Where Water Buffalo Roam

Up in La Sal Mountains. Watchin' the clouds roll in and we'll watch 'em roll away again. Truckee Trails Nasty grade. Good views. You're awake. You're alive. Live like it. Opening day at Whitmore Pool. Really good to catch up with some amazing folks. First big day in Moab.  Came out of the pool around 7am and it was 75 degrees; started out on the La Sal loop with the Moab Fondo. By 12noon there'd been rain, then hail, then sun, then crazy winds on the decent back into the valley.  Feeling that weather worked and heading out for a run off the bike along the Colorado river. Best part of about the mountains? They're not predictable. Canyon Lands Salad mixed in a bag for dinner again? Time for an ice float. Mountain Dew in Mammoth. Giant TCR = heightened experience  Time for a snow melt shower.  June Lake June Lake Alpenglow. Fashion and sanity go down hill the lo...

Scuba divers talk about micro diving in areas otherwise referred to as “muddy.” Similarly the desert is “dry” but that doesn’t mean it’s not dynamic. As a climber I used to load up my car in the northwest and head down to Utah every March, it was a cheap way to get dry rock and sun.  My climbing mentor, Ryan, would have a tick list, I would carry the heavy pack and get on routes I otherwise had no business being on.  Before climbing there was the family Spring Break drive to Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef, likely for the same reason--the desert is dry and has a lot more sun than the Pacific Northwest in early spring.   Inch worm. Time marches on. For some reason I’ve continued to find excuses to justify the need to see lavender bloom, an owl build it’s home in cacti, and hear the old coyote howl at a full moon year after year; that reason is soul. The purest stuff on earth: standing on top of an 800 foot sand castle with it’s own little ecosyst...

Next time I decide to race Snow Shoe Nationals I may try running--in snowshoes--before Nationals.  A a 10km race with spring loaded circular metal ring things attached to your feet at 10,000ft--didn't know a 10km could be the same type of pain as a half marathon and take almost as long to complete.  The things our friends make us do. Peer pressure is under appreciated in endurance sport. The start The first three minutes where incredible. Then. It. Went. Hypoxic.  Amber and Ryan are the dots in lower left.   Our idea of a good time: Saturday:  AM: Easy morning spinout PM: 10km Snow Shoe Nationals at Snow Basin (9,000ft) Superior Peak, UT Approach to Superior Fresh air and endorphin; purest stuff on earth  Sunday: AM: 4 hour ride with over an hour of tempo work Off the bike: 4 hour snow shoe run/climb/traverse up Superior Peak (approx. 4,000ft of gain at 10,000ft) Monday: 2AM: 4hr Pract...