A Beautiful Day

Clear blue skies and mountain views . . . a shame I'm back at work, but I have my ways of making use of such a beautiful day.  Not one of my twenty-three 2nd graders argued or complained with me when I said, "Because we need vitamin D and exercise to help us grow healthy bones and bodies, we will have an extra recess."  

After dinner Bryant and I rode bikes down the Knik River Road to the Old Glenn Hwy bridge. I grabbed the camera because I'd been wanting to get a shadow picture of a biker on the bridge. I found out I needed go earlier in the day to get the ideal picture but it turned out to be a nice evening bike ride.

Bryant riding across the Old Knik River Bridge

The biker shadow is barely visible.

Vacation is Over

I started work today.  After seeing folks again after 3 months, the usual formalities are exchanged, but this year I needed to refrain from using the word "summer" in front of vacation as summer never did quite make it to Southcentral Alaska.  Instead I asked, "How was your time off?"  or "Did you enjoy your break?"  On Saturday, Anchorage broke a record set in 1951 for the most consecutive days of recorded precipitation.  The local newspaper's headline was "Day 28: Anchorage reaches soggy milestone." 

In spite of the lack of the good weather, we managed to pack in some activities these last few days before the start of the school year.  Earlier in the year, our friends asked if we wanted to rent a sailboat in Seward for two days.  On Thursday afternoon, the boys and I packed the truck with gear and headed down to Seward to set up camp for a few days.  When Bryant arrived in Seward a few hours later, I had a great campsite right near the ocean all set up and the boys were already long gone exploring and immersed in Seward's kid/teen games on the playground nearby.

Enjoying a campfire in Seward

Under high grey clouds we enjoyed a nice campfire and then did our usual tour of the boats in the harbor.  Last year, we had Sol Searching (our 26 ft MacGregor) in transient moorage for August and September, which seemed to work well for us so we put ourselves on a waitlist for a permanent slip thinking it would be at least 2 years before one came available.  As it turned out, upon our return from Mexico without the boat (the original plan was to bring it back), we received notification that a slip had come available.  The unanswered question in this case is "Would we have brought the boat home if we knew a slip was available?"   It made for interesting conversation as we walked up and down the slips. 

Friday, we sort of sailed on a 32 foot Beneteau.  It is called "sort of sailing" when the wind is mostly non-existent, but every once in a while, a breeze would kick in.  And because we wanted to use the boat for its intended purpose, we'd put the sails into action and could sail 3 - 4 knots for about 20 minutes, and then the wind would die. 

Kaeson steering us out of the harbor

Around 3:00 in the afternoon, we made our way back to the harbor.  Not only did the wind disappear for good, but it started to drizzle and fog rolled in.  Seventeen hours later, the weather still hadn't improved and Sailing Inc., who rented us the boat, offered a refund for the Saturday rental.  The fog and no radar on the boat being the obvious safety concern. 

Leaving a little early allowed me the opportunity to swing through Anchorage on my way home to pick up my bib and chip for my running race on Sunday.  Back in January, I started running for 30 minutes a couple days a week on the treadmill.  As time went by, I knew I'd be more motivated to stick with it if I had something to work toward.  I verbally committed to the Skinny Raven 1/2 marathon in Anchorage on August 15th.  A couple of times last spring, I tested my running legs by extending a few runs into the 5-6 mile range.  I started feeling more confident with my abilities.  Then I went on the epic 5 1/2 week western vacation, which included hiking, camping, swimming, sailing, and driving from the Baja to Alaska.

Upon my return on July 1st, I remembered my verbal commitment to the race and decided I needed to get with the program.  The 12 week training schedules I found online needed to be trimmed into 6 weeks.  I made it work by skipping the first six weeks, then doing my best to stick with the second six that entailed 3-4 shorter runs in a week and one longer one.  My personal goal was to finish the race between 2:00 - 2:10.  Sunday morning, I crossed the finish line at 1:52.37. 

Although vacation is over, I was obviously pleased to finish off on that note.

What do we do . . .

 . . . when its too wet to paint a deck, but not wet enough to keep you holed up inside all day?  If you guessed a mega-bike ride, you're right.  During breakfast, Bryant suggested a long bike ride starting from the house, going through Palmer, hooking into the Crevesse-Morraine biking/hiking/ski trails and then back home.  When I attempted to talk him into loading the bikes into the truck to start at the bike path in Butte, which would cut off some of the less desirable road riding, I was told I didn't quite understand.  Apparently, the purpose of the long ride was to maximize the time riding and eliminate time in a vehicle.  Seeing as I'm going through a phase for fitness related torture, I easily agreed to his plan and before long were off and riding. 

Fourteen miles later, we reached Palmer and stopped by Backcountry Bikes a relatively new bike shop in Palmer to get directions to the closest trailhead into the Crevesse-Morraine trails and pick up another spare bike tube.  We wiggled through the backroads in Palmer and it wasn't long until we found the dirt trails. 

While we had never entered these trails from that particular trailhead, we have ridden them before, but we just don't ride them often enough, so we get a little confused when the trail splits in three directions.  The sign may say "You are here" but it's not always oriented correctly so invariably we end up on the wrong trail at least once or twice and need to do a few turn-arounds. This happens on most trails we are unfamiliar with and over the years, I don't become too attached to a Point A to Point B destination, as I know we will always get in some side trips.  I've mentally programmed myself into thinking of it as all as exercise.  We rode on a combination of two-rut roads and single track.  Eventually, we worked our way around in a fun circle and back out the original trailhead.

Riding single track through the UAA Agriculture Experimental Farm

On the way home, we couldn't resist McDonald's in Palmer.  After fueling up on grease and ice cream, we headed back home and surprisingly fast. It turned out that our long bike ride was 42 miles with about 12 of them on the trail and then rest on the road.  And lucky for us the real raindrops didn't begin until after we were already home!   

Drippy . . .

. . . wouldn't be as bad if I was working all day, but knowing my "free time" is limited, it's disappointing to wake up to this kind of weather.

A drippy morning view of  the Chugach Mountains

While we will get a break in the clouds, it hasn't been long enough for the deck boards to dry out and for a new coat of paint to dry. 

Last night, the clouds broke long enough to enjoy cake and the mountain views.

I did however manage to squeeze in a 24 hour dirtbike camping trip to Jim Creek with Gus and his three friends.  He'd been asking me to go and I've been looking at the forecast trying to find a decent weather window.  We decided on Tuesday.  While riding out there, the partly cloudy skies turned to grey and it started drizzling.  I'm thinking to myself, "Great, four kids and a soggy tent."  I figured if it got too bad we would go home.  That is the nice part about camping close to home.   

The Motorhead Camping Crew

 As it turned out the clouds broke up and the kids buzzed around until 11:30 p.m., goofed around in the tent for another 2 hours, and then slept hard until 10:30 the next morning.

We are the blue tent in the left hand corner.

I, on the other hand, listened to the local riff-raff buzz around until early morning light and then determined that quiet hours at Jim Creek don't start until 4:30 a.m.