An Excellent Saturday

I was a little worried about my run yesterday morning; the forecast made it sound as if the weather in Waterton Canyon was going to be nasty. But then again, it's always kinda nasty out there, so I figured I might as well bundle up and give it a try. It was cold (high teens), but for once, there was very little wind. I can handle that.

There was one set of footprints in the snow heading up the hill in front of me. (Well, one set of human prints, anyway. At various points along the way I saw rabbit trails, squirrel prints, and a couple of different sets of fox tracks. I was a little surprised not to see any evidence of bighorn sheep or deer. Or yeti.) My predecessor's stride was quite a bit shorter than mine, leading me to believe that I might catch him or her at some point, especially since I was starting fairly soon after sunrise. But 'twas not to be; I ended up taking too many breaks.

I know what you're thinking: "Aw, geez, here we go again -- more complaint about bad knees and decrepit hamstrings"...but you'd be wrong. My stops this time were due to my sheer enjoyment of the beauty of the canyon conditions. I wanted to take a picture to share with you, so I gave up my competitive urges to try to run down the individual I was tracking in favor of creating art. Please take a moment to enjoy the natural beauty I captured for you:Of course, I had to take several photos before I got the composition I wanted. I had forgotten to bring my little pocket tripod, so I was forced to set the camera on a rock and hope it was pointing the right direction. Plus, as soon as I stopped running, my glasses totally fogged up, so I stuck them in my pocket and did the Mr. Magoo thing throughout the entire photography operation. I was lucky that the camera functioned at all, as cold as it was, but everything seemed to be working just fine.

Well, until I tried to put the camera away and remount my hydration pack, that is. When I put the backpack strap over my arm, I managed to knock my glasses out of my jacket pocket, and when they hit the ground one of the lenses popped out. I was hoping it was a popout that left the frame intact, allowing for a quick repair by shoving the lens back into place. But no such luck, the screw had fallen out. Into the snow. Sigh. I looked around briefly for an optician but finding none, picked up the pieces and zipped them into a pocket. I guess I'd have to somehow make it through the rest of the run with fuzzy vision.

Actually, the inability to focus accurately wasn't going to be a problem. The road is pretty wide after all, and other than the owner of the other set of footprints (somewhere up ahead), I had the place to myself. As long as I didn't stray too near the the riverbank, I should be fine in terms of navigation. No, the problem was that my sunglasses were clip-ons...and with nothing to clip onto, I couldn't use them. I'd need to be careful to avoid going snow blind. I'd just have to run with my eyes closed part of the time.

Somewhere around the 5-mile mark, I finally saw the owner of the footprints I'd been following. He was an older fellow, with an impressive mustache, even more impressively coated in frost. We waved at each other and plodded onward. I figured I'd have the road to myself for the rest of the trip to the dam. And I did.

The remainder of the run was uneventful. Despite running with my eyes closed on a frozen surface, I didn't slip and slide too much. I didn't get eaten by Bigfoot. And my hamstring only caused moderate distress. I wasn't running fast, but that was OK -- I was still enjoying the scenery (blurry though it was). I did make a pit stop at one of the outhouses, and took a break to eat a Clif bar, but otherwise, just sorta shuffled along. [A few words of advice, though: 1) Don't count on enjoying your Clif bar all that much when it's under 20° outside. Very tough to chew. 2) A hydration pack with an exposed tube isn't a good drink-toting choice for a cold day like this. After about 3 miles, my drinking hose had frozen solid and I didn't get another sip from the darn thing the rest of the way, despite tucking the cold hose inside my shirt for a while (which is also something I'd not recommend). I did grab a few handfuls of clean snow when I needed to, so I wasn't going to die from dehydration, but having another type of drink-delivery would've been nice.]

The rest of the day was excellent, though mellow. After cleaning up from the run and feeding myself, I talked with my dad on the phone. Then I worked a bit on the Tazmanian Hula video (coming soon) and took care of other household chores. Tanner came over for dinner, and I made scrambled eggs and Spam Balls. Tanner said that if everybody tried my Spam Balls recipe, they'd become every bit as popular as ice cream. I suspect he's right. (I also suspect he's right in postulating that a different name might assist in any effort to make them popular. Hmmm. Perhaps "Cinnamon Protein Puffs"? "Yummy Goodness Orbs"?)

Anyway, if you're bored with turkey and are looking for something special to spice up your Christmas dinner, you might want to give Spam Balls a try.

Or not. Either way, have a great day!