After Miss M and I flew a momentarily nail-biting set of standby flights from our respective areas into Portland on Friday night, we got up at 3am on Saturday morning to drive the 2 1/2 hours north with my parents to run the Capitol Peak Mega Fat Ass where my mom ran her first trail race, 8 miles, my dad ran one full loop, 17 miles, and Miss M and I each ran a loop and a half, 25 miles. Our goal was the full 34 miles, but due to the atrociously sloppy conditions, my lack of training, and Miss M's upcoming 100 miler, we both called it a day after 25. We then drove home, cleaned up, visited my grandparents, got dinner, and finally got a full nights sleep. End of day one.
On day two, Miss M and I toured Portland spending some time walking my Mt. Tabor hill route, driving down Hawthorne Blvd, having a great lunch at a little Thai restaurant on NW 23rd Ave, driving up to the West Hills neighborhoods to look at all the fascinating homes up there, then driving through the Washington Park area past the Rose Gardens, Hoyt Arboretum, and the Portland Zoo. When we got home, we met up with my good buddy and his family (wife and two daughter's ages 5 and 1) and we all went bowling at Big Al's in Vancouver, WA. What a blast. My buddy's 5 year old daughter is so smart, so full of energy and so much fun. We all had a great time and it was great visiting with them. I wish we could do it more often! Whew. End of day two.
On day three, My dad, Miss M, and I, drove to my sister's house for breakfast and spend some time with her and her 6 year old daughter, my adorable niece. So much energy! Where does it come from? It was great hanging out there visiting with them and catching up on things a bit. My niece LOVES Hannah Montana. And that's an understatement. I don't know much about Hannah other than she is a make-believe personality of Mylie Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus's daughter, which certainly doesn't add any appeal to me at all, but then again, I'm not a 6 year old girl, nor do I have a 6 year old girl of my own, nor do I hardly ever associate with any 6 year old girls. So I guess that's all understandable. Why would a 6 year old want to sit and talk with a 29 year old guy, when Hannah can be found on mylie.com? When I was 6, well... I don't remember what I was doing when I was 6, but it probably involved going outside and getting dirty or something like that and I probably didn't want to hang out with adults either unless they were going to play with me outside. My dad is great though. He will endlessly play Hannah Montana games with her and she loves it.
Anyway, it was a great trip seeing everyone and spending some time in the thick, damp, sea-level air of the Pacific NW. Miss M and I flew out of Portland on Monday afternoon and...
...went back to the icebox! It was -24 degrees in Bozeman, MT when Miss M got into her vehicle to drive home. It was -12 degrees in Idaho Falls, ID when I got into mine and began my drive home.
Often, when a high-pressure weather system moves into these areas during the winter months, it brings with it crystal clear blue sunny skies by day and beautiful, dark, starry nights where dense, super-chilled air pools into low-lying areas and creates an all-too-familiar, all-too-uncomfortable temperature inversion where the coldest temps occur on the valley's low spots and get warmer as you gain elevation. So when I decided to go skate skiing after work on Wednesday, I naturally thought Grand Targhee would be the warmer location. It was -4 degrees when I left work at 6pm. It was 6 degrees 2,000ft higher at Grand Targhee. It was warmer, but was it noticable? Absolutely not. Cold is cold. Doesn't matter how you slice it when it gets that cold. So off I went, quickly learning how important the proper wax is at those cold temps. I felt like I was gliding on sandpaper. I could "walk" on my skis uphill. I would come to a stop while gliding downhill. I had no glide. It was painfully arduous. If I had been going any slower, I would have been going backwards. But I couldn't even go backwards if I tried. The cold, dry, abrasive snow had me stuck.
Overall, it was just nice to be out on a clear, quiet night, especially when I watched the moonrise over the Teton Range.
2 comments:
Look at that! Miss M got a new blog and it has a link to her Sweetie's blog! And I found it.
It was great meeting you at Capital Peak - too bad you two can't fly up for Orcas - it's absolutely beautiful.
I wondered how your Mom did and what she thought of it. Hope they both enjoyed it.
My brother lives in Bozeman, but we haven't been for years...he always comes this way because this is where the rest of us live. Maybe one of these days we'll make it over that way for a run or two and get to meet up with the two of you again. Otherwise, there's always next year at Cap Peak!
Hey Trevor,
If you want any of the pics I took of the Capitol Peak Fat Ass let me know and I can email them to you.
Enjoy the snow!
Trail Scat
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