Moved house; Ran 10 miles with Tony; Dilky's birthday

A busy day but pretty chilled out.

I got up early to drive up to my new house up at the Summit Village of Heavenly Ski Resort, arriving at 6.45am. I was going to move some stuff on friday but there was a lightening storm and I chicked out. Tony arrived right on time and helped me shift some boxes of stuff in.

Here is home now...




I met the neighbour, a nice chap called Mark. He warned me of the bears. Told me he came home from a concert last night, came around the balcony (you have to go on it to get in) and thought something was not right. He saw the backside of a black bear just leaving from outside my front door. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

So, pleasantries exchanged, Tony helped me move some boxes in and then we went for a 10 mile trail run. We started at the Stagecoach Heavenly chairlift, which looked exactly like an alien space ship (obviously a troop carrier).



We hit the trail and headed for Monument Pass (1,800ft gain I think), well, we walked the steep parts too. The trail felt a little like the flume trail at times, quite narrow with a bit of a steep drop - not perfect for cycling but excellent for running. Along the way Tony pointed out all of the Heavenly ski runs, which were quite hard to imagine without snow and strewn with huge boulders but fun all the same. It was about 5 miles up and as we turned the corner right at the pass, we were treated to awesome early morning views of Job's Sister and Friel Peak, still with patches of snow. This gave an ideal opportunity to try my new 7 mega pixel waterproof camera - wow! The rest stop gave us a chance for a bit of sustinance before heading back down.

Job's Sister...


Tony chilling out...


With a mostly gradual descent, the trail was awesome in reverse though I stumbled a few times on tired legs. It was a truly beautiful day but our trail was a bit busier than we expected. It turned out the fire fighters had closed the nearby trail (Kingsbury-Spooner) because there was lightening caused fires up there and the planes were out dropping water and chemical on it.

Forest fire caused by lightening...


We came back to the new pad, had some tea and then Tony headed off for a beach party whilst I explored my new pad. Pretty similar to goldilocks and the 3 bears, I was sleeping in one of the unfamiliar beds when I heard a scampering around the walkway outside (the walkway only goes to the front doors, nowhere else). I first froze, then jumped up and banged on the inside of the door. On reflection, it sounded a little light for a bear, but I have a feeling it's only a matter of time. This week a bear went to a casino in South Lake, and another one enjoyed some of the Salmon and Tritips on the go at the local shakespeare on the beach (thanks for the link Kyle).

If you think I'm going anywhere near that walkway to my front door without bearspray, head torch, whistle and camera you are madder than me! And if the neighbours are expecting me to walk quietly outside they need to THINK AGAIN. I just hope we don't end up with a human at either end of the walkway and a bear in the middle.

In the evening I drove to Sacramento to see Julie and wish Dilky happy birthday.