WIth my 7 mile jog tonight, I hit 1400 miles for the year. WHile this is 100 miles off last years pace, my last 4 months have been better then any 4 months the last couple years. I wont hit 2000 this year, but I will finish strong.

That's so true about not fooling the marathon. It even knows if you've been doing your tempo runs!

A really beautiful vivid fall color Michigan day today. No wind like yesterday and temps in the 40's joined some club members for a brisk 6 miles (after I ran a mile with the dogs near home) for a toal of 7 today.  Saw three  turkeys while driving into the park.  They must have fled from Canada.

(((((Tammy & Family)))))

"Enjoy the freedom" Amen Enke.

stoopid geese.

Bout time you got back Stumpy.

I'm posting yesterday's run late. I sat on the tablet before posting the run...It did not fair well.

Two hours on the North Country Trail. It raind and we loved it. 

This section of trail is packed dirt. No hairpin switchbacks. Never once did I have to grab a tree to make the turn.

This is the best stuff in the worl to run on.

DW was at the campground with her former in laws and the dogs and I did not have any limits. The three of us never ran out of gas. We ran through a golden rainbow of falls splendor.

This is what was back at the campground

Hello everybody!  I only managed 25.4 miles this week, so I'm calling it a "rest week".  Just too much stuff going on and not a whole lot of motivation.  I'll get back at it next week.

That's it.  See ya! 

hi everybody!     I'm plum tuckered out, and won't even start to itemize... but have read the weekend threads.   

congratulations & way to go's all over the place...

Tammy you made the right decision of course but it's really tough.   I can't read about it w/out crying, so I can just imagine how you must feel.   though, it's a little peaceful knowing that she's no longer hurting & that you did all you could, I think.   you know you have an ongoing hug from everybody here...

have to say hi Denise!!  I've wondered about you... didn't know you haven't been around, because I haven't been either.  makes me so happy to see people popping back in.    

ok all about me.   sorry!  but finally finally 10.11 miles this afternoon, the longest in a little over a year.  a really hilly route.   I don't think it bothered my back, but my knee didn't end up happy (my old Twin Cities knee thing...)   It was pretty good till the last 2 mile uphill (have to get home, no choice there...),... I was too stupid stubborn to walk.   it will be ok, I know what to do.    I've been ramping up just a little too quickly, I think, but overall it's working pretty well.  it's kind of a Danielsesque increase, which I've never tried before.  It's not intentionally that way, just seems to be what I'm doing.   

finished painting the bedroom walls, movable plants are inside because of the frost warning, & I am done!    'nite all.
 

Finally did it...got out and kept Choco company, or maybe he kept me company, for 8.5 miles. First two miles were a bit soggy feeling, wasn't sure how it was going to go. But I had hit my stride by mile 3, and it was feeling pretty good. Except I had this irritating blister-in-formation on my left heel. I often have issues with blisters, usually heels, occasionally between toes. One of the pairs of shoes I use has been a blister problem for me. I have creative ways to deal with it, but I haven't bothered yet. Time to break out the shoe modification tool (it's a knife) and cut a notch in the plastic heel counter...

Before I went running, we had a container van delivered to our driveway. Last time this happened it was delivering a huge load of freight. This time, the van was the freight. So now our driveway will have a huge blue container decorating it. Maybe that means we will finally get the junk (like the tires...) off the gravel...

I wrote up yesterday's flight for a pilot forum. For those interested...here it is. Photos and all.

I work for the National Park Service in my day job, and have been to 

Aniakchak every year for 14 years...until this year. 

It looked like I was going to be out of luck, as the season was pretty 

much over for fieldwork. So I started looking for weather 

and time to get myself down there in the milkstool...

Today was looking pretty good based on forecasts throughout the week, 

and the forecast seemed to hold as the day approached. 

Finally, last night I got myself organized, and had my son out helping 

me get ready for one of today's other commitments. The 

first of those is the delivery of a freight container. We have finally 

become full-blooded Alaskans, we bought a freight container to 

use for storage so we can clean up our garage and get the mess in 

the yard under control. Of course the guy wanted to deliver it 

on Aniakchak day. 

"What time?"

"Oh, say about 1 pm."

Muttering to myself..."1 pm...that gives me like 4 hours from 

sunup...I can make that work...be a bit rushed if we don't get out 

promptly though..."

To him..."Okay."

So last night my son and a pal of his were helping me get the 

supports leveled for the container. We had previously done it, but 

were checking after a few days and adding a little height to the 

supports to make sure we had good door clearance on the uphill 

side. Of course we were doing that in the dark because I was working 

until after dark yesterday...but we got it done. Then Cedric's 

pal left to go home. Usually, he has arranged some sleepover or 

other, but here it was, a weekend where my son had not gotten 

himself any plans!

"You want to fly to Aniakchak with me?"

"Sure, well, I guess, I mean I don't have anything else lined up, 

so yeah, I could do that..."

The immortal words of a 12-year-old explaining how thrilled they 

are to spend a morning with their dad. Oh well, whatever works.

This morning I got him up and off we went. Stopped for gas and 

snacks, he got to buy snacks while I got the gas, then off to 

the plane. Preflight, fueled up, got the all-important snacks in place, 

Cedric untied the plane, then put on his winter gear. He was 

cold, wanted to wear enough clothes to warm up. Finally, we bundled 

in and were taking off just a few minutes after sunup. The sun 

was low over the mountains with Big Creek in the foreground as we 

headed south.

Cedric started looking sleepy within five minutes of departure, so I 

asked him if he wanted to fly. He did, so for the next 20 minutes 

he kept us headed in a pretty straight course southward toward Aniakchak 

while I looked around and acted like I wasn't helping him. 

Love those rudder pedals. 

Finally, he asked me to take the yoke again, and leaned his head on 

my shoulder and zonked. I was pretty sure he'd be asleep for 

most of the trip down, that is just the reality of his rhythm. But if we 

landed, that would wake him up, and I have a spot I've been 

wanting to land in the caldera, so we were headed there. As he slept, 

we passed Pilot Point out his window.

At that point, I started climbing. The caldera has two passes that go 

into it, one about 1,000 feet, the other about 2,000, but unless I 

wanted to fly around to enter one of those, I would need at least 3,000 

feet to peek in. Although we were in clear sky, there were clouds

shrouding part of the top of the caldera, so I didn't know exactly what 

we'd find when we got there. The mountain makes a pretty good

helping of weird weather all its own. Sometimes it will be cloudy 

everywhere else but the caldera will be blue sky. Sometimes it will be 

blue sky everywhere and the caldera is like a snow cone spilling 

clouds over. What would we get today?

As we got near, I could see that we were going to have at least part 

of the caldera open, and it looked like under the clouds the Gates 

might be open as well. So we could fly in, descend and land, then 

take off and fly out the Gates. I was hoping to fly down the river, 

then back up to King Salmon by Mount Chiginigak. But around 20 

miles out I was starting to doubt whether it was going to work quite 

like that. Starting around 30 miles out we were getting a little bit of 

burbly air. Finally, as we approached, it got just burbly enough that 

it was unsettling. But we were definitely going to be seeing in. 

I woke up sleeping beauty and started telling him what we were seeing, 

starting with the cinder plains outside the caldera. Then we 

broke over the rim and saw Surprise Lake greeting us.

The upper end of Surprise Lake has some cinder cones around it, and 

Vent Mountain rises up right in the middle of the caldera floor, 

and is taller than the wall we flew in over, though not taller than the 

wall on the other side...

The east side of the caldera was pretty unappetizing air as we flew 

around to check things out. Looking down at the lake surface, I 

could tell that the wind was light on the caldera floor, but if we descended 

we were going to need to either climb back up corkscrewing 

to gain altitude, or fly out the Gates. The wind in the Gates is never 

calm, and flying over near the Gates told me I wasn't going to do 

that today. So we elected to save the landing for another day. Instead, 

we caught a massive updraft behind Vent Mountain and took 

another turn around the place. I snapped a photo of the western 

section, where the eruption pit from 1931 is in the distance, and half 

cone, an eruption from around 500 years ago, is visible closer in. 

Since we had brought cokes, and since Cedric always does better if 

we stop and stretch, and we wanted to empty our bladders to make 

room for the coke, we agreed we'd find someplace to land on the way 

home. In the caldera, I've walked most of the floor, so I know 

exactly where I can operate. But outside the caldera, there are the 

established airstrips, and there are lots of cinder blows that have 

airplane activity on them. 

A friend of mine that is familiar with the Pumice Creek cinder blow had 

told me that it was sufficiently firm for my little non-bush 

wheels, and it was the first option we were going to come to. So I flew 

over to it, found a stiff wind coming down off the mountains, 

flew a couple practice approaches, and then landed. The strip we used, 

of the options on the blow, was about 1000'. Landing in 1000' 

in a PA-22 is no big deal. Taking off in that span is no big deal now 

that the engine has been overhauled and the prop is new, but I 

wouldn't have done it two years ago. The cabin in the background 

is used by the Alaska State Troopers.

From there, it was a launch home and look for critters all the way. 

On the way out of King Salmon I had spotted a moose while Cedric 

was snoozing. So we were looking for a moose all the way back. But 

no luck on that. What we did see a few miles before we got to the 

Egegik River was a beautiful bull caribou. 

A totally lovely flight. Had a great morning. Got back in time...but the 

guy canceled on us. So we could have played around a 

little more. Oh well. There will hopefully be more opportunities.

Yeah blue and beautiful, welcome to the bush. 

Sometimes people try to put siding on them so they don't look like containers. But the container, delivered, is less than $4,000. A stick-built storage building of the same size, in this location, finished, is over $16,000...and probably doesn't last as long. So pretty much all of bush Alaska looks pretty post-industrial. Except for government housing, where the normal approach to suburban development is in play. But there's a reason why HUD units in rural Alaska cost $1M each or more...not affordable...

Got to see if I can fix that text...