Back in the West
I’m back in the west, and after spending the summer in Craftsbury I have a new perspective on the region where I went to college.
The lifestyle in Craftsbury is unlike any I’ve ever experienced being both very social and isolated. Bear in mind that my comparison between the American east and west is biased by my being based out of Denver and Craftsbury–probably reversing what most people would consider the rural and metropolitan region.
Backing up a bit, after the Lake Placid camp we continued training relentlessly for another week before finally recovering a bit. Part of our rest week involved burning our humongous pile of logs and brush. We invited the rowers over and made a party out of it complete with fireworks and flaming arrows.
Definitely didn’t have backyard parties like this in Denver
Realizing that travel season is nearly upon us, Pete and I (along with Liz, Caitlin, Susan, and many others) tried to get as many work hours in the bank as possible by finishing up the construction of our new mountain bike trails.
Pete and his hoe
The highly anticipated “Roll, Run, Row” triathlon pitted the GRP rowers against the skiers. I tried to get as far ahead of the rowers as possible during the rollerski and run but I was still overtaken in the row. That rollerski leg sure was painful and Gordon disappeared over the horizon ahead of me in the run.
Getting the boats ready before driving to the start of the rollerski
Shells all ready for the race. Mine is the middle one on the right. The skiers’ shells were positioned farthest out on the dock as we were expected to arrive first. Who was expected to arrive at the finish buoy was another matter.
On one of our scheduled cross-training days Caitlin, Pete, Liz, and I ventured to Burke where we explored the Kingdom Trails on mountain bikes. These trails blew me away with their extensiveness and quality. We have a new bar to shoot for next year in our own trail construction projects.
While most of the trails snaked through the trees, one called “Heaven’s Bench” brought us over a windows-desktop-background-esque rolling green field overlooking some breath-taking fog.
Our final weekend in Vermont was busy putting on “Oktoberfest”, which involved a biathlon race, checkpoint challenge (like one of those spartan style races except with a lot more running) and a rowing race.
Guiney wowed the crowd with her shooting, but the seasoned biathletes cleaned up
Both bikers and runners spent some time in the penalty lap during the biathlon
A week ago we took a round about flight to Salt Lake City then drove to our campsite in Heber City just a couple miles from Soldier Hollow. It’s a huge house full of breakable vases and furniture so we try to keep the rough-housing to a minimum so that we will be allowed to stay here again during US Nationals.
Our home away from home away from home complete with a sketchy white van
No hot tub gazebo is complete without a telescope
The house is pretty sweet, but I am in heaven because of the mountains. Vermont is beautiful in its own way with stunning fall foliage, clean lakes and streams, and authentic little towns full of character and history, but nothing compares to the towering snow capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains (except for Alaska, but that’s a totally different league). We caught the peak of the changing colors here too, making reds and golds of the alpine tundra surrounding us pop.
Our first day here we went for a short afternoon hike. It doesn’t take long to really get away from it all.
Alex
This road above Soldier Hollow was our route down. I skied up this road last winter with a couple DU teammates so knew it was pretty sweet.
A dark jerusalem cricket was spotted on the road down. We identified this huge insect after we got back to the house.
Though most of the GRP isn’t invited to the majority of US Ski Team workouts, we joined them for a long rollerski and run a few days ago. The pack of us stretched 40 guys long so it was probably inconvenient for traffic but I enjoyed getting to know some of the racers from other clubs.
Pat and I midpack
Our rollerski climbed a mountain, then we changed into our running shoes and ran along the ridge.
Running the ridge
It’s great to train in the thin air again, I feel much more comfortable training at this altitude. Overall, spirits are high as we enter our second week up here in Utah.