Ketchup
Well, it's Thursday morning in Purgatory, and I'm setting down to get some work done - and catch up on email - and catch up this blog.
Sunday morning, we took out from New RIver around 7 AM, and got to Canyon de Chelley (pronounced "La Canyon of Chili") in the early afternoon - however, it rained on us for almost the whole trip. It did stop raining while we toured out along the South Rim, and Ethel got to see Spider Rock -
The astute observer will note the black clouds in the background - they have been our near-constant companion all week long.
When we stopped at Sliding House Overlook, I couldn't resist walking out to the edge of the cliff, laying down, and taking a picture 700 feet straight down the side of the canyon - which is actually overhung, so that I was acutely aware while taking the picture that there was only a sliver of rock between me and Eternity -
..the camera is actually aimed more than perpendicular, back along the overhang. While I was taking this picture, Ethel was making noises behind me. They didn't sound particularly comforting.
We got to Durango and we've done a lot of driving around, some setting up of the condo and supplies, and some hiking. We stopped to get some natural groceries (I'm living as healthy as I can for the next six weeks, leading up to Imogene Pass, as I expect it will probably kill me.
We stopped at the James Market north of Durango, a place that raises and grows all of its own meat and produce and dairy, and we bought some cheese - and I got on the Chicken List!
They sell grass-fed beef all year 'round, but I'm off all red meats and white bread until after Imogene (and, besides, I don't think that I would want to pay those prices as a regular thing)- but once a year, in August, they kill chickens! You can get an organic free-range seed-fed whole chicken, but you have to get on a list, and they email you when it's time to come get your chicken. And I'm on the chicken list for this month! Wheee!
We drove up past Coal Bank Pass that evening, and just looked at the mountains in the summer - we've been here before in summer (June of '96, I believe - yes, I just checked that in my running-log spreadsheet :) but when we came through at that time, it was very overcast; while we've got a lot of clouds and rain this week, we've also got a lot of big billowy cumulus and blue sky, so we're really seeing it for the first time -
I've been having an IM conversation with my friend Gary, and he was discussing a recent trip he took through the Colorado Rockies, and he was saying which places he liked most - and I had to admit that I most like right where I am, where I can live this high up, and be surrounded by stuff like this.
The night before last, I met a guy who has run Imogene Pass four times (this will be his fifth) - so yesterday morning I took a training run with him up Lime Creek Road to the beaver pond and back -
In this picture, Brett is all excited, because I'd just shown him how to change the data fields in his Garmin; he didn't know that he had an altimiter : ) ...We ran back down to Cascade, then he went home and I finished my planned 12 miler by running up Hiway 550 just shy of the 10000 ft mark and back. After that, Ethel and I did some hiking up on the Elbert Creek trail, and then I was curiously tired.
This morning I'm working (right now, doing an install of WebLOAD so that I can do some recording) as it is raining - which is probably a good thing, as I'm still sorta tired from yesterday. If the sun comes out later, I'm dragging Ethel down to X Rocks and we're gonna do some rock climbing. Wish me luck on the "dragging Ethel" thing.
Sunday morning, we took out from New RIver around 7 AM, and got to Canyon de Chelley (pronounced "La Canyon of Chili") in the early afternoon - however, it rained on us for almost the whole trip. It did stop raining while we toured out along the South Rim, and Ethel got to see Spider Rock -
The astute observer will note the black clouds in the background - they have been our near-constant companion all week long.
When we stopped at Sliding House Overlook, I couldn't resist walking out to the edge of the cliff, laying down, and taking a picture 700 feet straight down the side of the canyon - which is actually overhung, so that I was acutely aware while taking the picture that there was only a sliver of rock between me and Eternity -
..the camera is actually aimed more than perpendicular, back along the overhang. While I was taking this picture, Ethel was making noises behind me. They didn't sound particularly comforting.
We got to Durango and we've done a lot of driving around, some setting up of the condo and supplies, and some hiking. We stopped to get some natural groceries (I'm living as healthy as I can for the next six weeks, leading up to Imogene Pass, as I expect it will probably kill me.
We stopped at the James Market north of Durango, a place that raises and grows all of its own meat and produce and dairy, and we bought some cheese - and I got on the Chicken List!
They sell grass-fed beef all year 'round, but I'm off all red meats and white bread until after Imogene (and, besides, I don't think that I would want to pay those prices as a regular thing)- but once a year, in August, they kill chickens! You can get an organic free-range seed-fed whole chicken, but you have to get on a list, and they email you when it's time to come get your chicken. And I'm on the chicken list for this month! Wheee!
We drove up past Coal Bank Pass that evening, and just looked at the mountains in the summer - we've been here before in summer (June of '96, I believe - yes, I just checked that in my running-log spreadsheet :) but when we came through at that time, it was very overcast; while we've got a lot of clouds and rain this week, we've also got a lot of big billowy cumulus and blue sky, so we're really seeing it for the first time -
I've been having an IM conversation with my friend Gary, and he was discussing a recent trip he took through the Colorado Rockies, and he was saying which places he liked most - and I had to admit that I most like right where I am, where I can live this high up, and be surrounded by stuff like this.
The night before last, I met a guy who has run Imogene Pass four times (this will be his fifth) - so yesterday morning I took a training run with him up Lime Creek Road to the beaver pond and back -
In this picture, Brett is all excited, because I'd just shown him how to change the data fields in his Garmin; he didn't know that he had an altimiter : ) ...We ran back down to Cascade, then he went home and I finished my planned 12 miler by running up Hiway 550 just shy of the 10000 ft mark and back. After that, Ethel and I did some hiking up on the Elbert Creek trail, and then I was curiously tired.
This morning I'm working (right now, doing an install of WebLOAD so that I can do some recording) as it is raining - which is probably a good thing, as I'm still sorta tired from yesterday. If the sun comes out later, I'm dragging Ethel down to X Rocks and we're gonna do some rock climbing. Wish me luck on the "dragging Ethel" thing.
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