't use again.

 

[mmoonptdeux]

Hey Kate - finally checked into this thread. Glad to hear you're okay - how's the cleanup going?<br><br>
That stuff was insane - I saw a pic of a boulder that had crashed across one of the main roads there - that thing was about 5 times the height of the worker who was being hoisted near it to work on some of the power lines.<br><br>
Hey Leslie - good to see ya' again. It looks like you folks made an exodus out of CR as well - how's life been for ya?

 

[fatozzig]

Is that you, former Mmoonhead?? Yeah, we left CR/Active. It was nuts trying to maneuver that site. There's a small but faithful group of trail runners at runningahead, and most of us 40s on the Run group successfully found each other.<br><br>
You running Pirates Cove in March? Karen and I will be there and are going to tackle the 30k this time. We've signed up for our first ulta in May, Forest Park in Portland. <img alt="uhoh2.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/uhoh2.gif"> Hopefully, it's not a totally dumba$$ thing to do. Guess we'll see!