Marin: Tennessee Valley-Stinson-Muir Beach Trail Run

28.3 miles, 6,104 ft gain. With Chaz, Carrie, Chris, Bill, and Eric. We drove to Marin to get out of the smoke that had been plaguing Truckee and Tahoe for the last few weeks, and the fresh, cool ocean air down there felt  amazing. We were excited to see a spot to get water… False alarm. Eric had planned the route, and none of us paid much attention to it, he thought it would be 18-20 miles or so. ARead more
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trailrunning in the keweenaw

11 miles, 1,273 feet climbing.  Keweenaw Peninsula, Upper Michigan. Love this place. Miles and miles of perfect soft trails in the Copper Country, on a 2 hour run, I only saw one other group of people. I ran with my little sister Lynette, who historically, has always been slower than me, but this time I got my ass kicked. I wasn’t too happy about that, and since she didn’t seem to want to wait for me I let her goRead more

Milwaukee to Truckee on Amtrak – the return trip

After 8 wonderful days with family in Michigan, Stephen, Avian and I headed to Milwaukee with my mom and Aunt Margaret to begin our 48 hour journey back to California. Aunt Margaret provided entertainment on the 4-hour drive to our hotel, and brilliantly taught AB and SB how to crochet chains out of yarn (hours and hours of fun for the train). We stayed in downtown Milwaukee and had a nice evening walking around by the river.   The nextRead more

Mackinac Island

My parents, sister, and I took Stephen and Avian to one of my favorite places to visit – Mackinac Island, a 3.8 square mile island in lake Huron, in between Upper and Lower Michigan. We arrived in St. Ignas on Friday afternoon, in time to meet Aunt Chris and Uncle Larry for dinner and watch the sunset. I met Fred early the next morning for a run, and we watched the sun come up in the Straights of Mackinac. Fred thoughtRead more
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Truckee to Chicago via California Zephyr

As a child, my family always traveled on Amtrak for our big trips. I have countless fond memories from these vacations, and many of the most vivid were from the experiences of train travel itself. Here are a couple pictures I drew as a kid during these trips:  This time, I decided to take my 7 year old twins to Michigan on Amtrak.   Our town of Truckee is right on the route for the California Zephyr, which runs from Chicago toRead more

Warren Lake Trail Loop

13.6 miles, 2,746 ft gain, Start and Finish at the PCT Trailhead South of I-80. Chaz, Chris, Bill and JP.  I have always loved the Warren Lake Trail, and this evening run did not disappoint. Our original plan was to do an out and back to Warren Lake,   but when we got to the intersection of the Warren Lake and Devil’s Oven trails, we decided to make it more interesting and do a loop instead, which brought us byRead more

Coldstream Canyon

Coldstream Canyon to PCT and back. 16.1 miles, 2,803 ft gain. I did this solo run the morning before I left for a 2 week trip to Michigan via train, with my 7 year old twins. Felt like I needed to get some energy out before being trapped in a train for 48 hours with my super hyper children. It worked for me, although I wish I would have done the same for them! Parked at Donner State Park, followedRead more