apAdventures

Two weeks ago, Paul and I, our friend Courtney, my sister Holly and Morgan were running along some trails up at the top of Mt. Lemmon. As we were trotting along, Courtney brought up the idea of Paul and I running the Imogene race in Colorado this year. A race? We’re always up for a fun little race every now and again. Colorado is beautiful….sounds fun!

Ok, a little more explanation please: The Imogene Pass Run is a 17.1 mile point-to-point mountain race within the western San Juan mountains of Colorado. Ahem….emphasis on the word ‘mountain’. The route connects the towns of Ouray (7810 feet) and Telluride (8820 feet) by way of the 13,120 foot Imogene Pass. You do the math. We’re talking MASSIVE elevation gain here.

So we’re trotting along up on Lemmon, tired, dehydrated and obviously completely delirious because Paul and I said “Let’s go for it.”

The race is scheduled for Saturday, Sept 9th, 7:30am. And today marks the first day of mine and Paul’s PTA Training (PTA = Pain, Torture, Agony….a trademark reference by our friend JR). After a grueling 9 mile-er this morning, we sat down in front of the computer….and…..registered. No backing out now.

Stay tuned for the success…or failure…of April & Paul’s ultimate trail running adventure up and over Imogene Pass this September 9th:

On Saturday night April’s sister Holly arrived in Arizona.

She will be staying with us for the rest of the summer, working in Tucson and joining us on our crazy adventures. To start off, our first adventure to welcome her to Tucson was to go for a Sunday morning run. A little after 7:00AM yesterday, our friend Courtney, April, Holly, Morgan and I loaded up the car and headed to the top of Mt. Lemmon. We parked past the town of Summerhaven at the Marshal Gulch trailhead and planned out our run. It went like this, I said “Hey April, rather than take the shorter loop we had talked about I think we should run to the summit! I’m feeling psyched.” She said, “Yeah that sounds cool. Holly can walk if she can’t run it all.” ha ha.

In the end Holly did awesome! I was surprised. I thought she would have been way behind but she kept with us for most of the run. We all had a blast and rewarded ourselves with some fresh fudge, ice cream and a big steak dinner.

While running we had a conversation about doing the Imogene run in Colorado this September. It is a crazy 17.1 mile run between Ouray and Telluride. We are currently discussing if we can train enough between now and then (while still climbing a lot) and do the race. Stay tuned…

…or shall I say Mid-Summer’s Eve? There were clouds over Tucson this morning. Clouds, glorious clouds. Stepping out of work, I breathed in the oh-so-yummy smell of humidity. Clouds in Tucson bring humidity…just a teensy bit of humidity, but enough to notice the smell of it in this east-coaster’s nose. The temps are extremely mild tonight for this time of year. It’s been a mild winter all around, with not much rain. Hopefully these clouds hold the rain.

Paul and I decide to go for a nice long slow-paced run this evening in these pleasant temps. I wear shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt and wish I wore a short sleeve t-shirt. Dipping down into the washes, I run through warm pockets of air. The smell of barbequing is everywhere. People are relaxing in their backyards in front of the fire. Is this summer? No, this is Tucson.

This weekend Paul, the dogs (Morgan and Senga) and I went for a trail run up near the summit of Mt. Lemmon. Our friend Courtney showed us this really beautiful (and really hard!) loop back in the fall and we decided to tackle it a second time. The loop involves many link-ups that take you on the Aspen Trail, Marshall Gulch Trail, to the summit of Mt. Lemmon, down next to the ski slopes, through the mountain town of Summerhaven and back down to where the Butterfly trailhead parking lot is (via some “Fern-something” trail, I can’t remember the name). All in all, somewhere around 10 miles we figure. I’d say about 25% of this particular loop runs us straight through where the Aspen Fire of 2003 originated. So yes, some areas are burned to a crisp. Strangely enough though, my most favorite parts of the run are through the burned sections. The sections where the only thing left standing on a steep slope are charred sticks of trees, pitch-black figures against the cloudless blue sky. The ground, a blowing field of tall brown grass. Grass which wouldn’t typically grow in a dense pine forest, but is thriving now, given the loss of shade and nourishing sunlight. The view, down the mountain to the desert flats below, is incredible. No pesky trees blocking my line of sight. With every step, I can see for miles. No having to wait until the next “look-out” spot to take in the view. Paul even pointed out these distinctive double peaks we usually see when driving east to Hueco…which are part of the Chiricahua National Forest…about 2 hours away. (we jokingly refer to these as the “nipple tips”, haha, – I have no idea what they’re really called). And finally (I guess this is due to my being a rock climber), as I’m trotting along, I’m amazed at how much ROCK I see everywhere. Rock that was hidden by the forest, or hidden in the dirt, has now been exposed. I realize I’m actually running on giant slabs of rock, where the earth has burned away. Being from the east, where trees and vegetation nearly smother you it’s so dense, I’m really amazed at how beautiful a forest completely absent of the color green can be.

After a 22 hour traveling epic from NY back to Tucson, we needed to stretch our legs…

For our 1 year wedding anniversary we decided to start a new tradition that we will now refer to as, The Anniversary Hike. This first annual anniversary hike took us to Yosemite National Park. Following is a brief summary and 1, 2, 3, sets of photos, from the amazing things we saw and did on our trip.

Thursday September 29th:
Flew from Tucson to San Francisco via Las Vegas. Won $23.00 on the airport 25 cent slot machines. Spent $23.00+ on airport food. Arrived in San Francisco at about 1:30AM.

Friday September 30th:
Drove into downtown San Francisco and walked along the Embarcadero from the Bay Bridge to Pier 39 (San Fran. Bay waterfront). Highlight was the Sea Lions. Drove out of downtown San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge to highway 1. Visited Muir Woods (giant redwood forest). As the sun started to set we drove from Muir Woods to Muir Beach so April could see the Pacific Ocean for the first time. It was just like the movies: the sun was setting, the waves were crashing, we were walking hand in hand, barefoot, and all of a sudden as we climbed up on some boulders to get a better view of the ocean April says, “Dude, this beach reeks!…Oh God, it’s a dead rotting Sea Lion.” We quickly did a 180 and continued our love stroll the other way. After the sun set we started our drive to Yosemite National Park. Stopped for some “Chillin’ at da Holiday Innnnnnnn.”

Saturday October 1st:
Woke up late and arrived in Yosemite Valley at about 1PM. Threw on our hiking shoes and grabbed our packs. Paul says, “Let’s do Glacier Point, I think it’s only 4.7 miles one way.” As we started out, the first trail marker showed the distance to Glacier Point as 8.2 miles. Hmmm? Must be that means 8.2 miles for the round trip, right? No……we were going to Glacier Point via the Panoramic Trail, not the Four Mile Trail. Paul then says, “Ok, let’s do a little math. At a a speed of 2.0 mph (pushing it, with a 3200 ft elevation gain) we could potentially knock off this 16.4 mile hike in about 8 hours putting us only 2 hours in the dark (with headlamps). April says, “Do-able, lets go.” The hike was amazing, the views were spectacular, the temperature was perfect. The hike takes you past Nevada and Vernal Falls, and a hidden, several hundred foot waterfall that neither of us had seen before. You get views of Half Dome first from the back side, then the side profile, and then right at the end you see the front side. At a brisk pace we were back at the car by 8:15PM, just in time to get wine and pizza (thanks to our 3 miles of trail running, heh heh).

Sunday October 2nd (Anniversary Day):
Woke up semi-late, with plans of a nice breakfast, leisurely stroll through the village and a short hike. As we lay in bed we get the map out and start looking at options. April says,”Whoa, there’s a trail to the top of North Dome!” Paul says, “Let’s do the math.” Next thing we know we are on our way up Yosemite Falls trail heading to North Dome…another 16 mile day…we’ll save the nice breakfast for tomorrow. 🙂 Again, the trail is amazing, the views are spectacular and the crisp fall weather is perfect. We make our way to the summit of what we think is North Dome (turns out North Dome is the next bump over, probably a half hour more). Hauled the wedding cake up with us and ate it with front row seats looking straight on at Half Dome.

On the way back we stop at the Yosemite Falls junction and decide to hike out towards a generic sign that said, “Overlook.” We get to the cliff’s edge and notice stairs heading down to the top of the waterfall. Yikes this is a little risky for “hikers.” The steps continue down and down until we get to a point where a handrail leads around a corner. The handrail ends above the 2000 ft. void, yet for the brave soul who ventures to the end of the handrail (April), another handrail continues around the next corner with stairs for your feet no wider than 6 inches. “I can’t believe this is a ‘hiking’ trail!” The exposed staircase leads us to an amazing observation deck. As if that little adventure didn’t top the hike, later we had to deviate from the trail to avoid a bear and right before dark we saw a burning red sunset cast on the rock walls of Yosemite Valley. We were back at the car by 7:00PM and enjoyed a fancy dinner at the Mountain Room restaurant all slimy and grungy. This Anniversary Hike will be hard to beat.

Sorry for the apadventures neglect. Things have been quite busy around here lately. So this entry will be a quick a dirty summary of what we’ve been up to over the past few weeks:

1. Grit. Grit is our new bud living in our guest house. She’s here from Germany for a few months working at the university. I met her at the gym one night and turns out we have a common friend from Germany. Small world. Anyway, not only are we psyched that she’s as psyched as us about climbing, but she also likes to run! and run and run and run. Grit, Paul and I just ticked off a 7.5 mile’r this evening. Whew. Paul and I finally broke the 7 mile mark…just barely. 🙂

2. Climbing. Climbing has been stellar as usual. We’ve been frequenting Flagstaff lately. Hitting up Priest Draw. The weather up in Flag is gorgeous…crisp fall wind and getting rather chilly at night. Can’t wait for the aspen leaves to turn. Last weekend Paul, myself, Grit, and Morgan went up with Miles who is real good fun. He helped develop the place a (few) years back and showed us some stuff we’d never seen before. Cool! Paul is still taking it easy on his finger that he tweaked back in May. But how easy can you take it when you’re climbing on Priest Draw pocket roofs? 😉

3. Training. We’ve got the campus board up!!! Grit and I started building it the weekend before last, Paul stained it with some nice weatherproofing stain, and just before we left for Priest Draw last weekend we finished it off. It stands tall and proud out back by the mamma woody, looking oh-so-good. The woody has been stripped and re-set. Courtney, Grit, Paul and myself spent a night last week eating those new peanut butter double stuff oreos and setting new problems. And this past weekend we picked up some cheap 2nd holds from Voodoo. Now if we could just find the time to get some cushy mattresses so we don’t have to “Climb At Your Own Risk” each night.

4. Biking. What?! More biking you say? Well, kinda. I *finally* succeeded in getting myself motivated to ride my bike to work and back last week. I only did it 1 day though, so don’t ooo and ahh yet. My butt was waaaaay to sore to climb back on the seat so soon. We’ll see how this week goes.

5. Morgan. Cute.

6. The adobe. Still hanging in there. Our list of home fix-up to-do’s keeps growing. The bathroom sink has been clogged for 5 months now. Brushing your teeth in the kitchen is not so bad…..

7. The old ball and chain. A major smoochy smoochy weekend is coming up for Paul and I. Oct 2nd will be our 1 year wedding anniversary! Amazing that one year has already gone by. What a fine year too at that. If the upcoming years will be anything like the first, I think it’s safe to say I made a real darn good pick with that Paul, heh heh. Anyway, we plan on spending it in Yosemite. CAN’T WAIT.

Here we are in Flagstaff, Arizona, sippin’ coffee and resting our weary selves at the Late for the Train coffee shop. Our extended weekend started off yesterday, Friday. We slept in at home in Tucson, then packed up our climbing gear, running sneaks, and mtn bikes and hit the road. “Whoa, wait a sec, mtn bikes?!” you say? Yes, I’ll admit, we’ve pretty much given up the mtn biking scene since we moved out west…..for the sole reason of obsessing exclusively over climbing. But lately we’ve had the itch. And we *finally* acted on it.

We arrived in Flag a little later than expected on Fri, so we decided to set up camp and finish the day off with a beautiful run along Lake Mary. Absolutely beautiful.

This morning we headed to Priest Draw for some bouldering. I guess the Flagstaff boulderers are late sleepers b/c we were literally the only ones there until about noon. Sweet. I had the boulder problem Anorexic all to myself. Highlight of the morning was me FINALLY sending the V4 traverse on the warm-up triangle boulder. For those of you that have seen our “Desert Bouldering” video, this is the problem where I fall at the end, right before the finish. Falling at the end was a trend for me many many times….so I was psyched.

Paul found this two move wonder near The Egyptian. First move is a dyno. Second move is a heinous mantle top-out. I got great butt crack footage of him beach-whaling over the top of the boulder, hehe. Once you grab the top of the boulder, you have to throw a heal up and then basically turn a lock-off into a mantle all in one motion, cause there’s no holds on the top. I was planning on opting out on trying this one, but since I was laughing so hard at Paul’s dramatic finish, he said “Now your turn.” The dyno was a no-go for me. But I make-believed the dyno and tried the mantle…..and did it!!! Must be all those pushups are paying off.

We bouldered from about 8am to 2pm, and then drove up to Shultz Creek trail to see how hard we could get our butts spanked on our mtn bikes. We started off up this super super rocky/bouldery single track. DAMN we’ve lost our skills!!! This trail is HARD! Turns out, we were on some Burrito Barfer trail or something like that….one that’s rated with skulls and stuff for the hardman biker. Whoopsies. Now where is that trail Miles recommended (the classic 5.9 of mtn bike trails, as he puts it). Pedal around a bit more, and finally we come to Shultz Creek trail. Stellar dude. After a mile or two we had our game back and were bouncing along through some modest technical sections. Waahooo! Why was it again we’d given up on biking? Oh yeah – too much time bouldering at Hueco. 😉

Well, that’s the scoop for now. We’re going to chow down tonight and get some good rest and do it all again tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures so far.

Location: Beautiful pine forest setting of Flagstaff Arizona
Elevation: 7000ft
Objective: Get up off the couch and knock off the Annual Soldiers Trail Run. The 10K version!

Check out our pics and see how awesome the setting is for the race. Soft pine needles to run on, cool temps and a nice crowd of really psyched, fit people (runners, not climbers for a change).