the weather man got it wrong again this weekend. thankfully, it was to everyone's benefit! it was a 30-40% chance of thunderstorms this weekend both days, and when i talked to my brother in Pocatello yesterday, he said it was indeed raining. i talked to my friend Karl in Salt Lake this afternoon and it had started to snow!
the Sundance trails are drying out (finally!) and the week of warm temperatures has definitely helped the trail conditions. so, with this in mind, i decided to take a gander at the west slope of the Sundance trail system yesterday. i was sorely disappointed. i'm sure, when the snow finally does melt (in July?) these trails will be as killer as the ones on the east slope. but for now, they are still covered in 4-5 feet of sugary spring snow which makes for really good post-holing.
the dogs never seem to mind, and typically just turn back and look at me struggling and seem to say, "what's taking you so long ~ come ON! this is great!" they are such happy beasts. i sniveled a little bit on the trail yesterday as i slogged for a mile and a half through the deep snow, thinking it would have been a whole lot easier with skis on my feet. i lost the trail and we ended up a quarter mile below where the trail crossed the main road, so i walked the dogs up the road to look at the situation in the canyon below where we had thought of making a return route, and the trail was indeed still covered in snow down below us as well.
so, we ended up jogging the 3 miles down the paved road back to the car, which was actually very nice because there were only a couple of trucks on the road because of the snowy conditions (the road department has not fully plowed out the road yet, so there are large stretches with 1-2 feet of snow still on the road to Lookout Mtn where an old Forsest Service fire watch station is located. we ran just under 7 miles, for about a hour and 45 minutes.
today, Sunday, the dogs and i went to the old standby east slope of the Sundance trails and because of the warm temps were able to get up to the high point above the ridge that i've been running for the last month (!) we still ran into a bit of snow, but it was nothing like the day before. i was actually thankful for the snow and melt water as it was about 70 degrees today and it gave the pups some liquid refreshment (and play-time in the mud ~ fun!)
we ran for 2 hours today, approximately 8 miles, and i really felt like i could have gone for another hour. Artie was balking, though, tethered to the leash for a mile or so after chasing a herd of white tail deer and i've had a hip-flexor muscle acting up a little bit, so i decided to get us to the gas station for snacks and a bag of ice. of note: we also saw a wild turkey run across the ridge trail! thankfully it was while Artie was leashed, so it survived another day (not that she really could have caught him anyway).
fyi ~ worst mistake of the day was forgetting the hand-held button for Artie's shock collar. i put the collar on her anyway, but after she figured out on attempt #1 that chasing deer would not result in a shock, (but she came back anyway), on attempt #2 she defiantly looked at me and then took off after the deer. thankfully she came back after only 5 minutes.
it was a fabulous weekend in the sunny Black Hills. i'm so glad the weather man got it wrong this time!
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