Adventure Runs
What is an adventure run? It is a run that is either a training run or a fun run, for me many times they are both. It's not where you normally train. If it generally takes me about an hour and a half or longer to drive to the spot where I'm going to run it falls into this category. Plus I'm either carrying everything I'm going to need or I'm planning my own aid stations, like running back to the car to get more food and water or dropping a stash along the route before I start. A lot of times there is some sort of awe associated with where the run will take place. Example Frozen Head is where The Barkley Marathons takes place and the Smoky Mountains has the Appalachian Trail. Some of the other locations for me have beautiful water falls or Daniel Boone moved through the area often or John Muir blazed a trail or used a trail through the region.
So the name 'Poncho Blanco', how did it come to be? Well I was making my first SCAR attempt. Several hikers had asked me what my trail name was, which I didn't have one at the time. About 4ish hours into the run it started to rain and thunder, so I pulled out my $5 white poncho that I had picked up that morning at a Wal-Mart. Apparently I had startled several folks with my poncho. Later after the run was done and I was with The Dirtbag Trail Club telling stories of the adventure had everyone got a good laugh out of the poncho stories. With that as a back drop and the group trying to come up with a trail name for me my friend Brad blurst out "how 'bout 'Poncho Blanco'"? All around die laughing so the name stuck.The whole adventure is chronicled here.