Color Run - In Photos

The Color Run is best described in photos. The run itself was ok, the end was definitely the best part, see for yourself.

Start of the Run

The End of the Run - No clue who the guy in the background is

Color Rave



Aftermath of the color rave

Leaving the Run



It was definitely worth experiencing once.  Not sure if my lungs can take it again next year though!

Trail Nerds

If you're into twisted ankles and feeling like you're in hot pursuit, then trail running is probably for you.  When I signed up to try the trail run, I didn't know what to expect, but I was up for trying something new.  It was the Trail Nerds intro to trail running, only 2.8 miles.  I thought that it couldn't be too bad, for that short of a distance.  I had been running regularly anyway and thought I was up for the challenge.  Plus, it was at Wyandotte County Lake Park, which I had been meaning to check out anyway.

When I showed up for the event, I was really scared that I would be the last runner.  There were around 200 people and they looked like serious runners - tall, thin, lean and wearing very little clothing.  I started towards the very back of the starting line, and waited to take off, I was glad I started at the back as it was a quick start.  Soon we were walking though, as we headed into the trail and had to filter down to a single file line.  It was fun at the start, racing through the woods, a nice slow pace because of all the people jamming together. 

When it opened up into a clearing, we were able to spread out a bit more and pass people that were slowing the group down.  There had been lots of uphill challenges on the way to the clearing midpoint, so I was looking forward to a downward route on the way back.  Unfortunately, we went back a different route with more hillers at steeper inclines.  It was difficult to continue at a few points and I'm surprised that more people didn't twist ankles or fall in a few places.  I was glad to finish and check out the rest of the park once the race was over.  Wyco lake park was surprisingly nice.

If you ever get a chance I recommend checking it out!  Not very crowded and worth the drive.

I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy with travel, work, life, etc., but my resolution for the summer is to update all of my travel and adventures.  There are many!  China, Armenia, Republic of Georgia, NYC, amongst others.  I want to do them justice and write about upcoming travel as well.  There are many places planned.  But for a short post, I'll just show a quick picture or two from a recent adventure.

A friend and I went to the X-Factor live auditions.  I've never seen the show, and never thought I would like something like this, but when a friend couldn't make it and offered the tickets I didn't pass it up.  The auditions were at the Sprint Center in Kansas City and with the tickets we only had to wait about 15 minutes for some great seats.

Frank Nicotero was the host and started the night by going through the rules for what we were supposed to do - applaud if something was good, boo if we didn't like a show, disagree with the judges, and he made us practice again and again so the cameras could pick up our actions.  Of course the main draw for the evening was the new judge...Brittney Spears.

I wanted to like her, I really did, but she made it hard.  She didn't have anything intelligent or witty to say and she never acknowledged the fans.  Demi Lovato though was very likable and kind to the fans that had showed up just to see her.  It was fun and I'm looking forward to watching the KC auditions in the fall and see a few of my favorite auditions, like the white teenage preppy rapper and outgoing country group with the funny leading lady.  It was worth checking out one time, especially since it was free. 

Remember, adventure is easy to find - trying out a tag line :)

Minnesota, eh?

The goal of this trip was to a see a moose, but tt didn't start out that way.

One day, last spring, I decided to randomly buy one of the groupon trip specials.   I purchased three nights at Bearskin Cabin in Grand Marais, MN.  I didn't really know anything about Minnesota, what the weather would be like, or even where it really was besides North of me.  I called and made my reservation for early September, left my dogs behind and headed North.  My first stop was in Clear Lake, Iowa.  This was a surprise.  I didn't think there was really anything special in Iowa, besides rumors of a unique jailhouse.  This town was beautiful though.  Clean, old-fashioned and home to a large lake.

I continued onward and stayed the night in St. Paul, MN.  It looked like a really fun city, but I was too tired to explore and ready to get an early start the next day.  So I crashed and left early the next morning, which turned out to be a good idea because I had time to stop at:

Best caramel I have ever had.  If you're ever in a nearby state, I highly recommend making a stop here.  They claim the difference is that they make their candy in copper kettles.  The restaurant across the street...not worth the trip so much.  As I traveled along I29, it really became a nice a drive.  Lake Michigan was on the East and the houses were fancy and old-fashioned.  There were some mansions and lots of lighthouses to stop and visit.  I chose to stop at Gooseberry Falls State Park:

I was a little disappointed with the scenery, but I was informed that if there is more rain it's a better sight.  Still a nice stop and free too. 

I finally made it all the way to Grand Marais, which is a small, quaint town.  It was considerably colder than Kansas City too.  The cabin was great.  Each place to stay had its own dock, kitchen and enough beds for about 7-10 people.  I spent some time out on the water which is really close to the boundary water area.  This is an area between Canada and the U.S. which is protected.  They don't allow boats with motors and people are expected to leave no trace behind if they camp in the boundary water area.  There are also lots of moose signs all over and moose paraphenalia, hence the sudden desire to search for moose.

View from the boat

View from my dock

I checked out the town, which was your typical quaint small town.  There were several good restaurants, but this was my favorite:

So, not really a restaurant...but still worth a stop.  Plus they keep track of which states people have visited them from. 

Another nice part of visiting downtown, is that you can take a short walk/hike out to a lighthouse.

And along the way, check out artist's point.

Where people build small statues with loose rocks. 



Finally, each day I walked along a moose trail, and stopped at a moose viewing point in hopes of seeing the elusive gentle giant.  This is all that I saw.

Signs telling me how to find a moose.  Well, that and a car gone wild like the one in Harry Potter.

All in all, despite the disappointment of not seeing a moose, it was a pleasant and relaxing trip.  I'd love to take a longer trip up there to check out the rest of the North Shore and maybe a short foray into Canada.  Oh, and as for the title of this post, it's true, lots of people up there do sound like that.  And in case you were wondering, no, they don't like it when you try and imitate them :) 

Bat Cave

Last night, I headed to El Malpais one last time while in Albuquerque.  I arrived just in time at 7:00 p.m. to head out to the bat cave. 

El Malpais is essentially a large bed of lava and the majority of it is difficult to walk on.  This part of the trail, El Calderon, wasn't difficult though which is probably good since it I was going on a night hike.  I was a little nervous about the weather, especially since I had driven one hour to get there.  The skies were threatening rain and lightning was closing in from every direction.  It did create some beautiful skies though:

So a large group had assembled and we walked out on the trail with the a park ranger leading the way.  The ranger said to expect the first group of bats to come out at 8:00, but they came out around 7:35 p.m.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a little frightning at first.  A few scout bats came towards the mouth of the cave and then apparently gave the go ahead to the rest of the bats who started pouring out of the cave.  The whole cave has around 20,000 bats, but the first group that came out was the Mexican free-tailed bat.  There was an echo-locater and it was eerie to hear their shrieks as they emerged.  There was a rustling through the air and a light sweet smell, which the ranger explained was the guano.  There was something calming about watching them gather and then fly away into the night.  They streamed out of darkness for about 5 minutes before the last few flew back inside to watch the pups. 

This picture does not do justice to the event.  It was truly amazing to see.  But as soon as the free-tailed bats were gone, the lightning started moving in even closer, from both the North and the West.  The ranger talked about white nose syndrome, which is a fungus that the bats are spreading around North America.  You can kind of see a small sign in the cave warning people not to go in because of this.  It has a kill rate of 99% sadly and if it spreads to New Mexico it could wipe out their bat population.  This would be devastating to the agriculture business because of the need for increased use of pesticides to kill the bugs that bats would normally eat.  We sat a little while longer, and then the ranger warned that we would need to leave because of how close the lightning was and the fact that we were sitting on ferritic lava.  Just then the small brown bats started coming out of the cave.  We all watched as these tiny bats whirred closer and closer to us.  They are apparently the acrobats of the bat world and had no fear of the intruders by their cave.  They would literally whoosh inches away from people and were swooping in larger patterns than the first bats.  The night ended with a walk back to the parking area and more beautiful skies thanks to the incoming storms.

Wolves in New Mexico

I just realized I forgot to post about my experience with wolves in New Mexico.  A few weekends ago, I signed up for a photo tour of The Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, which is in Candy's Kitchen, NM or pretty much Ramah, NM.  It's a beautiful drive across I-40, to Highway 53 in Grants, then a few smaller roads.  The worst part was the 3-4 mile drive along the gravel road that led to the sanctuary.  Anyway, once you arrive and get out of your car, you can hear the wolves howling, which gives you chills.  I walked in and met my tour guide.  She first took me to a fox pen to get used to being around wild animals.

It was a cute fox, but I wanted to move onto the big guys.  The first wolf pen that I went into was home to two artic wolves.  They were a little startling to see at first and I was not as confident as I would have liked to have been.  She warned me that these wolves needed to keep their distance and I could not get too close to them. 

Teton

It wasn't a problem.  For the most part they kept their difference, only coming close to smell where we had stepped.  The next pen that we entered was home to Sassy.  The tour guide warned me that she was friendly, but she apparently took an extra shine to me and was additionally friendly.  I couldn't get her far enough away from me to even take a decent picture for a while.  Finally she calmed down a bit, became bored with me and I was able to take a few.

So then we stopped in another pen, but eventually headed over to a black wolf's pen.  His name was Jaeger and he looked pretty scary even though he really seemed more afraid of me than I was of him. 

Jaeger

Next we went to the pen where I ended up with scratches/bruises.  It was another friendly wolf, but this time with a 150 pound male named Dakota.  He was so friendly, that to greet me when I entered the pen he put both paws on my shoulders and pinned me to the fence.  His paws were extremely sharp and he was so strong I ended up with a bloody arm and some cuts in my side.  He was still a beautiful wolf, but not very active so it was difficult to get a good picture.

Dakota

So my trip was over.  I spent two hours there and loved every second.  The time flew by, it was just amazing.  If you're ever within a few hours, you can't miss this one.  And definitely sign up for the photography tour.  It's one I won't forget, and definitely made me want to sign up for the tiger photo tour that is offered in Arkansas some time.  So hopefully in a few months there will be a new post on that adventure!

P.S.  There were some nice views on the way home:

El Morro and More

Today I took a day trip down to El Morro, NM.  I hiked around the El Morro National Monument.  It was a place where travelers would stop and sign their names in the stone, starting in the 1600s.  Here are a few examples

E. Pen Long

Spanish Adventurer

The history was pretty neat, but there was some great scenery as well:

El Morro

El Morro

On the way back to Albuquerque, I stopped at the Bandera Volcano and ice caves.  I met a nice German gentleman there who informed me he was spending 1.5 months driving around Colorado, New Mexico and South Dakota.  Rather interesting choices I thought.  Here are some pics:

Bandera Volcano crater

Ice Cave

The ice cave was pretty cool.  It stays at 31 degrees year round.  The crater was ok, kind of a long walk to look at a hole in the ground. 

I was really tired, but decided to stop at El Malpais.  It turns out that on the west side of El Malpais Monument/National Conservation area there is not much to do unless you want to take a 15 mile hike across lava, which was tempting, but I didn't have the time.  There are a few shorter hikes, but the lady at the information center warned me that they were all very difficult.  She recommended that I go check out La Ventana and the Sandstone bluffs on the east side instead.  I decided to go for it, and I'm glad I did.  See below:

Right next to La Ventana

La Ventana

Sandstone bluffs

The views were amazing, and well worth the 20 mile drive from the highway.  Exit 89 in New Mexico if you are driving across on I-40.  I just wish I had had more time to look around Grants for once!