The smoke was diminished this morning thanks to some thundershowers (hope they didn't start any new fires), so I went long. In fact it was overcast when I started on a variation of an old run, but here the sun finally broke through and it shone most of the rest of my run.

I drove to the turnoff for Baldy Mountain and parked. In the past, I've driven up the Baldy road to a gate, three miles, but today I stopped there, thinking that running on the road would keep my feet dry (last time I ran all the way to the peak, the upper half of the trail was overgrown and would have been wet today). Between two and three miles, I heard a voice, and turned to see a woman catching up to me. She sounded off so as to not startle me, and I appreciated it — I would have jumped out of my skin if she'd have just come up and passed me.

I'd reckon she was running at least one and maybe two minutes a mile faster than I, because it didn't take long for me to lose sight of her. In fact, I wasn't sure which way she went.

Anyway, when I got to the saddle where the track to the top splits off the main road, I decided to stay on the main road and see where it went.

Turns out it goes a long way — farther, anyway, than I wanted to go today. It was all uphill (I went out about six miles), but the approximately 1,000 feet of vertical was relatively evenly distributed over that distance.

About a mile from my turnaround spot, I met her again coming back. We stopped and chatted for a minute. She said she runs up there frequently. I've seen her around a few times, but we'd never met. She told me her name, but of course I've already forgotten it. Laura, I think, but I didn't really catch the last name. Seemed very nice, but too fit for me to run with, at least for now.


I said the smoke had cleared some, but it was not gone. This was the view toward the sun from Stemple Pass Road on my way to where I parked. It was also mostly cloudy.


This intact (and seemingly unlocked) mine adit was at a curve about five miles up. I didn't investigate further.


This was today's turnaround spot, looking northeastward into the Blackfoot Valley east of Lincoln. This was a very good route and I will do it some more. I've gone to the top of Baldy (or tried to) quite a few dimes, but not from the bottom of the road. And I've never ignored the peak spur and gone on east on the decent Forest Service road. I'm not sure how far it goes, but I could see more of it stretching out before me, and there were a couple of other side routes heading up, probably old logging roads.

I felt great, though my calves were a bit crampy afterward, I think because of the long (six-mile) downhill second half of the run. Happy to report that it puts me within five miles of my OCD 100-mile-a-month goal these days. I'd have made it easily except for the smoke and visitors, but looks like I'll be able to do it.

12; 39; 95; 781