Training Log Archive: AliC

Brrrrr.... only 5 degrees out when we started! Little loop around Cherry Hill with Tom and then to mochas at Kickstand.

Better skiing! Did 3 back-and-forths on the FUTS from the top of the hill to the gate. Could really move thanks to the grooming of people's feet having made a little path!

Thanksgiving hike up Elden with Tom. That was blustery to say the least! We both had enough clothes, but not warm enough gloves - just light running ones, needed something more!

Very, blowy both at the beginning and along the ridge. Buff needed to go babushka-style for ear protection. Definitely below freezing at the top, good patches of snow in all N facing or otherwise protected areas.

Good to get a dose of winter in! Now hope we are in for more snow so we can actually ski!

Ethiopian food for dinner at Bonnie (linguist) and Will's (astronomer - Pluto). They clearly need to go see this film 'Arrival'. Yummy things and Tom made his family's traditional artichokes and mushroom casserole, also yummy as usual!

C • snow! 1

Joggeroo around Mars Hill. Really nice sunlight. Ran into other astronomers Nick (asteroids) and Lisa (galaxies) and their new baby (?).

C • new baby (?) 6

Run Flagstaff Track workout

Colder and Thanksgiving, so a pretty sparse crowd.

3 on, 90 off, 2 on, 90s off, 1 on, 90s off x 3
Kept my 'on' at a fast tempo (~6 min/mi pace), 'off' at a decent jog.

No buddies the same speed today. =(

Snowed! Beautiful stuff. Fluffy white flakes. A bit too warm to stick here in town, but did at maybe 8500 ft and up.

Errand run, because Tom has the car at Kitt peak. Ran to the supermarket to get toothpaste, then the CSA store to stock up on veggies: carrots, beets, spinach, sweet potatoes. Mmm!

Red and Orange courses at Catalina state park - didn't quite have time to add the Yellow and complete the Motala. (Had to catch shuttle to PHX and then FLG.)

Very off to the 1st control, pretty on after that. Cactus dodging!! A different type of desert than yesterday. No teddy bear cholla (the worst kind). Got a few more sticks, but no cholla balls attached. And sandy underfoot as opposed to rocky like yesterday.

3 hr rogaine at Lake Pleasant (GPHXO)

Got there just a bit after when I would have had the full 3h, but guess that wasn't needed anyways. High control density with fairly even spacing, so a good challenge trying to make sure to pick up in a good way.

Cholla'ed 3 times. First time badly and got two stickers in my hand trying to get it off (map was *not* enough of a defense against cholla!).

Final control I visited wasn't there. Hunted for a bit and went in, people hunted various amounts I guess. Stolen by someone in the week between when it was set out and when the meet happened.

Fun Flagstaff track session.

5 x (1 min on, 1 min off)
2 min extra break
5 x (1 min on, 1 min off)

Was mostly keeping up with Austin, which is surprising because he is more speedy. Maybe he was taking it easy for some reason. He's running a 50 miler on Catalina Island sometime in the next months.

Little Sunday joggeroo with Tom, down Sandy's Canyon to Walnut Canyon junction. Very pretty, nice and cool, but still shorts weather. I think everyone except us had a dog with them! I like spectating dogs though, so long as they are not prone to attack.

Afternoon jog around my new loop. Got a high-5 from another runner in the secret valley. Lots of people out in Thorpe, picnicking, discgolfing, enjoying the unseasonable warmth.

Yeah, another new loop! Found my way up to Observatory Mesa from the quarry-like thing in Old Town Flag. Then puttered around the trails up top helped by the orienteering map Tom made!

Pre-coffee joggeroo with Tom. We seem to have reversed coffee roles and now I get a double espresso and he a mocha...

Calves finally returning to normality. Created a new loop by going up from the secret valley and intersected the Observatory Mesa trail, came back via Futs, with a little diversion for Rosie's pass. Nice to have a new loop in the repertoire!

Day 4 of Grand Canyon trip

Breakfast still in the dark at around 6:15, hit the trail at around 7:30, maybe the second group to leave?

Anyways, a *completely* different trail from what we have been on - about two people wide, even wider towards the top and lots of easy steps. Just very well maintained, little agility with foot or pole placement needed. Strode up, enjoying going back through all the now well-known rock layers. Definitely could tell the offset in the layers due to the Bright Angel fault- the left (east) side about 100ft lower.

Near the top we saw pictographs in red on the Kaibab limestone, right before the final archway. Wonder what they were relating...

We stopped in the Kolb brother's studio right at the top of the trail - now a bookstore and art gallery. Some very neat paintings of the Grand Canyon by about 12 different artists. It is great subject matter, interesting to see what different people did with it!

Then onto some coffee, the drive home, Mama burger and unpacking!!

Both of us are psyched for the next adventure, yay! (This was Tom's first multi-day backpacking trip after last weekend's first backpacking trip *ever*!!!)

C • Sounds awesome! 4

Day 1 of Grand Canyon trip
Hermit's Rest to Hermit Creek Campground
~ 8 mi, downhill, rough trail in places

Wahoo! Time for the long-awaited (originally applied for permit in July) Grand Canyon backpack. Easy packing since all our backpacking stuff was out and about from last weekend - main change was using my bigger pack and packing more food, less water (since there would be water at all campsites along the way, didn't need 2 days worth).

Started as all our adventures are wont to, at Biff's Bagels in Flag, then drove up to the Backcountry Office at Grand Canyon. Walked a bit to the Hermit shuttle (first views over the rim- yeah!) and rode it out all the way to the far end where we were to start. Everyone else on the shuttle was hopping off or back on from view points - you can look around a bit and then catch the next shuttle.

We have a great book about the geology of the Grand Canyon, written from the perspective of actually hiking in it. Having read the chapter on the Hermit trail, I had a cheat sheet with what we were supposed to look for where along the trail and what layers were what. We missed or couldn't find the fossils in the uppermost layer, the Kaibob limestone, but then did see the fossilized tracks in the Coconio sandstone two layers down from that - so neat to see little imprints from little creatures of long ago!

We traversed in the multi-layered red Supai for a good 3 miles, over rock slides and for a good long while right above a pretty tall cliff of Redwall Limestone. At the time, it wasn't that scary, because not a steep slope where we were, but looking back at where the traverse had gone was pretty impressive!

Close to Cathedral stairs, we noticed the signs of the Hermit fault on the rock- the layers were all messed up! Neat to see exactly what the book had written about. Descending the switchbacks through the Redwall, we did see the fossils of a brachiopod and some crinoids - not things that jump out at you if you are hiking fast, really have to look for them!

Then mostly a trek in through the Muav limestone and then the colorful green/purple/blue Bright Angel shale.

We were warned by other hikers coming up that they were rebuilding the toilets at the Hermit Creek campsite, so we arrived to their construction zone and the end of their workday. A little less peaceful that one might imagine after hiking 8 miles into the backcountry, but after an hour or so, the tool sounds stopped and they were just camping out like we were.

But! The mice! We were warned of enterprising, food-stealing rodents in the camps. We didn't notice any until we started cooking our beans-rice-Fritos stew, and then at least two different mice (one quite chubby) kept making bold advances into our cooking area, again and again. Quickly got the food packed up in a metal mesh bag and hung away after dinner!!

Some good wind into the early night and a sprinkle of rain.

C • mice 2