From: "Simmons" To: "Ultra Runners List" Subject: barkley is barkley Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2003 02:56:17 -0500 After a year without barkley in '02, we'd quickly forgotten the beauty of the event. It starts after leaving the still brown late winter landscape here in southern Wv and quickly becomes apparent as hardly 2 hours southwest the grass becomes beautifully green, the dogwoods are in bloom and springs leaves are budding in the warm air. But as certain as the seasons is barkley, thus after going to sleep in our breezy tent under a beautiful midnight starry sky in short sleeves, we were awakened at 1st light to the unmistakable thuds of raindrops overhead and cold air. When it rains it pours. I left thor in the truck and took off hardly a minute late for the start. Ya know how you can look at a really bright object, shut your eyes really hard and see the neon green and blue silhouette in negative for minutes afterwards, well the lingering image I have of the 1 barkley loop for '03 is a deep slashing gash that goes steeply from the upper right of my image to the lower left, and that solitary imprinted mark of course represents the many deep gauging footsteps and foot slides in the wet slick mud while negotiating the sloping north boundary trail. Fog made for the ghostly vintage barkley landscape and with the combination of the best barkley weather that frozen head has to offer, classic barkley times were had. Anything but common at almost any other event. Only at barkley do friends vanish almost instaneously, literally not to be seen again till another race or likely, another barkley. Their forms and voices fading out in the fog, leaving only the silence of the woods and the sound of your solitary march through the wet leaves and briers on some unrecognized hill side. Only at barkley will individuals seemingly abandon all sense of mercy and concern for their fellow man. A hard fall at most any other race earns and warrants calls of "Are you alright?", and acts of assistance. A vine ensnares john dewalt's lower legs and he falls hard to the ground knees 1st and catches himself in the steep dirt with his hands as he lets out a seemingly pain filled cry. Yet "out there" his fall is greeted by a sarcastic "If you were gonna pray john you should have done it before we left camp!" from craig wilson, "yeah quit screwin around john." from mike dobies, and loud mocking laughter from myself, as I detour around his sprawled out tangled corpse to take the point on the steep descent of the recently added stallion mountain. Barkley has a way of bringing out the best and worst of people. Dewalt's momentary fate is simply 1 that most people will endure more than quite a few times themselves throughout their barkley sentence anyhow. Afterall, if anything, you have to be able to laugh at yourself "out there". Rat jaw brought temporary and welcomed warmer weather, hunger, and the presence of friends matt mahoney and leonard martin. Always among my favorite sections along the barkley loop, it is enjoyable and soothing. Enjoyed the hump section and marts field along the high ridge on the way to indian knob, the breezy woods were chilly and filled with bent trees and stumps that you'd expect knomes to live in. Zip line is zip line and takes it's physical toll with the boulders, wet logs, and briar patches that would make ber rabbit proud. Big he!! is that last hurdle to get over, that stands between you and camp, a promised land of sorts that at times seems perpetually out of reach in this lifetime. You'll never be there. At the top the winds are strong and deeply cold. The long winding trail back to civilization brought oncoming darkness and eventually rain. As I was catching back up to matt along the final descent I myself enjoyed 1 of my harder falls with a loud thud, mahoney's unconcerned reaction, "Who's that?" 1 loop was enough this year. My feet were water logged, but not overly bad off at that point, and it was then that the imprint of the deep gash in my mind was glowing at it's brightest. Combined with my experience at barkley, I knew the obviously likely fate would be a long hike back from the north boundary section or coffin springs. I had had to much "fun" to ruin what was a vintage, beautiful but quick barkley experience for which we're thankful to GOD! At least that's the best sounding excuse I can come up with, but I'm sort of past making excuses at barkley to some degree, at least for now. Afterall, barkley is barkley. hope all is well! GOD bless! Praise JESUS!!!!!!!!