I'm retired from racing. Really.

Pictures from yesterday's run with Paul:

A view of Cherry Peak from the climb: 

Paul running through his favorite part- a high meadow with lots of flowers:

Approaching the lake from below:

Crystal clear, smooth water- beautiful and peaceful.  We didn't see anyone for hours:

Paul and I taking in the view:

View of Logan and Cache Valley from the high point:

Mt. Naomi, the highest mtn in the Bear River Range.  We were only 500 ft below it and could almost reach out and touch it:

 Running between saddles:

Logan Canyon and Mt. Logan in the distance:

A waterfall in Cherry Creek canyon, one of many:

AM- 6 easy.  Family is out of town, so lots of trail mileage the next 2 evenings.

PM- Drove to Richards Hollow for a nice trail run.  Got started a bit late- 7:30 or so. Quite a nice trail- the first 2 miles climb 1400 ft, but then it flattens out in a nice meadow, with low mountains on either side and a meandering stream.  The next 4.7 miles climb only a net 1100 ft, though there is a lot of undulating.  I made it to the road at the top (6.7 miles, 72 minutes = 10:45 avg pace) and had hurry down to not get caught in the dark (47 min = 7:00 avg pace down).  Not a single person on the trail the whole time, though I did startle lots of deer that were eating at dusk, including some nice bucks.  Lots of mosquitos to eat me, plus other bugs that wanted to suicide kamikaze-style into my mouth and eyes (ouch).  Easy pace, but nice run.  Added a bit on the road at the end to make it 14 miles even in 2:07:28, with 4000 ft climbing and equal amount descending.  Good start to the week.  I enjoy this trail, though not as much as Jardine... partly because you have to drive almost 4 miles on a rough dirt road, which is very hard on my poor Toyota Tercel.  Finally got home after 10 pm for dinner.

Cody, for the record, the trail crosses the stream 18 times in the first 4.8 miles (before the junction), including 5 times in .25 mile.  Although a few of the crossings were dry.  And there are 9 more stream/water crossings on the Elbow, meaning 27 total water crossings!  Each way!  But the stream is low enough I never got more than my toes wet. 

A few photos for enjoyment- the first is the meandering stream and singletrack:

Nice open meadow for running

A very impressive beaver dam:

The builder and proprietor of said dam.  He enjoyed loudly splashing his tail to startle me: 

AM- 5.

Some idiot took the photos of our home listing on MLS, and made a fake Craigslist add saying our house is for rent, very cheap, fully furnished.  They even made a fake email address Jonathan21A@yahoo.com, or something like that, and asked renters to wire him some money to reserve it.  The listing included our real home address- so people are showing up at our house wanting to rent it.  It's got me pretty agravated.

PM- Sometimes it only takes one mile to realize that you've been pushing yourself real hard, you've got a few niggles bordering on getting worse, and you haven't been getting near enough sleep to recover.  The smart thing to do is bag the run and get some extra rest.  Today was one of those days for me.  1 mile. 

Cody and I ran up Franklin Basin on July 5.  Looks like we should keep our eyes open for some new adventure...

PM- 10 with Cody up the Logan canyon trail.  Nice to have him back in town and hear about his Yellowstone adventure.  No time, but I felt 100 times better than yesterday.  I got 6.5 hours of sleep last night, which is a ton more than the 4.5 to 5 hrs the two previous nights. 

AM- 9.  Only 5 full days of work left... not that I'm counting or anything.

PM- 8 miles with the kids in the jogging stroller while someone looked at our house.  The kids were very well behaved.  Although I have slowly realized that it is a lot harder to push the 60-65 lbs of kid weight now than it was to push 30 lbs two years ago. 

Went camping last night, so didn't get my run in until 12:30 pm.  Hot, hot, hot- 95 when I finished!  I've always wanted to do North Syncline when I could enjoy it, since I have only run it as part of Logan Peak Run.  So I ran up Dry Canyon to North Syncline, then down to Inspiration Point.  The run up Dry was hot and slow (3100 ft climb in 3.6 miles), with lots of pictures.  North Syncline is rather enjoyable and mostly shaded, and rolls between 7800 to 8600 ft.  I was able to enjoy lots of nice views of Logan Canyon that I've never had time to look at before.  Once I hit the end of NS, I ran down the ATV trail to Inspiration Pt, which is a peninsula (of sorts) with wonderful views of Spring Hollow and Logan Canyon.  It took me 1:45 to run the 8.5+ miles to the overlook, so pretty slow.  The run back was enjoyable but hotter as I descended down Dry.  I saw 3 people on my way up Dry, but no one the rest of the day- very isolated.  And did I mention hot?  I drank 32 oz Powerade at the start, all 70 oz in my Nathan pack, and a 32 oz Jamba Juice afterwards, and still lost weight.  I pushed it a bit on some of the downhill, with some sub-6 pace, but generally relaxed.  Total time was just over 3 hours for 17.5 miles, with 5100 ft climbing and 5100 descending.  I enjoy North Syncline, but it would be much better if you didn't have to run up Dry to get to it!  I was also sad to see a ton of cow damage to the trail and surrounding bushes- they really did a number to the plants.

I was looking at last Sat's run with Paul and noticed it was similar to today's run- pretty close, actually.  19.5 vs 17.5 miles,  4 hrs vs 3 hrs, and 5050 ft climbing vs 5100 ft.  I'll post pictures later.