Off to Mexico!

I am currently at SFO terminal 3 waiting for my 6am flight tomorrow morning to Mexico City. It's 1015pm right now and I am planning on finding a comfy place to settle down and sleep for the night. Before then I will fill you in on how I got to this point and what I will be doing in Mexico.
As I returned from Tahoe to Flagstaff back in mid-October and was preparing for 5 weeks in the backcountry of south-east Arizona I received an email from Kimmy telling me of plans she had made with 3 other professional runners to head to an altitude training center to train for one month. They were looking for an "assistant coach" to go down and run with the ladies and make sure things ran smoothly(nice pun ehh?). She informed me that if I was interested I could go. Well it didn't take long to decide I was interested and so I made sure I could take time off from work and then informed Kimmy I was in. The next day I went on my backcountry project.
Upon getting back from the backcountry I slowly found out more details about where we would be going and how long we would be there. We will be at La Loma Altitude Training Center in San Luis Potosi, Mexico which is about 200 miles north of Mexico CIty.
Link to La Loma website
While it sounded like there would be 4 ladies going down, I believe it is down to just 2. Kimmy and Bri Felnagle.
Kimmy and I arrive in Mexico City tomorrow evening and Bri arrives the following day at which point we will drive up to San Luis Potosi.
So in preparation for this I have been running more in the last month than all of June-November combined, which means I have run more than 5 times. So I am hardly in good running shape, and I'm sure the ladies will be kicking my ass for the first week or so, but I am hoping the fact that I have lived at altitude for the last year will help me not be so embarrassed. In fact I will be coming down 800ft in elevation in relation to Flagstaff! So it should be a piece of cake.
I received my first passport ever upon coming home for Christmas and am very excited that the day I got my picture taken I had a new haircut which will be on my passport for 10 years.

I will be their driver for the duration of our visit and from everything I have heard and read it is an absolute delight to drive in Mexico City(sarcasm). Every website I have been to says the worst thing you can do is drive in Mexico City. So that will be fun.
At least they drive on the right side of the road down there.
As far as brushing up on my spanish skills. I haven't. But I did buy a small spanish/english dictionary of common phrases today. So I hope that with my vague recollection of what I learned in my spanish classes will help me get by with minimal embarrassment.
Of course, as most of you could guess, I am terribly excited at the prospect of eating a ton of Mexican food while I am down there.
Since getting back home from Flagstaff and arriving at the airport I have been quite busy visiting friends and family. I was able to stop by Paly and meet up with Himmel for lunch. The I continued onto Pleasanton to meet up with Ben where I had a lovely dinner with his family. We then drove up to Davis and stayed with Keith and played Frisbee golf late at night on campus which was highlighted by commandeering a scissor lift in a construction zone.
The following morning Ben and I made our way up to Sierra at Tahoe to hit the slopes after a ton of snow hit the sierra the previous week. Conditions were amazing and it was great to get back out in the snow. After a day of skiing we drove back down to the Bay Area and met up with Bri and having an amazing dinner at Cactus Taqueria in Rockridge. Awesome chile rellano with carne asada plate! We continued on to Studs Bar in SF to watch Arran's band play. Buscho was there freshly returned from Germany which was an added delight. The show was awesome. Ben and I then returned to his place.
The next morning I made my way home and had a spectacular Christmas with family.
I have since made my way to the Bay Area today with my new MacBook Air which I am currently typing on and eagerly anticipating my trip to Mexico. That is all for now. Time to find a place to sleep. I shall blog again from Mexico!
Adios!

Back in California and debt free

While leaving Flagstaff in the midst of a snow storm was sad it's great to be back in California. Before gong into events here I'll recap the last couple weeks in Flagstaff. I spent two weeks in Lake Mead fencing with a two day hiatus during that time back in Flagstaff to do a service project to finish off my AmeriCorps program. I have now finished AmeriCorps and just got my educational award with which I have now paid off my school loans and am debt free. Phew, that's nice to have out of the way.
My americorps project was a trash cleanup along one of the popular running trails in Flagstaff. I was able to get 15 volunteers to come out and help and many from the nau track/xc team. We gathered a ton of trash, much of which was quite unique including a full bottle of pills, a hula hoop, partially full bottles of vodka, and the winner for most bizzare trash was this:

my wonderful volunteers


At Lake Mead we were treated to some wonderful weather and amazing sunsets.

We were in some pretty remote places which required quite a bit of four wheeling which was a blast in our company Tundra. Although the office was not pleased that I beat the crap out of it. The front fender is now falling off and I got two flats.

Besides the fun in the Tundra we got a ton of work done. Here is a section of fence we completed. You can see it stretching off 3 miles into the distance.

After Lake Mead we had our company party which was a great time as we played office chair hockey with brooms at 3am in our warehouse. The next day my coworkers and I who were planning a climbing trip to red rocks by vegas came to the sad realization that it would not happen in the middle of a rainstorm so we each went our seperate ways back home. I started the 12 hour drive back to Carmel. I spent the night in Tehachapi and made it back home on Sunday around noon.
I have enjoyed relaxing and being at home and have much to do in the week I am here.
Top on the priority list is to eat at Taqueria de Valle which is difficult this time of year because they are often closed to be with family.
I am also going to spend much time with my family, and of course try and see as many friends as possible. I am heading up to the bay area tomorrow to visit Scott and go with Ben skiing at Tahoe where they have been raped by snow so far this season. Back home for christmas then back to the bay are to see friends again and leave at 6am on the 28th to fly to mexico.
Oh yeah, Mexico...once again I am too tired so I will get to that next time. Adios

Wrapping up the work year and unwrapping the running

Well it's been a hell of a year. Just got off the phone with Keith a bit ago and we commented on the state of affairs a year ago. I was living on a coach at ND and working at a restaurant. It was actually December 6th, 2009 that I found out I would be getting this job. I had little idea of what to expect and while it has had it's ups and downs it has been amazing.
I am now heading out tomorrow morning for my final project of the year which will be a low key fencing project at Lake Mead. Weather will be a sunny 70 degrees each day.
I will finish my AmeriCorps term on Saturday at the conclusion of my volunteer service event at which point I will be able to pay off my student loans.
Our end of season party will be on the 17th and I will start road tripping back through California on the 18th.
I will enjoy Christmas with my family in Carmel Valley and hope to get some skiing in with friends before or after that.
The year will then conclude with flying down to San Luis Potosi, Mexico where I will spend all of January at an Altitude Training Center(more on that at a later time).
I have run two days in a row now which is the most since May. I look to improve on that streak the rest of the week.
As for now I am heading to bed. I should have another post around the 17th before I head back to California.
I will close with an amusing picture I took whilst driving through Flagstaff this week.

Where did November Go? Lost in the woods

Hello again. I almost forgot I had this blog it has been so long since I last posted. Chances are if I have almost forgot it, there is no one left reading it. But I will continue to post in the chance someone stumbles back here and for my own records of my doings.
So last I posted I was about to go to the Galiuro Wilderness in Coronado National Forest for 5 weeks. It was an epic project to say the least and in one of the most remote/rugged places I have been. We left Flagstaff early on the morning of October 19th to drive down. It took about 7 hours to drive there with the last two hours on a dirt road into the middle of nowhere. We camped at the trailhead that night and the next morning packed up the mules with our food and supplies and started hiking in with loaded packs full of tools. We reached our home for the next 5 weeks after 7 hours of hiking.
Pictures from the hike in:
Crew Picture before the hike in

From Coronado BC project

starting the hike. The trail goes up and over the ridge in the background and then over one more ridge before dropping down to our campsite.

Clouds rolled in and it rained a bit on the hike

Letting the mules pass us

about halfway to the our camp



The work consisted of brushing a 16ish mile loop that had not been worked for over 10 years. While it sounded straight forward and the first week was, we soon found out this was going to be quite more difficult than we first thought. A majority of the trail was impassible and impossible to find, there was so much brush. Much of our time was simply spent trying to find where the "trail" went. What was supposed to be a brushing project to widen the trail corridor in fact turned out to be a building a brand new trail project. We met a few people who had been coming here for 30+ years and they had never heard of anyone going on these trails, which helps explain why they were in such disrepair.
Pictures of work:
Here is what the trail looked like before we came

One of the best sections of trail. Cutting down an overhanging limb

Finally my fingernail came off!



For the first 3 weeks we camped in the same spot and worked both directions of the loop from that location. However after this time the large amount of hiking meant diminishing returns on how much work we could get done everyday. So the fourth week we moved camp 5 miles further into the wilderness and worked from there for 6 days. After this point we moved back to our original campsite for the last week of work. We split our crew into two groups for the last week with one group hiking 10-14 miles round trip each day for work while the other group hiked 6-10 miles round trip each day. It was awesome to be able to hike so much and be paid for it, but over 100 miles of hiking in a week for me on top of work made me quite exhausted by the end of the project.
Our off days were spent in the backcountry and for me they often consisted of hiking ahead on our trail so I would know where it went on our work days. We also spent a lot of time reading, throwing the frisbee, making up games, and exploring the area, including mines, caves, and old mining cabins.
A fair amount of wildlife was seen including a bear, deer, wild turkeys, rattlesnakes, black widows and tarantulas. It was a beautiful area and we barely scratched the surface of places to explore.
More pictures




Cabin where a shooting took place in 1918 where 4 people died including 3 officers of the law. It lead to the largest manhunt in arizona history


Check out the whole album for more pictures

We hiked out on the Monday before Thanksgiving and drove back to Flagstaff the following day. I went down to Phoenix to visit family for Thanksgiving and had an awesome time.
Sunny and warm in Phoenix for Thanksgiving

Yummy food and drink after 5 weeks eating backcountry food


Snowy and Cold in Flagstaff after thanksgiving


I then returned to Flagstaff to find out I would be going to the Grand Canyon and leading 16 volunteers, 10 of which had never camped before. The night we got there it got down to -2 degrees Fahrenheit and the next day at work the high was 23 degrees. To say it was a shock for them is a huge understatement. But I was very proud of how they handled it and we got so much work do that we left two days early. Last night was my first time at the Green Room to get 25cent drinks in over 6 months. I was very careful not to overdo it. We ended up playing a bunch of pool and having a grand old time.
Sunset at the canyon


Today I finally had the chance to really get going on construction of my living quarters in my truck. It's coming along well and I have finished the majority of construction and now will focus on the details. Here are a couple pictures.



In other good news I have been a supervisor with ACE for over 6 months now so I finally have health insurance! That's all for now. I will be heading out to Lake Mead to do some fencing next week. The end of our season is rapidly approaching and everyone is getting excited for the end of season party on the 16th.

Back in Flagstaff and Leaving Just as Quickly

My last week of work in Tahoe consisted of tiding up a few things at the work-site and writing up a 40+ page end of season report.
We did get to use the highline on Monday though which was fun. Moving large rocks elevated 20+ft on a 200+ft long cable.
Here you can see us guiding the rock towards it's final resting place.

I left Wednesday after work to start the drive to Flagstaff in my new truck. The first 3 hours were very slow going getting out of Tahoe as I only covered 150 miles during that time. But things picked up and I made it to 30 miles outside of Barstow around 2am and slept for a few hours in the truck before making it the rest of the way to Flagstaff.
The sunrise in the desert was quite something on Thursday morning

Since getting back to Flagstaff I have been visiting as many of my friends from here as possible before I leave.
Speaking of leaving, I will be heading out of Flagstaff tomorrow at 7am to head to the Galiruo Wilderness in Coronado National Forest. I had never heard of this place before Friday, but the more I read, the more excited I am to go there.
Here is a link to some info about the place.


Besides the remoteness and ruggedness of the area I am excited because we will be staying at the Power's Cabin. It is a historical cabin from the early 1900's that was made famous by a large gunfight that took place there which led to the largest manhunt in Arizona history.
Additionally the highest mountain in the area had a B-24 bomber from World War 2 crash there so I hope to check out the wreckage while I am there.
Overall it should be an awesome project in an incredible place. I am stoked to be out there for 5 weeks straight.
I will be returning to civilization on November 24th and will be spending a relaxing Thanksgiving here in Flagstaff at which point you can expect a detailed blog post and many pictures.
Until then....

My First Vehicle- About time?

Well, it finally happened. After much talk for the last couple years about getting a car I did it. Today I bought a 95 Ford F150 4x4 Supercab. I had about given up on finding what I was looking for this summer. But in a chance encounter at the forest service end of season party I met a guy who just bought a new car and was looking to get rid of his old truck. Test drove it Friday. Thought about it Saturday and bought it today. It's a beast of a truck and is sure to be a blast to travel and live in the next couple years. It's got a brand new speaker system and a camper-shell on the 6.5ft bed as well as two fuel tanks.
So I am heading back to Flagstaff mid week to get it registered and whatnot. Sadly this means I won't be able to go home or see people in Davis or elsewhere.



Just a start, the bed will get spruced up quite a bit more after my backcountry project.

Yup, two fuel tanks

Hardly Strictly Summer is Coming to an End

Already one week longer that planned in Tahoe and I have one more week to go. But I am hardly complaining as this has been a strictly awesome Summer. Last weekend was insanely awesome at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco. Over 100+ bands over 3 days on 6 stages with 700,000+ people and all for free. Some of the music highlights that I saw were T-bone Burnett, Gillian Welch, Jackie Green, Peter Himmelman, Steve Earle, Robert Earle Keen, and Umphrey's McGee. Sadly I had to leave before the end and missed some of the bands I would have most liked to see.
It was great to see the new dwellings of Kaitlin and Tyler as well. Both live within blocks of GGP and I thank them for letting me stay at their places. Here are some pictures from the festival as well as a couple videos.

Arriving

Video from Rooster Stage watching Steve Earle


walking down to Banjo stage for Gillian Welch

360 degree view of Banjo Stage waiting for Gillian Welch


Crowd at Towers stage watching Jackie Gree





As far as work is concerned, my crew has finished all the work that was scheduled for us at Cold Creek as of last Wednesday. Now we will spend our final week finishing up some loose ends that the forest service crew was unable to complete. I will also have to do my final end of project report to submit to the forest service. Some pictures of our completed work.









The weather wrecked havoc on us for the past week as well. It rained everyday since last Saturday through Wednesday. Tuesday was the worst. When we started our hike to our worksite it was 42 degrees and raining. About 10 minutes into our hike it was colder and hailing. 10 minutes after that it was sleeting and when we got to our worksite it was a combo of those as well as snowing. We were working right at the snowline. It was a blizzard at our highest work spot, but 100 ft in elevation lower it was raining. And in between it was everything. We worked until 9:30 when the forest service told us to pack up and go home as it was too dangerous.

Winter is coming!


I'll probably post once more from Tahoe and a final time from Flagstaff before heading into the backcountry for 5 weeks. I'm working on getting off up here on Wednesday so I can road-trip back through California to see people on my way. Stay tuned for that.

Oh yeah, the salmon are running

Winding Down by Turning Things Up

Bluegrass Concert Friday night in Berkeley. Stanford Invitational Saturday morning. Marie Graduation Party Saturday night to Sunday morning. Rope Swing and Zip line in an alpine lake Sunday evening. A great weekend to say the least. But I will say a bit more.
It was awesome to be back at Stanford and watch the guys beat all the Big West teams. Especially nice to see Thig back up there and running strong. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the season. Opened my first beer at 3:50pm on Saturday afternoon. Finished my last brew around 3:50am Sunday morning. An incredible 12 hours filled that gap.
Finally Ben and I stopped by Long Lake near donner summit to hit up a zip line/rope swing. Can't wait to go back.
Some Pictures







A fun weekend was then followed by a good week of work. We had a minor delay in that a large boulder was in the way of our trail. But gave me the opportunity to teach my crew how to use a pionjar and feathers/wedges to split rocks.
Pictures


drilling holes in rock with pionjar

hammering in feathers and wedges to split rock

rock is split

switchback is coming along. one more week to finish up

Now I am in San Francisco attending 3 days of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass at Golden Gate Park. Day one I saw T Bone Burnett which rocked and now I am about to head to Kaitlin's for a house warming shindig. Should be a great time!