Training Log Archive: cfosp1

McMurray Field
2:50 PM; Hamline Midway/Como Park

9.7 °C; Clear
First time this year I felt overdress. Tucked gloves away almost immediately and was seriously considering to remove my fleece. Lovely afternoon, full sun and no wind. Gurgling water in the gutters. Even a few insects. Dogs let their tongues hang out.

Home to Green Line
6:54 AM; Minneapolis-St. Paul

-5.6 °C; Clear

Energy Park Lexington to Snelling
4:05 PM; Hamline Midway/Frogtown

4.3 °C; Clear
Karl joined dogs and me for our walk. Nice to catch up with him. Snow is melting away. Dogs had fun climbing up the snow mountains piled up by the plows off the main parking lot. Of cours, main purpose of the climbing was not "because they were there" but rather because of what they contained: many a tasty morsel long ago burried and the ground up by heavy machinery.

Green Line to Home
3:39 PM; Minneapolis-St. Paul

4.7 °C; Clear

Home to Green Line
6:28 AM; Hamline Midway/Frogtown

-2.4 °C; Clear

Energy Park Short
4:22 PM; Hamline Midway/Frogtown

3.1 °C; Clear
Snow is melting, noticeably less, compared to yesterday. Dogs are excited when I get home, and so am I. Noticed that there will be a fly fishing expo at Hamline this weekend. May have to get over there to check it out.

Green Line to Home
3:58 PM; Minneapolis-St. Paul

3.3 °C; Clear

Home to Green Line
6:59 AM; Minneapolis-St. Paul

-5.0 °C; Clear

Energy Park Short
4:33 PM; Hamline Midway/Frogtown

7.8 °C; Clear
Took dogs out for their first walk after long weekend away. As usual, they enjoyed it very much. a hard trudge through slushy snow in energy Park. Many deep puddles.

Green Line to Home
3:58 PM; Minneapolis-St. Paul

7.9 °C; Clear

Bear Wallow Canyon Trail Run
8:54 AM; Bear Wallow Canyon

7.6 °C; Clear

Up to Cow Pie trail and back. Started this activity thinking I'd be mostly hiking to give my tired legs a rest. Walked the paved stretch of Schnebly Hill Rd the trail from the intersection with Margs Draw to a good piece past the trail head parking. As my legs warmed and loosened up, I started introducing a few running steps. Soon, I could not but run. As I hit the bottom of the trail, I saw a woman in running gear, she seemed to be picking through her music collection, didn't hear me approach . She startled when I uttered a greeting. I ran past and lost the trail a little farther, where it crosses the solid rock bottom of the dry creek bed. I climbed higher on some tracks, but they ended at the sheer walls of a cliff. When I cam back to where I had lost the trail, the woman runner had caught up and was looking for the trail, too. She thought it continued in the stream bed. As I looked, I saw the marker to the side, and off I went. I had given up hope to do a circuit route, coming back on Hangover Trail. However, I made it to the intersection with Cow Pies Trail in decent time and decided to check it out. Lost Cow Pies a couple of times as it goes across smooth rock with just a white dot here and there for a marker. Made it to Hangover, which fortunately had some warnings for MTB riders: a double diamond trail 5.5 km long. Too much for my restricted timeline and my sore legs. So I turned back and headed down on Schnebly Road to save time. By myself but for the occasional Pink Jeep tour, which are a real nuisance. On the real rough portions of the road, I easily kept pace with one of them. Glad when it got smoother and he could get away from me. Made it easily back to El Portal with time to take a shower and pack before heading back to Phoenix.

Morning Coffee at Starbucks Sedona
8:54 AM; Morning Coffee at Starbucks Sedona

6.3 °C; Clear

Javelina-Jordan-Cibola Pass Trails
10:53 AM; Javelina-Jordan-, Sedona, AZ

12.6 °C; Clear
Another hilly trail run. Looked at the map and determined the trails to be adequate. Dropped Lynn off at the spa for a foot massage and headed for my own sole massage on the trails. Started uptown Sedona and headed down for the Javelina endpoint, off SR89A. As I entered the trail, our host Steve at El Portal emerged with a friend from his morning hike. The trail climbed mostly. occasionally leveling off and dropping a few times. Mountain views towards the north were gorgeous and the trail was appropriately challenging. Once I moved to Jordan and then to Cibola Pass trails, the terrain became even steeper. Especially the last stretch up to Cibola pass was practically a stair climb. Nice climb, 130 m over 4 km. Foot traffic became thick, I guess everyone was starting their day hikes. From the trail head parking it was an easy jog back to town, I returned just as Lynn was done. We rewarded ourselves with a bagel with smoked salmon and an orange juice at Amara Restaurant.

Airport Loop, Sedona
3:05 PM; Margs Draw Trail, Sedona, AZ

18.1 °C; Partly cloudy
Decided on the airport loop for today's hike. The parking lots were quite a bit busier than other areas as was the stretch on the Sedona View Trail (from the Overlook parking lot to the Airport Vortex. As it often happens, as soon as we were on the loop trail proper, we were by ourselves. The trail has beautiful views of the Munds Mountain Wilderness. As we were hiking, I recognized the Comescu mansion, which sits adjacent to the Chapel of the Holy Cross. I was waiting for the chard-like shape of the chapel to appear. It eventually did, but by that time, I was much more intrigued by the gree-grey branches of the sycamores indicating the course of Oak Creek. The trail finally rose to the top of the table mountain which has the airport and started to drop again. Loud city noises on this side, including saws, barking dogs from a kennel, trucks, hammering ad much more. This was a little much. chatted with a few people along the trail, including a couple collecting medicinal plants and also for some new age stuff. Left Lynn at the vortex when we got there and sprinted up to the top to get the car. Then a slow drive back into town, stop and go.

Margs Draw Trail
12:33 PM; , Sedona AZ

10.6 °C; Cloudy
Needed to do something a little more strenuous today, decided on a quick trail run from our lodgings, Margs Draw. Draw is the US word for re-enrant. There is a draw called Margs Draw, which gave the name to the trail. Ran along Hwy 179, gently climbing to Morgan Rd, and from there more steeply to the trailhead. The trail affords beautiful views of the Munds Mountain Wilderness to the east and of the peaks across the valley and NW of Sedona. It undulates up and down, I had hoped to run the entire way to Shnebly Rd but had to backtrack too often when the trail split into a labyrinth of single tracks. I ended up coming down at Sombart Lane. Not being much used to running anymore, tis was an excellent workout.

West Fork of Oak Creek
2:54 PM; Oak Creek Canyon, AZ

13.0 °C; Snow
Didn't exactly plan this, as the day started to look like a washout. We decided on a drive up Oak Creek Canyon and to hike a little from the West Fork trailhead. It wasn't raining, so we kept going. Left-over snow, even very close to where the fork is, by Hwy 89A. One fun aspect of this hike is that you have to ford the creek in many locations. Along the way, we saw many other hikers from all sorts of ethnicities. Gone are the days when middle class white folks were the only ones you encountered on the trails! Trailsides had been very well worked over by the local herd of peckaries. One part of the creek was still partially frozen over. Whe we got in about 5 km, I asked some returnees whether there was a clear end to the trail, they confirmed there was, about another km or so. Lynn sent me ahead to scout it out, to make sure it was worthwhile. I did, and it was, but it was going to be a strenuous hike for Lynn. I turned back, hoping she had started her descent, which she had done. I jogged most of the trail from where we had split up and returning to catch up with her. At 12.5 km for me and a good 10 km for her, this had been a good hike!