To Bonfire Or Not To Bonfire

Twelve of the interns are leaving tomorrow morning and everybody is out at a bonfire. I contemplated going but decided not to. I didn't get much sleep last night since the championship volleyball team went out to Pburg to celebrate with a victory dinner. We got back pretty late, thus making my morning run a lot tougher than it should've been.

So, now I'm by myself in the lodge elevating my legs, getting ready for a long run tomorrow morning. Sounds terrible I know, but it's really not since the internet is ridiculously fast now that nobody's here.

Less Than 2 Weeks To Go

I only have 9 days left in Montana. I'm sad that it's coming to an end but I'm definitely ready to go home. That being said, there's still 9 days left to slam...

Garnet Ghost Town

We went to the Garnet Ghost Town, right outside of Drummond, yesterday afternoon. Compared to Granite, this town was a lot more preserved. Interestingly enough, this is where the term "arrested decay" was coined. All of the buildings in the town have been restructured and renovated but were done so in a way which has preserved the original look and feel of Garnet. Unlike Granite, Garnet was a drinking town during the prohibitionist era that was home to 1000 people. There were 13 saloons and speakeasies in the town! Fun stuff. Finished off the day with a burger steak at "The Wagon Wheel" restaurant in Drummond.

'Tis the Weekend

The annual PVS Olympics were held yesterday afternoon. It was Team PCT (Political Courage Test) VS The World (All the other Departments). Team World, my team nbd, took home the bacon. Events consisted of tug of war, dodgeball, pie eating, trivia, relay race and greased up watermelon.

Festivities were taken to the White Front in PBurg, where a Johnny Cash/ACDC cover band congratulated us all night long.

I've woken up, had a cereal bar and drank water. 20 miler time - Let's go baby!

Glacier National Park

We had a group of 25 interns roll to Glacier National Park this weekend. This was hands down the best weekend I've had in Montana. Yellowstone comes close but the sights along with my sunday long run tops anything I've done here. To the left is a picture of the entire group at Logan Pass, a cool 3 mile hike that we did up a snow bank. In the background is a glacier.

We left late on Friday after work. Most of the group left after lunch but I didn't want to have to make up hours so Brian, Graham, Darren and myself left later. We got to the campsite pretty late at around 12. We went to bed after eating hotdogs.

I woke up early to run on Saturdya morning. I started from St. Mary's campsite and just ran out and back to the left. It was my first time running on concrete since Yellowstone. Felt great.

The rest of the day was spent completing the 6 mile hike to Iceburg Lake. I've never done a polar bear plunge but this had to be nearly as hardcore. Basically, it was the greatest ice bath I've ever taken. There were freaking icebergs in the water!


As awesome as Saturday was, Sunday was perhaps even cooler. After completing the greatest long run ever, we went rock/bridge jumping into a waterfall. The water was cold but not as cold as Iceberg Lake. I had the wind knocked out of me immediately on impact. It was awesome.


We headed to Logan Pass after the jumping. Although it was only 3 miles, trekking through the snow was tough. The animals around got very close - only place in the world where you can see mountain goats! The drive back was only 4 hours compared to the 6 that it took us to get there.

Way past my bedtime

It's really late so i don't have time to update this tonight but...
the tempo went well and the basketball game was going well until my teammate tore his ACL going up for the game winning layup. he's in the hospital now getting xrays done. Feel better Matt. Now, time to get some rest for another big day. 14 miles or so in the morning and then a nice afternoon of most likely splitting wood.

The pictures of Glacier are sweet and I'll post them soon.

Basketball - Round 1

5 mile tempo on tap for this evening immediately followed by the first game in the basketball tournament.
The legs are feeling good; this bodes well for the court.

Glacier was a blast. Took the coldest ice bath ever. I'll post pictures soon.

Bball and Vball Don't Mix with Hundred Mile Weeks

Yea...not a good combination.

Heading to Glacier National Park for the weekend. Hopefully, I'll have the pleasure of getting a run in with Elliot.

Volleyball Champions!

We won, undefeated, nuff said

Pretty uneventful day otherwise. Oh, yesterday was cool - got to play with horses in the afternoon instead of working. Lots of brushing and spraying of the fly spray. Fun stuff.

Volleyball - Second Round

Missed the second round of volleyball last night while I was doing my tempo run. My team decided to replace me with no one other than my own roommate, Graham. Fortunately, he's dec so no worries. Round 3 is in 25 minutes. The winners of the tournament get a dinner at the Silver Mill.

One of those days

Sometimes you just feel terrible and nothing seems to click. Today was like that for me. I woke up late and had to run shorter in the morning. After work, I went for 11 miles. I twisted my left ankle for the first time since I've been here, stepped on a snake and almost got bitten, it was extremely windy and it seemed like there was grit and dirt being blown into my face the entire run. Worst of all I had to go to the bathroom in the woods in a state that only has pine trees. I mean seriously, is it too much to ask to get some leaves around here?

It was just one of those days. They're unavoidable. Everybody has them and it's no surprise that the overbearing frustration gets the best of us at times. But no matter what, we must not lose sight of the goal. For if it is kept in mind there is nothing that can rob us of the sliver hope that gets us through these types of days.

I'll be back on the trails tomorrow tempoing it up, hopefully feeling better. But if I'm not feeling that great I guess it really doesn't matter. Either way, it's going to be a great workout and a great day.

National Folk Festival

We went to the National Folk Festival yesterday! It was a great day of jamming out to Super Chikan and the Fighting Cocks, Silencia, and a plethora of other bluegrass bands. The music was real cool and I've definitely gained a new appreciation for folk culture.

When Cara, Hillary, and myself (there you go) were getting food, we were confronted by Peppermint Patty, an awesome retired construction worker. She's one of the freest spirit I've ever met. She smokes a lot of weed and drink lots of mountain dew.

Legs were dead by the end of the night. The training is going well.

7 Spots

It's wide open guys...
Let's get to work

Volleyball - First Game

Tonight was the first night of the annual PVS sports tournament. My volleyball team did a great job! Shoutout to Rebekah Prince for being a complete beast at the serve! We slipped a little in the second game but I'm sure it was just a case of the first game jitters. Game 2 is next week.

Workout Wednesday

Wednesday is always a great day for me. I only have to run once and I get to work outside in the afternoons. Last week, I split wood for 3.5 hours. Today, I stained the lodge deck. Me, Jay, Andrew, and Art did some serious work!

Granite Ghost Town

Rachel, Cara, Yuchen, Meredith and myself made a trip to the Granite Ghost Town on Monday. The town, most well known for its ruby mine, was inhabited by more than 3,000 people back in middle of the 19th century. However, executive orders that placed government rights on a large percentage of the rubies drove all of the miners out by 1930. The ruins of the mine were really cool, but the empty homesteads were even cooler. The town operated completely independently from Phillipsburg, although high schoolers did have to walk 4 miles to town if they attended school, and had its own general store, church, and hospital. Amazing stuff!

Here's a picture of us at the highest point of the mine. They don't call it Big Sky country for nothing'

3 Day Weekend!

This is coming a bit late, but the 3 day weekend was amazing. Saturday, we went to see the Missoula Osprey, the minor league affiliate of the Diamondbacks, play ball. This was the only other minor league game I've seen besides the Trenton Thunder so I was impressed. The game was followed by a really good fireworks show. At first I thought real life was as realistic as it came, but they gave out 3-d glasses at the front of the stadium since it was supposedly a 3-d fireworks show. It didn't work and just made everything trippy.

Sleeping In

I got to wake up whenever I wanted this morning! Just ate a bagel and now am ready to slam an 18 miler in two hours. I'm excited since not running within minutes of waking up should feel a lot better.
We'll be hitting up Missoula for a minor league baseball game and fireworks later on tonight.

Everything I Could Ask For

Yesterday:
Run in the morning, work until lunch, chop wood for 3 hours, play basketball in the evening
Today:
Run in the morning, work until lunch, work some more, run again, take the rowboat out and read Chaucer in the midst of a glistening sunset.

I guess Montana's alright...

Yellowstone

We had a solid crew of 17 interns roll to Yellowstone National Park for the weekend. It was among the most amazing places I've ever been to. Everything was picturesque and the wildlife was really cool, not to mention delicious. We made the 6 hr drive on Friday immediately after getting off of work and got to the park by 11. My car got there late so we didn't have to set up camp, but I imagine that setting up the tents in the rain and in the dark was pretty miserable.
Much of Saturday was spent looking at the breathtaking Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We saw it from three different angles and every single one was just as spectacular. Saturday's 17 mile long run in the park was rough. I encountered a 27 minute long uphill. Also, it was the first time I've run on concrete in the past 5 weeks. Good run though. I got really sweaty and dehydrated and had to wait until we got to the campsite to shower. Unfortunately, the shower was located 16 miles away from the campsite so instead of driving to it, a couple of us jumped into an awesome sulfur mineral bath instead. It wasn't Caldwell but it got the job done.

I woke up early on Sunday afternoon a restful night on slanted bed of rocks. Saw two male moose and a bison on my run. Surprisingly, there was still chunks of ice in the river. Our next stop was Old Faithful. I'm not going to lie, the entire thing was a bit anticlimactic, yet still amazing to watch. I guess this counts for this weeks Summit Sunday. Although it does seem a bit superfluous compared to Mt. Ebe and Huff Puff, we did climb 200 feet to reach the highest point to watch the hot spring go off.

We were out of the park pretty soon after that. However, the trip was far from over. I ate my first buffalo burger on the way home from the park. It was leaner and a bit tougher than hamburger meat, but I couldn't really tell the difference other than that. Still, there is something satisfying about eating the animals that you see in the wild. We got back at around 8:30 in the evening and I went to sleep so that I could get up the next morning to run. It was a great weekend.