Oops

Raleigh Sportif: Similar vintage as the Raleigh Marathon that I've put over 1,300 miles on so far this year, but without a bent seat stay due to auto impact. It's a size smaller than the Marathon, which is good because I'm just a little too stretched out when riding that one. The tires are both 27 x 1 1/4, which should work for more wintry riding (when it comes). S & I turned the drop bars into bullhorns last night and I retaped them orange (because of course I did).

A new saddle has already been ordered. Oof. That sucker was UNcomfortable this morning. The brakes are ok, but noisy. I don't think I need to upgrade them with a dual pivot model, but I need to do something about the noise. I feel like I got spoiled by the quick, quiet braking action of the used Tektros that I put on the Marathon. Maybe a little cleaning and a little more adjusting will do the trick. The cross top brake lever looks much better than the ginormo bmx levers that the dude had on there.

I learned how a crank puller works, too.

29daysofbiking

Busy

So far this month, I've had another two flats. Neither of them forced a bus ride home, but now I've got a new (used) wheel on the front and a new tube & tire on the back.

Citrusy. Since putting the 700c wheel on the front, the original side pull caliper brake was cranky. It still worked cuz I'd adjusted it, but it did this weird hop before it engaged completely and slowed the wheel. I knew it was time for a new brake. The bike had Shimano 105 aero brake levers and hoods. I wanted to change out to a crosstop brake lever, partly yes, due to style, but also because the top tube is a bit long for my torso, so I couldn't ride resting on the brake hoods anyway.

This involved a lot of research and a lot of YouTube videos. I learned how to take apart what I already had on there (deconstruction always so much easier than putting the damn thing back together) and thought I had a pretty decent idea of how to install a new brake.

Taking it apart was fine: remove bar tape, remove brake levers, remove cable, remove brake...wait a minute. The 5mm hex nut holding the brake on to the fork was totally stripped. More YouTube. I tried a torx on the thing, but it didn't work and then the damn torx bit flipped out of my screwdriver and I lost it in the dirt. Next try: drilling. Step one: find the drill. Step two: charge the battery. Step three: find an appropriately sized drill bit. Step four: rake the dirt looking for the torx bit and then clean the handle bars with mineral spirits while the battery charges. OK! Drilling. Yeah, that didn't work either. Time for radical action. Hacksaw. I sawed thought the bolt on the front side and popped the stripped nut out the back. 

Now to install the new brake, which was a used Tektro 500somethingorother that I got from The Hub. Uh. Bolt isn't long enough. Crap. Get in the car, drive to The Hub. Dude says, "Oh, this is a rear brake." Wonder why the first mechanic grabbed me a rear brake when I specifically asked for a front brake. Back to the used parts area. Found a front brake, similar to the back one (which was in really decent shape), transfer the brake pads to the new old brake, and drive back home.

Now to install the new brake. Put on the crosstop brake lever, figure out where it's most comfy, tighten it up. Put the brake caliper through the fork, tighten the bolt, keeping the brake pads as even as possible. Unwind the cable housing, watch one of the metal tips fly off, hit the house and promptly fall into a black hole. Anyway. Thread the cable through the lever, then through the cable housing, realize it's all way too long, trim to appropriate lengths. Adjust. Adjust again. Finally centered and working. On to bar tape.

Though I didn't pledge 30 days of biking in April, I've ridden every day except for the 9th. I rode 116 miles this week.

No patching that

With 30 mph winds and gusts to 48 mph, I wasn't extremely confident in my ability to bike home anyway. Taking off the tire and discovering this total tube failure was just kind of funny. Well, I learned how the bike carriers on the bus work.

Bike, bike, no run

Ten days of commuting to work by bike in March for a total of 204.8 miles. Eight days of driving and I took the bus twice. I ran once. I think the dogs are going to rebel, especially since the weather is so nice this week. I guess I'll have to step it up and run with them. I also signed up for the Get in Gear 10k at the end of the month, so running some is probably a good idea.

Fingers crossed that there are no thunderstorms this afternoon when I have to ride back home on the bike!

Project Bike

Nice, isn't it? Ok, not so much. It's the definition of a beater bike.

I suppose to get to this point, you have to let me backtrack to December. That's when I decided it would be a good idea to start winter bike commuting. Why did I think that would be a good idea? Well, running hadn't been going all that great and there's no snow this year, so skiing takes a lot of planning. I'd been thinking and reading about winter biking quite a bit, so I talked myself into it. It's 10 miles one way to work, depending on how you go and I chose a way that avoided most traffic, using the river bike path, the U of M Transitway and a wander through the U of M St. Paul campus.

This summer, I found an old Huffy Cherokee mountain bike in the trash on my street. All it needed was new tires & tubes, some new brake pads and a tune up. I didn't ride it more than once or twice when the weather was good. But hey, a free bike. I figured I could ride that when there's ice and snow and salt. Well, I can. Just really, really slowly. I am the slowest biker in the world. Fat smoking college boys on fixies pass me routinely. But I get there eventually. It takes about an hour, give or take. There's more downhill on the way home, so that's usually faster, even though I'm more tired.

I rode three days in December, four days in January, seven days in February and one day so far in March. The coldest morning ride, it was -5 degrees. Once I got the layers right, it was fine, and I was only too cold once or twice. Neoprene face mask all the way when it's below 10. Light myself and my bike up like a christmas tree and everyone can see me coming & going. I lost one light when it fell off my bag. There was a spare in the shed.

This mid 1980s Raleigh Marathon has been hanging in my shed since I moved in here in 2009. One of my old softball teammates gave it to the boy sometime around 2006 or so. The boy was riding it to school in 2008 (?) when he was t-boned by a pickup truck running a stop sign. The drive side seat stay was bent into the rear wheel, so it was unrideable. But, this is a steel framed bike...

I decided to see if I could salvage it. I got bronchitis last week and I needed a project. I removed the wheels. I convinced the seat stay to bend itself back into a more tire-freeing position (i.e. cold forged it). Enough so there's sufficient tire clearance, and the tire is centered with the rest of the frame, but the rear brake isn't going back on. Can't get it straightened enough.

I was thinking of taking apart the cassette on the old wheel and seeing if I could singlespeed this thing myself, but it turned out that the crash had broken the axle. The wheel was really toast, bearings from the hub all over the floor. I cut the derailleur cables, took off front and rear derailleurs and took off the rear brake. I bought a new 27" wheel ($59) and an ACS Crossfire 16t freewheel ($27). I reused the rim tape and the tire & tube from the toast tire. Surprisingly, both front and rear tubes are holding air just fine. The chainrings are welded together, so taking them apart was not an option and I didn't want to futz with removing the cranks and shopping for a new chainring. I checked the chainline from the smaller 40t chainring to the new 16t freewheel and it looked good. Small chainring it is. I shortened the chain with the rear wheel as far forward in the (luckily horizontal) dropouts as it would go, then backed it up tight into the dropouts. Straight line from wheel to frame to front wheel and straight chainline. No redishing of the rear wheel needed because I didn't get a singlespeed wheel (it could take a 6 speed cassette). Less than 1/2 inch of chain slack - within tolerable limits. Success!

That left just a few things. No seatpost. No saddle. No pedals. The seatpost from my Bianchi was too big and the one from the free Huffy was way too small. I don't have a calipers and guess what, a tape measure doesn't really give a good read on the inside diameter of a cylinder. Who knew? I bought a couple of seatposts at REI (27.2mm and 27mm), but both were too big. REI had a decent saddle on sale for a price I was willing to pay ($30) and the mechanic sold me a bolt ($4) for the seatpost (also missing from the bike and neither the bolt from the Huffy or the Bianchi's quick release would work). I returned the too-big seatposts to REI and went to the Hub for some more prospects (26.6mm, 26.4mm and 25.8mm). Turns out that 25.8mm was just right ($20). The bolt was also just right. That just left pedals, which I managed to find in the spare parts crate. They look like the originals that were removed for the clipless pedal fad.

But how does it ride? I tried it out today on a short jaunt to the Hub to return the extra seatposts and then to the co-op to get some Breathe Easy tea (and more ice cream). I haven't ridden a singlespeed bike since the 70s (orange Stingray, awesome bike, thanks Mom). Google maps promised me that my route was "mostly flat" and it was. It was pretty fun. The bike is quiet and nothing seems out of whack. The front brake works well, but I have to true up the front wheel a bit so the one brake pad doesn't randomly skip off the rim. I was riding slowly & carefully (I still have bronchitis and feel like walking up the stairs is a big endeavor), but it turned out that my not-healthy, not-breathing-well self was cranking 13 mph on this new singlespeed. That is slow, yes, but a measurable improvement over the 8-10 mph that I can get going on the 18 speed Huffy.

The $140 I spent could have realistically bought me about 2/3 of a new bike, if I shopped hard enough. But this was fun. And C would really make fun of me if I suddenly had four bikes...

Let's Pretend that Never Happened

2014, I mean. There's no proof that it did, since I didn't blog one word. I read some books, but not enough. I trained for two marathons, one of which was canceled due to a lightning storm, the other in which I crashed and burned at mile 18. Work mostly sucked. I had quite a few interviews, but no job offers.

There was some good stuff. C & I had a ski vacation up north in the cold in a tiny cabin with a woodstove. I got to go to Utah to see S & A, ski at Soldier Hollow and backpack in Zion National Park. S & A moved home to Minnesota. Blue earned enough points to become a Flyball Master (after spending $1000s rehabbing her torn quad). We got a new dog named Betty who is awesome. C & I got to go to Maui and spend a week with her whole family for her parents' 50th wedding anniversary. We snorkeled and saw cool fish, sea turtles and an octopus. And we drove to the top of the 10,000 ft peak where it was cold and windy but the sunset was beautiful.

Outer Banks Marathon

Another fall, another marathon. Or so it seems. Trust your training, they say. They are wrong. Training went really well this cycle. Two 18 milers, three twenty milers, topped out at 60 miles per week with 40 mpw as my cutback weeks. One entire week off with hiking as cross training. 172 miles in July. 182 miles in August. September was hiking month with 125 miles run. In October, I ran 190 miles.

The weather was warm, but the ocean/sound wind was very cool. I never really felt hot the whole time. But the wind was something of an issue, coming mostly from the west and gusting pretty hard. If it had been from the north, blowing us south on our way from Kitty Hawk to Manteo, it might have been better. Then we'd have had a cross wind running west along the bridge (4% grade past Mile 23!). Would that have been ok? I have no idea.

I don't think I'm doing something right. Maybe I'm starting the 20 milers too soon? I dunno. At any rate, my hip decided to be an issue starting around Mile 6 or 7. I could feel it tightening up, something that had never been a problem during training. I was more worried about my fussy Achilles tendon. I got to see C and her dad cheering at the Wright Brothers' Memorial around Mile 8. The trail portion of the marathon, Miles 10ish to 13ish were hilly and as usual, the downhills were fun. My hip would stop hurting on the hillier sections, so this may have been an issue of not being accustomed to extremely flat running routes. It was kind of dark on the trail section because we were running through Nags Head Woods. Running around two sides of Jockey's Ridge State Park was fun. We'd walked there the day before to see the giant sand dunes, but I got to run on the south side of the park which let me see another side of the dunes. I got to see C and her dad again around Mile 17 and C passed me some very-much-appreciated potato chips. I told them that things were going slow. I didn't know how slow...

After that, we ran through a golf course community (not particularly interesting). The spectator support was really very good, especially since only about 1100 people ran the full marathon. There were almost always people cheering and the water stop volunteers were very friendly and helpful. The "good job" you always hear in Minnesota races was replaced by, "Oh honey, you look good! Keep it up!" Just about as I turned west to head across the bridge to Manteo, my phone/tunes/GPS crapped out on me. The rest of the race was run in relative silence, but for the spectator support. One of the last water stops was pirate themed, with all the volunteers in costume. They were pretty awesome. By Mile 23, my hip hurt so bad that I had to make an effort not to wince with each step. The bridge to Manteo went on forever. The hill part of it was actually toward the end of the bridge. I ran up the entire thing. I was afraid that if I started walking, I would never run again. I was likely doing a 13:something mile pace at that point. Once I was done with the bridge, I really just wanted it to be over. I was also feeling guilty that I was making C and her dad wait so long for me.

I wanted to quit many times during the last 7 or so miles. But after having traveled so far and making so many people change their plans for me to run my silly marathon, I wasn't going to indulge myself further by quitting. Plus, I wasn't in an ambulance, like a guy I saw about Mile 24. I figured as long as I wasn't in the ambulance, I could still finish. That said, the last 2 miles of this race were probably the longest 2 miles I've ever run.

C and her dad took excellent care of me both before & after the race. I don't think you could hire better running sherpas. The Outer Banks are beautiful and quirky. I can't wait to go back. But next time, I think I might skip the run.

Splits:

Mile 1- 9:20
Mile 2- 8:29
Mile 3- 8:27
Mile 4- 8:33
Mile 5- 8:51
Mile 6- 8:56
Mile 7- 8:50
Mile 8- 9:04
Mile 9- 8:56
Mile 10- 9:14
Mile 11- 9:25
Mile 12- 9:22
Mile 13- 9:37
Mile 14- 9:30
Mile 15- 9:18
Mile 16- 9:51
Mile 17- 9:49
Mile 18- 10:11
Mile 19- 10:03
Mile 20- 10:34
Mile 21- 11:05
Mile 22- 12:11
Mile 23- 12:54

Chip time- 4:28:24

Camping with Blue - The Trek Home, Final episode

After a not-particularly-restful sleep punctuated by wolves howling and Blue snuggling in closer and whining softly, I got up before sunrise. The rest of the late night party tent people in the group camp area were still sleeping off whatever had fueled their revelry. I packed up the tent as quietly as I could and Blue and I headed east out of the park.

I was right in thinking that trying to drive out of the park after sunset wasn't a good idea for me. Granted, the roads are huge and thanks to the stone walls there aren't really any drop offs, but it is high up and a still a little bit scary. The East Entrance Road is closed winters for good reason, I should think. The pass through the mountains was up around 8500 feet, then we went down, down, down to about 5000 feet. The first signs you see along the scenic Buffalo Bill Highway warn you about grizzlies.

We didn't get out of the car until Cody, where we stopped for refueling and snacks. The scenic highway was really scenic, though. It looked more like a movie set than something that actually existed in real life. There were quite a few national forest campgrounds along the road (well, along the Shoshone River) that looked nice and not terribly populated (perhaps because the grizzlies ate everyone, who knows?). The drive after Cody was mostly flat with ranches and cows. It wasn't terribly interesting again until we hit the Bighorn National Forest.

Another set of mountains and valleys and driving up, up, up only to eventually go down, down, down again. It was very beautiful and there weren't many other drivers, so my driving 20 mph didn't make anyone too angry. I wasn't driving slowly because I was scared, though, it was just too much to look at to drive fast. Blue decided she needed to get out of the car, so we had a little walk near a scenic overlook. She got closer to the edge than I did, and of course I pulled her back when she got too close for my comfort level. Never mind the fact that the four-footed beast had happily gamboled up and down a mountain for days that week. It's all about me. "Don't fall!" Ack.

 

We went back up over 9000 ft through this set of mountains. Our next destination was Devil's Tower. Between the Bighorn National Forest and the Black Hills National Forest is the Thunder Basin National Grassland. Lots of grass. Lots of cattle. Not a whole lot to see. We weren't too sure about Devil's Tower, either. There wasn't any thing to see for miles and miles, then suddenly, off this little highway that was off the big highway, there it was. This thing, sticking up out of nowhere for no reason.

We stopped to take a picture of it along the highway. It is just really weird. Volcano? Rocky protuberance? Well, geologists don't agree, so I have no idea. Geologists agree that Devils Tower was formed by the intrusion of igneous material, but they cannot agree on exactly how that process took place. Some geologists studying the Devils Tower in the late 19th century came to the conclusion that the Tower was formed by an igneous intrusion. Later geologists searched for further explanations. Several geologists believe the molten rock comprising the Tower might not have surfaced; other researchers are convinced the tower is all that remains of what once was a large explosive volcano. Other theories have suggested that Devils Tower is a volcanic plug or that it is the neck of an extinct volcano. Presumably, if Devils Tower was a volcanic plug, any volcanics created by it — volcanic ash, lava flows, volcanic debris — would have been eroded away long ago.

The park was overrun with tourists. Blue & I couldn't really get out of the car anyway, because dogs aren't allowed on the walking trails. It would be fun to come here again (should I ever be in the area) to hike around and actually look at this weird thing sticking up out of the ground. The Tower is very strange, the rocks are very beautiful. There's not much else around. Blue did finally notice prairie dogs on this stop.

Back on the road, headed toward Rapid City and our Dairy Queen cone of the day. Signs for Sundance, Starfish, Lead, Deadwood and Sturgis were entertaining, if not terribly informative. Looking at the map now, I see that I could have taken 385 through Deadwood and Lead to get to Mount Rushmore. I wasn't that coordinated while driving, though, so the interstate it was.

All the way through Rapid City and then backtracking southwest to Mount Rushmore. Black Hills National Forest... somehow not as exciting as the two other national forests I'd already driven through that day. I wanted to get to see the Crazy Horse monument, but daylight was fading fast. I just got to Mount Rushmore, once again a really weird thing just sticking up out of the ground, and then turned around to continue driving east.

The plan was to get to Chamberlain and the Missouri River to camp for the night. Instead, I made it 115 miles to the Belvidere KOA just off the highway. KOA's cost a lot more than national forest campsites, but they have WiFi. I was able to send out an email that I was still alive (no cell service since Idaho) and check to see how long it would take me to get home. It was HOT, still in the high 80s at 10:30pm. The manager said it had been 100 that day. I'd left Yellowstone in the morning and the temp was in the low 40s. After I set up the tent and looked through my food, I realized that I'd left my last ziploc of chili with A back in Utah. Sad. I ate the last of my tvp, tried to read some, then just fell asleep. There were thunderstorms overnight, but it's so drought-stricken there that the tent and the ground were dry when we got up.

The next morning we packed up, I put on a clean shirt and we headed east for Minnesota. There were some hills and the Missouri River looks big. Once you're past that, though, driving through SoDak is not very interesting. Southwestern Minnesota isn't much better. This day, though the shortest of all the driving days (just over 7 hours) felt the longest and was the least interesting. Probably because I just wanted it to be over.

I pulled into the garage around 4pm. Blue was happy to see her yard again and delighted that her trees were all present and accounted for. I spent an hour unpacking the car, starting laundry and setting the tent & tarps up to dry. All in all it was a fun trip. I'd do it again. But I think I'd skip South Dakota.

Camping with Blue - The Trek Home, Yellowstone edition

We left A and Paige pretty much on schedule Thursday morning. The plan was to get all the way to West Yellowstone, then into the park to camp for the first night. The drive was pretty uneventful, I talked to mom for a long time and got text updates on things from the boy and A.

I was making decent time despite our stops and my one weird trick to conserve the diesel fuel (driving the speed limit). It started cooling off once we started our climb into the mountains. We finally arrived at the west entrance to Yellowstone about half an hour before sunset.  Protip: ignore the full/free campground sign on the way into the park at your peril. I figured there'd be another sign once I got further in. Uh, no.

It starts to get dark fast once the sun sets

Madison was the closest campground to the west entrance. It was full. Well ok, it is the closest one. I tried Norris next, but that was also full. Sunset. Canyon Village was next. Also full, but still staffed. I went in and asked if there was anything free anywhere in the park. Yes, at Grant, way south in the park. OK. Back in the car. More driving.

A word on driving. I was worried, as I always am, that there would be mountains and scary dropoffs that would result in me driving 15mph and breaking out into a cold sweat while having an asthma attack. Let me tell you this: Yellowstone, whatever it was in the 60s or 70s when you were a kid and went there with your parents, is now an RV paradise. The speed limit is 45, unless it is 35 or 20 or 15. The roads are wide and perfectly paved. There are sturdy rock walls with 8ft high orange reflector rods every ten feet wherever there is a dropoff. There are pullouts everywhere, all the better to stop and stare at all the enormous nature things that are just all over the place. The park, while undeniably beautiful, even majestic in places, looks like it was built for 90year old ladies driving massive self-contained air conditioned RVs.

Finally, finally arrived at Grant Village. It was full dark. There were four deer grazing near the turn off. They just looked at us. We stopped at the service center to get a campsite, but the nice boy sent us off on the pitch dark road to the campground. By now it was 10 and no staff was working there. There was a sheet and you signed up. There were two tent sites left. Not knowing any better, I signed up for a group site and drove off. It was close at least. Got Blue out of the car and put her on the long line (boy and A: I accidentally made off with two of your carabiniers). Headlamp on, unload camping box, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, water. Feed and water Blue. Set up tent. Boil water, mix with food substance. Wait and try to read book despite incoherency. Mindlessly eat food. Lock up food, water, dog bowls, people bowls, stove & gas in the bear box. Ponder the bear box. Crawl into tent with dog. Sleep.

Ah, sleep. Until the wolves started howling. That woke us both up. Blue stayed very quiet. I'm glad she had the sense not to start barking. It was hard to tell how far away the wolves were, but they did the howling routine multiple times during the night.

Lat N 44°23'47.344"
Lon W 110°33'56.755"
Alt 7870 ft

Almost sunrise over Yellowstone Lake

Sunrise

Heading out of the park

Burned stand of pines

Camping with Blue - Backpacking with A & Paige The Dog

Our mountain. Well, the left half is where we were hiking.

All packed up, but we slept in a bit, so we didn't get on the road until a bit after 10. We parked the car outside Pine Valley, put the packs on the dogs and ourselves, put the dogs on long lines and headed up.

Start:
Lat N 37º22'59.265"
Lon W 113º30'25.269"
Alt 6695 ft


Of course, the dogs kept getting their lines tangled and after the beginning where the trail was pretty flat, it wasn't possible for me and A to walk side by side. After a while, we gave up and I harnessed both dogs to me. Dangerous, yes, with 80+ lbs of excited dog giving me a power assist up the mountain. But they got less tangled after they decided between themselves that Blue would mostly walk on the left and Paige would walk mostly on the right. They were very excited at all the new smells and jumping in the creek and drinking wild water and generally being galavanting fools.

Camping dogs on long lines.

The boy had said that we should go up until the Summit trail turned off to our right (to the SE on the second topo map toward Burger Peak) and then continue on toward Further Water (where there would be water) and back down the mountain on another trail. We passed one very nice campsite at about 8000 ft, but after consulting the map, we figured we had to keep going up, because we weren't nearly to the turn off yet. We also still hadn't found water. Some of the spots got a little crazy and after quite a long while, we decided to experiment with letting the dogs off leash. They were unbelievably awesome animals. They went even more crazy, but stayed mostly together and either came back down the trail to check in with us or came back when we called or I whistled.

Start of the trail at Pine Valley, top middle of this topo map.

Campsite 1 just north of the trail split in the middle of the map.

One of the very exciting things that we figured out was how to set our GPS so that the map actually provided information instead of just confusing little numbers. Hint: it helps to read the map key. Once we could figure out where we were on the map, we realized that the boy's ambitions for us were more ambitious that we really wanted to be. We decided to stop as soon as we found another campsite. The sky also looked ominous. Luckily we found a site after not too terribly long.

We were, however, very tired. We were also short on water, since we hadn't found any. We set up camp and A took Paige on walk when it was her turn to fall down. Not good. But not terribly bad, either. We pulled her shoulder back into place and I pushed ibuprofen and acetaminophen on her. The dogs got cranky with each other because they were exhausted and thirsty. We tied them up to appropriately separate trees and started working on dinner. Since it's not ok to go to sleep before 9pm, we managed to read our books until just past 9 and then went to sleep.

Sleepy Blue dog.

Campsite 1:
Lat N 37º20'05.795"
Lon W 113º30'24.191'
Alt 9008 ft

There was lots of thunder and lightning, but only a few sprinkles overnight. In the morning, however... It was raining very lightly when we got up. The poor dogs were licking the rain fly to get water. We made breakfast under the tarp set up over our kitchen area. We ate and pondered what to do for the day. We decided to day hike up to 10,000 feet, because we were so close, then hike back down to the nice campsite that we saw on our way up. Good thing we decided, because then it started to crazy rain. We were mean and left the wet dogs outside the tent while we hid inside and waited for the rain to stop. When the rain finally stopped, we filtered all the rainwater collected in the tarp and the dog bowls we'd set out. We packed up water and all our food, leaving everything else in the tent.

Screenshot from my GPS

The hike up was hard, but less so than with full packs. A had to work harder because she was carrying her backpack. The dogs didn't have to wear their packs and had a fabulous galavant up and down and up and down and...(you get the idea).

In the second topo map, you can see where we camped the first night, just north of the fork in the trail. We hiked towards Burger Peak. Some of the trail was very narrow with a drop off to the right that just went down the mountain. We decided that we were super smart not to attempt this trail with full packs. One or both of us would have needed to be med-evac'd out of there.

There was a beautiful campsite in a meadow up near the top where the trail really turned off to our left. A dropped the pack here, as we were not quite to 10,000 ft and some of the trail was pretty steep. We hiked up just.a.little.bit.further and suddenly the GPS told us we'd reached our goal. It only took about 2 hours to climb 1000 ft. "Only." We took some pictures at the top and climbed back down to the campsite where we had a snack before heading back down to where we'd left the tent.

By the time we got back to the tent, much faster than we'd climbed up, it was dry. We exploded everything all over the place, packed everything back up again and loaded up to head down to our second night's campsite. Going down the mountain was definitely easier going than up, but with heavy packs on (A's much more so than mine, because she had both sleeping pads AND the tent), it was still an effort. Paige kept coming back around, we thought to check on us, but it turns out that her little puppy paw pads had gotten rubbed raw in a few spots. Compared to climbing up, it took practically no time to get down to the campsite. Both dogs flopped down and fell asleep, though it was only late afternoon.

Blue pretending to be alert. She was mostly asleep.

PTD not pretending to be awake even a little bit.

Given that our water situation was somewhat bleak, A loaded up my pack with the water filter and every water receptacle that we had. She hiked down to the stream, which we could hear but couldn't see, to filter a ton of water and bring it back up. I set up our kitchen for the night and sat still and wandered around. I'm not sure really how I spent that hour she was gone. A said it was only about a third of a mile down to the stream. It was hard going up again, because she was hauling quite a bit of water! We fed and watered the dogs and started a gigantic dinner. There were two sweet rock campfire rings, so we decided to try to light a fire, but sadly we are bad arsonists. We got it going for a bit, but mostly it didn't want to. We retired to the tent with the very sleepy dogs and read for a tiny bit before falling asleep.

Campsite 2 with PTD sleeping on her yellow thermarest. 

This picture doesn't do our excellent camp kitchen justice.

Campsite 2:
Lat N 37º20'55.949"
Lon W 113º30'32.397"
Alt 8160 ft

On our final day we packed up and headed back down to the car. We couldn't believe some of the trail that we'd climbed up. It took us just over 2 hours to get back to the car. That was enough, though. We were tired. So were the dogs, who had to end their adventure back on their long lines because we kept running into other dogs (ok, so that only happened twice, but given that we'd just had two days where we had the mountain to ourselves...). Paige lay down in the parking lot and wouldn't get up. Blue wasn't very frisky, either. We drove back to down and got ice cream cones. Cleaning up was nice. Eating Mexican food was also nice. Scoring a job interview for Monday was especially nice (thanks, voicemail). Cupshakes are the bomb (a yummy cupcake blended with vanilla ice cream - we need this in Minnesota!). Now I can't remember if we went hottubbing before or after the movie we watched - I was that tired. I think before.

Last night in St. George:
Lat N 37°05'33.792"
Lon W 113°37'31.840"
Altitude 2770ft

 

Camping with Blue - Dog Day

Lots of playing for the dogs today. We took them to both dog parks and they did have a good time. It seemed that they had even more fun wrestling in the living room, though. 

We got some food for camping and things to make grilled nachos for dinner. I'm going to be replicating that one at home. Going through all of our stuff to see what we are going to take with us was pretty entertaining. We have big packs. The dogs both have big packs. 

Lat, Lon, altitude: same as yesterday

Camping with Blue - not camping!

Blue was not happy with people driving around the campground, or with the golden retriever who came to sniff at our tent. I told her she could only do the scary alarm bark or growl if there was a bear. Despite all the warnings about bears, the idiot in the site next to us left out his entire camp kitchen on the picnic table. He was also the one with the off leash golden.  

It got cold! I woke up in the night and was freezing. Luckily I had my down jacket in the tent, so I put it on and went back to sleep. I woke up again a little later and my feet were iceblocks. The only other thing I had with me was my zip up sweater, so the arms of that went on my legs and I was able to go back to sleep. 

I was smarter about tearing everything down this time. I got breakfast ready and while it was doing its thing, I packed up the tent. It was much easier when the rainfly wasn't completely soaked. We got on the road at what I thought was 9, but it was actually 8. I didn't see on the map when we switched to Mountain Time. 

Driving out of mountains was just fine, especially these not super tall mountains. Cell service returned about 45 minutes outside Idaho Falls. Lots of texts and voicemail! I noticed that there were runners on the road in Pocatello where I ran the marathon a couple years ago. Duh, it's marathon weekend in Poky. I had better weather, though. It was 75 already at 10:00 am. The rest of the drive was just long, not terribly eventful. We stopped a few times for Blue to have walks and drinks. Salt Lake City area drivers drive like crap. Mountains are tall. There were crazy afternoon thunderstorms. My phone freaked out and got stuck in a bootloop, so I pulled the battery and gave it a timeout. 

Finally arrived in St. George just before 6. Anna took me to dinner and the boy sent us both lots of texts. Blue and Paige are getting along famously. We're planning our backpacking trip to Forsyth Canyon. Since more thunderstorms are forecast for Sunday, we are planning and packing then and leaving Monday. 

Lat N 37°05'33.792"

Lon W 113°37'31.840"

Altitude 2770ft

Camping with Blue - Targhee National Forest

After nearly 11 hours, I decided to camp in the Targhee National Forest (Riverside campground). I'm still at least an hour from Idaho Falls and that's a ways from Pocatello, but the altitude is getting to me a little. 

Driving through Teddy Roosevelt was totally worth it, even if it made me late. The sunrise was pretty. The first wildlife we saw was two antelopes crossing the road. The next thing we saw was a small herd of buffalo wandering down the road. Blue started to bark until I told her to knock it off. Those things are huge! I could have touched one out the car window, except I was scared so the windows were closed and actually, these buffalo were kind of beshitted.

We had lots of stops on the way, mostly at rest stops which are pretty dog friendly. Blue developed a new quirk of being afraid of motorcycles following us. She's never noticed traffic before. She decided that the chopper behind us was so scary that she had to try to jump into the front seat. Hard to do with her being belted in and the hammock keeping her from jumping between the seats. That was fun.

The Gallatin National Forest smells like a Christmas tree. West Yellowstone smells like a wildfire. There was a pretty good plume of smoke to the south of town, too.

We are having a good time, but I am tired of driving and Blue is tired of riding. She will be happy to see her puppy friend tomorrow. I will be happy to see Anna and also to not be dirty.

I am a little worried about the people in the campsite across the way. They have a campfire going with 6 ft flames. There's wind up here, too. It is much better to set up camp when it is still light, if for no other reason than you can take note of where the bathrooms are.

Lat N 44°15'51.746"

Lon W 111°27'25.065"

Altitude 6180ft

Camping with Blue - North Dakota

Turned in appraisal appeal and then left. Got cash at credit union, then home for last minute throwing of stuff into the car. I also got some rye. For medicinal purposes.

It took Blue an hour to finally sit down in the back seat. At the 3 hour mark she finally laid down. She is crashed put in the tent that is pitched on the banks of the Little Missouri River. I have my crickets tonight! The drive to Theodore Roosevelt Natl Park was mostly uneventful. Stopped once to fill up. Cell service was good until the middle of NoDak, then it crapped out. Interestingly enough, the navigator part of Google maps now stores the entire route, instead of freaking out when you lose cell service. The creepy lady was still talking at me well into the park!

We arrived half an hour after sunset, but the campground guy was doing a loop on his bike as we drove in. First he said he hoped I had a flashlight. There was plenty of space and he told me to drive around and pick my spot.

I set up the tent by headlamp and it was OK. I might have more ideas about how to organize all my gear now that I've done this once.

My dehydrated chili experiment was tasty, if a little spicy. I am looking forward to the oat experiment in the morning.

Lat N 46°55'18.846"
Lon W 103°27'07.377"
Alt 2696ft