new years plans

downtime

(((millenium falcon v. 2.0)))

With six inches of snow in the Piedmont, we've been laying low since Christmas and enjoying some delicious food.  While not running all that much, the downtime has been good. Once the roads become passable, the falcon will take flight back to the mountains...

Good times

300-miler club

At dawn on Saturday, twelve of us started the annual pilgrimage from the Davidson River to the Little East Fork of the Pigeon River. I'm happy to report that everyone made it out safely on the tenth year of our winter solstice traverse of the Art Loeb Trail. Ten for ten, this is by far my favorite adventure. I'm grateful to get a chance to share it. Thanks for all the great memories throughout the decade. Enough writing, here are some photos from this year:

Happy Holidays!

ida in the snow

Woke up this morning with white stuff on the ground and the leap home stuck in my head. Eventually, Lily, Uwharrie and I made our way up Mt. Ida to enjoy the beauty of the snow. Our cross-country trek was quite unlike yesterday's 10 miles of sunny smooth sailing along Harris Creek's rolling single track. Nothing like a little old man winter to quiet some "Clingmans Fever"...

coming together...

Over the last couple years, some major summer running plan has been dialed in by December. Such projects provide comfort and balance through the hectic spring months via obligatory outlets of planning and preparation. Eager to get this summer 2011 ball rolling, I slogged through the logistical knot of one potential adventure only to arrive back at Clingmans Dome and the idea of an MST fast pack.

If you missed out in 2009, here's your chance to join us for something a tad longer. If it looks familiar, there was definitely some copy/pasting going on from the other wiki. And if a month is too long to take off from work, consider a shorter jaunt on the Bartram...

Exciting stuff!

tsunami

A semester’s stress and chaos recedes. Discombobulated, we catch our breaths. Ever fleeting, holiday will give way to tsunami: a new prep, a bunch of apathetic tenth graders, EOCs, the proverbial sword of Damocles…

But for today Lily, Uwharrie and I make our way to Graphite and up Heartbreak Ridge. Uwharrie and I run a wonderful loop of about twenty miles in length. As we climb, swirling clouds over the higher mountains hint at what’s to come.

By the time we reach Pinnacle Spring, we are in three inches of snow and more is coming down. I break off some icicles to refill my water bottle and head across the icy parkway and down the previously unexplored Bald Knob Ridge trail.

Feeling returns to all extremities as we cross the parkway once more and descend Newberry Creek, darting across Satan’s lawn (with Cujo fast on our heels), up Star Gap and back to Graphite. Good to get out and test out some new wool knickers and kicks.