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April 2, 2007
Weekend Wanderings
I'm exhausted; time to recover from the weekend. Actually, this weekend ended up being fairly low key, which I'm happy with.
My sweetie and I spent Saturday afternoon road biking in Grand Teton National Park. While the inner park road is still closed to vehicle traffic (like Yellowstone's roads), it's open to bike traffic. This is a much more popular road biking route than Yellowstone. When we arrived at the parking area about 10 miles north of Jackson, WY, there were several dozen cars there.
It's so awesome biking on closed roads! You can pedal right down the center yellow line and not have to worry about a thing! We did a 40 mile ride, and we were out for just shy of 3 hours. That included a 5 mile climb to the top of Signal Mountain, which has a great view of just about the whole national park. I decided to stay out of my saddle and climb hard for as long as I could survive, and I made it more than 4 miles up before I sat down, geared down, and recovered. Of course, though, my best efforts were far surpassed by my sweetie's climbing skills, as he disappeared above me before we even reached halfway! About 15 miles from the car, we had to stop so I could warm up my feet. They were frozen! I will be the first to admit that I'm a fair weather biker in the first place. Secondly, I don't really have cold weather biking gear. My shoes and feet were wet from road spray, and it was only about 40 degrees outside, and there was a friendly head wind. It took about 10 minutes of rubbing them before I could feel them again! Aside from chilled feet, it was a great ride in full view of the Teton Mountains in the middle of a deserted national park.
That evening, we went out to dinner and I had my first beer in a long time. I just don't drink that stuff anymore! It made me so sleepy that I forgot to stay awake until midnight to register for this race. Argh! I'm so mad at myself! This will be the second year in a row that I spaced registration! I remembered on Sunday morning, got online, and the registration website actually accepted my money. About 10 minutes later when my sweetie went to register, the website wouldn't take his money, calling the race full. The registration website automatically accepts 250 entrants plus a so-far undisclosed amount of wait listers. I'm sure that my registration is at the very bottom of the waiting list, if the whole race was full 10 minutes later. So sad! That's what I get for drinking a beer! One single, lousy beer!
I was wholly unmotivated to run on Sunday, since my running has been going so poorly and I'm taking a running hiatus. However, the prospects of spending the afternoon on some new routes/trails with my sweetie was enough reason to get out there! We intended to do a 17 mile or so run through the Big Hole Mountains outside of Driggs, ID. We ran on forest service dirt roads and snowmobile trails. It was a nice run, and I just tried to take it as easy as I could. We turned around just before we make it to the halfway point of the loop because the trail/road intersections had become unmarked and confusing, and because a snowstorm was rolling in. We made it back to the car literally moments before sleet and huge snowflakes began to fall. There was a lot of snow still in the Big Hole Mountains, but we were running on hard packed snow, which was fine for running. I think our run was about 14 miles and 2 1/2 hours, including about 2000 feet elevation gain and subsequent loss.
That's all folks! Thanks again for all your support about my potential new job. I'll keep you posted as things develop!
Posted by Meghan at April 2, 2007 8:52 AM
Comments
Sounds like a great ride and a great weekend! Glad you enjoyed! That race looks crazy - but then again, most of the races you do look crazy so it fits right in. :) I hope you and your sweetie both get in!
Posted by: Beth at April 2, 2007 12:07 PM
I ran this race in 2004 - I have a report on it too. It was AWESOME!! You will absolutely love it!
Posted by: olga at April 2, 2007 1:52 PM
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I hope U get in that race, & of course my Freak Friend OLGA ran that race-haha...
I tried to watch the Movie but URL wasn't coming up!
Great Bike ride & trail run this weekend!! my only problem is that there is SNOW & it's still cold up there...I am such a wimp about the cold--can I use the word HATE, or is that too strong...ok I really dislike the cold :-)I will FED X you some warm weather from FL
Posted by: Bob Gentile at April 2, 2007 5:32 PM
I hope you get in Meghan. Glad you had a good weekend and a good run.
Posted by: backofpack at April 2, 2007 7:17 PM
That looks like a beautiful race!
Michelle and I rode some closed streets up near Banff / Lake Louise in Alberta Canada. In fact we were able to ride our bikes to the Continental Divide w/o a single car to be seen. We're talking circa 1983 but it was absolutely filled with scenic splendor.
Umm ahh are we taking it easy so you can heal up?
Posted by: Eric at April 2, 2007 8:07 PM
Hi Meghan - I didn't know Bridger Ridge filled up so quickly and that registration was so early - and I can't blame beer so I guess I better get on the pipe and start checking up on this kind of stuff. I'm sorry your single indulgence may have come at such a high cost BUT "everything happens for a reason" (I know: blah blah blah - I prefer a variation on that: "let's make this have happened for a reason"... maybe you'll get in anyway or maybe you'll find another race around the same time. That is so very cool about the bike-only time for those park roads. How utterly awesome. Because cars are the ONLY reason I don't like to ride on roads. Although you are admirably circumspect in your descriptions of exactly what you do and what you are now going for, it all sounds mysteriously good! Lastly, I think it's smart that you're taking some time off running. I tend to recover more slowly from races than others I compare myself to and you're right, it doesn't seem fair, but it also shows how much you put into the race, of which you can be proud. :0)
Posted by: K Borgledyborg at April 2, 2007 11:22 PM
Sounds like some great scenery! great post
O yeah, and I did stop, however there were already 5 of his friends or people when I arrived and paramedics were on the way. Not much I could do besides get in the way.
hope all is well in your neck o the woods
WynnMan
Posted by: WynnMan at April 3, 2007 10:48 AM
Meghan, sounds like some great weekend activities. I have my fingers crossed for you and your dream job!! :)
Posted by: mary at April 3, 2007 10:51 AM
Hey, thanks for the idea! Inspired by this blog post, we went over to Teton Natl. Park today and biked the same route! :) We may have had better weather than you did last week, though. ?? It was gorgeous. Clear blue sky all around. I should have some photos posted by Monday! The road was full of cyclists, but we had the road up Signal Mountain all to ourselves :)
Thanks for being such an inspiration!!
Posted by: anne at April 7, 2007 10:00 PM