The Best Alternative to Caldwell

Mr. Weaver's hot tub up at his cabin was filled when we got there. Fortunately for me the water was 37 degrees.

Summit Sunday #3

We spent the past weekend on a two day hike led by expert outsdoorsman, and neighbor, Jim Weaver. We left on Saturday morning. The weather was nice out - sunny and warm. We drove out past trail 80 and started at the trailhead of Copper Creek. The first day ended up being 9 miles, all of it uphill and that took us about 5 hours. It was pretty snowy towards Jim's cabin. Andrew and I trailblazed the last 1.5 miles and ended up basically finding the cabin on our own.
Jim's cabin was amazing. He bought the land site unseen and built the cabin in one year, only working on it on weekends! The cabin itself accomodated all 21 of us comfortably. Also, the outhouse is the bathroom with the most picturesque view that I have ever had the privilege of using. I slept on the top loft along with 4 other people and it was very cozy. We had delicious burgers for dinner and went to bed pretty early.
Following morning was uneventful. Woke up, cleaned up, and got back on the trail. A few of us decided to try and go the long way - up through the biterroot pass, but after hiking a mile uphill, the three foot snowdrifts were too much. We ended up going back the way we came. 2.5 hrs later I was back at the trailhead. I ditched my bag and ran back to the lodge.

Weekend Status

Total Time: 27 hrs
Total Mileage: 42 miles (23 running, 19 hiking)
Total Climb: 1500 feet

Morning

Dread: it is the feeling shared by all runners on mornings when his body begs for ten more minutes of sleep, hopelessly wishing that somehow his legs will be rejuvenated if he simply thinks about them enough. The warmth of his bed inviting him to succumb to the grasps of mediocrity. He always thinks about it, gives it an undeserving thought and reaches into the depths of his imagination attempting to justify and rationalize the possibility of skipping the run.

He opens his eyes. It's bright outside. To the right is the window, the soft sunlight nudging him to wake up. His two roomates are still sound asleep at the left side of the cabin. He redirects his gaze to the ceiling and sees the scotch-taped piece of paper that reminds him why he's out here. Believe Believe Believe. His renewed resolve is enough to lift his tired legs out of bed. It always is because desire is as hard as diamond, it will never back down to any physical obstacle as long as there is finish line which MUST be reached.

It only takes him a couple minutes to dress. He takes one more look at his sleeping roomates as he turns the doorknob. He can't avoid feeling just a little sorry for them, knowing that they will never dwell in the pleasure of accomplishing so much before the other interns open their eyes. The next couple seconds are a blur - a combination of cold and drowsiness that welcomes the new day.

Jambalaya,Snow and Bears Oh My

The past couple days have been pretty crazy. It was freezing during my Monday morning run. I climbed a few hundred feet and it was snowing. Crazier thing was that I ran shirtless in the afternoon. I ran into a bear on my Tuesday morning run. Luckily, we were both scared and ended up running in opposite directions. Lastly, I ate some bad jambalaya and now my stomach hurts. Don't worry mom it's not too bad and I'm feeling fine.

Summit Sunday 2 - Huff Puff

Did a really nice long run yesterday - 15 miles at under 6 minute pace. With the hills and altitude, I'm happy with that for the time being. So I was going to take today easy but instead, succumbed to Andrew's offer of doing a time trial up Huff Puff Mountain.

The Climb: Easily one of the hardest things I've ever done and a lot more satisfying than the Miley Syrus song. We warmed up for it like a race and we were ready to roll. Unfortunately, Andrew didn't tell me that weren't taking a trail - we trailblazed the entire way and ran straight up the mountain. The first half mile was "runnable" as in we could use our legs but the rest of the way was done on all fours.

Distance: 1.75 miles
Total Climb: 1850 feet
Total Time: 31:44






Andrew's phone camera sucks but the great divide is still visible. It was breathtaking.

Liberty

My New Home. Don't know too much about the roomies but there names are Peter and Aaron. Peter was in the Navy for 3 years while I think Aaron is a senior in college. Anyways, it's a nice room with its own hot water heater. Only problem is, it's on the end of the water line so it's a drip. However, it's an extremely satisfying drip that is warm whenever you want it to be.

7 To Liberty

This past weekend was a great time. The temps got up to the lower 70s and it didn't rain at all. On Friday night I was asked to switch rooms because they needed mine for some non male interns that arrived on Saturday. I went from having a dark and creepy room with the smallest sink the world to sharing an amazing log cabin with two other dudes. Good deal.
Old room:






Seriously the smallest sink in the world. Also the greatest watch tan in the world.

The White Front

My first weekend on the ranch was a great success. Friday night, we went to both the Silver Mill and the White Front. The latter was awesome - a cowboy bar that has an interior decorated with confederate flags. My atrocious dancing skills were masked by the smelly drunkenness of the cowboys along with my own shouts whenever an old lady would bump and grab me. Pburg's social scene is a lot like Hooters - tacky, yet unrefined.

On a side note, here are a couple more pictures of the ranch: the main fireplace/living room, bar, dining area, and the outside porch of my room. Interior pics of my room to come once I clean up a bit.

Summit Sunday 1 - Mt. Ebe

The past two days have been absolutely filled with fun and excitement. I got a care package from my mom, which was awesome and also allowed me to do laundry for the first time. That comprised the latter half of my day while the first half was spent going on the most picturesque run I've ever been on. Andrew and I decided to try and find a loop that would spit us out to the other side of Moose Lake Road. The plan was to go on Trail 29, follow it to Trail 119, go past Edith Lake, then connect onto Trail 24. That didn't happen. Instead, we followed trail 29 and ended up running up a mountain for an hour.
Stuff I saw on the run:
moose
white water waterfall
top of huffpuff mountain
western edge of the great divide
death
Total Climb: 1550 feet.
Total Time: 1:51:20
It was a great run - we reached the summit and couldn't go any further due to 3 foot snowdrifts. I never thought I'd average 10:30 pace for a prolonged period of time and be exhausted. I did that today.

Brian Leung - Pro DD

Went out to the town of Philipsburg with a couple of the interns for the first time last night. We went to one of the two bars in the town of 900 people. It was a chill time. I used my amazing skill of remaining sober and did a great job of driving back- nbd. It was my first time driving out west and was awesome. There were no lights on the highway and I was going fast (but continued to practice safety). Driving on a twenty mile dirt road was fun as well. We'll probably hit up the other bar in town, I think it's called "The White Front", tomorrow night.

Suns Out Guns Out

So it's been raining on and off here the past two days and it's getting kind of annoying. I started my run at 6 this morning and got soaked. But then it was sunny by the time I finished. It's weird cause I'll be sweating and there will be a snow-capped mountain off in the distance.
Anyways, day 2 of work was slightly better. I used my afternoon break to go for an insanely short rowboat ride. Running still feels terrible but I did managed to go for >50 minutes this morning. I'm aiming for an hour tomorrow morning. All the interns drove out to Phillipsburg, which is an hour away, to play softball against some other team but doubling prevented me from going.
Oh, and I almost forgot to tie everything back to the title. Finished off my evening run with half a mile of strides. It was freezing out but I had to go shirtless since the sun was out. The possibility of impressing the interns who were outside didn't cross my mind at all I swear haha.