Author: marcuscengland
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A Night at West Fork
The degree to which I am enamored with the freedom of backpacking is not reflected by the frequency with which I go. For awhile now, I’ve taken an interest in expanding my knowledge-base of the fauna of the San Gabriel Mountains by backpacking into remote campgrounds, preferably on a weekday when no or few people…
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Faces of Death – The Angeles National Forest Trail Race
Sometimes you have great races. Sometimes you have bad races. Often, they are somewhere in between. This is the tale of one that was incredibly challenging because of what Mother Nature decided to throw at us. Commemorating the event is why I decided to reawaken my blog after a period of silence. I am not…
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Rejoining the Club
Featured image: Hugging my wife at the finish of the 2017 Chimera 100. Photo by Howie Stern. PRELUDE After I completed the Zion 100 mile trail race in April 2013, amongst the many Facebook congratulations was the oft-cited refrain “welcome to the 100 mile club!” Since that time, I had repeatedly failed to renew my…
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The Under-Appreciated Black-tailed Jackrabbit
[Featured image: A Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) attempts to hide on a cold day during the Owyhee Roads Fuelbreak Project in northern Nevada, October 2017.] We are walking our fifteenth mile of the day. The accumulated sun and wind exposure while walking around sagebrush and over unstable volcanic rock has taken its toll. Attentiveness is…
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On the Potential Interface of Ultrarunning and Pygmy Rabbits
[Featured image: looking toward Lake Elsinore from within the Cleveland National Forest, Riverside County, California during the 2017 Twin Peaks 50k] This Autumn is, for me, an interesting confluence of long-distance trail running and biological consulting. On November 18, 2017, I will toe the starting line of the Chimera 100, a 100 mile trail race…
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Islip Ridge, Little Jimmy, and Windy Gap
I decided yesterday was a good day to traverse some trails I hadn’t done before, so I grabbed my Angeles High Country map and drove up Highway 39. I sought out a trail the map labeled as the “Islip-Wiwona Trail”. There were no signs where the trailhead should be. The area was overgrown with a…
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Raptors in Flight
In response to a question about hawk identification on nextdoor.com (a neighborhood-based social media site), I posted a long discussion about the status of various raptors in our neighborhood. Someone posted a follow-up question about how to tell hawks from falcons in flight. I thought the easiest way to do that would be to post…
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My Big Day
[Featured image: An Ash-throated Flycatcher was species 75 for the day.] It was just two weeks ago that I ran 26 miles in 90-something degree heat in the hills around Bouquet Reservoir in the Angeles National Forest. While that may sound laudable (or crazy), it was because I was running the Leona Divide 50 trail race,…
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Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology
A friend and fellow ultrarunner covered me in her series on artists who are also athletes.
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Running Charlton Flats to Three Points
My first run of greater than twenty miles in length since the HURT 100 hurt way more than I’d like it to. The plan was to run the Angeles Crest 100 route from Charlton Flats to Three Points and back. Things didn’t entirely go as planned. Despite the ultimate treachery of this run, I was…