Graham at the Hoh Rainforest

Around the same time I got the text and photos from Deedy, I got this text and photo from rising junior Graham Strzelecki, who was also out West. Pretty odd coincidence, although they were in different areas of that part of the country …

Hey Pete!  How've you been man haven't texted you for a WHILE.  Here's a photo of me running in the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park in Washington that actually has a crazy story behind it.  I was about 5 miles into the run through the beautiful trail on my own until a hiker stopped me on the side of the trail and pointed to behind a tree right next to the trail.  There was a huge black bear bigger than me less than 10 feet away from me!  It started walking towards us and we started slowly walking backwards away from it until it eventually walked away from us.  I was in SHOCK and this photo was taken by my dad a couple minutes after that happened when we crossed paths on the trail.  Pretty crazy day for just a regular run.