BuyNLarge

Mrs. Runalong and I saw WALL•E Sunday evening. I wish I had seen it before preaching on "Simplicity & Focus vs Complexity & Dissipation" Sunday morning as it would have provided a near-perfect illustration for some of my points.

Do see the movie (especially if you have teens and pre-teens, pre-schoolers probably won't get it).

Meanwhile you can spend some time perusing the Buy 'N Large website.

A Question for Obama

Add this to your survival kit...

Never go into the wilderness without a sports bra!

Berchtesgaden police officer Lorenz Rasp said that he helped lift 24-year-old Jessica Bruinsma of Colorado state to safety by helicopter on Thursday after she attracted the attention of lumberjacks by attaching her sports bra to a cable used to move timber down the mountain.

Brent Proctor: 02/04/58 - 06/24/08

Brain cancer claimed Jeanie's brother this morning. His life wasn't always easy but he was always upbeat- I don't think I ever saw him complain or feel sorry for himself. That's Brent, top center, circa 1991.

Just another day at the office...

Click on the pic for more:

Is that Australia?

Atheists unclear on the concept...

The study detailed Americans' deep and broad religiosity,
finding that 92 percent believe in God or a universal spirit --
including one in five of those who call themselves atheists.

Tour de Lassen NP- Finale

I got my energy back running downhill toward Snag Lake, even though it required hopping over numerous blowdowns. Once I landed with one foot on a log laying across the trail 18" above the ground, "flew" through the air to the next one, a couple feet away, which rolled under my foot and shifted, causing Ted (behind me) to audibly gasp as he did a 0.2 second evaluation of how to get my broken body out of that remote spot. But I was expecting the second log to shift a little and was ready for the movement, this time.

I was on the watch for bears at Snag Lake as we saw one there the last time, but alas, only a couple deer. At mile 22.5 the sign said we had 7.0 to go. We climbed up and I had Ted take a pic of me at Rainbow Lake, just to prove I was part of the expedition:


Ted at Rainbow Lake:
Ted at Lower Twin Lake:
We missed a turn at Echo Lake and got some bonus miles (Me, as the trail dwindled: "I don't like the looks of this, I think we're off-course." Ted, pushing on: "There's only one trail on the map, this has got to be it." Me, looking at the sun setting to the west: "Umm, you're heading east and our car is west...").

Obviously Ted was not to be trusted with navigation so as we went down the last steep, technical hill to the finish I ran ahead (fun!) while he picked his way down like a normal person. I missed the turn to the parking lot and ended up wandering around closed campsites, backtracking, retracing my steps, looking for Ted, looking for a sign or anything to help me figure out which way to the car and managed to get an extra three miles in before following the road to the car where Ted was waiting smugly.

33 miles, 8.5 hours (average 4.5 mph while we were actually moving), no bears, no loss of life.

Tour de Lassen NP- Butte Lake

Even though I hated the sand and was at a low point energy- and morale-wise, I have to admit that Butte Lake was the prettiest of the dozen or so lakes we scampered past yesterday.

Tour de Lassen NP- Cinder Cone

As we approached the Butte Lake area we found ourselves running in thick lava sand. Pretty much sucked the life and energy right out of me. My hip flexors were hurting and my legs felt dead and it was getting hot as we descended to 6100' and I was trying to avoid talking in order to keep myself from whining. I didn't recover until we got out of the worst of the sand and began our descent to Snag Lake about 8 miles later. But it WAS kinda pretty...


You can see it under Ted's feet as he approaches the Cinder Cone near Butte Lake:

We almost climbed the Cinder Cone but with 16 miles (actually 21 as it turned out) to go and legs that were weakening by the moment, we decided to forego the virtual "giant sand dune". Amazingly it actually has a couple of trees growing on it:

Tour de Lassen NP-1

Ted and I ran our Lassen Loop adventure run today. It was fairly uneventful, no bears, not a very hard course (with one exception) and pretty decent (slightly warm) weather. We started from Summit Lake:


And climbed the big hill to the junction, then headed north and downhill most of the next 6 miles to Badger Flat. Very fun...


From Badger Flat (7.0 miles) we turned east and ran a flat section toward Butte Lake, through a burnt out section of forest...


I'll have more pictures (9) tomorrow from the last 20 miles.

Tour de Lassen Nat'l Park

I'll be taking tomorrow off to do a 28 mile trail run through a big swath of Lassen NP with Ted (not to be confused with Teddi the Wonder Dog). Ted wonders if there will be snow (high point = 7300'). I wonder if there will be bears, Mark V and I saw a huge one last time.

We'll be running the trails that are on the periphery of this section of map- Summit Lake to Cluster Lakes to Badger Flat to Cinder Cone, up and around Butte Lake, down and around Snag Lake and back to Summit Lake via Rainbow Lake, Twin Lakes & Echo Lake:

The Dating Game

Which of these lovely bachelorettes will he pick?

Guess Who?

“I’d say, "-----, I promise you that you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’ And he hasn’t. And he never will.”

Quit blaming your genes...

"'In just three months, I can change hundreds of my genes simply by changing what I eat and how I live?' That's pretty exciting,"

I'll say!

Creekside flowers

Technically these are known as "orchid-like flowers of some sort or other".
I liked the way they looked with the creeks in the background:

Kanaka Peak hike

M&M, who are moving to Ohio this week;
and Bex, who just got home from two years in Germany,
took me on a Father's Day hike to Kanaka Peak this morning.

Paige Boulder Creek

Whiskeytown Lake from Kanaka Peak

Kanaka Peak (in the background)

It's the end of the world as we know it...

... and I feel fine.

Today, June 12: according to false prophet "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins.
Click on the pic for the sad story:

Narrowing the search...

According to this article, scientists are "narrowing the search for intelligent life".

Made me realize that my life would probably be a lot less frustrating if I did the same!

Beautiful pic

Unfortunately, I can't remember where I found it.

Surprise Visitor!

Mrs Runalong and Teddi the Wonder Dog were out working in the yard yesterday and discovered this fellow wandering about. I took a picture and we set him loose; then I did some research: there are no tortoises native to this area, but this is a Russian Tortoise, popular among pet owners (at least among pet owners who aren't deeply committed to the whole "soft and cuddly" mindset). And he's worth over $100! I'll see if I can find him again and trade him for a tank of gas.

Awesome Aerials!

The best photos you'll see today. Click on this pic to see the rest:

A man walks into a doctor's office...

He has a cucumber up his nose, a carrot in his left ear and a banana in his right ear.

"What's the matter with me?" he asks the doctor.

The doctor replies, "You're not eating properly."

Saturday Sillies

Fresh Runs!

Last week Ted and I ran on the brand spanking new Barbara Rogers Memorial Trail (aka: the Upper Sacramento Ditch Trail); about 18.5 miles round trip to Shasta Dam and back.



This evening I finally made it to the Kanaka Peak Trail at Whiskeytown (via the Salt Gulch and Peltier Trails for a 12 mile round trip- absolutely gorgeous 360 views from the top- Trinity Alps, Whiskeytown Lake, Mt Shasta, Redding and the Lassen Range, Sacramento and Peltier Valleys and the Yolla Bolly Wilderness.

(view north from Kanaka Peak)

This is a heavy training month for me (after slacking most of the year) and I'm already behind schedule (aiming for 300 miles). Tomorrow Ted and I are planning to do 21 miles near his home in Shingletown. That'll still leave me a few miles short of my goal for the week. Life keeps getting in the way!

Friday Fun

Language learning is so much easier when you skip all those annoying rules. At least he practices what he preaches:

You may not know that I recorded a worship album. As a public service, I used a stand-in for the cover photo. And for the vocals...

One of the few shows I enjoy is CSI:Miami, the story of a tiny little detective solving crimes in a land of giants:

Free Subscription to Runalong!

To the first reader who can answer the following:

Which country's name is an anagram of a synonym of a homonym of the only even prime number?

(The answer is in the comments, so try it yourself first; it's pretty easy).

Cascade Crest 100

In the Seattle Times: One of the better newspaper articles I've read about ultrarunning. I hope to run the CC100 someday, after I get some of the tougher ones (Plain, Wasatch, Massanutten...) out of the way first, Lord willing.

Behind a chalk line on a dusty road in the high valley east of Snoqualmie Pass, 93 extraordinarily fit humans are making final preparations for a 100-mile journey through lush Cascade forests, rocky, wind-swept ridges, slick, ankle-twisting ravines, rain, darkness and extreme fatigue.

By the next day, about three-quarters will return here, having traversed "the Trail from Hell," "the Cardiac Needles" and other delights. They will suffer, cry and feel pain in 31 flavors. They will also laugh, forge friendships and find a deeper understanding of themselves and their limits.

This is the sport of trail ultrarunning...

With all due respect, Barack...

Obama:

"The right wing, the Christian right, has done a good job of building these organizations of accountability, much better than the left or progressive forces have. But it's always easier to organize around intolerance, narrow-mindedness, and false nostalgia."

If this is what he thinks of me and my friends, you'll excuse me if I don't vote for him this fall. Granted, I've seen some intolerance, narrow-mindedness and false nostalgia in my circles (evangelical, mostly politically conservative) but not near as much as I've witnessed coming out of Barack's church. It's nice that he left there, just in time for the fall campaign, so here's some good advice for him as he looks for a new fellowship.

Dear Sen. Obama,

Now that you are back on the market, so to speak, having abandoned your church home of two decades to allow your friends to "worship in peace", I'd like to invite you to consider my church. Let me tell you a little bit about it...

Yolkamatic