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May 21, 2006
A Somewhat Organized Outpouring of Random Thoughts
As promised, this entry will touch upon topics such as my backpacking trip and a silly racing decision I made, among a long list of other things that are pouring forth from my brain.
1) Escaping into Yellowstone's backcountry for an overnight was plausibly a required activity for my sanity and general well-being. I was sinking into a case of general lethargy, malaise, and "I only want to do what I want to do" fuzz, and it buoyed me back up again.
When one goes out hiking with one or more other people, the group must decide whether a hike will be a destination hike or a discovery hike prior to departing. The distinction is simple, a destination hike is when you're hiking (generally a longer distance) for the purpose of getting to a place (ie: a lake, a cabin, a peak) and a discovery hike is when the journey (generally a shorter distance) and all the things you see along the way (ie: wildflowers, butterflies, unknown tree species) is the focus of the trip. My friend and I decided that this was to be a short discovery hike to an overnight campsite.
We hiked about 4.5-ish miles into the Hellroaring Creek drainage, and then walked upstream to a wide, green meadow at the confluence of a smaller creek called Coyote Creek with Hellroaring Creek. Along the way, we stopped to watch some bison graze (That's not too interesting, they don't do much!) and we saw lots of wildflowers. The lupines are just now sprouting, so it'll be a few weeks before the hillsides are covered with this quintessential mountain flower. The other interesting thing we found was a 6-point winter kill elk. My more knowledgeable hiking companion said this was likely a wolf pack kill. All that was left was its skeleton and antlers, and, though some might find it kind of gross to look at, I was intrigued. The antlers in particular were awesome.
Both Hellroaring and Coyote Creeks were running hard, fast, and loud with snowmelt water, such that the sounds of the water drowned out any other natural noises in the meadow where we camped. I didn't mind, though, as the power of nature evidenced by these creeks was impressive. The weather was outstanding, probably around 75 degrees and sunny both days. I question whether it was colder than 45 degrees overnight, it felt almost too warm while snuggled into my sleeping bag!
Since the distance was short, we decided to bring several things to make this trip luxurious, such as good food, good wine, and a good book. Before we left, we had made pesto sauce and froze it into a ziplock to bring, and we had toasted some pine nuts to bring as well. We each brought a book, so that we could lay next to the creek, reading and relaxing.
We arrived to our campsite mid-afternoon and set up camp. In bear country, they say that your camp should form a triangle. You should set up your tent on one corner of the triangle, cook on another corner, hang your food in a tree on the last corner, and each side of the triangle should be 100 yards long. This took a bit of organizing, and I felt like I needed a math expert to help me figure it out. Kidding, but concentration was required.
The rest of the day was spent in total, uninterrupted relaxation. We basked on some rocks overlooking the creek, explored up and down the smaller Coyote Creek, talked, explored the nooks and crannies of the meadow, and sat quietly watching the world go by (You know, the natural world, hawks in the air, sticks and branches in the water, that sort of stuff.). Eventually, we settled onto the rocks above the creek, ate cheese tortellini with pesto sauce and pine nuts, drank wine, and had dried fruit for dessert. The evening light lasted so long, we could see easily until after 10 pm!
In the morning, the meadow's grass was cool and slightly damp with dew and it felt so good to lay in it when the sun came over the hill! Sometimes, when I let my dog out in the morning, she gets down and rolls in the grass in my yard. I always thought it was silly, but now I understand why she does it. We climbed up onto our token rock pile again for tea and breakfast, more simple, but still great fare. I felt like a queen!
The hike out was a bit more arduous, climbing up some switchbacks out of the Hellroaring Creek drainage. But the distance was short and our packs were lighter and we were at the trailhead way too fast. I didn't want to be back in the frontcountry and back to my regular life so soon! However, this peaceful, albeit brief, respite was exactly what I needed to find calmness, motivation, and a feeling of normalcy, things that had been eluding me.
2) My original goal race for the spring was a half marathon on the first weekend in June. I had even talked a far away friend into traveling to my general geographic area to race this and to just hang out for the weekend. Well, I'm not in shape for racing a half, but my friend is still coming to race and hang out that weekend. Fine, fine, I'll go. However, let me state here that I'm not going to race it (and you all better hold me to that statement), I'm going to "fun run" it. No stupid decisions at the toe-the-line moment or when I see women take off, no racing.
3) I haven't bantered much recently about school. Yesterday I turned in my horribly belated last assignments of the semester. They were due 2 weeks ago. I haven't heard from my professors lately, so I hope that they'll still grade them. With the completion of these assignments and this semester, thus finishes my poor decision to work full time and go to graduate school full time. While I've known that this was a bad decision for 2 years now, I followed through with it (My Dad always said, and I have no idea where this comes from, "If you're going to be a clam digger, be a good one." I think it means that, in whatever random thing you decide to do, make sure you do your best at it.). Completing this semester also means that I've finished all the classes I need for a Master's degree. Now, the remaining work is a thesis, which is a large project in itself, but at least it won't be full time schoolwork. I feel like I should be more excited about this juncture in my graduate school career, but mostly I feel only relief.
4) My running. I'm desperately trying to acclimatize to the sudden onslaught of heat. Here at 6300 feet, the temperatures have crept steadily to 80 degrees for the last week. Below me, where I usually do workouts and long runs, temperatures are in the upper 80s. I've got to get used to that again. I felt like I was melting when I ran 8 miles today at 88 degrees. Aside from the weather, my running is starting to get back to where it was. After a 2.5-ish week hiatus from any decent mileage, I wrapped up a low 40s mileage week this week (and some decent cross-training), and I'm hoping I'll see 50 again next week with a longer run and a workout (and some more decent cross-training). Then, I'll feel like a runner again.
5) Other people's running. I have to decide in the next few weeks whether I'm going to coach high school cross country again. I'm having a hard time making this decision. I'm pretty sure that I'll do it, even though it's difficult to do while working 12 hour shifts in emergency services, but oh well. It's just too much fun. And the kids are great. And they are fine runners. And, and, and.
Ok, that's it, novella of random thoughts finis.
Posted by Meghan at May 21, 2006 3:08 PM
Comments
My dad used to say the same thing, only he focussed on street-cleaning :)
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at May 22, 2006 5:39 AM
just getting caught up and i'm loving your back packing description! man...that makes me yearn for some time in the yosemite back country. now that i get my every other friday off again, i think i'll head up sometime soon. and take wine. and pesto. all of which are good for your soul.
i'm glad you got a nice break!
Posted by: jeff at June 1, 2006 12:10 PM