Euchre Bar Massacre (Yu-Ku-wa-ba-ra) '21

 

Read about it here: https://www.strava.com/activities/6129666193

Posts from previous years:
2020 - https://snowymonk.blogspot.com/2020/10/ebm-20.html
2019 - http://snowymonk.blogspot.com/2019/10/euchre-bar-massacre-19.html

EBM '20

 Having finished last year's EBM, I had to return for this year's event.  Especially with Sam joining me.  

But the repeat didn't happen.  This year's route seemed "easy" on paper, but as folks started dropping out I knew I would have to dig deep for this one.  My main mistake was when I started bonking up Sawtallian and veering too far right.  Should've studied this bit more and started further left.  Alas.  No excuses... I could hardly keep up with Scott and Loren as they passed me after I turned around on the last hill.  I was donzo... Next year... next year... 

https://www.strava.com/activities/4183800900/overview

Euchre Bar Massacre - '19

This was quite the event.  And the first FatAss event I finished, and won.

I was quite disorganized as I had just moved to Ashland, and was making a quick trip down from Ashland and was planning to stop by Pahatsi to grab a few things and clean the house. As a consequence, I didn't quite start on time as I was the last one to check in.  And I missed the first turn and was playing catch up from the get go.  Then as we descended Bowling Ball Alley, I lost my phone, my map, and some of my food... I tracked down the phone after 45 min (I had a rough GPS track of the route, so this would be my map from then on).  Once I caught up to a few folks on an out an back, I thought I could catch up to them so I could continue on with company.

Then we hit SawItalian bar... which was a royal bitch.  This is a 3000 ft off trail, steep cliff that is covered in poison oak and blackberries.  I think this took me 4 hours and I was convinced I took the wrong route and was behind the lead crew, who I could hear every once in a while, when I was tunneling through the blackberries.  Turns out I took the "best" way up and left Bueno, Scott and Loren behind. When I got to the next aid station, I figured I'd keep going as they were probably an hour behind me.  So... turns out I spent 23 of the 24.5 hrs of the race running solo.  Good mental training.  There's pics in the strava link below.


http://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=64837

Results
http://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=64837

Bad to the 'Bone

all in all an amazing day on my favorite mtn in the bay.  

Now that I hear this event may not be happening anymore, I want to post this so I have something to remember such an amazing event.  This is another Barkeley's type run with way points, mostly off trail, following lengthy descriptions.  Ended up being 28 miles and 10k of elevation.  We missed the cutoff at the last check in, so no one finished the whole route.  But man, those were some hard earned miles.... but soo much fun.

Part of my drawn out map that I used to navigate with... 

Sam's spam musubi hit the spot!

Eric, the mastermind behind the tempest

We got started on time, and right away we were walking through creeks, bushwhacking, and I was making friends with newts

I think this pic captures the essence of this event.  Chaos, no trails, exploring the mtn

Eric and Ginny made sure we'd get some nice views during the day

and placed caches in scenic spots

James and Loren.  We leap frogged these guys for the first part of the day, then we stuck together for a while towards the end.  

Nice trail, right?

...

another sweet spot for a cache.

bone!

barracks!

unfortunately we missed the cutoff at the last check point so we didn't get to go down to the beach... 

tragic accident occurred a few hours before arriving here... 

Sam randomly ran into a neighbor and he took a pic of the 5 of us going down to the next bone

which required some light canyoneering

pretty sweet egh?

Found her

Sam, Josh, and I decided to run back to the start after missing the checkpoint, while Loren and James went on to collect another few bones.  They made it back to the start with a few minutes to spare and took the victory from us.  Frito soup!  

My feet were quite soaked most of the day

Our narrowly missed trophy.  Crafty!

more pics here

Desolate Peaks

Check out that haze below...

Flagpole peak

Sam negotiating the "exposed 4th class move"

Desolate Peaks.  My first Fat Ass event.  And I'm in love.  Mark my words, I'll be back for this one.  There's a few options for this event.  A 7 peak, 11 peak, 17 peak, and the yet-to-be-done... 21 peak (Lucifer's Frolick).  Don't want to give away too much here, so I'll just let y'all enjoy the pics.  

Carbo, or rather protein loading the night before the event.  

My milkshake... 

Sam wondering what the hell he has got himself into.

The morning start... incredibly there was no parking at the start.  So many folks had to start a mile or so down the road.  We got the last spot.  

The reason why many folks dropped out this year... the smoke... wasn't too bad the day before, wasn't too bad the day after... but today wasn't great.  The higher you got the better, but I was coughing for a while.