Making Apricot Jam

 We've been blessed with a bounty of apricots this year. In fact, more apricots than we can ever remember getting. We've shared with friends and family, as there are so many that we can't use them all ourselves. We've been trying to preserve them, and the kids have been a major part of that this year. Desert Boy kind of likes it, "because that's what survivalists would do." Desert Girl is okay with it if we can listen to an audiobook while processing.

So far we've dried apricots, frozen apricots, canned apricots (I even bought a steam canner, which I like so much better than my old water bath canner), made apricot nectar, made apricot crisps, and made apricot jam. The kids can now do the canning on their own from start to finish (and will be entering some in the county fair). I figured it was time for them to learn how to make jam.

This year I've been using Ball Low or No Sugar Pectin, and I really like it. The recipe is simple: 8 cups apricots, 1 1/3 cups juice (we use orange juice), 6 Tablespoons pectin. Mix it all, mash it, and boil it.

 Then ladle into prepared (sanitized) jars. The funnel makes it much easier.

Put on lids and rings, then put on the steam canner. When the dial on the lid goes into the green zone, we set the timer for 20 minutes (time is dependent on elevation). 

Here is Desert Boy doing his batch. I had them each do their own batch.

The final product! They learned how to check if the jars sealed properly. They still have to make labels, then they will be ready to eat, give away, and enter in the fair.

The kids seem to enjoy working in the kitchen, and I sure enjoy being in there with them. They've done some nice cookoffs. And now we'll be able to enjoy the taste of apricots for many months!

Ashcroft Observatory, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah

 We recently had the opportunity to visit Ashcroft Observatory, run by Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah. We had checked their Facebook page and saw that they opened at 9:45 pm. The Google map directions were a little off, so we toured the neighborhood a bit, but fortunately found it in the end.

From the SUU Farm, head south on Westview Drive. There's a big turn in the road, with a steep hill going south blocked off with big boulders. Go around the boulders and up the road to the gate.

While we were waiting for the gate open, we used our binoculars to look at Jupiter and its Galilean moons (the four moons found by Galileo hundreds of years ago). We also checked out the moon, about half full. Surprisingly, even with it so bright, I was still able to capture a little Milky Way over the observatory (see photo above).

Our big group (about 25) was split into two, and we joined the first group into the observatory, which sits about 12. Our guide then showed us some wonders of the night sky with the 14-inch Celestron telescope. I loved the rotating roof! We saw Jupiter, Saturn, the ring nebula, and a globular star cluster. He said that on nights with fewer people, they see more objects. I didn't mention to him that at Saturday night's astronomy program at Great Basin National Park, 200 people showed up and the lines at the telescope were really long!

After we saw those objects, we traded with the other group and went outside. We got a close-up look of craters on the moon and then also a constellation tour. Despite a few clouds, it was a good night to be outside.

The Ashcroft Observatory is not a research observatory. Instead, SUU partners with the Great Basin Observatory in Great Basin National Park. You can see some really amazing photos on their website. They also publish quarterly newsletters, After Dark.

If you have a chance to visit the Ashcroft Observatory, it's a fun experience! And it's free!

Return to the Black Hills of South Dakota

 In late June, I put the kids on a plane to Massachusetts to spend two weeks with cousins. Then I headed to a different plane and went to Rapid City, South Dakota, to spend a week in the Black Hills. The occasion was the 200th mile Reunion for Jewel Cave.

Jewel Cave was my first National Park Service job, after my sophomore year of college. It changed my life, making me want to continue a career with the NPS and continue caving.

I got to the cave in time for a special tour led by Rene Ohms, one of the explorers who has discovered an incredible amount of cave.

During the tour, I was reminded how beautiful a cave it is. It had been 23 years since I had last been in--way too long!


I also admired the in-cave telephones--something we'd like to get for Lehman Caves.

The next day I went to Custer High School, where there a bunch of activities. In one room was the map of Jewel Cave. It's huge! There were also some stats on the wall, and I saw that I had been through a tiny passage called the Miseries three times. I had only remembered two, so I guess it's true I really do forget the parts of caves that are not so pretty.

Speaking of tiny passages, the Pahasapa Grotto had a squeeze box for anyone who wanted to see just how tiny a passage they wanted to squeeze through. This brought back memories of my bruised sternum for doing such a thing in Texas in February. Wow, we cavers sure know how to have a good time, ha!

The talks were great. I didn't get any photos of talks on Saturday, but on Sunday morning I did get a photo of Five Jewel Cave greats who were up on stage: Rene Ohms, Mike Wiles, Dwight Deal,  Jan Conn, and Art Palmer.

The reunion ended at noon, and afterwards I joined some folks for rock climbing. I got on the rock briefly, but then a huge thunderstorm rolled in.

After a delicious group-cooked homemade meal, we looked through some old papers. I loved the scale and north arrow on one of the Conn's maps.

I had a few extra days to spend--the kids were happy with cousins, my husband was taking care of the animals, and my plane ticket was the same cost no matter how long I stayed. So I went on a 20-mile run through the Black Elk Wilderness.

Near the end I went up Harney (Black Elk) Peak. I had been up it several times during the two seasons I worked at Jewel Cave.

On my last full day, I wanted to see some old sights. I took a quick peek at Wall Drug with the awesome Jackalope.

And then I went to Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.  This is right off the Interstate and commemorates the 1,000+ missile silos located across the Great Plains ready to be launched during the Cold War. Several hundred still exist. Oh, my. I started my trip at Delta 09, and luckily arrived when a volunteer was doing a program and so got to ask lots of questions.

They've taken the nuclear warhead off, but the missile still stands in the silo. 

Next I went to Delta-01, but I hadn't reserved a ticket weeks in advance to look at the Launch Control Facility. Tours are limited to just six people at a time. A reason to return!

Finally I went to the Visitor Center (all three sites are at different Interstate exits). It was quite crowded. The exhibits were fascinating. There were also some tongue-in-cheek, which I appreciated. 

I needed time to digest some of that content, so I headed south, through a tiny part of Badlands, then through the National Grasslands. Everywhere I was seeing fields of yellow, which turned out to be sweet yellow clover, a non-native.

I did a quick stop at Wind Cave, but the elevators were broken so I couldn't go in. But I could see the prairie dogs.

That night a new acquaintance was playing at the Custer Beacon. Before he went on, a ukulele band played. 

My last day I went on the Little Devil's Tower hike in Custer State Park. It was great!

I also went on the Needles Highway and watched while this full-size tour bus took over half an hour to go through this narrow tunnel. The people waiting on both sides were not happy.

It was great reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, and revisiting sites that I had faded memories of. I hope to be back again soon, to help with some cave exploration and also in 2022 for the NSS Convention. Woohoo--the kids will get to go on that trip too, and I look forward to showing them this amazing place. 

Running the Tushars Marathon 2019

 Early morning on July 27, 2019 was the time to start the Tushars Marathon. This mountain marathon would cover 26.2 miles with over 7,300 feet elevation gain (and loss, since we were doing a loop). And most of it would be over 10,000 feet elevation.

To prepare, I had followed a 16-week training plan. www.brutalevents.co.uk/MMM_16wk_plan.pdf
 This worked well with my schedule, as with work and family, I could only reasonably run four days a week. I did the whole schedule with only a couple minor modifications.

My other big preparation was listening to the Podcast Trail Talk, which helped me a lot with nutrition, preparing myself mentally, and also being a big inspiration. One of the tips was to prepare myself for the route. I looked at the race website and downloaded the trail map. I tried to figure out where I would be going up and where down, and mentally broke the run into segments based on the aid stations and high and low points.

I also looked a lot at the profile. Being mentally prepared for the major ups was very helpful. I was surprised by the runners I met during the race who had no idea what was coming next.

 Our family had camped out near the start at Eagle Point Ski Resort the night before. It had not been a great night's sleep, with a big thunderstorm into the late night and a rambunctious dog. But the family managed to get up to send me off.

I had my running vest packed ahead of time, my GPS watch fully charged, so all I had to do race morning was get dressed and eat some breakfast. And try to get more charge into my phone, it hadn't charged during the night like I had planned. There were more runners than I was expecting. And this was just one of four races--the 100km and 70 km had already started, and the half marathon would start 30 minutes later. 

Then we were off. We had a muddy downhill first, then lots of uphill. 

It was a cloudy morning, so sunrise wasn't amazing, but it was still beautiful.

 

And there was a lot of snow! I was glad for all my training through snow drifts, as they didn't faze me.

I had to take some quick photos, knowing I would enjoy the scenery more later than in the moment, while I was huffing and puffing. I loved the downhills, they were easier than the ones I had practiced. But the uphills seemed harder.

At mile 8, the Alunite Ridge Aid Station was a welcome sight. I drank some Gatorade and grabbed some pretzels and peanut M&Ms. I was happy to arrive at 2 hours, which had been my goal.

Next up was a steep road. Only about 3-4 miles of the race was on roads, about 20 miles on single track, and the rest just across grass and meadows. These two ladies ahead of me were doing the 70 km, and I was a bit surprised to run into some 70km racers. It was a nice morale boost.

 

At the top of the road was a pass and some more beautiful single track.

 While the first eight miles I was running with big groups of people, at this point I ran a couple miles without seeing anyone else. It was really sweet.

And the downhill kept going! I knew the big ascent to Delano Peak was coming soon, so I just enjoyed it.

The trail passed by these old cabins.

And also by this adit. This guy passed me, but then when I said we had 2,000 foot elevation gain, he stopped for a break to eat and I passed him. 

The trail was really wet and muddy. We had numerous stream crossings to clean our shoes.

Another cool mining cabin.

The trail kept going up in the trees, then we came out into the meadow. Hello, Parry's primrose!

And then we were above treeline, with a daunting mountain to climb. We went through some of the snow you see.

It was gorgeous, but I really had to keep talking myself into taking step after step. My two running mantras were "Run Your Own Race" and "One Step at a Time." The first was because I was feeling a little too competitive and then sometimes discouraged when people passed me. The second was because even though I wanted to quit many times, every step I took was one step closer to the finish line.

Can you see the distant figures? I was hoping to be up Delano Peak in about 4 hours. 

The Paintbrush was bright pink and a different species than I knew. I saw some other flowers I didn't know, but resisted taking photos of them all!

Looking behind me at some of the people coming up the slope.

And then, finally, I was there! There was a big group of people on the lee side of Delano Peak, and I wondered why the runners were hanging out so long. It turned out they were hikers, getting an extra spectacle on their climb! I was at the top at 4:02 and sent a quick text to my husband.

The downhill was fantastic. I just wanted to drink in the views, but instead took a couple photos and then ran.

At the bottom of the downhill was a mile or so up a road. It was not fun. I ran out of water and really wanted to be at the aid station.

The Mud Lake Aid station was tucked behind a hill, so I didn't see it until I was right there. I had to take a few minutes to recuperate here. I drank a cup of gatorade and another of water, filled my water bladder with a liter of water. I ate some turkey and cheese, tortilla and avocado and hummus, and some more peanut M&Ms. Despite how crappy I was feeling, I had made it here in 5 hours, which was my goal. The few minutes there made me feel much better. Then I started out along Mud Lake. Here's a view looking back towards the Aid Station:

Some 100 km stragglers were still coming in the opposite direction. They weren't looking so great, and I wondered how they were going to finish. This aid station was busy, with runners from the three longer races all there. But about a half mile away, the Marathoners took a different trail. 

In fact, here's the junction. The trails were marked quite well. And this is when my phone quit working right. The next section, a long downhill, was quite nice, although I could tell my legs were getting tired. It took a little longer than I had planned. And then there was a big uphill through Big John Flat on a road, with too many ATVs. That part was not good. I couldn't wait to get to the aid station at mile 22. But it seemed like I kept going and going. And two people passed me, which pissed me off. 

Finally I got to the aid station, and the ladies were so nice. I had some more Gatorade and sweet watermelon. Yum! Only about 4 miles to go. One blog post I had read about the race said this was the flattest part of the race. Liar. There was more uphill than I expected. I was not happy about that. At all. And even though I was grumpy and sore, I knew there wasn't too much to go. And then I caught up with some half-marathon stragglers, and that made me feel a little better. I got to the final downhill, which I did without much grace, and then the final uphill. My husband was waiting for me part way, which was so nice! I managed to run the last 20 yards!

I had had three big goals for the race: 1. Finish, 2. Finish in less than 9 hours, 3. Finish in less than 8 hours. When I had looked at 2018 results, I saw that the median time to finish the marathon was 8:35. I really wanted to beat that. Well, my final time was 8:13, so I accomplished goals 1 and 2, but not quite 3. I finished 41 of 73, plus 12 that did not finish. I felt a little bad about my placing at first, but then I realized that only two people older than me had finished. And I was third for females in my age group. Plus I was still walking!

One racer asked me at the aid station at the end if I was going to do it next year. I told him it depended on how I recovered. I'm still sore, but I'm still moving. Pre- and post-race massages by Jenny Hamilton Therapeutic Massage have made a huge difference. And I'm thinking of how to improve. So we'll see...

Tushars Mountain Runs