Life: New Year of Possibilities

So begins the 36th calendar year of my existence on this rock hurtling through the vaccum of space. I can't really say that this event holds anything special for me. It's just more of the same. I've had a few years practice with passing the time. I certainly don't like waking up the New Year's Day when Ursa wants some attention, food and a bathroom break way earlier than I'd like. But with the changing of the calendar comes a whole new year of challenges and dreams.

So first on the list is what to do with my running. I'm still not entirely happy with how this is going with continued back problems that don't seem to respond to anything with ongoing positive results. I am running, but not in any sort of volume I would consider truly useful to undertaking much more than a gimpy half-marathon distance if I raced this week. And yet I find myself desiring to lighten my wallet with race entries for a number of events.

I have currently decided I want to run the single lap of the Blackfoot 25km baby ultra since it is the only distance other than the 100km I have yet to run. Since I won't be running the 100km this year it seems a reasonable compromise. My other decision is to enter the Lost Soul 50km again given the disappointing lead up to the race due to the dislocated rib. My hope is that continued progress, however slow, will make for very different race this year.

The chance to run a couple ultras as part of a relay team has presented as a possible option. This is currently in the discussion and exploration phase. The Iron Horse and Sinister 7 are the two I'm most interested in. After some reflection I have no interest in the Canadian Death Race until I'm ready for a solo attempt. If this doesn't quite work out I have alternate plans to do more exploration of the trails in the Canadian Rockies this summer.

There are plenty of shorter trails to run, but I would also like to run some of the Glacier Trail and over Jonas Shoulder. There are some passes that I might be able to transit in a day too. A lot will depend on the kind of mileage I'm comfortable with by the time summer arrives. I'm not particularly interested in unsupported runs of more than 6 to 8 hours unless I think my body is up to it.

And speaking of the Canadian Rockies, there will certainly be more time spent there this year. Ursa will be pretty much finished growing this summer, so we will do some light trips into the backcountry. Car camping and a few overnight backpacking trips will begin the summer. Hopefully this will work out the kinks for a multi-night backpacking trip with Ursa by the end of the summer. Lots of day hiking is also on the menu. With Ursa being up for almost 3 hours of snowshoeing last weekend I think she will do just fine hiking around the mountains for more than a few hours.

And winter has not yet left us, so there is still snowshoeing to do. No doubt we will go out to Kananaskis a few more times before the snow starts to disappear. Some trips closer to home at Nosehill or Fish Creek will no doubt happen if the snow isn't all melted away by chinooks. I have little motivation to run on a cold weekend, but if the chance presents itself I will certainly head for the south side of the river on snowshoes or just shoes with appropriate ice gripping attachments. Either way me, Aerin and Ursa are still getting out lots between our walks and other activities.

Aerin and I are looking into buying a house this year. Who knows if this will actually happen, but we have started discussing our options. Wrangling a down payment and what we would actually spend the money on our the top two house conversations. We have little interest in buying something for the sake of buying since the cost of certain fixes or renos to make things liveable are not an option for us. We really would like to find something we can say we're still happy with ten years later.

We really enjoy our Friday night boardgames with our friends. It is by far one of our favourite events of the week. I am currently organizing a regular Flames of War league at The Sentry Box. I get to play some games, meet some new players, and generally have some good motivation to get things done with my terrain and miniatures. I'm so lucky and thankful that Aerin lets me play my games. We're both going to need to sit down with some paint again to move things along. Thanks for helping Sweetie!

That's all I can think of for now. I'm certain the year will whiz by in a blur of barely remembered details - 2009 certainly did.

Running: Back to the Outdoors

I ran outside for the first time since last November (when I started in with the three week cold) on Sunday. What a rush! Since I was last running outdoors I've been trying to work on strength and core in the gym, spending time recovering from illness (some more), and generally getting my brain back into training. Getting back outside was so enjoyable even with the -10C and sunny weather.

I started out from home heading east before crossing the river and heading back west. The south side of the river isn't the best below the escarpment between Crowchild Tr and Edworthy Park, but I had packed my Kahtoola crampons knowing this from last year. Not a single problem with traction was had. I crunched through packed snow and ice with ease.

I got home in just over an hour. I had run 9 minutes, walked 1 minute for most of it except for a few minutes I had to wait for a train before crossing the tracks. And was I ever in for a shock when I got home and checked my Garmin. My average heart rate for the run was 84% of max HR! I could hardly believe it. It didn't feel like I was working that hard. I certainly wasn't running a blazing pace. But I was enjoying myself and probably running an adrenaline high.

Whatever the reason for the high HR I had a blast and really enjoyed the run. I didn't feel burned out afterwards or the next day. There was some stiffness the next day in my legs because I haven't run on an uneven surface in a while, but other than that I felt great and went to the gym on Monday for a light workout. More core and stretching between now and my run on Thursday on the gym. The weekend is looking great, so I'll definitely be out again on Saturday and probably Sunday too.

Yeah fun!

Life: Welcome 2009!

Didn't we just celebrate New Year's 2008?

I have to say, that from my end of things, the passing of 2008 was definitely NOT slow. I will always remember an episode of Daily Planet a few years back about how a person in 2004(ish) perceives time passing eight times faster than someone in 1904. That would mean we haven't even made it to my birthday before we're celebrating New Year's again. Talk about getting the short end of the stick!

I'm happy to be back on the road to running after few months of nothing much leading up to Christmas. Between injury (not running related) and illness (damned 6 week chest colds and my second this year) I got in little running between October and few days ago. Even a minimal amount of core work hasn't done much to keep me sane or maintain any level of fitness. The stress of moving and lack exercise was a horrible combination. So it's back to building, and I have some time to do that properly and with some enjoyment that was missing from this year's training.

Aerin and I are both pleased with our new place, and invites to the house warming party will be going out to friends in the near future. We'll probably never move into anything smaller than a two bedroom apartment now that we have all this space. Unfortunately I think we may be a little beyond future living area with the items we've purchased to make our place truly functional, but I don't foresee any great need to depart anytime in the near future unless under duress.

I've been doing some life inventory to spend time on the things I really enjoy doing. So there's time with Aerin, friends and family, being outdoors with running and backpacking, and building and playing my Flames of War armies. I'll be spending some time exploring industrial design related classes through Continuing Education, and Aerin and I will take the digital photography course to get the most out of my Christmas present, a Canon Powershot G10 (essentially a professional-grade point-and-shoot). That's all I have on my radar for the coming year. I still won't have as much free time to spend on these as I'd like short of winning the lotto, but I'll be happy to be able to do it.

Another Flames of War player and I are also collaborating on a writing project for a campaign book for our shared interest, but that's still in the development stage. Our plan is to have a proposal submitted by the end of January. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

I'm having a little trouble getting to sleep, but I'm getting closer to sleepy now. I hope everyone had a great 2008, and that you're looking forward to another great year in 2009. I know I am.

Happy New Year!

Outdoor: Waterton Pictures

Well I have had a few really crappy nights sleep due to some back problems. The back isn't so much the problem I think as th bed I have to sleep in at night. So after much delay, here are some photos of our trip to Waterton.

Looking back towards Waterton Lake from the trail to Crypt Lake.

Hell-roaring Falls on Crypt Lake trail.

Burnt Rock Falls on Crypt Lake trail.

Entrance to tunnel that leads up to Crypt Lake. The metal ladder is about 6 feet tall. The tunnel is significantly shorter.

Crypt Falls.

This is where Crypt Lake flows out of the rock about 20 meters before it turns into Crypt Falls.

Wall Lake as you emerge from the trail.

Some of the exposed ice at the base of the wall at Wall Lake, Akamina Provincial Park, BC.

Outdoor: Waterton National Park

Aerin and I spent five days in Waterton last weekend. I wanted to share some of our backcountry adventures first, so I'll talk about the regular tourist things we did in another post. I will post photos when I get the chance.

Friday was our first outing to Crypt Lake. After getting onto the ferry across the lake to Crypt Landing, we began our hike up the trail. Unfortunately this didn't last long as Aerin began having blister trouble from her boots. While they weren't a problem last year, the boots have been causing problems this year, and the fix we tried for this trip didn't take. So about an hour into the hike Aerin decided it was better to save her feet than carry on to the top in pain and ruin the rest of her weekend. She sent me to the top with orders to take lots of pictures.

I took off to the top to complete my mission and return as quickly as I could to Aerin as she waited at the docks. The hanging valley Crypt Lake is in was lots of fun to get to with it's tunnel crawl and exposed trail access. It's certainly a very pretty cirque lake, but I didn't enjoy it as much without Aerin to see it too. With my mission completed I turned around and started the rapid running descent to the dock. All told it was about 2:30 to get to the lake and about 1:15 to make the run back.

Friday night we ran into friends we knew were going to be in Waterton. (There were lots that we didn't know about too. Yeah Grant MacEwan Mountain Club!) The next morning the four of us headed up to Wall Lake on the BC side of the border for a look at another beautiful lake. This was preceeded by some emergency shoe shopping for Aerin, but she made good time despite some soreness due to not quite blisters of the previous day.

We encountered a pair of male mule deer on the way up with beautiful antlers. They were still in their velvet. Another doe wandered the area when we got to the lake finally.

Wall Lake itself is most impressive for the towering wall of stone around the back side of the lake. It's quite a sight to see the glacier remenants around the lake too. There was some recent chunks that have separated along the western end that were all blue-green in tinge. In some places even older clear ice with the same blue-green tinge showed through under the newer snow. It was really neat to realize that some of that ice could be thousands of years old.

Sunday was trail running day. I had to go solo on this one, but it turned out to be a short trip. My plan was to do the Snowshoe-Blakiston loop from Red Rock Canyon, but bad weather rolled in just short of the Snowshoe back country campground. Facing heavy rain, lightning, high winds and the uncertainty of whether it would continue or not, I decided to turn around.

This brings me to the interesting part of this aborted trail run - a cinnamon black bear and her two cubs. One the way up I was coming down a hill when I noticed her on the level a little ways down. I started talking and making some noise, and she lead her cubs into the woods off the trail and went around me.

Once I turned around to return to the trailhead I figured I'd likely run into her again, but I'd set my Garmin with her position when I met her on the way up. I started paying particular attention as I got close to that spot, and about a kilometer later noticed her ahead of me just off the trail. I backed off and made noise, and soon saw one of the cubs coming down a tree. While this was happening I explored the option of going off trail, but the undergrowth and footing was darned near as dangerous as a bear in the wet conditions. So with much caution and making noise I moved up to see what was happening. Luckily she and the cubs had moved up to a wider part of the trail, the cubs were no where in sight (but likely up a new tree), and she was busy ripping apart a log a little further up the slope. She lifted her head the one time when she head and saw me, but went back to ripping apart the log. I slipped by with as much space as possible to spare, and she didn't even look at me again. After that it was a quick run the rest of the way.

And that was basically it. We checked out Cameron Falls in town on Monday before doing the loop at the buffalo paddock, and then it was on to Fort MacLeod and the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump site.

Overall it was a great trip that both of us enjoyed since I hadn't been to the park in almost 20 years and Aerin had never been.

Outdoors: June Kananaskis Adventure

[I just realized I wasn't paying attention to my dates. We were backpacking the end of June, so I've updated the post title. - S]

Aerin and I went backpacking for the first time this year the last weekend of June for 3 days. It was going to be 4 days (Monday to Tuesday), but we decided to cut things short.

The trip took us into Three Isle Lake in Kananaskis from the North Interlakes parking area. It was a very hot weekend, but at the same time a late spring melt and lots of prescipitation left lots of snow at altitude. This lead to an interesting long weekend in the backcountry.

On the way up we encountered a guy coming down the mountain for help. One of his group members had been struck in the left thigh by a basketball-sized chunk of rock. We didn't really see or heard anything of falling rock on the way up, but once we go to the campground it became a regular occcurence in the afternoon and evening to hear rock falls from the peak on the south side of the valley. The melting snow was all the rock needed for a quick trip down the mountain. The potential danger became more apparent when we came down the trail on Monday to find a very large rock in the middle of the path that wasn't there on Saturday.


Otherwise the often deep snow and blistering hot weather made for a fairly sedate weekend. The snow on the trails limited us to some very tiring hikes that Aerin was not feeling well enough to tackle with the beginnings of a cold and blisters, nor did the heat inspire us to move very quickly. So we enjoyed the solitude and scenario with a handful of other people and headed out early. We were glad we did because as we left some rather inclimate weather settled in for the next couple of days.

(Northover Ridge from Three Isle Lake)