White Rabbit

This was the first hike Jess and I did in Ashland. And it was difficult. And it was difficult the second, third, and fourth times. I recall one time seeing a guy running up while we were struggling to even hike and saying to myself, "holy shit!" Well, after a lot of practice on steep mountain trails, we're finally running the whole thing ourselves. I've always been curious as to the distance and elevation gain of this route and was seriously considering purchasing a gps/altimeter watch until I remembered that the mapmyrun iPhone app could possibly serve this purpose. So I tested it out yesterday around town and in Lithia Park, and it worked great. Today, I tried it on White Rabbit. The results are below. It worked perfectly. It turns out that it's 2.35 miles of climbing to the top with well over 1000ft of elevation gain. We did an out and back...very slowly (but ran every step). On the way back down, Jess was in front by about 50 yards and I heard some rustling leaves. I thought Jess had possibly fallen. Then, about a minute later, I heard the same rustling leaves and Jess yelled down from the upper trail (I had taken a lower trail): "A black bear!" I think Jess came very close to the bear and then stupidly ran away quickly. I've been on this trail a lot and have never seen a black bear or mountain lion. The difference today, however, was that it was early morning.

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