Skis and RATs

So this is an odd pairing of events.  Snow and sun.  Colorado and Tucson.  What do they have in common?  "Fun things we did in January with friends"

I drove up to southwest Colorado to hang out with our friends Robyn and Cathy - it's always great spending time with them!  We started with a little hike in a nearby park where there was a tiny bit of snow:

This alpenglow might have been the last real sunshine we had:

On to the main reason for being there - heading up to Wolf Creek to ski, yay!

Getting ourselves set up with gear:

Robyn enjoyed playing tour guide as we explored the mountain and numerous trails, and Cathy and I had fun getting our ski legs back underneath us.  Chilly temperatures, wind, some additional snow, none of that deterred us from having a good time:

Whee!

Mountaintop pose - thank you friends for an awesome few days!

And for the cozy place to hang out in the evenings:

A brief run in New Mexico on the way back to Tucson:

And the other 75% of this story is "O Rats!" - the team name for our Tucson orienteering club's entry into the RAT (Run Around Tucson) Relay.  2nd time running and our team is getting bigger (just missing Alan from last year):

Annie led off, with a lovely Catalina mountain backdrop:

The course was modified this year so we weren't technically running all the way around Tucson, instead up to Oro Valley and back.  With an out-and-back to the east first.  We didn't mind, new scenery for us.

Annie smiling and approaching the first exchange:

A successful hand-off to Charles, who is in the process of hitting "start" on the Racejoy app so we could watch his progress (and send audible cheers of all kinds):

We had props this year!  I believe Annie created the signs, which we were all excited to pose with (especially Gavin?):

Smooth hand-off from Charles, with the "wrist-slap" relay bracelet:

A rare photo of me running with both feet off the ground:

Yvonne is ready to start leg 4:

Lukas (Skywalker?) says "Punch it!" (Chewy?)

Yvonne looking good at the end of her leg:

Go Billie!

Annie and Yvonne ready to cheerlead, Cristina holding another prop (an orienteering control flag), Melissa getting a hug before her run, and it looks like Gavin finally got his coffee:

Melissa taking the baton to start our journey northward:

Cristina's turn to run, while Jeff mans the control flag for the team:

Let's go, Gavin!

And you're almost done!

Pete finishing up the next leg, as we're coming back toward Tucson:

It's a beautiful day to run a few more miles!

John's ready to take the 2nd half of leg 9, except I can't... quite... reach him...

Finally caught up for the handoff - now you can run, John!

Team Pi-Rats ("Yo ho, yo ho, a Pi-Rat's life for me"), too funny, and this might be the same team as last year's mer-people - the dogs look the same, anyway!

John, I see you managed to get your shirt off... and Jeff is ready to speed to the finish line:

Yep, here's our ringer for the year - go Jeff go!

Post-race team photo, where you can tell it is the middle of winter in Tucson.  Go O-Rats!

We stopped in at Trader Joe's afterward, and John offered to bring this motorized chair back to the store for someone in the parking lot.  Made for an entertaining post-run picture:

Look at all the RAT Relay socks that showed up for the orienteering meet the next morning!

An excellent start to 2025, thank you friends!

(Photo credits = almost everyone pictured probably took at least one of these!)

Running, music, and the TEST FKT

I'm starting to see why I got so far behind on blogging.  Not only did we fill our 2024 summer with big adventures (normal), I added a bunch of fun exploration through the fall and winter (more than normal?)  Perhaps I need to institute some kind of "catch up" rule on my writing before I sign up for anything new?  That's unlikely to happen anytime soon!

So we're still back in last December...

I had previously enjoyed a race on the Arizona Trail (the Oracle Rumble), so it seemed like a good idea to try another one.  The Colossal Vail 50/50 is staged on the east/south side of Tucson and it was fun to see new areas and different views of the mountain ranges around us.

I'm in the red jacket resetting my watch at the starting line:

Bye John, see you soon!

The trails were so runnable (and the first section was generally downhill) that the splits I gave John were too conservative, and he missed me at the first crew spot.  No biggie, I had drop bags.  I enjoyed the first out-and-back to the south, even paying attention to the number of female runners in front of me for once.  That's usually a sign of a good day.

John did catch me on the way back to the start/finish area (thanks John!) and then drove out to the more remote aid station in the northern out-and-back part.  

I believe the background is Rincon Peak, nice picture John!

Foot cramps kept me from running as fast as I might have liked (since my competitive mode had kicked in that day), but I was still moving OK:

I was a tad disappointed that one woman passed me (I might have been able to beat her without the foot cramps), but that's such a tiny dot in the grand scheme of things.  More importantly, John was waiting at the finish line - Hi John! - and the post-race food was excellent  :)

Next up, a weekend in the Phoenix area.  Checking out the new Rivian space in Scottsdale for a "meet and greet" of Rivian owners:

Our first visit to the Musical Instruments Museum (MIM), where we were delighted by many of the displays.  Like this little pocket fiddle:

Guitars of all sizes:

Including an "air guitar" (!)

An interesting assortment of instruments from Afghanistan - I wonder if my parents saw any of these when they were in the Peace Corps:

Each country's display comes with a video that you can hear in a headset as you walk around, and one of my favorites is the dancing lion - so great!  And so fun to see this as one of the challenges in the most recent Amazing Race season.

Shadow puppet theater and a bunch of puppets and accompanying instruments - must be quite a production:

MIM has such an extensive and fascinating collection that we saw only one small portion during that first visit.  We will go (and have gone) back!

From our campground the next morning, we did an early hike (before an orienteering meet) up to Wind Cave, and were surprised with this excellent view of the giant "< PHOENIX" sign that is usually most visible from an airplane:

John's still got this summit pose in his arsenal!

Mountain shadows are fun:

The rest of this post is a boatload of pictures from the Tucson Eastern Skyline Traverse (TEST) FKT that I ran/hiked at the end of December.

This is on top of all the pictures I posted on the FKT site:

https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/marcy-beard-tucson-eastern-skyline-traverse-az-2024-12-27

I did a reasonably complete write-up there, so I'll try not to go into great detail below.  Basically, I was happy to get another shot at this one, and it went better this time.

This is not a stock photo:

Oh right!  We climbed mountains on Christmas Day - a belated Merry Xmas everyone!

A pretty sticker in the Rincon Peak summit register:

Looking over at Mica (peak #2) from Rincon (peak #1):

A little too happy?

Look out!

Hey, it's Mister Super Duper Awesome Support Guy!  And the other half of the picture of me on the way to the top of Mica - Hi John!

Man, that's one big (and dense) head:

Mica marker:

Looking at Tanque Verde (peak #3) from somewhere near Cowhead Saddle:

Another Merry Xmas greeting, thanks Ty T.!

Manzanita - such a pretty shrub, like mini mahogany:

Jumping ahead to day 2, when our friend Gavin trekked with me most of the way.  It was great to have more company.  Especially when it's someone who seems to pride himself on never posing for a "regular" picture:

Agua Caliente summit marker, and perhaps the most normal photo I've ever taken of Gavin:

Checking in at peak #4:

We're on top of the (little) world!

Lovely wash crossing with high rocky walls:

Gavin checking out the water tank situation on the AZT:

Enjoying our afternoon on the trail, with Mica in the background.  It's fun to see ahead and behind you from different angles on this long route.

Another classic Gavin pose:

The last trail section of day 2, the gentle climb up the AZT into the start of the Catalinas:

The trailhead at Gordon campground, as I was starting the out-and-back to Gibbon Mountain (peak #5):

I just adore this robot in the Gibbon ammo can - previously we wound it up so it could walk around, but now I only had time to make a note in the log (the sun is dropping and all that):

Kissing rocks that remind me of the Chiricahua's:

We had a good sleep at the campground and then I was on my way up, up, up to the last 2 summits.  It was a beautiful morning on the trail:

I suspect they routed the trail along this ridge specifically to highlight the rock formations, and I highly approve:

Off-trail travel in a creek bed to reach Airmen Peak:

I propped my trekking pole at the base of Airmen (it would just get in the way in the vegetation-choked gully), and took a picture in case we needed a clue of how to find it again:

All kinds of treasure in the Airmen ammo can!  Our favorite robot makes another appearance, also some medical/cleaning supplies and a disproportional frog/fly combo:

Recording our presence at peak #6:

Starting down Airmen, before the brush gets dense and the slope gets steep and I need to put the camera away:

John's a lumberjack, and he's OK:

Last trailhead (and Tug-E sighting) before the finish - see you again soon, John!

I liked the tour of the back side of the ridge, but I think I was about ready to be done...

Hey, who's that over there?  John, that's not Green Mountain (thank goodness):

"No crap on tap", just an excellent container for the Green Mountain summit:

Last one!

Yay for finally finishing this thing!

And that's a wrap for 2024 (also finally!)