5/30-6/19 0 CDT Miles

Dan and I flew from Albuquerque home to Anchorage.  The next 10 days we got to play tour guide for Ashlee’s first trip to Alaska.  She and Chris packed a lot of vacation into a short period of time.  Because it never gets dark this time of year, they played frisbee golf until 2 am more than once, and Ashlee saw her first Alaska moose, a little guy on bended front knees nibbling grass on the course. We hiked Flat Top, went to Girdwood’s Fiddlehead Festival, visited numerous Alaska microbreweries, and hung out in Seward for a few days.  A friend took them to Talkeetna.  They biked the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.  Ashlee was amazed by the mountain ranges surrounding our city on Cook Inlet, fortunately there were a few clear days in Anchorage so she could see them.  We all had fun, including their dog Grimm who made friends with our older son Glen’s dog Tindy.  The three cats were less stoked, Shred taunted Grimm from his perch on the moose rack.

The day they left, I ran the Alaska Run For Women, a 5-miler celebrating its 25th year.  I don’t know how many times I’ve run it, but it’s a great event raising funds for breast cancer totally by donation.  I pinned a card to my back, “I’m running in honor of Noreen” and joined the parade of pink.  I don’t own anything pink but they let me run anyway.  I got a pretty good time too!  And I did Zumba, in public, with the post-race class. Later that evening, friend Tarcey and I went to an outdoor solstice show with The Shins at Moose’s Tooth Brewery.

Having seen both my boys, I wanted to see my daughter Sarah in Seattle on my way back to the CDT and somehow found myself running in a half marathon with her from UW to the Seahawks stadium downtown.

Meanwhile I’ve been watching CDT NOBO progress on social media and trying to figure out the logistics of getting back to the trail.  I am going to fly to Denver and take a Greyhound south.  I will skip (temporarily) a chunk of trail rather than try to get all the expensive way back to New Mexico.  There’s still a bunch of snow, but reportedly most of the south faces have melted so hopefully my microspikes, Whippet (combo hiking stick and light duty ice axe) and neoprene  socks will be good enough.  We’ll see. I’ve got a bounce box to mail up the trail with other clothing and gear I may want to switch out with.