Training Log Archive: Charlie

Along the Blue Ridge parkway trail, with Rhonda, heading the other direction. Very nice. All is fine, we are finishing crossing an area of high grass on a power line. Get in the car, and wham, stung in the butt by a yellow jacket. Oh, yeah, says Rhonda, I saw a bunch of them when we were crossing the power line. Pretty uncomfortable, and, of course, pretty undignified.

A peculiar smell to our rental car, and Rhonda by now had had enough, so I called to endeavor to swap with Hertz. We had rented in Greenville, but wanted to swap in Asheville. No problem, just go to the airport. So we get there, and all the lady is willing to do is close out our prepaid rental and rent us another car. I'm amazed. Rhonda is not about to get back in the stinky car. So I keep talking to the lady. I'm entitled to a car that doesn't smell, right? Then she tells me she can't swap because they are not "corporate" in Asheville. They've been sold. I can't quite fathom what that means, but eventually she calls Greenville, gets hung up on, calls again, talks to someone for a while, gives us a car. Quite a process.

A stroll around the wonderful NC Arboretum, with Rhonda. It is all quite beautiful, but I particularly like the bonsai exhibit.

And now on our way to Asheville, for our friend Isabel's daughter's wedding. Leaving the house at 4:30.

On the blue ridge parkway trail with Rhonda, from near the NC Arboretum. Didn't realize it was so steep 25 min out, all up, 18 back. Really tired. Long day.

dog walk with R&S. We are also babysitting Isabel's dog (or rather her daughter Marj's dog) while they are both in NC. A bit elderly and not up to the dog loop. However, she is totally up to getting up at 3 this morning and barking for unknown reasons. Wanting to go out? Wanting to eat? Just wanting action? Seems like there is often some kind of 3am wake-up call around here, when I don't just get up then myself. Tiresome.

Last night we watched Il Postino. Very nice.

C • Sleep 2

Neighborhood walk with Rhonda. Steamy out.

this is still hard. arm is still sore.

L forearm still sore, won't do anything more strenuous than this until it calms down.

Fine, except I could really feel the strained L forearm, even though I was concentrating on doing as much as possible with my legs and as little as possible with my arms.

Green day 2. Pretty convinced I was going to do Brown, but I thought I would like to go to the Big Island, so that was Green. Hit the first three well, in good contact all the way. Again saw Nellie halfway to 2, but this time he didn't have 1 yet. Off to the right on 4, but corrected quickly from the marshes 100M south, then on the wrong spur to the W near 5, checking lots of dot knolls before finding the right one. Not a lot of extra distance, but a lot of perplexed standing around. 6 was fine, although I came in from the wrong side of the marsh, then got too far N going to 7 and confused by the northern stream, had to fight my way south to cross between the lakes. Feeling ok going across toward 7, but got a little high and confused by the dot knoll in front of the small uncrossable marsh to the WSW, and also confused because I thought it was the next marsh, so headed NE, and I was one ridge too far W, but figured it out. Went over and paraded around the boulder in the circle for a while before checking the clue and realizing it was in the reentrant just to my left. So quite a bit of time lost there. Always a difficult place for me. SSW along the hill top, crossed the stream, then drifted too high and hit the small pond. Was I too high or too low? Guessed wrong and had to climb back down. More time lost. More or less on compass on the way to 9, drifting higher, then hit the bottom of the big cliffs and decided to climb up on top for easier navigation. Hit the small trail near the bend, ran it for 75 M then compass right in and spiked it from there. Too far right on the way to 10, but hit the trail, saw the double boulder, the ponds and got right in the circle, but so many reentrants there and just couldn't find the right one. Looking at my track I must have been right next to it. So I wandered a while, eventually finding my way south to the boulder near the campsite directly S, and then back and found it. At least 6 minutes lost there, I think. The rest uneventful. Not moving fast but much better than yesterday.

the map.

Green Day 2 - Splits