Stellar run along Little Traverse Bay

Most everyone who knows me knows that one of my most favorite places on earth is Petoskey, Michigan on Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan. My Sunday morning run from Petoskey to Harbor Springs (from the south side of the bay to the north side of the bay) reminded me again and again and many times again why I love this area. It was gray, it was windy, it was rainy, and it was magnificent.

Waves crashing into the breakwater

Yes, that is a surfer in Little Traverse Bay (just beyond & to the right of the seagull)

Rainbow over Little Traverse Bay

Babbling brook, a wee bit calmer than the roiling Great Lake

View through the cattails toward Harbor Springs' calm harbor

A Run For Fun

Sometimes ya' just gotta run for fun. This was one of those days. It's been a long haul of dealing with family matters and a bit more work than retirement. Put a half-marathon training schedule on top of that and, yes, it was definitely time to treat myself to a run purely for fun. It was off to the trails for me and Taz this morning!  Nothing but dirt, rocks, wildflowers, birds, critters and sweat. Who could ask for more?!

Somebody is keeping a close watch on us

And some one of us is keeping a close eye on somebody

Snapshots of a summer of running

Fleet footed. Ha!

Woohoo! 5 mph long run pace!

Training of late has been focused on prepping for a September half marathon but not to the exclusion of enjoying the sights of sounds of running in the foothills of Colorado. 

Here's a peek at my running outings of the last few weeks:

One must always be on the lookout for critters. Just last weekend, I had a bovine bonanza. First I found myself on a trail with a mama cow to my left and her bull calf on my right resulting in a standoff that I was not about to force, waiting patiently (well, maybe not patiently, but definitely respectfully) until mama moved away from the trail.  A few miles later a different bull calf found his way under a fence to freedom and I got to try my herding skills. Undoubtedly not as effective as Taz my amazing cattle dog would have been but I did eventually coax the calf back under the fence to his pasture. That was immediately followed by discovering that a full grown bull had meandered onto our trail. We definitely were not going to attempt to sneak past him and ended up waiting until a cow came by and enticed the big fella to move along.  I was too caught up in those moments to pull out my camera - but did snap a few photos of wildlife encounters during earlier runs:

Of course, running in the great outdoors is filled with vistas. Such a beautiful planet we have!

summer sunrise

   

 the Continental Divide from the eastern plains

 

foggy flatirons

Yet running can be so much more than critters and vistas.  I was reminded of this with the always powerful experience of participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. This year's Boulder Relay for Life raised over $41,000 for the fight against cancer with my team (me, and Benji & Amie Durden) raising over $4500 of that total! As always, a memorable event.

Luminaria in memory of my mother-in-law, Barbara Miller - a big reason why I Relay.

Me and friend & teammate Amie, relaying with a purpose

Survivors' Lap

And friends. Running has brought me some of my very best of friends...

The current running contingent of the SatBoys gang

Some time in the mid-1990s, one gregarious fellow, by the name of Rick Schaefer, started gathering together various runners to join him on Saturday long runs. Initially an all-male group, Schaef discovered that his son and my son were great buddies (in fourth grade at the time) and that I, too, was a runner. Thus the honorary woman joined the group. We have had many runners join the gang since those days - and some of the original gang have moved on (Schaef himself among them) or retired from running. This summer, for the first time in many years, the gang was back together again for a glorious Saturday morning of running, walking, breakfasting and uproarious conversation (the latter two items being the highlights of this decades-long friendship).

The gang!

Another example of the strength of friendship of running buddies. Connie & I ran together back in the PK days (pre-kids)...early 1980s.  Then came kids and careers and commitments out the wazoo - and not so much time for running in the light of day. Then came retirement! And Connie and I resumed our running partnership - along with Connie's neighbor and good friend Anita. We've logged a lot of delightful miles together over the past few years.






So, o.k., Kendall may not run - but he sure knows how to ham it up for the camera when he crosses a finish line. Here he wraps up the Feel the Heat 5k that we participated in last weekend. I had a very encouraging run, finishing in 28:10 the day after running a 16 miler - then trotted back to meet up with Kendall and actually see the sights of the last mile or so of the course. A good day! A good partner for life!

Speaking of friends, Taz and Jackson got a lot of time together this summer as Jackson's family and ours traded dog sitting duties. Here Taz is showing Jackson that running is really a fun thing to do. He's right!

Summer Update (Part III): State & Trail #6, Minnesota's Root River Trail

We bid farewell to Petoskey, with a goose escort as Taz and I did our last run of this visit on the our way out of town.

Westward Ho! And on to Minnesota where I would run the Root River Trail and put a check mark next to state #6 on the trail quest. We pulled into the campground at Houston, Minnesota, right alongside the trail, just as a monster storm descended upon us. To say we were nervous is quite the understatement. Storm and flood warnings abounded, and here we were, next to the Root River, down a steep hillside, trees hanging overhead, lightning, thunder, wind, and rain whipping all around us as we huddled in wee Hedwig. But we survived the night in fine form and the next day brought sunshine and a great running day. I just moseyed up from our campsite to the trail, waved goodbye to Kendall and Taz (too long a run for the pup) and set off for a couple of hours of running through woods and farmland, all along the Root River. Wildlife abounded: duck families, deer, bunnies, a bald eagle sighting, lots of mosquitoes and flowers galore. Also signs of the night's wild weather with downed trees and detritus left from the river overflowing the trail. Only one area of downed trees was a challenge to get past, involving climbing over, through and under. I wondered if I'd make it, but since it was less than two miles into the run, I didn't figure I could give up on the run that quickly, so over, through, and under I went. So glad I did. It was a great run, ending in the little Norwegian town of Rushford which happened to have a Lefse Restaurant just a block from the trailhead!

Time to start running!

This one was easy

Photo taken while negotiating my way through the middle of the fallen tree

Wildflowers everywhere

All along the way, views of the winding, rolling Root River

Even left-over river right on the trail

 

 Then it was back to civilization - the town of Rushford - and a reunion with Taz & Kendall

State/Trail #6. Check!

mmmmm Lefse!

Summer Update (Part II) - the Murphey Cottage

Taz thinks this is a mighty fine beach

While growing up in Petoskey, summer almost always included a trip to my Aunt and Uncle's cottage near Sleeping Bear Dunes. Built in the late 40s/early 50s, the cottage is now grandfathered into what is now the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore - and is now owned by my cousins. It was our great luck on this trip back to Petoskey, that my cousin John, his wife Marcie and their daughter Ava happened to be at the cottage - so once again we were treated to a summer trip to The Cottage. A great visit with great folk!

PJV, Marcie & John at The Cottage

Last summer, the cottage was the site of John & Marcie's son Kelly's wedding. As part of the wedding preparations, they built an outdoor pizza oven. It makes some extraordinary pizza - and it's a very fun process getting to the finished product. Another treat for this year's visit!

Step 1: Build your individual pizza with all your personal favorite toppings

 

Step 2: John, master pizza baker, preps the oven for pizza entry

Step 3: Watch those pizzas bake - very fast!!!

The finished product. Yummers!

The grand finale' (clockwise from bottom left: John, Ava, pjv, Kendall, Marcie)

Finally! A summer update! (Part I)

Technology can be a wonderful thing:  it has allowed me to map routes down to the tiniest detail without ever having set foot along the proposed path; it lets me communicate from one unknown place to another, via voice or text, almost no matter where I am; and it provides me with the tools to write stories about my adventures accompanied by photos taken with a phone!

However, my brain, apparently, is having a hard time keeping up. Kendall and I traveled to Michigan early last month and it was just yesterday that I was able to transfer the pictures I took with my antique flip phone during that trip onto my computer (via my tablet) - and the successful transfer was thanks to my son Paul's help and no thanks at all to the fiddling I had done over the past few weeks trying to figure it all out. So! Transfer of photos done and here's the long overdue blog post!

Our June trip had multiple goals:

• enjoy some travel and camping time in Hedwig
• get back to Petoskey and Lake Michigan
• have some fun on Kendall's yet-another-birthday-in-Petoskey
• get the rehab work underway for the house we own back there
• check off a sixth state in my quest to run a trail in every state
• ...did I mention Lake Michigan?

Goals met! And here's Part I of the photo record of how we did it:

Firstly - every road trip includes exploratory runs. On the way to Michigan, we found:

An Oregon Trail marker near York, Nebraska

Campground agility!

 

A Cow! Where else but Wisconsin

 












Then on to Michigan - where the lake was its wild and beautiful self and Petoskey reminded me of why I always feel like I'm going home when I return to the town where I grew up.

This trip, Hedwig and Magnus Park were our home base in Petoskey - which was just fine since Magnus is right on the shore of Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan close to many of the delights Petoskey has to offer. We got Hedwig settled in then headed straight for the beach.

Lots and LOTS of Petoskey stones 'round here

Speaking of beach, for a dog who is no fan of water, Taz thought the lake was the best entertainment ever!

Stick!!!!

I'm gonna get that wave!

We're having some fun now mom, eh?!

Just a few blocks from Magnus, we find our house (where, yes, we started the rehab effort: picked out paint, carpet, tile, bathroom fixtures, a handyman and an electrician)! And just another block or two away: a duck family at the waterfront! the river heading toward the lake!

Additional delights of the town:  kite flying at the waterfront, Petoskey stones galore,  fresh blueberry pie, giant canoes, and doggie water bowls thoughout the town! 

Even with all of these activities, we did not forget Kendall's birthday. We started with a lovely walk along the trail along/above the bay, had lunch at one of his favorite restaurants - Legs Inn with both views and Polish food that just can't be beat, and our eldest treated Kendall to a gift certificate to our favorite Petoskey bookstore. A good day!

Part II is up next! Until then, I'll leave you with a sunset picture, because, after all,  a photo essay of Petoskey is not complete, without a sunset picture (or two):