february, part 2

Running--the other part of February. This is what running in winter here looks like.

The sign says "Animals on Roadway."


And it's a little hard to run when they are.

february, part 1

February got away from me. Steve was in NYC for three weeks, and I kept myself busy with skiing, running, and various social activities planned to keep Park residents from going crazy during one of the coldest months of the year. As I write this, the temperature outside is -20, as in Twenty. Below. Zero. Oh, and 15 MPH winds on top of that.

Running has almost completely consumed my non-work life, but before Steve returned from NYC, and back when it a wee bit warmer, I skied the Chittenden Loop with friends. But first, a pre-ski Cheddar Bomb burger at Buns 'n Beds in Cooke City to fuel up for the 10-miler.


Then we hit the trail. First stop, the winter-deserted Tower General Store and parking lot.


Then we climbed up the road to Tower Campground,


and skied past the campsite Steve and I camped at a couple of years ago. Steve remembers this campsite because there was a heavy snorer one tent away (it wasn't Larry Carr) who kept him up all night, 2 nights in a row. But I digress...


This route is only open in the winter, and as we climbed up the road we had nice views of the surrounding mountains.


We weren't the only people using this road. We skied alongside fresh wolf tracks as we went along...


Which makes sense, considering. I'm guessing a carcass log isn't something everyone expects to encounter when they're out for a ski.


And finally, views of Mt. Washburn in the distance,


before we skied back to Roosevelt via the road.

run run run

Sorry we haven't updated the blog in a while. The past two weeks have flown by in a blur of activity. And Steve flew out, literally--to NYC that is, leaving me with a fully stocked fridge and total control over our Netflix queue for the next couple of weeks.

The past two weeks were consumed with a) football, though it did not end well for my Bears


or Steve's beloved Patriots. Both of our teams were knocked out by their fiercest rivals, and we've finally moved on. Well, I'm trying to. Please don't bring up the words "Jay" and "Cutler" to me, ok?

The other thing consuming my time? That would be b) running. As in:



Epsom salts (that's a 12-pound box there!) and energy chews have found their way back into my life--a friend and I are training for the Eugene (OR) Marathon on May 1st. This will be lucky number 7 for me, and it's keeping me motivated through winter. Running here has its fair share of hazards, weather and wildlife being at the top of the list. Last week we had bison behind us AND in front of us, and that was in the middle of Gardiner. I'll try to remember to bring a camera with me on my next run.

But then there's this,


the view on our long runs, which we're doing in the aptly named Paradise Valley. Hard to beat.

am i the only one that has this problem when they park their car at work?

new year's weekend, lamar valley

merry, merry

This was our second Christmas in Yellowstone, first in Mammoth. On Christmas Eve we had dinner in the Mammoth Hotel dining room, and we woke up Christmas morning to sunny and warmish skies.

We Skyped with our families, and then opened a few presents.

A Boss and Office combo for Steve:


Awesome new cookbooks to keep me going this winter:


A very Rolling Stones Christmas:


And for me, a dehydrator and jerky gun whoo hoo! Just what this Wyoming girl asked Santa for...


After a breakfast of sourdough waffles, we hit the trail with a friend and skied past elk and bison on Blacktail Plateau (6.7 miles).



Electric Peak in the background.




Happy Holidays!

wolves howling

Earlier this week I was in the Lamar Valley for work. There was a carcass in the Lamar Canyon, and sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time.

As we stood in the road, the Alpha Female of the Lamar Canyon Pack was howling to the right (north) of us, and the rest of the pack was below us (south) in the trees on the river.

I pulled out my cell phone and used the video feature for the first time to try and record the howling. Unfortunately the camera was tipped the wrong way, but if you ignore the picture and turn up the sound you can hear the wolves. I finally figured out that I needed to flip my cell phone, and I did capture two wolves running on the ice at the end of the recording.