On to Vermont

Confined on the airplane, time to catch up on the blog.  I have been quite busy these past weeks, training, working, painting, birthdaying, etc.  Got the bills paid and packing for Vermont was like a marathon.  So far, don’t think I forgot anything..... so far.

My last training runs were in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  Saturday I headed up thru Brighton resort to Catherines pass, then played in the snow on the way over to Supreme at Alta, decided that probably wasn’t true “training” so I went up to Sunset peak and enjoyed the view and breathed in that high altitude air!   I had planned to run down Dry Creek to Ant Knoll and then turn around but I just couldn’t get myself headed in that direction, probably because we had just run that last weekend.  So, I mosied back to Lake Mary and then headed out for Twin Lake pass and circled back to the Silver Lake area.  Overall a boring run, too many people out and it reminded me not to run in this area on a Saturday.  

The wildflowers are abundant on the north facing slopes (~1 month behind this year). 

 Peter took this photo of the Columbine

 in Millcreek canyon.

Saturday night we were invited to a backyard concert at our friends home - Ronda and Roger.  This was a really cool concept....invite 50 friends, byob, light dinner, and enjoy your own personal folk singer.  Ronda had heard Beth Wood sing also at a yard concert and planned her own event.  It was a perfect evening in SLC, Ronda and Roger’s yard was a fun venue, and Beth Wood was fabulous (vocals and guitar).

Sunday I went back up Big Cottonwood Canyon.  This time I parked at the trailhead on Guardsman and headed backwards on the Wasatch 100 course.  This starts with a rutted out road thru pine trees and you get to a saddle that is the border of Park City Mountain Resort, it is so easy the interconnect the Wasatch mountains - they are long but not wide.  I didn’t go into PCMR but headed north up “puke hill” to the Wasatch crest.  I imagine that mountain bikers named puke hill.  It’s ~100ft. of a steep and loose rocky road.  A strong and technical (or lucky) mountain biker can make it up, I can’t.  Anyway, when I started at the trail head there was a group of mountain bikers who started with me.  I wasn’t far behind them to the saddle and then I passed 3 of them on puke hill.  The first guy didn’t say anything, the second guy said “well there goes my ego” when I passed him, and the third guy got off his bike and was really trying to beat me to the top....but I passed him too.  Their buddy was at the top and reminded me that they would pass me on the downhill.  I thought about reminding him of gravity and the physics behind a runner vs a biker on the downhill, but I just smiled and went on my way.  The trail then goes along the Wasatch crest which is again is the divide between Big Cottonwood Canyon on the west and the east part is Park City resort and the Canyons resort further north.  After ~45 minutes of running the trail splits and you can do a loop.  I chose to do the loop clockwise so, headed downhill to Desolation Lake and then down further to Mill D and then up to Dog Lake.  This is a very busy trail and a few years ago they had to designate Odd days for dogs ok to be off leash and no bikers and Even days for bikers and dogs must be on leash.....everyday is a runners day!  I like to run on dog days, much less traffic.    I got up to Dog Lake and just as I was cresting a big German Shephard was chasing a black lab, the lab was intimidated and for some reason headed straight for me.  I took ~140 lbs of dog into my knees.  Fortunately my legs are stumps and took the impact well.  I continued on up the Great Western Trail back to the Crest and had a great run back to the car.  A guy passed me and asked if I was training for Wasatch.  This would be his first Wasatch and he asked for advise.  I told him to 2 things:  A.  brush his teeth at Brighton, and B.  don’t quit until the sun comes up.....because no matter how bad you feel at 5:30 am, the morning sun turns you into a new person.

I am not the best flyer.  Tina is watching a movie, Sophie is watching cartoons and my little TV doesn’t work.  I always seem to get the broken seat assigment, the light, the air, the TV.  Back in the days I was flying to England and was in non-smoking.  However, I was in the row just in front of the smoking section.  The smokers seated up front would come back and swap briefly for a smoke....totally unfair.  One time I had a woman panick because baby Sophie and I were seated right next to her.  She made a big fuss about not wanted my baby to soil her white pants.  Sophie promptly fell asleep for the entire flight and the woman worked the beverage service for extras (people regress to their worst behavior for the airline snacks).  She then spilled her orange juice on her own accord.  I wanted to fuss back to her that I didn’t want her to soil my baby, but I held my tongue.  I am sure she still blamed the sleeping child, but it was her own belly that she had to work around.  One time baby Sophie and I were upgraded to First Class.  She wailed thru the entire dinner service and the flight attendant passed out headphones.  I had to pee really bad and the nice professor next to me offered to watch her, so I layed her down on the seat and Sophie immediately stopped crying and was a cute and cooing baby.  I sat on the floor for the rest of the flight....poor thing, she just wanted to sit in her own First Class seat.