Chuckanut 50k

No, we didn't run it but we did run part of the course while the event was going. It was fun bumping in to them on various sections of our route, and yes we were very trail courteous. We always moved to the side when we heard them coming up from behind. We were planning on running 15 miles on the Chuckanut mountain trails, but were pleasantly surprised to see that it totaled up to 15.68! Yay, I even felt good when we were done.

The trail went up, up, up for us, but very pretty and lo and behold we finally had a nice sunny day although it was still a bit chilly in some sections with a tiny bit of snow on the ground in the higher sections. After running/walking up what seemed like forever we finally saw some 50k runners coming and we came across the 50k - 16 mile (halfway) checkpoint. Our friend and former race director of the event Doug McKeever was manning it!

Dick running ahead of me and spotting our first 50k runner

halfway checkpoint for the 50k

Me - at the checkpoint after we'd
run/walked our first 2.2 miles.
most of it uphill!

Yes, it really is Doug McKeever

The trail was really muddy in sections, I could have taken 100 shots of the goo, 

but I'll only put in this one:

The 20.2 mile aid station was at the start of the trail section called "chinscraper". Up, and Up. Luckily we didn't join them on this section, but we did stop and visit with the great crew at the aid station.

The view when we started running on the road was fantastic. We ran down the road for about 3 miles. Then we met up with the interurban trail and ran back to our car at the north Chuckanut trail head parking lot. Fun day and I have the muddy shoes to prove it!

Padilla Bay interpretive center - museum and beach, 4th grade field trip

     Tuesday I got to tag along with my grand daughters' school field trip. They went to Padilla Bay interpretive center/museum and did an exporing assignment on the beach.

     I love to walk on the dike trail, but I haven't been to the center for a long time. There is a neat little loop trail that is behind the center. We used to walk it with our kids when they were young. We discovered that there are a lot of owl pellets under the large trees, our kids enjoyed picking them up and looking in the owl pellets for mouse skeletons. Our youngest successfully put one skeleton together, from the bits in the pellets.

     I had a great time on the field trip. The staff were really good with the kids and had planned an excellent time both at the museum and at the beach. One highlight of my time there was when one of the staff came up in front of the kids and began singing silly, educational songs using familiar tunes. He was great! I was pleased to see that the Padilla Bay website has a "kids page" where you can listen to these songs.

     Here was one on You Tube that I loved: 

Click to see - Has any body seen my crab?

Click here for the link to the "kids page" songs

Padilla Bay, always a good place for the soul.