twenty on trail

 We haven't been doing as much hiking this summer*, and H hasn't been doing as much road riding (Moab bike path rides with A notwithstanding), because H has been focusing on trail running.  He's been doing it for ten months now and is on his second pair of shoes.  And, mid-September, he did his highest mileage yet: twenty miles.  Twenty!  I'm so proud of him (and wondering how far he's fixing to go before this is over ...).

That note is what he left for me so I would know how long he thought he might be gone - and at what point I should start worrying about him.  I didn't even get the chance to think about worrying as he finished ten minutes ahead of his best-case scenario time.  The route was a mix of surfaces: wood chips in Dimple Dell, a little bit of asphalt along Wasatch Boulevard and then hard pack dirt up on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  And the morning temperatures were nice and cool in the shade along the base of the mountains.

* Gosh, I feel like I say that a lot the last few years.  First, we cut back when we got Milton because a lot of the hiking along the Wasatch Front is not dog-friendly and we didn't want to always leave him alone on the weekends.  Then, the trails just got SO crowded because so many people have moved to SLC (yes, I know we're part of that problem).  And last summer, I was recovering from my ankle sprain which was a slow recovery.  And then now, this.  Maybe next summer we'll get out there more.

csa summer: eleventh box

 Summer is winding down - we're already at CSA box #11.  This one wasn't the most vibrantly colored but still had the good stuff: green beans; plums, nectarines, peaches, apples and a pear; spaghetti squash and a white acorn squash (so Milton-the-squash-eating-dog is stoked); kale; a couple of cucumbers; green bell peppers and a couple of pasilla peppers.  

Two kinds of squash!

We ate the green beans on the first night (long past their prime, I'm afraid).  All the peppers went into a gochujang noodle dish that we're fans of.  The kale went to a tofu scramble that is in our regular rotation.  The peaches I cooked down into a peach-ginger jam that I'll freeze for mid-winter oatmeal topping and the rest of the fruit got eaten as-is.  H is a big apple fan but I think my favorite fruits are stone fruits, like plums, peaches and nectarines.  They're just so summery.

reruns but the desert so it's okay

We were back in Moab for Labor Day weekend, and delighted that it was slightly cooler, as in highs only in the mid 90s.  The fact that we were "delighted" by those temperatures means we have truly given up our east coast cards.  Truly, though, the weather was great with mostly clear skies, which allowed it to cool off overnight.  Good stuff.

A Millcreek morning

Also good stuff: our neighbor is home from her summer commercial fishing in Alaska!  She bought a new boat this year, so it was a bit of a learning curve with the engine and mechanics and new fishing gear.  But she learned a lot, is set up for next spring, and both she and her sweet dog made it all safely.  We spent several hours over the course of the weekend in her shady backyard, drinking beers and hearing her stories while Milton and Moscow did dog stuff.

This is where Millcreek flooded by the Youth Garden Project

Outdoors/exercise-wise, our activities looked a lot like they have all summer.  On Friday morning, while H did a five mile trail run, A and M went to Millcreek.  The monsoonal floods have made a mess from the confluence on down, dropping lots of sand and actually making the lower creekside trail pretty flat to walk on.  Later that morning, A and H did a sixteen mile bike path road ride - H was on his MTB because we hadn't brought his road bike with us, planning for him to use his cruiser for bike path rids, but his cruiser had a flat tire so MTB it was.  Unfortunately, the flooding has completely taken out the part of the path by the vet's office - and if I were the owner of the house next door, I would be getting very, very nervous.

Circle O morning

Saturday H had planned for a longer trail run, so we all piled into the car and drove out to Moab Brand Trails.  H and M did eight+ miles while A did her Circle O loop (across the parking lot cutover to Bar M, to Circle O (counterclockwise), back to Bar M, back to the cutover).  A then did a solo bike path ride (21 miles) because H didn't feel like lugging his heavy MTB all that way.  Can't blame him.

Nervous but festive

For Sunday, while H recovered with a 4.7 mile trail run on Pipe Dream, A and M went up to Sandflats Recreation Area for a quick practice loop walk.  We met a couple of nice dogs and found a very interesting (if you find scat interesting haha) poop out on the rocks.  It was full of prickly pear fruits and too big to be coyote ... could it have been a bear?!!?  There are definitely bears in the La Sal mountains so it's not out of the realm of possibility that a bear wandered down towards town.  Later, A did another 21 mile solo road ride.  Sure do like that little Cannondale - super glad that I bought it.

Moody Sandflats morning

Finally, on Monday, H did a short three miler while A and M went back for the Millcreek loop.  Then, after much debate about avoiding traffic (leaving before noon on Monday or leaving at 4 a.m. on Tuesday so H didn't miss an early meeting), we opted to leave early to hopefully get ahead of the holiday traffic.  We got held up less than half an hour coming down into Spanish Fork, so I guess we did get ahead of most of it, and were back in Sandy with enough time for a long holiday weekend beer perched on the tailgate of the truck.  As one does.

Scat photo below.  Apologies for those who think it's gross - just keep scrolling.

csa summer: ninth and tenth boxes

 The ninth CSA box was 8/28 and contained peaches, a solitary nectarine, tomatoes, a solitary green bell pepper, anaheim peppers, jalapenos, three cucumbers, a couple ears of corn, green beans, tomatillos and lacinato (a/k/a dinosaur) kale.  We ate the corn and green beans immediately, of course, but then had to store most of the rest of it - other than the tomatoes and peaches, which made the drive to Moab with us.

Well this photo is kind of dull

Box #10 was pretty awesome: yellow watermelon, green beans, plums, nectarines, apples, onions, jalapenos, a zucchini, a summer squash, a spaghetti squash (that I think was supposed to be another kind of melon, actually), a solitary pear, a few tomatillos, lots of shishito peppers, a tomato and three other peppers (anaheim and poblano, maybe?).  The kale, half the summer squash and a jalapeno went straight into a tofu scramble; all the peppers (except for the jalapenos) and all the tomatillos went into a chile verde starter for the freezer (i.e., this winter, when we want a green chile stew, I just have to pull that out for a head start); and I candied all the jalapenos - delicious and so spicy!  The watermelon got cubed and frozen for smoothies and margaritas; the yellow variety is not nearly as flavorful as the regular ones though.  And I roasted the spaghetti squash in the hopes that Milton will like it as well as he does butternut - it's not nearly as sweet, however, so we'll see.

Ooh that's fun

Finally, I also used a bunch of those darn beets making two jars of pickled beets and a batch of beet hummus.  The hummus is very tasty and that color is amazing!  Beets are such a lot of work, though,  and so messy what with the scrubbing and the cooking (I steamed them) and the taking off of the skins.  They don't really seem worth it, even if you like them (which I don't).

The color is even better in person

printed

I did a thing.  A permanent thing: my first (and likely only) tattoo.  I've kind of wanted a tattoo for decades, but really couldn't figure out what I wanted - something meaningful to me.  In 2018, when we went to Great Basin National Park, we met a woman out hiking who had a paw print tattoo on her calf.  We asked her about it and she said it was from her dog, now gone, but she'd gotten it done while he was still alive because it was a good memory for her, remembering getting him to step on the inkpad and all that.  We thought that was a really cool idea.

Since Milton is The Best Dog Ever, I decided that I would finally get that tattoo: his actual paw print of his right front (spotted) foot.  H had to help me get the print because Milt didn't like to step on the inkpad or walk on the paper we'd taped to the mudroom floor.  We finally got a number of prints - and I was glad I'd gone with washable ink because we ended up with paw prints all over the mudroom and garage floors.

Right afterwards, so it's a little swollen

I dropped the print off at Tiger Claw Tattoo in SLC for artist Charity, who is a good friend of some good friends of ours.  The studio specializes in Asian-style tattoos (her hand-drawn chrysanthemums are amazing) but they are willing to branch out.  On August 6, I went in for my appointment.  She made a stencil which we moved a couple of times for placement.  I was at Tiger Claw for just under two hours, including prep, installation and chatting afterwards about care.  The needle wasn't particularly pleasant but it only really hurt a couple of time when she must have hit a nerve.

"Stylish"

For two weeks I had to moisturize the tattoo several times a day and keep it out of the sun as much as possible (hence the do-it-yourself leg sleeve I made for hiking and biking).  It healed really well and I love it (thanks again, Charity!!).  And just this morning, while I was walking M, another dog walker complimented me on it - and then proudly showed me his tattoo of his dog.  I'm part of the tribe, y'all.

typical summer weekend: southern utah edition

 When we went to Moab mid-August, we were sort of in between giant storms/floods: two had already happened and the third was yet to come.  There had been some rains, though, which caused some smaller washouts along the bike path again.  And the weeds in the yard were definitely enjoying the additional moisture.

Total goober

We got down there Thursday night and squeezed in a fifty minute walk before stopping at Woody's for a beer (karaoke night, fwiw).  On both Friday and Saturday, A and M headed off to Millcreek for the usual loop: out along the rim trail, drop down about halfway up and follow the creek back down.  It was still cool in the morning shade and Milton made sure to get some crazy on, splashing through the creek.

Also a total goober

In addition, on Friday, H did a six mile trail run and A did the 21-ish mile road ride on the bike path.  There were several instances of having to get off the bike due to deep sand, including some new spots on the upper part of the path, heading out towards Arches National Park.  On Saturday, both H and A did that ride.  The sand was still there. 

Result of recent rains

Sunday meant chores.  H went above and beyond too, scraping, priming and painting all the doorways where the original paint was peeling from rain backsplash.  That was sweaty, as the day wore on, but it looks so much better now.

typical summer weekend: northern utah edition

 Whereas last summer we didn't hike that much because of my having to recover from the Memorial Day weekend ankle spring, this summer we have not been hiking that much because H has been getting into trail running.  I am envious but super-wary of starting up running again after that overuse knee thing I got this winter (getting older can be a drag physically).  Obviously, when H does a fifteen (!!!!!) mile trail run on a Saturday, he's not that anxious to hike on Sunday.  And ain't no one can blame him for that.

Top o' Supreme

So that Saturday, a couple weeks ago, when H strung together fifteen (!!!!!) miles in Dimple Dell and along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, Milton and I did our own usual Dimple Dell loop, and then I double-sessioned by going up to Alta for my exercise loop.  As the wildflowers fade, so have the looky-loos (slightly, anyway) and I only passed twenty-four other hikers on my way up to Catherine's Pass.  That afternoon, we enjoyed watching a thunderstorm move through the Wasatch Front from the shelter of our garage.  Milton didn't enjoy it quite so much but bravely waited it out from under the truck.

Dunno what this is but it's 

usually white, not pink

On Sunday, H did a recovery bike ride while the other two of us did Dimple Dell.  When I went up to Alta afterwards, the Sunday situation was in full force, at least at first: there were just nine hikers for me to pass.  I got to spend a minute or two with a curious young ermine who was playing around on the trail just below the pass.  And then, in the creek under the Supreme chairlift, a young male moose was completely uninterested in all the people trying to take his picture.