What are we doing here?

It’s the middle of June and we’re in Montana. The day before yesterday IT SNOWED. ON US. And that was actually the third time in the past week that we have been snowed on. The first time was at 8000 ft. driving up through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks:

The second time was at 7000 ft. as we were doing a long run up and around Garnet Mountain. It was a driving snowstorm, complete with thunder and lightning. This is the only photo I have of that experience, after getting back to Tug (our truck):

Two days ago it snowed at 5000 ft in Gallatin Gateway and in Bozeman. I tried to take a picture of Howie and Tug in the snow, but the camera had been in the truck overnight and pretty much rebelled at the idea of doing anything while freezing cold. I can relate.

We’re here to volunteer at the Primal Quest expedition adventure race starting June 23 and lasting to July 2. We love adventure racing and have competed a bit ourselves, but this is the first time we will be volunteering at an expedition-length race. Should be interesting! We’ll be on the water team for the first part of the race, assisting with skills testing before the race starts and then helping at the kayaking and whitewater swim legs. After that part of the race is over, John will be helping man a checkpoint or TA and I’ll be on the media team (cool!). At least that’s the current plan.

While we’re up here, we are taking the opportunity to do some training in the mountains. John will be running the Hardrock 100 next month, and we both will be doing the Grande Traversee des Alpes in France in September, so we need a lot of hill training. And any altitude training we can get. So we have been exploring the trails in the area, me toting a can of bear spray and yelling “go bear go!” every couple minutes. We haven’t seen a bear yet, but we’ve been told that they are out here.

We’re parked at the Castle Rock Inn, about 25 minutes south of Bozeman and equally north of Big Sky where the race will be based. It’s a nice spot next to the Gallatin River, complete with a café open for delicious breakfasts/coffee and hookups for Howie. And with views of snow in the trees not far above us. I like the cold much better than the heat, but this is getting a bit ridiculous.