Training Log Archive: Lori

Hiking with Sam and Presto at Ebbetts Pass! We had hoped to go backpacking this weekend, but the national forests still aren't allowing dispersed camping. They are, however, allowing day hiking, so we got up, checked the location of best air, and headed out for a hike. Tahoe had been looking really good on Friday, but today it did not look so great, so we headed to Ebbetts Pass. We hiked along the PCT to Upper Kinney Lake, and then summitted the quite prominent and pointy unnamed peak behind it. (I'm not sure why it doesn't rate a name. It's pretty mountain-y.) The entire hike up the mountain was off-trail, so there was a bunch of poking around amongst the rocks for the best way up and some scrambling and stuff. Quite fun and very satisfying to reach the top, where we stopped for lunch. We could sort of see the smoke rolling in while we were eating, so we scurried back down (which was way easier than coming up) and back to Kinney Lake for Presto to get a drink. While stopped at the lake, I convinced Sam that we should hit up Ebbetts Peak on the way back, so we got in a second summit today :-). The view from Ebbetts Peak was also pretty great, although we were starting to be able to smell smoke at this point, so it was good that it was a pretty easy hike back to the car. Fun, fun!

Normal stretching after a quick stop at Lake Alpine on the way home. We saw a bald eagle and a ginormous crayfish. Awesome!

When we got into our neighborhood on the way home, we started noticing lots of police cars. Like A LOT of police cars. And then we turned onto our street, and basically the entire street was police cars. And then we got up to our house and there was a coroners van parked in front of our house and police lines across the street. Turns out someone was shot in the house across the street from us while we were out hiking, which is sad and frightening.

Running with Presto after lab/not-lab! I had to go in for a couple of hours in the morning to clean a bunch of bottles and flasks and things from the past 2 days of lab insanity. (I was in lab for another 16h day yesterday...) I spent the afternoon getting computer stuff done and then was kind of wrecked by the evening. I wanted to get out for a run while it was still light out, but I sort of misjudged how early it gets dark now, and after a brief break to read a book for 20-30 minutes to recharge a bit before running, it was getting pretty dark. Oops. The run was really nice, though, and I did get to see the last bits of the sunset over Mt. Tam. Glad I got to enjoy the last couple of days of good air before the next round of smoke and heat comes through!

Normal abs.

Normal stretching.

Running with Presto after not-lab! Super, super nice day today with clean air and clear skies and generally great weather, so I decided I needed to go for a slightly longer evening run than usual. We ran up to the spot on the hill we used to roller ski to and then came back down via one of our usual running routes. Presto was dragging a bit on the way up. We changed his food a few days ago because he was getting bored of the old food and had to be coaxed into eating, which is a stress that I don't need. Presto is SUPER EXCITED about eating now, but his stomach is having a little trouble with the food switch. He seemed to get more into it once he'd emptied everything out, though...so we had a really pleasant run watching the sunset over the Bay. Soooo nice to get out.

Normal stretching after a fun teleparty!

Biking up Centennial Blvd! Well...this ride didn't go as planned. The air was in the high moderate range today, and forecasts suggested it might get worse, so I wanted to head out for a ride. My arms and wrists were a bit displeased from last week, so I just went for the Centennial loop. My legs were a bit tired from yesterday up the hill, but it was super nice to be outside, and I was having a good time. I passed all the annoying people on the hill (fewer than usual because it was earlier in the day and I guess smoking while the air is smokey isn't so fun?), and headed down South Park Drive. There's a big gate at the bottom of South Park Drive because the newt closure is still in place from last winter because of COVID, so I got off my bike at the bottom of the hill to walk it into the ditch around the barrier.

As soon as I got off my bike I started hearing an ominous whooshing noise. I tried to pretend that this noise was not coming from my bike, but of course it was, and I could actually feel the air coming out around the valve on my back tire. Ugh. I did not have an extra tube with me, so I called and texted Sam. Sadly Sam's phone was in the bedroom, and he didn't hear me calling or texting. Sam had been on the computer when I left, so I emailed Sam, thinking maybe he'd check his email. I thought there was also a chance he'd check facebook, but I don't have facebook on my phone, so I called my sister and asked her to facebook message Sam. (She was very confused about why a) Sam wouldn't have his phone with him and b) I couldn't facebook message Sam myself.) Sam was also not on facebook. OK, so it was going to be a long walk home with my bike.

I set off on my 4 mile journey. The first mile or so was sort of sketchy because the roads in Tilden don't have shoulders or sidewalks, so I was kind of walking just in the dirt/leaves next to the road with cars whizzing past and trying to avoid all the poison oak that was growing right next to the road. I eventually made it out of the park and into the residential neighborhoods uphill of our place. I decided to go the more direct route down instead of the route I normally run. This wasn't a brilliant idea because I don't know the streets super well in this area, and on the rare occasions that I go this way, I make judicious use of the little trail/staircases between the roads. Oh, and cell service is pretty limited in this area for reasons that are unclear to me. Turns out, carrying my bike down a super steep, narrow staircase is not ideal, but I did get to see some really cute tiny baby deer!

Meanwhile, Sam started wondering just how long of a ride I was planning on going for, and started getting bored, so he decided to check facebook, where he was surprised to notice that my sister had facebook messaged him. Success! Sam gave me a call, and after some googling figured out where I had made it to, and came to pick me up. Since we were already in the car, we then got some bubble tea, so win, win for me :-)!

Normal stretching after a lunch of bubble tea and cheese. That counts as lunch, right?