On the trails: Brice Creek

Saturday I had my mind set on venturing outside of Eugene for my long run. Many of my long runs for the 50K have been along or included at least some of the Ridgeline Trail.

When friend Laurel couldn't make it that morning, I asked the manfriend if he wanted to come along and ride his mountain bike. An hour later, we were on the road headed south to Brice Creek, which is just about 50 min from Eugene.


It tends to work out pretty well when we hit the trails together because we're even paced going uphill and we really only have to wait for each other a little bit here and there on the flats, downhills or when things get technical. 


I had plans for a 2.5 hour run to keep upping my long run mileage/time on feet, so we followed the Forest Service's suggestion and headed up stream {for the best views of the creek}. 



The views on this trail are incredible and the swimming holes are pretty sweet too! I'd love to come back sometime and stay at one of the campgrounds and then hop in for a swim when things get hot.


While we have no shortage of beautiful National Forests, accessible trails and wilderness to explore, it gets me every time I see this stuff. 

I mean views fit for a postcard are around every corner! 


Love my bic band

The trail actually reminds me a lot of McKenzie River Trail in that it is mostly flat with some smaller ups and downs and has its fair share of rocks and roots to look out for.




We ran & rode up stream about an hour before turning around. Mountain bikers weren't aloud, but I got to run a short section up to Trestle Falls, which was beautiful. A little gem in the middle of the forest. 


We got back to Cedar Creek Campground where we had parked with about 1 h 50 min under our belts and I wanted to head south for a bit longer to get my full 2.5 hours in.

At this point, I was a little tired and it was getting warmer out. We stopped to look at this steep drop off and then I started ahead of the manfriend. I took maybe three steps and seriously clipped my toe on a jagged rock and went flying down.

The trail was pretty much rock and cinder there, so my knee and entire shin got pretty cut up leaving me throbbing in pain. Luckily, we were only 1/4 mile from the car at this point, so I downed the rest of a Picky Bar and a bunch of water and hobbled back to the trailhead.

The manfriend told me to do a thumbs up. Looking happier than I am. 

I made my way down to the river and stuck my leg in the water to ease the pain. Luckily, we also had put a first aid kit in our car a while back, so we had plenty of supplies to clean up the wound a bit and cover the worst part.

For good measure, we swung by urgent care to get my knee checked out. We probably didn't need to go, but the worst part of my knee would have taken much longer to heal, the scar would have healed up pretty ugly, and my tetanus shot was out of date.

Again, looking happier than I am...


A tetanus shot and five stitches later, they sent me home.


The up side: I can run when I feel like it as I didn't do any structural damage and it could have been a lot worse.

The down side: my knee is swollen and painful and I won't do it any favors trying to run right now just because I want to.

The up side: I'll still be able to run the 50K, just gotta get back on the training horse!

Anyway, that was my weekend of adventure! I hope yours was much less eventful. 

Comments

Leigh said…
What gorgeous trails! Hope your knee is okay :)
Amber said…
Oh man that sucks!!! I have had a few tumbles trail running but never anything serious. Stitches, wow! So glad it wasn't any worse. That's fun that the manfriend can ride his mountain bike while you run!
Ouch, that sounds and looks so painful. I hope the pain and swelling go away soon. I remember when I really biffed it when running in Seattle on the way back from Amber's wedding. It wasn't nearly that bad but it took so long to heal. I still wore dresses and skirts because it was summer but had it all bandaged up so I attracted quite a few stares from others.

My weekend was uneventful but great. I probably should be getting out on the trails more to prepare for our Berkeley race but the usual trail runners in my group haven't been doing trail runs on Saturdays lately. And I'm not motivated to go do trails by myself. I guess I will have to spend the next 4-6 weeks trying to fit some trail runs in on the weekends!

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