Wow. Eight months have flown by since my last update. I think that’s a record for me.

Just wanted to stop in to say I’m still around. This summer has flown by. I was just getting into the swing of things, now our first child has started Kindergarten. Yikes!

Back in May I participated in the Bayshore Half Marathon up in Traverse City, MI. The weather was beautiful and cool, which contributed to me setting a PR of 1:48:36. Hopefully I’ll be able to beat that at my next half marathon.

In June I had my hike up Half Dome in Yosemite National Park for which I was training through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Hike For Discovery program.

I combined that trip out to Yosemite with a 5-day backpacking trip with my friend Rob Totte. We started at the White Wolf campground, hiked down to the Tuolumne River and then followed it up, through Tuolumne Meadows, along the Lyell Fork to the highest point in Yosemite NP, Mt. Lyell (13,114 ft / 3997 m) and back down to Tuolumne Meadows. Nearby forest fires to the west of the park made many of the views quite hazy in the Grand Canyon of the Tuoumne River, but we could see for miles at the peak.

The kids, Jennifer and her mother also headed out to California during that time. After my excursion into the wilderness, we met back up in the San Francisco Bay Area and met up with old friends.

In August I took another trip back out to San Francisco to see the SF Outside Lands concert in Golden Gate Park. It was the first time a concert had been held in the park at night. The Radiohead performance opening night was spectacular.

A few days ago I participated in a 100 KM trail running 5-person team relay event in Hell, MI called Dances With Dirt. The course involved running along the trails of Pinckney State Recreation Area in widely varying levels of use (or disuse as the case may be). There were numerous fallen trees and branches, hills a’ plenty, sand patches, abundant poison ivy, thigh-high muck at stream crossings, a shallow lake crossing. Sounds like fun, no? Though we didn’t even come close to winning, it was well worth the experience. Pictures to come (hopefully!).