It's been sometime since I put anything up. I've thought about writing on several occasions, unfortunately it just hasn't been a priority. It's been a busy couple months, lots of new things and big changes since Collegiate peaks, though not a lot of running. the good news is I've been turning that around and have spend a good part of the last 2 weeks out in the mountains enjoying fresh air, incredible views, and time with some truly good people.
Since finishing collegiate peaks in early may, it's been a lot of shorter runs and really buckling down and focusing my energies on finishing up the house in Leadville so I can cleanly move onto my next venture: exploring the mountains around Juneau.
Randy came out to Leadville to work on the house for 1 week. we were able to get a huge amount completed in that time: new granite tile counters, touch up paint, replace the front door, and install several new light fixtures. Once Randy left, I took a short break from house work and spent sometime exploring the trails as they were starting to thaw out and the weather was pretty incredible.
I did several runs with Jamie and Mike on some trails i'd never been on before, attended several dinners and bbq's with Mike and Stephanie. The irony doesn't escape me: here I am in the last few weeks of my stay in Leadville, preparing to leave because I wasn't able to get out and be very social, and over my final 3 - 4 weeks in Leadville, I'm spending more time running with others and attending get togethers than I did the during the first year in Leadville.
The good news is I have some good connections, and expect to stay in touch with them for some time.
The most difficult part of this time was watching Sirius' health continue to deteriorate. Over the course of a few weeks we went from walking a couple miles a day to barely walking a couple hundred feet at a time. I've dedicated more to this in a separate post, which you can read through if so desired.
Over the course of 1 week, I was able to finish the mountain room floor, hang the last of the baseboard and door casings, repair the laundry room floor, tile and grout it, tile and grout the sunken living room, and paint the sunken living room.
The last 2 days I had some additional help from a couple of Mike's friends that were in town visiting, and looking for something to pass the time. With their help I finished painting the closets, the laundry room, and caulk the baseboard, door casings, and bathtub, as well as construct a cover for the buried gas canister in the back yard.
With all this wrapped up, I had one final dinner with Stephanie, Mike and his friends. They came by and helped me load up my truck. I spent one final night in the house before heading to san diego.
I spent the next week in san diego, mainly working, and was able to squeeze in some time catching up with family and friends before heading north. I did get in a handful of shorter runs, though nothing to long. Probably a good thing, as my body was a bit tired.
I headed north from san diego, making a couple day stop outside fresno to hang out at spurlarosa ranch and spend some time with more family. after a couple days on the ranch looking for hogs and enjoying a mellow weekend, I proceeded heading towards the Canadian border.
I left sunday evening, and reached the Canadian border around noon on Monday, after a bit of an ordeal getting things sorted out I was able to cross into Canada and begin working my way east so I could finally go west towards Alaska.
I spent the better part of Monday and Tuesday driving across Canada before crossing back into the US and entering Skagway. I spent Tuesday night in Skagway and was on the 3pm ferry to Juneau (a 6 hour trip). I took this opportunity to catch up on some sleep and relax in general.
Upon disembarking from the ferry, it was off to the mendenhall campground to meet up with Geoff and Corle. They had some left over Thai food from dinner which I happily accepted. We chatted for a bit before it was off to bed.
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