Ran the upper loop of the Capitol Peak fat ass today. Of course it snowed, but not bad and it didn't start sticking until I got to my parking spot. Just past the intersection of Greenline and C line, there is a large slide across the road, 4 wheelers can drive thru, but not my volvo! Starting up Green line, there is a lot of trees down, edge of the clear cut caused the problem, once in the clear cut, smooth sailing, but between there and trail 50, there is alot of water rutting on the trail. We'll need to build some more water dams. Past the intersection of trail 50, Green line is clear to the top, and the ridge heading down is good also. It looks like the FOCF did major damage to the salmon berries, there is now an 8 ft swath down to the triangle. Met a couple of mountain bikers there, they couldn't find the entrance to Green line going up so I pointed them in the right direction. The trail is in good shape from there down to Wedekind. The worst is Mima Porter between Wedekind and trail 50. One creek crossing is totally washed out and is much bigger, needs a bridge. Just a bit further down the trail, there is a big mud slide with a bunch of trees across the trail. Then at the next creek, the bridge is torn from it's foundation and is hanging on to one side by a corner. I ran the road back down to Green line. It was great running on about an inch of snow, nice and cushy. Looks like we'll need to coordinate with DNR on a couple of bridges and have some chain sawing to do!

Due to a variety of injuries, I haven't actually run on a trail outside the city limits since August! Finally made it up to Capitol forest for some trail work and fat ass recon. John, Kris, and I showed up at the "Y" for the monthly Friends of Capitol Forest work party. I tried out the new trail mower machine, this beast is like an overgrown rototiller with a three foot wide muncher bar on the front. It is diesel powered and totally destroys anything in its path! Can't wait to haul it up to the ridge on greenline and destroy some salmon berry bushes. After an hour and half, I was pooped, wrestling that monster through undulating patches of salal next to the new "Y" parking lot. It started snowing and we were itching to head up to the mountain to check out the last section of the upcoming fat ass. The plan was for John to drop Kris and I off on C line by the greenline crossing, and we would head up the road, catch trail 50 then head down Mima Porter to Fall Creek. John was to park a Fall Creek and hike up Mima Porter till he met us. It was snowing pretty good and the road was totally covered as Kris and I climbed the first couple of miles. Once we hit the trail and started heading down, it was great run in a winter wonderland! The trail was in good shape for the fat ass, the mountain bikers had fixed the deep ruts. We met John near the bottom and back tracked a little so John could see the trail work. The event of the day happened further down the trail where John showed us a fresh cougar track. As we crouched down to examine the print and the deer print next to it, suddenly Kris yelled "bike!" in our periferal vision there was a yellow blur almost upon us and John jumped and let out a yell which made me jump also! Of course it wasn't a cougar, but a mountain biker, but he gave all of us a good scare! It was great being back up on the mountain, I'm starting to get over the injury hump.