Running on Planet Endor

Remember planet Endor? It's the one where all the fuzzy little Ewoks lived in Return of the Jedi. They shot portions of that in Oregon. While running here, you expect a storm trooper to pop out at any second to blast you. Not that they'd succeed. Those guys had the worst aim. You think the Empire would mandate a minimal level of marksmanship. I guess that's why the rebel alliance won in the end. But I digress...

Here is what 90% of Oregon's trails look like. This shot was taken at 11:00 AM on a sunny day.



That's 2 time Olympic marathon trials qualifier, 2 time NCAA national champion, and Minnesota native Johanna Olson (I call her sister-in-law) leading me up the trail. The temperature in the woods was a solid 10-15 degrees than the surrounding meadows. I could run all day under those conditions.







We went up for a while...











And eventually took a break near the top. Notice that the canopy is thin enough for sunlight to pass through.










Of course, what goes up must come down...


The descents were fantastic! The trail was a series of switch-backs with slight up and down variations in between. The run felt like a roller coaster ride, and I laughed out loud on more than one occasion.








Finally we made it back to the parking lot, where this fellow stood watch over the trailhead.

I've seen these in the background of Hood to Coast pictures, but could never make out the logo. Oregonians don't call their port-a-johns Biffs, or port-a-pottys, or even port-a-johns for that matter. No, they have the Honey Buckets. It's both a descriptive and hilarious name, and I think we should adopt it. Note to the good folks at OnSite Sanitation; Please consider re-branding your port-a-johns as Honey Buckets. We all need a good laugh when we're waiting to poop before the sun comes up so we can go drag our sleepy carcass around some race course. Thank you.

Live, from Planet Endor,
colin