Weekend Activities

Friday, we went to a bar and then for a hike:

Saturday I ran 22 miles in Capitol Forest and Matt went salmon fishing.  Based on the previous sentence you may guess would be that Matt that the easier day, you would be wrong.  Matt spent the better part of his day feeding the fishes while his face was turning an alarming shade of red.  The worst part - no fish to show for his suffering.

Sunday involved some house work and a mountain bike ride on the trails/fire road behind our house.  It was a good ride, we spent quite a bit of time exploring the area around us.  We found the bear scrapes to go with the bear tracks.

See the tomato perched atop his shoulders?

After checking out this tree Matt proceeded to tell me "see, this is why I want a .45, it is creepy when you come along something like this when you only have a bow."  Mind you, he was saying this to me, the person who likely spends more time in the woods alone, with only running shoes. 

Should You Feel So Inclined

You can walk out our front door, down this trail, which is slightly overgrown.

To meet up with this fire road

That eventually comes to this gravel pit where you can shoot

Where, unfortunately, not everyone does the best job of cleaning up after themselves

And, maybe if you are luck you will see something like this

Here is my hand for perspective

They Say it Doesn't Hurt as Bad the Second Time...

...and, this time I think "they" were right.  Tuesday night is Rock Candy night, a 9 mile run up and then back down some pretty rocky terrain.  Last week I got my ass handed to me on this run, today went slightly better.  At least my ankle tendons don't feel like they are going to explode.

Sunday, I took the dogs for a hike at a trail down the road from us.  Below are some pictures:

Sign posted at the trail head.

Common Foxglove

Old growth

House and Surrounding Area

Some more pictures of our house, well, mostly the surrounding area.

Park down the road. - swing set, pavilion, and baseball field.

Trail system in our neighborhood.

As requested - our driveway.

There are alarming amounts of bricks to be found in various locations around our yard.  We plan to make a pathway from them once we dig them all out.

Connecting Biologists with the Outdoors

Friday was a good day, I was able to spend the day doing field work.  I don't have the opportunity to get outside for work very often, this was a much appreciated opportunity.  Below are some pictures from my day counting butterflies.

Rock Candy Mountain

Don't let the name fool you, there is nothing sweet about the Rock Candy run.  It is 9 miles of pain, during the course of the run you have two choices, climb or descend.  All of this occurs on a extremely rocky ORV trail. 

The first few miles were okay, I think I was in denial.  However, about 2 miles in it started to hurt.  I thought my calves were going to explode and my feet went numb.  Not pleasantly numb, no, they were painfully numb.  Each step felt like I was moving forward on cement blocks that had shooting daggers installed in the bottom, it sucked. Thankfully a bit of walking alleviated that problem.  We made it to the top, took in the beautiful view, turned around and headed back down.

The way down was an entirely different type of pain.  I now am aware of muscles/ligaments in my ankles that I was unaware of before.  I am embarrassed to admit that I hobbled my way into the grocery store afterward because I couldn't bring myself to walk normal.  I am hoping a few weeks of this run and things will start to strengthen up.  In the meantime, if you see me around town, please don't laugh if I am hobbling.

Catch-Up

It seems I have fallen off the blogging bike, time to get back on.  A quick catch-up in pictures:

Last weekend Matt went fishing, he caught some trout and kokanee.

We smoked them, they were quite good!

Did I mention we have a fire pit?  We do, it rocks!

 I took up canning (rhubarb orange marmalade).  Who said I wasn't domestic?!?

 Portland last week for a conference.  I know one person in town, I happened to run into her.  How great is that?

 Matt has declared war on Scotch Broom.  He may have made a bad choice in dousing it in white gas before lighting it.  I suppose it is a quick way to rid yourself of unwanted hair...

 I dug a hole in the woods (harder than it sounds - think rocks and roots) and installed our dog poo composer.  Yes, you read that correctly.

There you have it, the past week or so in a nutshell.