Journeys: Silver Falls State Park, Oregon - Hiking (and not running)

Monday, November 9, 2015

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon - Hiking (and not running)

The Silver Falls 50K was my most difficult race because I decided not to run. I fell and sprained my ankle while running last month, and despite the fact that nearly all of the pain and swelling had disappeared by November, I knew I wasn't ready for 31 miles of trail. My plane ticket was purchased and I was still looking forward to visiting with Keith and Melissa in Portland, so I flew up to Oregon on Thursday night and spent the weekend with them at Silver Falls State Park. It was heartbreaking to feel the excitement of race day, watch people run, and see the emotions at the finish line as I sat on the sidelines, unable to participate but wanting to so badly. At the same time, it was a wonderful reminder of how thankful I am to have the health and ability to run despite an occasional setback or injury. While Keith and Melissa were running, I had the opportunity to hike along some of the trails of the park. It was a spectacular place!

South Falls

Keith ran the full marathon on Saturday and Melissa ran the half on Sunday. They both had excellent races and I think they surprised themselves at how well they ran in their first trail races. Congratulations to both of them!

South Falls

Walking behind South Falls

Lower South Falls

Foliage

Lower North Falls

Our cabin for the weekend

"One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards"

-- Edward Abbey

"The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. "

-- John Muir

"To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from."

-- Terry Tempest Williams

"There may be people who feel no need for nature. They are fortunate, perhaps. But for those of us who feel otherwise, who feel something is missing unless we can hike across land disturbed only by our footsteps or see creatures roaming freely as they have always done, we are sure there should be wilderness. Species other than man have rights, too. Having finished all the requisites of our proud, materialistic civilization, our neon-lit society, does nature, which is the basis for our existence, have the right to live on? Do we have enough reverence for life to concede to wilderness this right?"

-- Margaret E. Murie

"I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it. Always I want to live more intensely and richly. Why muck and conceal one's true longings and loves, when by speaking of them one might find someone to understand them, and by acting on them one might discover oneself?"

-- Everett Ruess