Cold!

Monday: I ran the Mormon Temple Loop from the school.  3.5 miles.

Tuesday: I had students in late for makeup work, so I finally took a day off.  I needed it--my knees were killing me.

Wednesday: I had students stay later tonight than they did yesterday.  I wanted to run, but I had a meeting at R.E.I. that started at 6:30--no time tonight.

Thursday: Tonight the students were gone by 3pm, so I drove to Iller Creek to run the ridge route.  It was very cold, so I figured that the mud would be solid again.  It was--with a solid sheet of ice on top in most places!  It's a wonder I never crashed.  I went up 20 minutes--I didn't get nearly as far as I normally do in that time--and then I came back down as carefully as possible.  Then it was back to work for a couple more hours.  4 miles.

Friday:  I returned to the Dishman Hills to run the loop out by East/West Pond and around through Camp Caro.  Wednesday's meeting was about the Earth Day service project, and I wanted to visit my adopted project area.  The girls don't know it yet, but I volunteered the xc team to work on the native plant garden--we'll replant it at the service day, and then water it all summer when we run out there.  I don't think they'll mind!  :) 3.5 miles.

Saturday: I started as early as I was able to, and drove up to Curlew to check out the Rail Trail ski day.  It was fun, but they really need more snow--I gouged my skis on rocks several times.  I skied out to the tunnel and back; some kids I met on the trail told me that was two miles each way. Then I drove down to Thirteen Mile to camp.  I got there with a couple hours of light remaining, and it promised to be good light, too.  I decided to hike straight up the hillside above the trail head to try to get to the rock face that towers over the campground.  It was a lot steeper than it looked from down below!  When I got nearly to the rock face I found a giant standing snag that looked spectacular in the late afternoon light, so I spent a lot of time taking pictures from different angles.  I was afraid I'd run out of daylight after that, and I certainly didn't want to go back down the steep slope in the dark, so I decided to start back for the trail head.  I started following game trails and contouring along hillside instead of going straight down.  As it turned out, it wasn't a game trail after all; I soon saw the "center stock driveway" signs along the route.  I need to look up more information on these signs, but a lot of them have graffiti dating back to the 1930s and 1940s.  One of the ones I saw tonight was signed May 29, 1946!  Once I knew I was back on the stock driveway, I hiked out quite a way so that I could intersect the trail and take it back to trail head.  I came out above all of the switchbacks and hiked back down before it was completely dark.  Then I started a campfire and ate dinner while I waited for the others to show up to camp.  It snowed for a little while while I was on the trail, and it was cloudy for a little while at camp, but then it cleared and became frigid.  My neck still hurts from looking up at the stars, though--there's no light pollution at Thirteen Mile, and the stars were spectacular!  Ski: 4 miles; hike: 3 miles.

Sunday: Today wasn't exactly what we intended, but that happens sometimes I guess!  It was soooo cold this morning, and I never exactly warmed up after I went to bed.  Then we had...communication issues...that led to a very truncated hike.  I started back for Spokane, but decided to stop at Sherman Pass to dig out my water bottle and a snack and contemplate a trail run.  I ran into the Colemans at the pass, and Tim suggested that I ski the South Fork Sherman Creek roadbed--so I did!  It started snowing in earnest while I was there.  I skied for an hour and then got home, exhausted, before dark.  Hike: about a mile; ski: about 5 miles.

Weekly stats: run = 11 miles; xc ski = 9 miles; hike = 4 miles