native-american

Yellowknife, NWT

Published August 17, 2019

Saturday, play day.

And exploration day. Movie day, pizza day. Museum day too.

Whole lotta, whole lotta going on in NWT’s capital city.

Woke to sunshine. 5-mile run on McMahon Frame Trail. Quick shower. 2-mile trek to Old Town. Watched sea planes take off/land on Great Slave Lake after securing my first territorial meal.

Short summer season ‘north of 60’, no arguments here – digged Yellowknife’s cool August temps. Marathon bib pick-up at Overlander Sports – all to dos, ta done – finally, MUSEUM day.

History of the land, its native peoples & NWT’s Arctic mammals – musk ox, moose & polar bear!

Easy place to get lost 2-3 hours. Taiga vs tundra. Tree-line a factor of North Pole wind vs our high peak elevation in Colorado. Walked the row of township flags. Greek pizza & a late movie finish.

Yellowknife. Hip little town, lots to see & do.

Sunday forecast: 42 kilometers & RAIN. It’s only water, eh? 🇨🇦

: territory SUMMER

: ox ART ❤️

: Sled Dog tribute

: Gold Rush claim

: Community Flags of NWT

: City Hall totem

: Dene First Nations

: hockey FEVER 🇨🇦

: Sunday forecast

Northern Heritage Centre

: Arctic tree-line

: sledding HERITAGE

: Dene inspired

: gold & DIAMONDS

: MUSK ox

: polar BEAR

: global warming finds

: NWT originals

: Inuit diet

: native dolls

: mooseskin boat

Posted in Canada | Tagged bear, museo, native-american | 3 Comments

WYO Redemption

Published June 14, 2019

Dream Big and Go For It

As a runner, you’ll fail lots, and you’ll fail publicly. That’s part of the point.

You will have crap races? Race anyway. You will get injured? Run anyway.

So go for it. Run with passion, race fearlessly, chase your craziest dreams without caring too much about how realistic they are. Do that, and yeah, you might fail.

And that’s pretty much the whole point.

Sheridan WY

2017 DNS. 2018 DNF. 3 times lucky?

January 5^th. Alarm set. Registered before sell-out, third year in a row. BIGHORN!

Custer’s Last Stand (an hour away). 2019: my last stand. Know what to expect, getting it done.

Never soooo much MUD in my life, this year SNOW & water crossings. Heavy winter in the high country. Purchased Lekis (trekking poles). NO fear, ready to battle.

Friday flight to County Airport Sheridan. Easy afternoon of diner food, introspective walk downtown. WYO Country. Real deal here. No Deadwood shoot-out for tourists. Honest cowboy vibe.

Best Western bib pick-up. 32-mile tag retrieved.

New year, new distance. Start 3 hours later than the 50 (past two Bighorn attempts). Most miles logged EVER (life-to-date), last year’s DNF. [Didn’t quit, missed the time cut-off.]

No pre-race museum, no Nat’l Park drive. Serious face this year. Game on.

Early to bed, early to rise. 45-minute drive to Dayton. 6am school bus from Tongue River Valley Community Center. Head demons tamed. Unfinished business.

: County Airport

: Wyoming MOOSE

: diner LUNCH 🍴

: downtown Sheridan

: Fruits of the Good Earth

: Welcome BIGHORN

: my year, my time

: experience of a lifetime

: historic SNOW ❄️

Posted in Rocky Mtn West | Tagged moose, native-american | Leave a comment

Deadwood Day

Published June 1, 2019

Lotta planning goes into completing a 50 State journey.

Work, home life, travel, weather, expense. Places you wanna see, times of year you wanna see ’em. Running all the continents, all of Canada (ok, maybe that’s just me). But – when down to your last dozen states, ya start thinkin’: Where am I gonna finish? Like picking a burial plot, kinda a big deal. My first Quest was super strategized/organized/planned. Since marathon 10, knew my journey would end in Colorado. No HOME TURF REPEAT – May’s Colfax medal was Colorado #18.

Fast forward 2019. South Dakota or Wyoming. Just two states left, west of the Mississippi. Seemed poetic to complete at Bighorn (after 2 fails). Then, Pistol (in March). Far too much (self-imposed) pressure to finish BIG at goal races. Finish, finish with a smile. Go there & enjoy the day. Still registered, flying to Sheridan, running mid-June but… taking the mental outta Bighorn this year.

CHOSE the Black Hills of South Dakota for my Round 2 finish.

Scenic, historic. Right time of year & only 5 hours from my Colorado front door.

Land of Wild Bill Hickok. Lived/breathed THREE WEEKS here, yet he’s Deadwood immortalized (gunned down, buried here). Statues, billboards, black-n-white museum pics, name of my downtown Hotel. Not your typical marathoner journey (casinos, booze, cigarettes). But…the Wild West it is.

Deadwood Mickelson Trail, a runner favourite. More folks race-registered than town residents. Will complete marathon ONE HUNDRED FIFTY tomorrow. Add to the list; it’s a good one.

3 highway hours Friday, sleeps in Lusk [Wyoming]. Chuck wagon omelette, minutes from the border. South Dakota: Great Faces, Great Places. Bib pick-up, hotel check-in – all business done – 1pm ticket, Boot Hill bus tour (cash only please). Wild West stories. Gold claims, poker cheats, saloon girls, a U.S. President & the death of Wild Bill Hickok. Railroad Museum, Adams Museum, Days of ’76 Museum, a shootout on Main Street. Pre-race HISTORY NERD holiday, LOVE LOVED! Deadwood Social Club for dinner ❤️

5:30am, look for the trolley. 50 State road ends in Deadwood. SOUTH DAKOTA!