Peaks: Y Garn
Area: Glyderau, Eryri
After a fairly unpleasant 18 miler on Easter Monday, I'd recovered with a family walk in bracing spring sunshine up Conwy Mountain yesterday. This morning was similar, and recent weather has been cold enough for reasonable snow cover above 600m, so I left for an early run from Ogwen Cottage. Good running past Twll Du to my solstice campsite at Llyn y Cwn, a decent covering of snow from this point, then up to a misty and very cold Y Garn. Some superb sunbursts over Glyder Fach as I descended. Back in Conwy before 11am.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Panama City run
After flying back to Panama City from David yesterday, I got up very early and headed to Cerro Ancon: a small but isolated hill overlooking the Pacific and Casco Viejo (old town). It is essentially a small slice of preserved rainforest, and gave numerous sloths, toucans and Geoffroy's tamarin (a tiny monkey species) at this time in the morning. The sun rose spectacularly over the Pacific as I sat near the huge Panama flag at the summit. Good views of the canal. I descended to the the Casco Viejo for a classic local breakfast of Hojaldres and Carimanola, then embarked on a walking tour (along with birdwatching along the Pacific mudflats) followed by corvina ceviche for $1.25 at the famous fish market. After a break at the hotel, I ran towards the Parque Natural Metropolitano, a unique slice of rainforest within the boundaries of the city. This was fine until I encountered a six lane highway with no pavement. Must have looked a tad eccentric, running with a small rucsac along a motorway drainage ditch in 34C. Still, I arrived at the park unscathed and spent a couple of hours walking along the longest trails. Too late for any decent birds, but I did see some sloths and enjoyed the scenery of the Mono Titi trail, and fine views of the city from the highpoint. Lower down, the Cienaguita trail offered excellent rainforest scenery. I had always planned to visit early on Wednesday morning so retired to the hotel planning to do just that.
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Finca Lerida trails
A wonderful day exploring the trails around the famous coffee plantation of Finca Lerida above Boquete: providing an opportunity to explore a slightly different area of the hinterland. I caught a local bus into the hills, complete with booming salsa and stetson-clad coffee pickers. A few steep hairpins, taken at breakneck pace, and I was deposited at the utterly contrasting tranquility of Finca Lerida. This is a fairly upmarket evolved coffee farm with accommodation and restaurant. But the thing that interested me was the renowned series of footpaths that stretch out across the cloud forest. I spent hours wandering round, eating coffee 'cherries' from the tree, then heading up a steep path to get stripe-tailed hummingbird and other birds. Above, a huge movement of raptors: mainly black vultures but with numerous other species. At least 200 birds. Lower down, I walked a level but raised trail looking out over the canopy. This was fantastic: black-faced solitaires a constant feature (remarkable mournful call), along with many other species. The trail eventually descends to a hidden, and almost dry, waterfall. A violet sabrewing buzzed around this dank habitat, another superb altitude specialist. After several hours, I retired to watch the hummingbirds and tanagers in the beautiful flower gardens, then had a cup of the predictably fine coffee in the upscale restaurant before heading back to Boquete.
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Volcan Baru
Peaks: Volcan Baru (3,474m/11,398ft)
Area: Cordillera de Talamanca, Chiriqui, Panama
The highest peak in Panama and a very obvious objective from Boquete: seemingly ideal (if unconventional) marathon training, as it lent itself to a running approach. It is a long way though, 30km up and down over a fairly notable vertical interval, and apparently takes backpackers at least six hours to get up. They usually go up at night then down the next day, so I had the trail almost to myself after getting a taxi to El Salto, the end of the road from Boquete at around 8am. Another beautiful morning, with distant clouds boiling up from the hills towards the Pacific side, framed against coffee plantations. The track is rough and rubbly, surprisingly steep in places, but it does have the virtue of directness and occasionally gives views through the cloud forest. Some good, if intermittent, birdlife enlivened the climb: the near endemic black guan and long-tailed silky flycatcher were especially notable. After around 3k, a couple of fincas were passed - beautiful pastoral farmland with very surprising scenery, felt like I was back home for a while. Higher up, more conventional cloud forest although the weather remained crystal clear - which is obviously very unusual, even at the height of the dry season (as this was). I ran a fair bit of the way, walking the steep sections and jogging where the angle eased a bit. The main concern was water. I'd taken 1.2 litres which I knew would be pushing it, but calculated that it would just about be enough. There wasn't much margin, so I rationed it a bit. Eventually, an obvious spur is reached which gives views of the main peak. Sadly, a sharp descent is then necessary to gain the final climb up the summit. The actual top is along a miniature ridge with a tiny bit of scrambling and exposure: over 2.5 hours to the top from El Salto. Superb views. In theory, you can see the Caribbean and Pacific from the summit. The views east over the giant summit crater spanned the village of Volcan, wispy clouds thousands of feet below the summit, right over to the Caribbean coast. Further north, the cloud forest stretched across to the Costa Rica border (only 20km or so away). The Pacific side was cloudier, as they stretched their tendrils over the low forested ridges on this side of Volcan Baru. The peak is very isolated, it dominates the entire region, so the views are not your typical summit landscapes. Instead, big horizons and a real sense of space is the predominant feeling. After a bite to eat, and some more of the precious water, I set off at a sustainable running pace downhill. This was long, extremely dusty and quite hot, particularly as I got lower. But I covered the ground quite quickly back to the trailhead. Then I just had the problem of getting back to Boquete! I ran out of water 2km from the road, finding a tap at the entrance to the national park: but no water came out, just dust. I continued jogging down the tarmac road, dehydrated now. After a couple of miles (on top of the 30km I had already done!) I met two Ngabe people who showed me a tap near the road. Then, a bit lower, a taxi passed as I gained a road junction so I hopped in that for the few miles back to Boquete. An excellent late lunch of garlic chicken, plantain, rice and beans was a fine way to refuel.
Area: Cordillera de Talamanca, Chiriqui, Panama
The highest peak in Panama and a very obvious objective from Boquete: seemingly ideal (if unconventional) marathon training, as it lent itself to a running approach. It is a long way though, 30km up and down over a fairly notable vertical interval, and apparently takes backpackers at least six hours to get up. They usually go up at night then down the next day, so I had the trail almost to myself after getting a taxi to El Salto, the end of the road from Boquete at around 8am. Another beautiful morning, with distant clouds boiling up from the hills towards the Pacific side, framed against coffee plantations. The track is rough and rubbly, surprisingly steep in places, but it does have the virtue of directness and occasionally gives views through the cloud forest. Some good, if intermittent, birdlife enlivened the climb: the near endemic black guan and long-tailed silky flycatcher were especially notable. After around 3k, a couple of fincas were passed - beautiful pastoral farmland with very surprising scenery, felt like I was back home for a while. Higher up, more conventional cloud forest although the weather remained crystal clear - which is obviously very unusual, even at the height of the dry season (as this was). I ran a fair bit of the way, walking the steep sections and jogging where the angle eased a bit. The main concern was water. I'd taken 1.2 litres which I knew would be pushing it, but calculated that it would just about be enough. There wasn't much margin, so I rationed it a bit. Eventually, an obvious spur is reached which gives views of the main peak. Sadly, a sharp descent is then necessary to gain the final climb up the summit. The actual top is along a miniature ridge with a tiny bit of scrambling and exposure: over 2.5 hours to the top from El Salto. Superb views. In theory, you can see the Caribbean and Pacific from the summit. The views east over the giant summit crater spanned the village of Volcan, wispy clouds thousands of feet below the summit, right over to the Caribbean coast. Further north, the cloud forest stretched across to the Costa Rica border (only 20km or so away). The Pacific side was cloudier, as they stretched their tendrils over the low forested ridges on this side of Volcan Baru. The peak is very isolated, it dominates the entire region, so the views are not your typical summit landscapes. Instead, big horizons and a real sense of space is the predominant feeling. After a bite to eat, and some more of the precious water, I set off at a sustainable running pace downhill. This was long, extremely dusty and quite hot, particularly as I got lower. But I covered the ground quite quickly back to the trailhead. Then I just had the problem of getting back to Boquete! I ran out of water 2km from the road, finding a tap at the entrance to the national park: but no water came out, just dust. I continued jogging down the tarmac road, dehydrated now. After a couple of miles (on top of the 30km I had already done!) I met two Ngabe people who showed me a tap near the road. Then, a bit lower, a taxi passed as I gained a road junction so I hopped in that for the few miles back to Boquete. An excellent late lunch of garlic chicken, plantain, rice and beans was a fine way to refuel.
Friday, March 18, 2016
Lost Waterfalls trail (Chiriqui, Panama)
My first proper taste of the cloud forest above Boquete in the Panamanian Highlands. After flying into Panama City, I had taken the bus to David in Chiriqui province. A noisy night in that hot and dusty city, then an early morning bus today up to the relative cool of Boquete in the Chiriqui Highlands. A stunning morning of exceptional dry season clarity: not a cloud in the sky. It was so good I was momentarily tempted to run up Volcan Baru after checking into my hotel. But I resisted the urge and instead got a taxi into the hills where I decided to do this trail more or less on a whim. It was a fine choice, and got me right out into the heart of the cloud forest almost immediately. A little bridge, then steep climbing through the forest past a series of waterfalls. Some great views over the canopy to Volcan Baru, howler monkeys calling and some splendid birds including antbirds and the semi-endemic yellow-thighed finch. The path was surprisingly steep in places, some hauling up lianas and bamboo necessary. But the atmosphere in the dripping and mysterious cloud forest was wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed myself: the third and final waterfall was quite impressive and the first had superb views from the pools above it. Before getting back to the road, I spent some time in a garden near the trailhead, looking out over the flowers and cloud forest as cloud gradually enveloped Volcan Baru. Refuelled with a classic hearty Sancocho.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Knighton 20
Race: Knighton 20 mile
Time/Position: 2.14.11 (33rd from 410)
This was an entirely predictable story of suffering for the last five miles, for which I just hadn't prepared properly. As usual, I am well behind with the marathon training so thought this would at least force me to cover the distance in advance of my trip to Panama. The race is new, replacing the old Stafford 20, and takes three 10km laps of rural roads around the villages of Knighton and Adbaston in Staffordshire (but near the Shropshire border). A lovely spring day, ideal racing conditions of hazy sunshine and cool temperatures. I felt fine for the first two laps, well trained for the half marathon distance at present. But the final lap was always going to be tough, and it was, particularly as there were two fairly long climbs on each lap. I lost a huge amount of time and places: it was as much as I could do to limp towards the finish a full five minutes slower than my PB for the distance (although I think I've only done five road 20 milers).
Time/Position: 2.14.11 (33rd from 410)
This was an entirely predictable story of suffering for the last five miles, for which I just hadn't prepared properly. As usual, I am well behind with the marathon training so thought this would at least force me to cover the distance in advance of my trip to Panama. The race is new, replacing the old Stafford 20, and takes three 10km laps of rural roads around the villages of Knighton and Adbaston in Staffordshire (but near the Shropshire border). A lovely spring day, ideal racing conditions of hazy sunshine and cool temperatures. I felt fine for the first two laps, well trained for the half marathon distance at present. But the final lap was always going to be tough, and it was, particularly as there were two fairly long climbs on each lap. I lost a huge amount of time and places: it was as much as I could do to limp towards the finish a full five minutes slower than my PB for the distance (although I think I've only done five road 20 milers).
Sunday, March 06, 2016
Wrexham half marathon
Race: Wrexham half marathon
Time/Position: 1.19.25 (5th from 281 [1st V45])
The second Wrexham-based half marathon in three weeks. But unlike the long-established Village Bakery event, this is a more commercial race aimed at a mass field. I'd been surprised at the half marathon three weeks ago to feel relatively comfortable despite lack of recent mileage. So I was reasonably optimistic today, especially with the cool and fairly still conditions: there seemed a chance I might get close to my pb of 1.17. In the event, I was a rather baffling 16 seconds slower than three weeks ago, despite the fact that I felt quite comfortable. May have been a case of starting too conservatively, or possibly the rather hilly nature of the course at the far end as it heads out to the east. At around the nine mile point, I started to feel strong and confident about the pace, presumably a result of the slow start. A good quick finish through housing estates and back into the centre of Wrexham with some decent crowd support. It was hard to assess position, as the marathon was taking place at the same time, but I realised I was a fair way up the field despite the slow pace: lucky to finish first in my age category and fifth overall.
Time/Position: 1.19.25 (5th from 281 [1st V45])
The second Wrexham-based half marathon in three weeks. But unlike the long-established Village Bakery event, this is a more commercial race aimed at a mass field. I'd been surprised at the half marathon three weeks ago to feel relatively comfortable despite lack of recent mileage. So I was reasonably optimistic today, especially with the cool and fairly still conditions: there seemed a chance I might get close to my pb of 1.17. In the event, I was a rather baffling 16 seconds slower than three weeks ago, despite the fact that I felt quite comfortable. May have been a case of starting too conservatively, or possibly the rather hilly nature of the course at the far end as it heads out to the east. At around the nine mile point, I started to feel strong and confident about the pace, presumably a result of the slow start. A good quick finish through housing estates and back into the centre of Wrexham with some decent crowd support. It was hard to assess position, as the marathon was taking place at the same time, but I realised I was a fair way up the field despite the slow pace: lucky to finish first in my age category and fifth overall.
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