July 9 - July 15

 I got in a bit of running this last week and felt pretty good.  My calf seem to be fully recovered which is good.  I've got a few minor aches and pains from starting to do some real running again, but nothing I'm concerned about.  Its just that when you start doing something different (in my case running again) the human body takes a little bit to respond.

Anyhow, running this weeks was very enjoyable.  I feel like a kid again.  My goal is to just get out, have fun, and do it again tomorrow.  For years that was my philosophy and it worked great.  The last couple years I tried to actually "train" for races by having a very structured routine throughout the week.  That didn't work so well.  And I think why it didn't work was that it was no fun.  Looking back on the last couple years I see that I did a pretty good job of sucking all the fun out of running.  In some ways, its almost kind of humorous.

Running has really been good lately and I know its because I've finally got the right perspective again.  If you have fun and do the best you can, that's all you can ask for.  If you want anything outside of that, you're probably losing perspective on what is all about.

But enough of that mumbo jumbo, here's some great picture from our trip around Three Fingered Jack.  Mom, Jacob, and I circumnavigated Three Fingered Jack on Saturday and it was a cooker.  I think it was 88 when we got back to the car, but you're pretty much in the open (okay in the dead trees) the whole time so you really feel the sun.  I think the pictures stop when we are about halfway done because after that we were just running through the burn and it was hot.

Mt. Washington with the Three Sisters behind

Mom and Jacob climbing through the rocks

Black Butte

It looks like Jacob was too fast for the photographer

Not much snow left now

Three Fingered Jack

Truffula trees

Goats - we saw 5 goats on the slopes of Three Fingered Jack
There's at least 2 in this picture and the third blurry white spot might be one too

Mt, Jefferson

Indian Paintbrush

Mom and Jacob with Three Fingered Jack in the background

Three Fingered Jack

Live trees, with dead trees behind them.  It looked way cooler than the picture does

Another angle of Three Fingered Jack

Heading up to Canyon Creek meadows

Jacob with Canyon Creek meadows below up

The Fingered Jack

Lots of burned trees to run through today

Left to Right: Broken Top, Bachelor, North Sister, Middle Sister, South Sister, Mt. Washington, The Husband (just poking out right of Mt. Washington)

Mom with Three Fingered Jack behind