Best laid plans....

Not New Zealand, but still fun...
Keegan climbing in So. Cal.

It's May 21st and instead of sitting in a hut after an epic day on the dusky track in wild New Zealand, i'm here in Grand Forks sitting through an overly hyped spring winter storm.  A long and complicated chain of events - some of which were beyond our control (a major earthquake in christchurch), some of which within it (we were offered a full refund on the plane tickets and couldn't really say no) - we ended up swapping 7 weeks down under for 11 days in southern california.

At the time it was a great relief - the amount of stress we were facing to make the trip happen right on the heels of iceman and the day after Tammy's class was ending was brutal.  But now, after hearing that jason has just arrived in Te Anau and setting off on the dusky mission tomorrow, it's a bit bittersweet.

With the stress gone, i realize that all the energy that had been building towards that trip is still there and needs an outlet.  I've already got a busy summer lined up (no adventuring unless you count race directing) so time is short, but i've managed to hook up with a partner (Grant) from Fargo to take on a mission similar to the mantario trail run from last november.

The plan is to so a one day run the Sioux Hustler trail in the bounday waters canoe area wilderness (BWCAW).  it's a 32-35 mile (depending on who you ask) into some of the most remote wilderness in the BWCAW on unmaintained trails, recommended for serious hikers only, and estimated to take most parties 4 days to complete.  it'll be a good test of both navigation skills and fitness - not a substitute for the dusky epic, but hopefully at least a little taste of the suffering that would have been had over there.

I've also decided to drop down to only two hours a week of cardio training using the same principals as i've outlined in previous posts - i may have to up it again when i add padding to the biking and running in preparation for the idaho expedition race later this summer, but we'll see how this run goes.  We'll be tackling the trail on May 22nd and 23rd, so i've got about 9 weeks of training time.  should be no problem..... (: