Arrived East Coast just after midnight, couple hours shut-eye, then to Boston Harbor for a quick ferry ride across Massachusetts Bay. Far faster than hours spent driving around the boot, the fast ferry sails directly across the bay in an hour half. Snoozed for an hour on the trek over while my friends soaked in sun on the deck. Vacation!
Docked, disembarked, tagged my favourite food shack just off the pier & paid $16 cash for a fresh (whole-belly) clam roll. Same Portuguese lady has worked this stand for years — not the warm n fuzzy type. She takes orders only from the ‘IN’ window (food is served from the ‘OUT’ window) & only accepts cash. That said, there’s still sand in the clams on this roll – that’s how fresh this New England treat is. So…how was it? I’ll be back – highly recommended 🙂
Changed clothes & still logged a few hours of beach time. Outdoor seating for dinner. Aw, yes – this is the life.
Started Day 2 with a run to the beach (Cape Cod Bay) & Day 3 with an even longer beach run to the Atlantic. Came back soaking wet each time — humidity on the Cape is crazy thick but loved that sea salt smell in the air 🙂
Quick shower, breakfast on the deck, then rented kayaks for a 2-mile trek to Long Point lighthouse – the tip of Cape Cod.
Long Point is a peninsula located in Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the extreme tip of Cape Cod, as it curls back in on itself to create Provincetown Harbor. The Long Point Light was built on this point in 1827. The lighthouse once shared this peninsula with a settlement of fishermen that came to be known as Long Point, Massachusetts. This Provincetown village grew and thrived from 1818 until the late 1850s.
Took 20-30 minutes to regain a comfort level but ultimately LOVE LOVE kayaking. Super fun sport.
Landed near Long Point lighthouse, snapped some amazing shots (including a pirate ship), then completed my 4 foot hike up to the cross commemorating a fallen WWII soldier. Ok, I’m using the word ‘hike’ a bit loosely here. LOL! From Longs Peak, Colorado to Long Point, Massachusetts in a week – that’s a drop from 14,000ft to just over 4 feet. What a crazy, fun life.
Different day, different beach then dinner & a show. Tea smoked duck was just as good as I remembered. WOW!
Spent Monday afternoon in Boston – fish n chips at the Black Rose, followed by a touristy stroll thru Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall, the New England Holocaust Museum & Union Street (one of Boston’s oldest).
3-day weekends end quickly; sad to tell folks good bye. Quick hug, then hailed a taxi to Logan.
So long Boston, I had a wicked good time!
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- Boston Harbor
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- hour-half ferry trek to Cape Cod
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- (whole belly) clam roll – AMAZING!
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- …and a lobster roll too!
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- New England beach day
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- Pilgrim Monument – they landed here first, who knew?
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- ocean kayaking
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- next stop, Long Point
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- paddled ahead to Wood End lighthouse (photo far right), then followed land tip around to Long Point
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- Pirates!
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- tip of Cape Cod
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- Long Point lighthouse
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- WOW shot – love Cape Cod!
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- 14,000ft hike last Saturday, 4ft hike this day
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- hike SUCCESS!
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- Boston return
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- fish n chips @ the Black Rose
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- outdoor entertainment
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- Faneuil Hall stroll
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- So long Boston, I had a wicked good time!
3 months down, 3 months to go. Time for a half-marathon.
Left work early on Friday to get a start on the 6 hour haul to Moab. Surprisingly I didn’t mind the drive as much as I had been dreading. With Ro at Camp Bow Wow in Boulder, I took time to take in the view. Nothing like the drive on I-70, crossing the Continental Divide, followed by the winding curves through Glenwood Canyon to Utah. Beautiful.
Arrived in Moab, found my hotel sold out and was given a voucher to the Ramada – where they had reserved a room for me literally feet from Highway 191. ARGH! Luckily I was super tired; put the TV on low to drown out passing 18-wheelers causing my door to rattle & door to shake 🙁 Wake-up call never happened (double ARGH!) but luckily brought a back-up alarm. Ready to flee my Ramada rental space — looking forward to Saturday race day!
Race packet pick-up at 630am then parked at Swanny City Park where school buses shuttled runners to Canyonlands for the start of my first half marathon. A bit cooler than expected but soon forgot the chill. Gorgeous rock caverns made this race by far my most scenic run to date. Hard to peel the smile from my face.
Half marathon didn’t start ’til 10am – so had a few hours to kill. Could have carried a negative attitude about the wait, but looked around – WOW! – & decided to immerse myself in my geo- surroundings. There was time, I am strong, I could do this. Hiked up the canyon wall – the natural rock providing several easy hand-holds. No worries.
Who hikes before a half marathon? I do! What’s the point of a life journey if you don’t stop and enjoy the ride. AMAZING!
Grabbed a hot chocolate & lined up in time for our race gun start. Was placed in the last wave (no pre-qual time) – but on a positive note, passed more than 2,000 people before crossing the finish line 🙂
Overall pace was slower than expected but finished strong, literally sprinting the last hundred yards.
Devoured post-race oranges & bananas, then caught some zzzz’s in the park…soaking up the day’s sunshine.
Hooray my half is in the past – 13.1 miles to go and I’ll be marathon ready!
Got something even bigger planned for April – before my 25K trail race in Colorado Springs. Sky diving for the first time on April 13th! How cool (& scary) is that? LOVE LOVE LOVE my Colorado life!
Here are your results for the Canyonlands Half Marathon:
Your final time is 02:05:15 at a 00:09:13 pace.
You finished 1379 out of 3189 in the HALF MARATHON.
You finished 75 out of 129 in your class.
Moab Half Marathon (pre-race clip)
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- pre-race pic in Canyonlands Nat’l Park
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- more than 2 hours ’til race time, decided to climb UP
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- quiet reflection time ABOVE the other runners
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- last wave (no pre-qual time); so literally passed 2000 runners to finish
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- motivated by native drumming at mile 9
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- post-race pic in Swanny City Park
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- caught some zzz’s in the park before Colorado drive home
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- victory dinner at McGowan’s home in Vail
No better way to celebrate completion of my 2012 Hike Challenge than to share hike #52 with my friend Stephen in New Hampshire. But where to go? Could there be something worthy outside of Colorado?
Arrived in Manchester on the 29th in between snow storms! Literally started snowing 2 hours after landing – 8 inches of fresh snow which delayed my East Coast ‘welcome home’ party ‘til Sunday but…fresh powder is a mighty cool welcome of its own.
New Hampshire climate is not so different than Colorado with 3 exceptions:
- lack of East Coast sunshine makes for lotta ‘grey’ days
- lack of evergreens which makes for lotta winter season ‘stick’ trees
- hard-core NH hikers are all-about 4’s – not 14ers. Elevations in New Hampshire shoot up fast from sea level but nothing rivaling our Rocky Mountain peaks. Tree line drops off at 4,000 ft in NH; 12,000 ft in Colorado.
All said, being outside & climbing a mountain ANYWHERE on New Year’s Eve is ROCKSTAR! And similar to Colorado, we were not the only hikers out on Holiday Eve. Epic hike challenge finale 🙂
Dressed a-ok for the sub-zero peak wind chill but could have been better equipped with poles & crampons. Ice on granite makes for an arduous peak scramble – and creates a bigger calorie burn. Selected the White Dot Trail to summit – most direct, but also the steepest climb. I’d select a point on our trek horizon, then we’d push to reach ‘the 2nd dead tree’, or ‘the 1st boulder after the curve’, take a break & push to our next target point.
Reached tree-line where our trail flattened for half a mile, temps dropped, and the evergreens & underbrush sparkled under a dazzling coating of ice and light snow…like something from a Jack Frost Christmas special — BEAUTIFUL!
Two and half hours in & one last scramble UP, then SUMMIT SUCCESS!
Snapped a few pics, took a short video clip, then blasted down the mountain side in quick time…sliding on my heels most of the journey. My Colorado seasoning hadn’t prepared me for bitter New Hampshire wind. LOL>
52 week Hike Challenge — yeah, it’s possible. Set a goal, stick a goal. Done.
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- Welcome to New Hampshire!
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- Sunday afternoon dinner
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- non-hike WOW shot!
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- hike #52, last hike of 20-12
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- what a good sport – snow, ice, bitter wind…but all smiles!
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- New Hampshire winter – pretty, but missing our evergreens
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- high calorie burn, K* style – who needs Jennie Craig?
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- icy NH granite: where’s my crampons & poles? A-R-G-H!
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- hike leveled off half a mile, then UP into the clouds
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- fellow New Year Eve hikers entering snow cloud
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- glazed underbrush, below zero wind temps – BEAUTIFUL!
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- check out that ICE!
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- last push UP!
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- SUMMIT SUCCESS!
