Thank you, snow storm!!

After a WONDERFUL, long weekend with the Ruby Jewels in New Orleans, filled with lots of delicious food, walks in the sunshine, laughter, and quality time spent with 3 amazing friends, I was preparing myself for a tiring (we didn't sleep very much in NOLA) and cold week at school.

The first day back, everybody in room 304 was a little sleepy and not quite ready for further exploration of multiplication and division! Somehow we all managed to make it through the day and that is when we got the first wind of a huge snowstorm heading our direction. Instantly thoughts of school being cancelled popped into every teacher's mind in the Missoula area, but I did not let it get the best of me because I have been told that snow days do not happen very often here! In Oregon, if 1 snowflake fell from the sky, school was cancelled. Waking up to a little snow on Wednesday, I got excited and was waiting for a call from the district, saying school was cancelled, no such luck! It did, however, snow all day on Wednesday and into the night. We woke up Thursday morning (as Justin posted previously) to quite a few inches of snow. The call from the district came, with a message of a 2 hour delay for the students, teachers should report at regular time :( After digging my car out of the snow (thanks, Justin!) I drove very slowly to school preparing for some very excited 3rd graders! After half the staff had reported, we were called to the office, where we were told the district had decided to just cancel school for the day, since the weather report was not looking much better for the rest of the day! You might think there is a lot of excitement in the halls of an Elementary school on the last day of school, you should have heard it on this wintry day in January! What was I going to do with this free day.....
     Justin and I decided to do our first snowshoe adventure of the season (it had been a very dry winter up until this point), we were both curious of how much snow was on Sentinel, so decided to head that
direction! (Side note: Justin had mentioned in his previous post that he ran a sluggish 49 minute time from our front door to the top of Sentinel.  That is NOT sluggish, we have to keep in mind "Justin time"! Most of you can probably recall hiking the "M", when you have come to visit, running Sentinel, does not mean stopping at the "M", it ends up being a 2 1/2 mile run with 2,000 feet of elevation gain, which most people could not dream of doing in 49 minutes!) Anyways, we strapped on our snowshoes and headed up the left side of Sentinel, where we were greeted with 6-10 inches of untouched snow! With Justin breaking trail up the North ridge, we made it 3/4 of the way up Sentinel when we (I) decided we should make a nice long loop out of the hike, instead of heading straight up! It continued to snow during our hike, at one point, I turned to look back out over Missoula and could only see white clouds and bit and pieces of buildings below. 

Wintry Missoula

     We continued with our hike through tons of untouched, beautiful snow! I had just been telling Justin how I wanted to experience a time when it would start to snow and just keep snowing for a long period of time, I got my wish!! It continued to snow all day and into the night.  Late Thursday afternoon all the Lowell teachers were texting back and forth, placing bets on whether we would have school on Friday or not.  No one wanting to get their hopes up for another snow day, but the call came, announcing the school closures for Friday! So, after preparing to have a long tiring week at work, we were pleasantly surprised to have a 4 day weekend!

Enjoying the snowy day!

The black dot is Justin, wayyyy ahead of me!

     Now, with another free day ahead of us, we were trying to figure out what snow filled activity would fill our day on Friday! We decided another snowshoe adventure would  be fun! We got friends Amy, Mary and Zeke to join us on a Marshall Canyon trek.  After getting stuck twice in our alley way, one time having to get pulled by a very nice man with a rope and Chevy 2500, we made it up to Marshall.  Where we got to see the dark clouds part ways to blue sky! Justin led us on another beautiful hike up and around Marshall.  

Mary and Zeke

View from Marshall, overlooking East Missoula

Amy (Willa in background)

Justin, breaking trail

Fog creeping in around us

The crew, enjoying a much deserved cold one after the hike!

     After an adventure filled weekend, I just have to say thank you to the snow storm for providing Missoula with a winter wonderland!!

A January Morning

We woke up this morning to six fresh, fresh inches of powdery snow.  After some oats, a dog walk, shoveling the walkways, and starting laundry I was on the mountain by 8:30.  I should have considered using the screw shoes, but my excitement had me out the door in the old Saucony Peregrines.  The consistency of the NW ridge on Sentinel has been very solid this winter, save for the second to last pitch, with minimal ice and packed snow.  The fresh snow did nothing to improve footing as I struggled and often failed to find purchase beneath  the powder.  A typical time from our front door, up the NW ridge to the summit is in the 28-36 minute range.  Breaking trail and losing a few inches with each step had me on top in a sluggish 49 minutes.  Once on top i briefley considered my descent options and opted for the less steep and longer route down Hellgate Canyon and the north face.  To my surprise and jubilation, no one had chosen this route for an early morning ascent.  Six to ten inches of undisturbed powder!  Running down a mountain trail with untouched powder has to be what it would feel like to run on clouds.  Each step briefley sinking, rebounding, and locating its next plant as you settle into a controlled free fall, giving little concern to anything but the next step.  This is fun running, what I did in the backyard and hallways of my home growing up, no Ipod needed, just the sounds of a beating heart and the occasional exultation of joy. When I did pull my head up I gathered a great scene of fog enveloped mountains, ice encrusted trees, and the faint lights of town below.  This run was more of a full glass than a taste of what pushes me out the door and up the mountain each day.  It was what lies underneath the bad days, the windy ones, with ice, rain and snow, the dark mornings, and tired legs, that hesitation before you turn the handle and open the front door.  Running fills my strong urge to move across, up, down, and over what lies underneath me feet.  I dont expect eachday to be fun, knowing some will be struggles, testing my fortitude and commitment, but I can expect to be hopeful each time I lace up my shoes, knowing that the unknown is what will make today spectacular.

223 Brooks

Summit looking back down NW ridge

Nearing the icey stretch on NW ridge.  Sentinel summit in background

University Mt. from Hellgate Canyon descent.

University and town from lower section of NW ridge.

Crafting and Fashioning

Soap pump(jar courtesy of Molly Merrill)

Camelback stripped of all pockets, straps, and  attachments. Relogoed

Floating poplar front rack.

Cord toe straps.

Palm and index reinforcement on Smartwool gloves.  My new favorite running glove.

Holidays

     Well... the past few weeks has been a blur!  Paige and I had a great trip to Ohio for Christmas with friends and family, many of them new to Paige.  Every familiar face I made reacquaintance with had a great smile and it genuinely seemed that everyone is in a great space with their current lives.  It is a great feeling to see the ones you love doing so well and emitting a positive energy.  I had been thinking of the day I would get to introduce Paige, and her moody, noninfectious personality to my family and friends.  Needless to say, she was a hit.

     We touched down in Ohio(actually northern Kentucky) around 11pm EST.  Mom and Dad were there, braving the late hour to deliver us the one hour drive home.  When we arrived at the homestead Amanda and Nick were there to greet us and after some catching up we decided to open presents! It was technically now Christmas.  The gift giving and receiving went on for quiet awhile and by the time we laid head to bed it was well past 2 AM.  The next day was a family fest and we spent the entire day eating, introducing, and filling in the details of 2 1/2, vacuumed years away.  Long day, early to bed, right? Not so fast.  News spread of a late night rendezvous at a downtown watering hole consisting of a raucous group old friends.  Saying goodbye to the last lingering family we headed down and mingled for a short time before yawning home and concluding Christmas DAY!

     The final days of the trip included such highlights as dinner with the Merrill's,  Randy Ryberg's Basement Bike Shop,  not winning one game of 21 against Brian and Chris, hiking with Mom, Dad, and Randy along the Little Miami River, Chipotle, a plethora of holiday ales, highlighted by Great Lakes Brewing Christmas Ale, breakfast casserole, 7 layer bars, buckeyes(evidence of Paige's love below), playing with Ali, late night sports talk with Dad, driving tour of Wright State, seeing Nick and Amanda's very good looking house, and many many other smile inducing moments.  Thank you everyone for such an amazing trip home and for giving us your love, especially to the Oregon contingency for being understanding of Paige's absence! How were the cinnamon rolls??

     So now we are back, in the grind, enjoying an unseasonably dry and warm winter, riding that wave of energy and hope that comes from seeing smiles, nudging shoulders, hearing the voices of the people that make our lives what they are, near and far.  This winter hasn't bore its teeth yet but when it does we will be ready, kept warm by love and the anticipation of the smell of Spring.

Paige letting loose on the "plunge", Marshall Canyon

Brian, Justin, Randy

The Little Miami River

Paige caught in the act, enjoying a buckeye!