Random Shots of Beauty; Last Month of the Year

With only a few weekends left to post Random Shots of Beauty, I figured it was time to go back into the photo folders and find some of the pics I decided to put away for a rainy day.  And since it’s been raining for almost five straight days around Monterey County, this seemed like a perfect time to open up the rainy day file.

We’ll start with this one from a remote area of Carmel Valley:

A somewhat nondescript oak tree that my son and I encountered on a summertime bike ride; it’s not remarkably different than any other of the thousands of oak trees around here.  It was only upon closer inspection that my son said, “Hey – what do you see on that tree trunk?”

To our eyes, it kind of looked like the tree was looking back at us.  It was very Wizard of Oz-ish.

Continuing on the “slightly surreal” theme is this shot from my 11-year-old daughter’s favorite trail running area in Point Lobos State Reserve:

It’s not very often that you encounter a whale skeleton on your evening run.  At least not that I'm aware of.

*

One final note from the weekend: my wife and I had the privilege of seeing the Blind Boys of Alabama in concert on Friday night – and if there’s any better way to kick off the Christmas season, I’d be amazed.  They played a set of their gospel classics, plus some gems from their wonderful holiday record, including this tune that may be our family’s unanimous selection for favorite holiday song of all time.

Blind Boys of Alabama, “Last Month of the Year” (click to play):

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Cyber Monday Shopping Roundup; Random Shots of Beauty

I’ve been blitzed with Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions over the past week – and since it’s been a while since I’ve done any serious affiliate promotion, I figured I’d pass some of them along here.  Before we get to them, however, let’s roll through our customary Random Shots of Beauty, with a double-size edition in honor of the double-sized weekend.

The first is from a Wednesday afternoon run with my daughter, on one of the rare occasions I’ve had to run in daylight recently:

A grove of massive eucalyptus trees near a historic homestead site in Garland Ranch Regional Park in Carmel Valley.  The other is a bit further away …

… and up into the Santa Cruz Mountains, the site of our family’s annual Christmas tree hunt on the day after Thanksgiving, when most of the rest of America is out shopping.  We do this every single year, and not one time have I ever wished I was in a shopping mall instead.

However, on the subject of shopping, let’s get to the offers.  Rather than go into much detail on any of these, just understand that I’ve used all of the products and/or vendors in question, and I have no hesitation in recommending them to you as well.  Click any of the banners to jump to the sales.

First up is REI, your best one-stop shop for pretty much everything outdoor related.  They’re offering all winter gear at a 30% discount through November 26^th.

Next is Massey’s Outfitters, who sell the complete Patagonia catalog as well as an extensive collection of Vibram FiveFingers.  They’ve got a ton of their products discounted (including all Marmot gear), and are offering a $20 gift card with a $100 purchase.

The next banner ad is from GoLite, who offer pretty killer savings all year long, and this week is no exception.  Their holiday promotion is a free beanie with any purchase.

One more banner – not necessarily because it’s huge savings, but because it’s one of my favorite companies.  Patagonia is offering free shipping on all orders through December 9^th.

Finally, a couple sales that I don’t have banner ads for: VIVOBAREFOOT has a sweet coupon code for 40% off your order through November 28 – just enter VIVOBF at checkout.  SKORA has a “first-come, best-served” type of coupon code where you can save 25, 50, or possibly even 100% of your purchase price – click here for details. 

Does that give you enough to shop for?  One other note is that Amazon.com will have some great Cyber Monday deals as well – so if you’re looking for something that isn’t on this list, chances are you’ll find it there.

Regular programming will resume later in the week – until then, happy shopping!

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Random Shots of Fall Beauty

Traditional fall colors are somewhat difficult to find in Monterey County, but if you do enough running around, eventually some of them will cross your path.  Accordingly, this weekend’s post features some color-themed Random Shots of Beauty.

The first is from Salinas; I have no idea what kind of tree this is (any arborists out there who want to educate me, feel free) – all I know is that it is extremely red.

In my home town of Carmel Valley, many of the colors aren’t from trees …

… but from vineyards.  Unlike the red tree earlier, these particular plants are very well known to me; I drive past them every day on my way to and from work, and mark the seasons by their changing shapes and colors.  I also indulge in their ultimate product (in this case, from one of the best wineries in the world) or similar Monterey County offerings quite a bit during the holiday season – which happens to start this week. 

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Barefoot Movie Giveaway Winner; Random Shots of Beauty (Extended Audience Participation Edition!)

Our main order of business is to give a barefoot video away – but first we’ll get through some end-of-weekend randomness.

For our Random Shot of Beauty, I could have very easily gone with a glimpse of another 80-degree November weekend that we enjoyed today … but doing that for two weeks in a row kind of seems like rubbing it in.  Instead, I’ll reach back a few weeks to our family’s road trip to Zion National Park.  Since I couldn’t pick just one to choose from, you’re getting an extended edition of RSOB – starting with this one:

(click to enlarge any of these)

A stately Joshua tree, as seen in the Mojave desert of southern California.  Would you believe me if I said I used to live right down the road from here?  Sometimes I can hardly believe it myself.

Driving through the desert, it often seems like you’re in the middle of nowhere – but that’s not entirely true.  In fact, sometimes if you wonder where you are, you only need to look down at the road you’re on:

And you’ll find that you’re right here, of course.

This next one is more of a Random Shot of Randomness … and it’s also a chance for some audience participation.  Approximately 20 miles outside of Zion National Park is an odd structure that will catch your eye:

It looks somewhat strange - and if you pull up closer, the scene becomes even more bizarre:

Basically what you’ve got here is an old telephone pole leaning into a dead tree stump … and the entire structure is covered top to bottom with discarded shoes.  Running shoes, work shoes, women’s boots, dress shoes, kids shoes – pretty much every kind of footwear you can think of is represented.

I wish I could tell you more about it, but I honestly have no idea what the explanation is here.  But it HAS to have a cool story behind it, wouldn’t you think? 

So let’s see if I can harness the power of the Internet for something tangible: if any readers happen to know the story of this community shoe mural, I’d love to hear it, and I might even publish it to share with everyone else.  The challenge has been issued!   Somebody impress me, please – and who knows, maybe there’s a little something in it for you if you do.

[*UPDATED: Wow, that was fast!  This post was up for less than 2 hours before someone sent an answer - see the comments section for details.]

**

OK then – it’s time to announce the winner of the Barefoot Running Movie giveaway contest.  Louisiana Leah, e-mail me your contact info – you’ve won!  Thanks very much to everybody else who entered!

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CLIF Contest Winners; Random Shots of Beauty

Last weekend I committed to announcing the winners of two CLIF Bar contests on Nov 3^rd … and I’m making it with a little under three hours to spare.  In ultrarunning terms, that’s a huge cushion below the cutoff time, so I’m choosing to think of this as an accomplishment.

But before we get to that, let’s knock out a Random Shot of Beauty:

The Lone Cypress in Pebble Beach, as seen during a family geocache outing on an 80-degree November day.  California, baby … California.

And now for our winners.  The first contest was in conjunction with CLIF’s Meet the Moment promotion, where my kids and I got to choose our favorite entry to receive a CLIF sampler pack.  (Just as an FYI, I have no idea what’s in it – but it’s probably cool.)  Here’s the one we picked:

Submitted by GregoryBoytos, who is our contest winner.  Congrats!

The second contest is offering up a sample pack of CLIF’s brand new Chocolate Cherry BLOKs.  This was a straightforward “whoever random.org’s number generator smiles upon” contest, and the winners are Stephan Uzzell, Sarah, and Owen Yeates.

Thanks very much to everybody who entered, and if you’re one of the winners, e-mail me your contact info so I can pass it along to my CLIF reps.  Also, be on the lookout for another (non-CLIF related) contest later this week!

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CLIF Bar Seasonal Flavors Giveaway Contest; Random Shots of Beauty

Remember last weekend, when I did a combination Random Shot of Beauty and CLIF contest post?  And remember how I said that it would be the first of three CLIF contests here?  Well, this is Part II of the Great CLIF Giveaway Bonanza, as I’m now calling it.  Accordingly, we may as well do this in similar fashion as last weekend, and throw an RSOB in at the top for good measure.

Before getting to that, however, remember that you’ve got until October 31 to enter last weekend’s contest by pasting a link to your Meet the Moment entry on my contest page.  There are some strong entries so far, but I wouldn’t say there’s no possibility of someone topping it. 

But that was last week, and this is this week – so let’s jump into our Random Shot of Beauty:

A scene from the Zion Narrows, during a family hike that I'll report on later in the week (um ... hopefully).  Fuel for the all-day outing included three flavors of CLIF Builder’s Bars, three flavors of MOJO Bars, two flavors of regular CLIF Bars, and a multi-flavored stash of CLIF Bloks for everyone.  We must have built up some great CLIF karma, because when we got home …

… this box was waiting for us.  It was our annual sampling of CLIF’s seasonal flavors, most of which have already vanished since the time of this photo.  We’ll remember them fondly, though.

For the uninitiated, here’s the scoop: CLIF gets in the holiday spirit every year by releasing holiday-themed CLIF Bar flavors alongside the regular versions on most store shelves.  Since this is the 10^th consecutive year of CLIF’s holiday flavors, the annual release is moving right up there with pumpkin carving and Christmas tree cutting on our family’s list of fun holiday traditions.

The new flavors are made with 70 percent organic ingredients, and have the same blend of carbohydrates, protein and fiber as the regular bars.  Oh, there’s one more thing: they taste absolutely fantastic.  My favorite bar is a dead heat between the pumpkin pie and iced gingerbread flavors, and my kids are crazy about the peppermint stick flavor that was first introduced last year.  (And we all collectively miss the cranberry orange nut bread flavor that was discontinued two years ago.  Seriously – this is the kind of thing we talk about.)  My wife also found these bars on the right side of this list of the healthiest and unhealthiest pumpkin-flavored goodies you can indulge in over the holidays.

Winter athletes – I’m not one, but I’m pretty sure I’ve talked to some – often see the seasonal bar release as the beginning of winter sports season, and for those folks, CLIF’s holiday promotion benefits them even further.  This year the company is donating one percent of their seasonal bar sales to Protect Our Winters, an organization committed to engaging and mobilizing the winter sports community to lead the fight against climate change.

Another cool thing that came in our package this year was a recipe book of favorite holiday recipes from CLIF’s family of employees and sponsored athletes.  Rest assured that by the time the holidays have come and gone, we’ll have tested each of these recipes a few times, so maybe I can report back here at some point with an update.  In the meantime, this one for "Zingerbread" is catching my eye as the first one we’ll try:

Click to enlarge for easier reading

There’s only one downside to the seasonal flavors:  once they’re gone, you have to wait another year before you see them again.  So consider this your rallying cry to look for the seasonal bars in stores, and stock up on your favorites to keep the taste of the holidays rolling as long as possible.  And let’s go ahead and roll into our contest as well.

To help a few of my readers celebrate the holidays, CLIF is providing one of the sample boxes pictured above to three lucky winners.  For this contest, you don’t have to upload a picture or paste a link – all you have to do is leave a comment in the box below, and hope that CLIF karma is on your side.  I’ll announce the winners here next Sunday.

As always, thanks very much to CLIF Bar for sponsoring this contest, and good luck to everybody!

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CLIF Meet The Moment Giveaway Contest; Random Shots of Beauty

I’m back from Zion this weekend … and as the lack of posts here this week would indicate, I’m also a little behind on my blogging schedule.

Accordingly, I’m combining a couple of regular staples – a Random Shot of Beauty and a giveaway contest – into a single post this weekend.  However, the subject matter of each is somewhat related, as I’ll explain shortly.  First, our newest RSOB:

Another shot from Zion National Park – this one showing my family ascending the spine of Angels Landing, one of the park’s most famous destinations.

As for the giveaway, it’s the first of what may turn out to be three separate contests from my friends at CLIF Bar.  And if you’re wondering what this has to do with Zion, allow me to explain: Our family did three days of pretty intense hiking last week, all of which were fueled by CLIF products.

Many of our breakfasts consisted of Builders Bars on the way to the trailhead, and our lunches each day included some combination of CLIF Bars and MOJO Bars (and for whatever it’s worth, the mountain mix MOJO flavor has become my absolute favorite trail snack).  Most importantly, however, was that our energy levels on the trail were easily maintained thanks to CLIF Bloks – especially for my 8-year-old daughter, who is the littlest hiker in the photo above, not to mention one of the youngest we saw in Zion.

I’ve described before how my wife and I have relied on CLIF blocks to rally our tired little hikers on long treks through Yosemite, and we employed this strategy again in Zion last week.  Whenever our youngest began to lag behind or get discouraged, a few block-sized doses of sugar and electrolytes (as well as a half-shot of caffeine) proved to be the perfect remedy. 

Throw in the fact that CLIF products are among the healthiest snacks you can bring on long road trips, and our family is basically a bunch of CLIF groupies.  But that doesn’t have anything to do with you or this contest – so let’s get to what’s in this post for you.

This fall CLIF is doing another installment of its Meet the Moment contest that it first introduced last spring.  It’s essentially a photo contest where you submit an entry that reflects your love of the outdoors, and CLIF donates $5 for each uploaded photo to one of five non-profits dedicated to protecting outdoor recreation.  Visitors to the website will select the 25 finalists (based on the number of likes and shares – I believe those are social media terms, yes?), and then a panel of CLIF folks will choose one winner who will have $10,000 donated in their name to one of CLIF’s non-profit partners.

It takes about 5 minutes to submit a picture; here’s the one I did this morning:

(Yes, it's from Leadville - I'm having a hard time moving on.) 

And if you want to vote for me, you can see my official entry page here.

But as I said, this contest isn’t about me – it’s about you.  In conjunction with their Meet the Moment contest, CLIF has agreed to provide a cool prize pack to one of my readers who submits an entry.  I don’t know exactly what’s in the prize pack, but if CLIF says it’s cool, I believe them.

The instructions for this contest are different than my usual ones, so here’s what you do to enter: go to CLIF’s Meet the Moment page and upload your own photo on the site.  Then come back here and leave the URL of your Meet the Moment page in the comments field, and I’ll pick one of them to receive the prize pack.  I’ll pass your contact info along to CLIF, and they’ll mail your prize pack.

My criteria for choosing the winner doesn’t have anything to do with likes or shares or anything digital - rather, it will be a purely subjective ruling by Running and Rambling’s distinguished panel of judges: me, along with the hikers you saw in the first photo.  Score high marks with us, and enjoy some CLIF love as your reward.

So, to recap: you enter the contest, CLIF makes a donation to a non-profit of your choosing, and you also have a chance to win a prize pack from me and a $10,000 donation from CLIF.  If anyone sees a downside to this, I’d love to hear it.

CLIF’s Meet the Moment contest closes on October 31^st, and my own contest winner will be announced the following weekend (November 3 or 4). Remember to copy your contest page URL here in the comments so I can find them.

Very big thanks to CLIF for sponsoring this contest, and good luck to everybody!

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Random Shots of Beauty

It’s late on Sunday night, which means it’s still technically the weekend, which means I’m just barely in time to post a Random Shot of Beauty:

(click to enlarge)

The Virgin River winding through the valley below The Watchman at Zion National Park, as seen earlier this evening at the end of a 12-hour driving session.  Which also explains the late post.

The first time I was at Zion, it was a whirlwind one-day tour that gave me a sense of just how magnificent this place is – and it also made me realize that one epic run isn’t sufficient to take it all in.  So this time around, I’m doing a couple of things differently …

1)   I’m leaving a bit more time to explore some areas of the park I didn’t get to experience the first time around, and …

 2)  I’m sharing it with my family.  Because places like these just seem meant to be appreciated with others.

Needless to say, posts may be somewhat sporadic for a while, but I actually do have an agenda of unrelated topics penciled in, so we’ll see what I can do.  I also want to put together at least a couple of Zion photo tours at some point, but in the meantime my trip here might be presented in periodic snippets.  I really don’t know, and it’s honestly the farthest thing from my mind.

More importantly, it’s autumn in Zion, and my family and I have wondrous places to explore.  Happy trails!

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Random Shots of Beauty

What my running has lacked in quantity lately - and believe me - there's a lot lacking - it has more than made up in quality; case in point is this weekend's Random Shot of Beauty:

A scene from a sunset 5-miler I took with my 11-year old daughter in Point Lobos State Reserve this week.  It occurs to me that I've never done a photo tour of this area, which is one of the most spectacular in all of  the Monterey Peninsula.  Perhaps some day I will ... but in the meantime, to make up for the past few weekends of Internet silence, here are some bonus shots from the same run.

Low mileage, beautiful scenery, and magic moments with my daughter - this is the kind of training I could really get used to.

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Random Shots of Beauty (Leadville Edition)

“And I wonder … If everything could ever feel this real forever -

If anything could ever be this good again … “

-      Foo Fighters, “Everlong” (video after post)

**

I’m not sure what I was thinking, but clearly I must have slipped into one of my idiot moments.

I thought it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to run 100 miles across the sky, fly back to town the next day, jump right back into the school and work routine, and plunk out a race report by the end of the week.  I managed to click those first few things off the list, but when it came to the race report … not so much.

I’m still awfully tired, I guess.  OK - make that undoubtedly.  However, there’s something larger at play in my lethargy as well.  Part of me is still processing the whole experience, partially in disbelief that everything went as well as I could have hoped for.  There’s also a fair amount of ennui over the fact that last weekend will most likely be the pinnacle of my running career – and with each passing day that goes by, the memories will be less vivid, and the emotions will fade and feel a little less real.  And when I finally write the race report, the whole episode will be officially and permanently in my rearview mirror, which makes me more than a little sad.

(Remember how I've mentioned that I can find the down side of anything?  And you thought I was kidding.)

So while I’m working through this ridiculous bout of sturm und drang over my Leadville report, here’s an advance Random Shot of Beauty from the course - click to enlarge for the full effect:

An abandoned ranch shack as seen at approximately mile 25, in the shadow of Mount Elbert (center background) and Mount Massive (at right), otherwise known as the two highest peaks in Colorado.  This one actually didn’t make the final cut for the race report, so perhaps it’s good that I’ve become such a writing slacker this week.

**

And I suppose it’s fitting that one of my all-time greatest running experiences should be paired with one of my all-time favorite rock songs; one true classic to go with another.

Foo Fighters, “Everlong” (Live on Letterman - click to play):

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Random Shots of Beauty (Extended Salinas Valley Edition)

I keep meaning to write something about my upcoming Leadville race – it seems like kind of a big deal, after all - but there’s something about the prospect of doing something that simultaneously inspires and terrifies me that’s temporarily leaving me at a loss for words.  I’m working on it, I promose.

In the meantime, let’s do an extended Random Shots of Beauty post, featuring scenes from my warmup run prior to this morning’s Salinas Valley Half Marathon.  Basically, I did this again plus a few extra miles – but the difference this summer was that this morning’s run was the first time I’ve toured the Salinas Valley on foot in several weeks.  That’s another long story as well – one I may revisit at some point here.  For now, enjoy some photos (and click to enlarge any of these):

A long glance down the valley from a high point at around mile 7 on the course …

A pair of dilapidated farm buildings …

A gradual descent and climb that leads to …

… another cool abandoned structure on the fringe of a vineyard.

A little farther down the road, a nice reminder of just how inconsequential a morning run is in the grand scheme of things, and how fortunate I am to be able to enjoy it.  Count your blessings, people.

And finally, some big ol’ bird - maybe a hawk, maybe just a turkey vulture; I honestly have no idea - flying above another winery when I eventually made it back to my car about six hours after leaving.  After today’s run, it’s time for me to take flight into full-on taper mode.

*

Also, check back for the Honey Stinger contest winners tomorrow night.

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Random Shots of Beauty

I'm making things quick tonight so I can get back to completely geeking out on Olympic coverage.  On a related note, thanks to NBC's tape delayed coverage airing until midnight PST, it's going to be hard for me to get a good night's sleep for the next 14 days.  Good thing I'm not tapering for a big race or anything.  Oh, wait ...

So let's knock out a couple Random Shots of Beauty, taken from my most recent excursions into the mountains.  First, from Lake Alpine, CA:

My 11-year-old daughter striking a Pocahontas pose from a small island she and I kayaked to in search of perfect rock jumping spots - one of those excursions where the journey is as rewarding as the destination.

The next is left over from my Tahoe Rim Trail photos:

A small alpine meadow as seen from the trail between Marlette Peak and the Tunnel Creek aid station.  Sometimes the hardest part of writing race reports is deciding which pictures to leave out; that's when you know you've completed an awesome race.


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Random Shots of Beauty

Guess what?  It turns out that when you run for twelve hours and drive for seven, that doesn't leave much time for blogging at the end of the day.  Accordingly, this weekend's RSOB is a brief one, in hopes that I can get to bed before 1AM:

(click to enlarge)

Marlette Lake in the foreground and Lake Tahoe in the background, as seen from Snow Valley Peak at mile 42 of today's - or is it yesterday's now? - Tahoe Rim Trail 50.

The race's motto is "A Glimpse of Heaven, A Taste of Hell", but I found my experience there to be much more heavenly than hellish.  I'll save the details for my race report which should post later in the week ... but you know how that goes around here sometimes.

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Random Shots of Beauty

It’s always hard to leave the mountains behind in the summertime, but at least this year I know I’m planning to return a couple more times.  Of course, those are for the purpose of running ultras, so it isn’t really the rest and relaxation that I love so much about our family’s annual trip to the Sierras - but I suppose that’s nothing to legitimately complain about.

On a similar theme, this weekend’s Random Shot of Beauty was a coin flip between two shots from the past week, so I decided to just post them both.  The first one was taken earlier in the week:

A shot from a small island in the middle of Lake Alpine, where my 11-year-old daughter and I parked our kayaks in order to indulge in one of our favorite mountain activities: finding the biggest rock we can jump from, and repeatedly plunging ourselves into the cold water.

The second was taken more recently:

The Stanislaus River at nightfall, as seen during a riverside picnic on our last evening in the mountains.

I didn’t do very much structured training during the trip, but with Leadville a mere 5 weeks away, it’s time to get back to business – which is why I’ll begrudgingly set the alarm early tomorrow.  And I know the mountains will be waiting for me to return.

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Shepherd's Bush Book Winner; Random Shots of Beauty

Hey … I’m a little overdue on a race report, aren’t I?  Apologies if you’ve been awaiting my report from the Marin Ultra Challenge; I’ll have it posted in the next couple of days for sure.  In the meantime, let’s take care of one point of business: announcing the winner of the Showdown at Shepherd’s Bush book giveaway.

Before I do, though, thanks very much to everyone who supplied a favorite marathon memory with their entry.  If you have any question as to the historical significance of the marathon race, scroll through the comments section of that post for a small sampling of the colorful history of the event.

Having said that … Meg T, e-mail me your contact info – you’re the winner!  To everyone else, I’d definitely recommend grabbing Showdown at Shepherd’s Bush from Amazon.com in either hardback or Kindle formats.

*

As for the delayed race report … I’m chalking up my delinquency to the fact that I’m currently living on mountain time, as our family is enjoying another week in our favorite getaway spot in the Sierras.  It’s always one of the most restful and rewarding times of the year for us, and I’m always grateful for the opportunity to be here. 

Speaking of things to be thankful for, here’s your Random Shot of Beauty:

God, country, and tall pine trees, as seen outside the Mountain Christian Fellowship in Arnold, CA.

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Random Shots of Beauty

Apologies for the late post - the weekend sort of got away from me.  It probably has something to do with this weekend's RSOB:

Muir Beach in Marin County, as seen from the Dias Ridge Trail at approximately mile 18 of yesterday's Marin Ultra Challenge.


The top half of the shot isn't due to a blocked screen or film error; rather, it's the heavy fog cover that blanketed much of the course for the majority of the day.  From a runner's standpoint, that's not such a terrible thing - but from a photographic perspective, it leaves a little something to be desired.

I think I gathered enough shots for a decent race report, though - which will hopefully post here later in the week.  In the meantime, check back for an Olympic-themed giveaway contest in the next day or two.

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Random Shots of Beauty (and Bunny)

Two completely different topics this weekend – and as often happens around these parts, they have nothing whatsoever to do with each other.

*

This weekend’s Random Shots of Beauty are a couple of leftover shots from my recent Clouds Rest hike with my son.  The first one was a somewhat unexpected surprise, in that I’m far more accustomed to looking up at the towering sights in Yosemite rather than down at the ground underfoot:

But there’s just as much beauty to be found down there sometimes, as this field of wildflowers demonstrates.

The next one just struck me as one of those “I can’t imagine how that happened” scenes that are seemingly everywhere you look around Yosemite …

… such as this twisted tree trunk that, if it could talk, would probably have some wild story to tell.

*

The remainder of today’s post is for my friend Brian, who accompanied me on a large portion of an early morning 30-miler today.  After one of the many times he had to wait for me to catch up, I commented that my stiff and creaky legs felt “like that little squeaky camel in the cartoon where Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck find the treasure.”  Of course, he had no idea what I was talking about.

Admittedly, you’d have to be a pretty major Bugs Bunny junkie to get the reference – not to mention an even bigger geek to make it.  So there you go.  The clip below is for his benefit, but consider it yours as well.  The camel’s gone by the one-minute mark, but do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing; it’s truly one of the classics.

“Ali Baba Bunny” (click to play):

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Random Shots of Beauty (and Fatherhood)

A couple of quick notes after a late return from Yosemite National Park last night ...

First, our customary Random Shot of Beauty:

The Yosemite Valley as seen from the top of Clouds Rest at 9,900'.  Full report to follow this week, I hope.

My companion for this hike was my 14-year-old son - which, considering the weekend occasion and that fact that he's now firmly entrenched in his teenage years, led me to think about my own awkwardly chaotic teenage experience.  It also leads us to a Random Shot of Fatherhood:

I'm the one with the skater haircut and slacker affect; my dad's the one next to me clinging to the humor of the whole scenario.  (The others are my grandfather and uncle.)  All things considered, I think I've had things much easier in the parenthood arena than I gave it out while growing up.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.


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Random Shots of Beauty; Farewell PCTR

Before getting to the subjects at hand, let’s take care of business and announce our CLIF Kit’s Organic winners.   Rachel, Michael Helton, and Kelly Covert: e-mail me your contact info – you’ve won!  And if anyone is curious, Rachel was entry number 1 on the comment list – proving that every number has an equal chance of winning.

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Since I’ve been making up for lost training miles this week, I figured I’d make up for some neglected Random Shots of Beauty by throwing in a couple extras this week – starting with …

The view looking west from Snively’s Ridge atop Carmel Valley, at approximately mile 11 of this morning’s run.  Then moving on to …

Tall sentinels at the bottom of Redwood Canyon in Garland Park at mile 19.  And finally …

A view looking back from the top of another climb up the adjacent ridge line a couple of hours later, during a run that ended up being nearly 30 miles.  In the words of George Costanza, I’m back, baby!

Much of this morning’s run featured trails that were used for my first-ever ultramarathon, the Carmel Valley 50K that was put on by Pacific Coast Trail Runs almost 10 years ago.   Longtime readers may also recall that in the wake of my initial Western States disappointment, I ended up doing my first-ever 100-miler at a PCTR event as well.  I’ve entered several of their races over the years, and like many Northern Californians, the company had a special place in my heart.

That’s why I was sorry to see the official announcement this week that Pacific Coast Trail Runs has gone out of business.  Even though the news isn’t surprising to anyone familiar with the situation – and even though the financial implications involving current registrants remain quite messy – it’s a sad milestone for anyone who grew up on PCTR ultras.

I suppose the good news for me is that none of my upcoming races are PCTR events – but one of them will be a new event that is hosted by the company that moved into the void left by PCTR.  I hope to have more to say about that company and the race in the near future; in the meantime, I need to stay focused on training my tail off. 

Leadville happens in 10 weeks.  Game on.

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