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One of my favorite weekends of the year is to go to the Western States Training at Memorial Weekend (the last Monday in May). We've done this 4 times now and been very surprised by the variety of weather in different years. This year's flavor was cold and wet.
As usual, we stayed at the Christmas Tree Lodge near Foresthill. This is my second home in California. Ali and I have stayed there 5 times and each trip is better than the previous. This year, I enjoyed having naps in bed on Friday, Sunday and Monday. I can't remember the last time I felt so relaxed.
We were joined by the usual gang - Steve, Penny and Family, Winnie and Lee, Peggy and Cody. This year, we enjoyed the company of Lina and Bruce who were making their first visit to the Lodge. Linda also dropped by on Saturday afternoon. She's been with us on previous years and now lives near the trail.
I'm glad to say we found our hosts Claudia, Liz and Joe in fine form - and their dogs as mad as ever. Although we met Abby the Beagle for a few minutes last year, this was our first weekend to get to know her. A very nice hound indeed.
The big change at the Lodge this year has been the arrival of the internet. When we started going there in 2005, electricity was provided by a generator which was switched off about 10 o'clock or so. Last year, the generator had been augmented by a battery system to provide continuous power. And now a satellite connection is used to provide access to the internet. The consequence was 5 laptops, emailing, and the other things we'd gone to escape for the weekend!
The running was fine. It was very wet on Saturday. The trail was incredibly muddy. Lina, Penny and I run on Saturday from near Dusty Corner to Foresthill. We met Strider Eileen on the bus. Eileen will be running in Western States at the end of June. Peggy and Lina ran on Sunday from Foresthill to Rucky Chucky and I was amazed when they came back spotless. Although raining at Christmas Tree Lodge, it was fine and dry on the trail.
We had a very nice walk on Sunday afternoon at Sugar Pine Reservoir. And we enjoyed some great cooking. Claudia and family provide amazing breakfasts, and we did pot luck for the dinners. Steve and I were press ganged into cleaning up after dinner on Sunday night, however we did our chores quite quickly.
We've booked again for 2009 when I'd like to set the objective of completing the whole of the Saturday run. I've never made it past Michigan Bluff on Saturday - 20 miles seems to be my limit for a single day on the Western States Trail.
So thanks to everybody for their company this weekend. Just Great. Looking forward to being with you all again next year at Claudia's.
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