Adventuring

I like (love) adventuring.  Adventuring keeps things interesting.  A life without adventures, would, quite frankly, suck.  Luckily, I've done my fair share of adventuring the past couple of weeks.

One of the adventures involved driving up Putney Mountain Road to Megan Killigrew's (Dartmouth ski team graduate and future teacher of english to 11th grade kids (!)) graduation party.  Driving can always be an adventure, but this road was ridiculous.  There really is only room for one car--but obviously it is a two way--and the steepness is ABSURD and the road is windy and bumpy with absolutely no room for error.  If a car comes the other direction, you both would have to play chicken and wait for the other person to back up to one of the few "extensions" into the woods.  And then god forbid a car comes along as you're backing up..scary stuff.  But adventurous none-the-less.

This is Michaela.  She is going to be a junior at Dartmouth next year and is also on the ski team.  She spent the last term in Spain so I'm really excited that she's back!

The Boys (Left to Right Ben, Simi, Andy, and Skyler).  They coordinated their outfits very well, without even calling and planing.  Or so they say, I'm not convinced.

Michaela and Austin!

Isabel and I had semi-matching skirts/outfits.  Twins!

Some Dartmouth Women Skiers (Left to Right: Michaela, Megan, Me, and Julia)

After Meg's party, I drove (less adventurously) to Hanover.  One of the highlights of last summer (which I spent at Dartmouth) were the over distance runs.  It worked out that the weekend I was in Hanover, the team was running Franconia.  It was beautiful.  And definitely an adventure.  In part because it was unclear at what point it would start thunder storming.  We have had so much rain the past couple of weeks.  So. Much. Rain.  But it remained lovely for us on the ridge, and afterwards we stopped for ice cream!  

At the top of Franconia.  

This is the ice cream I got from Fat Bob's.  I really like sprinkles.  But normally ice cream places only put sprinkles on the top, but Fat Bobs did a wonderful thing and put some surprise sprinkles on the bottom.  Good move, well done Fat Bob.

People in the East are also really into jumping into bodies of water.  It's not really my thing, but I do enjoy tagging along and watching (most) people make total fools of themselves trying to do flips.  Simi is not one of those people.  Skyler, Simi, Ben and I on an off afternoon went to the quarry near Manchester, VT.  It wasn't very crowded (because it was raining naturally) but there was a group of die hard jumpers who probably thought Simi was a god.  They even tried to imitate him, and they failed.  I was a little worried one of the guys was going to hit his head on the rock trying to flip.  He didn't, but he should probably remember to always adventure within rational boundaries. 

Simi about to do some amazing trick, probably.

Skyler wasn't quite as excited about this adventure.  It was raining and not super pleasant outside.

Because it has been raining so much, the trails around Stratton are more like streams.  We had a longish run up Mad Tom Notch (I think that's the right name) and by the end everyone was completely coated in mud.  But it did make the 2 hour run go by a lot faster, because I kept trying to avoid the largest mud puddles and just hit the smaller ones.  Adventure runs go by a lot faster than a 2 hour pavement pounder. And are a lot more fun.  Especially with good company.

Isabel really excited pre-running adventure.

Isabel and me being fierce after our adventure through the rain forest (or the AT trail in Peru, VT..pretty much the same thing)

 For the fourth of july, Isabel and Sophie abandoned me.  Isabel went with David (and is still actually there) to his family's place in upstate New York (I think), and Sophie went to Nantucket with Dan.  It's ok though, because Hanover isn't far away so I went up there for some more adventures.  We went and explored the ledges with the intention of swimming, but the water was way too high and quick (thanks to all the rain) so instead we just kind of hopped around on the rocks and threw them.  It was beautiful out however, so a lot of fun.

Boys and Backpacks ready to throw rocks at other rocks at the Ledges near Hanover

It was really pretty driving home from Hanover on the 4th.. I feel like this could be the cover of a country album.

 The last two weeks have been pretty big weeks of both training (a lot of intensity and also a lot of volume) and adventuring.  All of this training and adventuring is tiring.  I've been getting better at recovering correctly, but I still get pretty antsy and want to just get up and go do something.  So to counter that I've been trying to do a lot of reading and in general just enjoying life and the sun (whenever that comes out).

Recovering.

Skyler's dog Brady.  This picture has nothing to do with adventuring or recovering, but it is adorable.

 Other great ways to recover correctly include (but are not limited to) fireworks and eating food.  We've had a lot of good food lately.  Sverre brought home raspberries from his parents house, which were amazing and gone way to quickly.  We also made s'mores at Andy's cabin, which I hadn't had in a long time, and were still delicious.  Also, as it turns out, both of the Annies (myself and Annie Pokorny) have things we love to make...Annie P makes waffles and I make muffins.

Fireworks are lots of fun, minus the mosquitos.

Jessie trying to achieve the coveted golden brown.

Annie Pokorny's waffles (she made them, I ate them)

My muffins.  Blackberry, Raspberry, Dark Chocolate Oat.  Quite delicious.

It has been a great two weeks of adventuring, and on Saturday I'm biking 100 miles for the Prouty, a ride sponsored by the Norris Cancer Center to help raise money to cure cancer.  A great cause, and undoubtedly the ride will be another great adventure.

hugz and kissez