I'm a Winner!

I did it!  Thirty days of literary abandon.  This November I participated in the National Novel Writing Month challenge.  The goal, starting at 12:01am Nov 1st, write a 50,000 word novel by 11:59pm Nov. 30th.  Here it is the 27th, my novel is submitted, and I come in at 51,037 words.  What a relief.  The novel is far from finished; I've got some pretty serious editing to do.  However, I am mighty proud of myself. 

The Racetrack

I have come to learn that to get to the 'cool' places in the park, I need a vehicle with high clearance, four-wheel drive, and tires that can withstand sharp shards of volcanic rock.  I love my little car, but she definitely doesn't fit those standards.  Don't worry, there are plenty of places she can get me to as well.

 

I was privileged to have a day in the schedule where I got to use a government vehicle with those specifications and spend some time in the back country, and more specifically, the Racetrack.  I have been anxious to get out there since a co-worker at Great Basin told me about the moving rocks.

 

We passed a large swatch of Joshua Trees.  I love these guys, but know not to get too close; they are dangerously sharp!

Teakettle Junction.  Lots of folks leave a teakettle behind.  Law enforcement had recently cleared it off, so the collection was in the building phase.

The Racetrack is a dry lake bed, or playa. (I know playa in Spanish means beach, but they still call this dry lake bed a playa.)  It was vast.  Near the top end of the playa was the Grandstand, this lovely outcropping of rocks in the middle of the playa.  Of course, there was nothing else to do but scramble all over this.

Enjoying the view.  That's me in the bottom left corner.

From the Grandstand, you get a small glimpse of how vast the playa is.

Now, on to the reason we came out here, the moving rocks.  There are rocks that slide and slither their way across the playa.  We know they move because of the trail that is left.  How exactly they move is still unclear.  The theories range from wind pushing the rocks over slick ran-wet or frozen mud to aliens to the dolphins that live in the aquifer under Death Valley.  Regardless, I found them absolutely fascinating.

 

I tried to get the snaking curvature of the path this rock took.

These guys are solid and heavy!

My water bottle next to a rock for some perspective on how big some of these rocks are.

There are some paths that have no rocks.  The rocks move, they don't walk off unless people take them.  Unfortunately, that happens.  I'm pretending to be a rock in the picture below.

Another picture showing the vastness of the playa, and the size of the rocks that are traveling across it.  That's a rock just to my right.

The park is covered by abandoned mines.  We stopped at the Ubehebe Lead Mine that was last in operation during WW1.

 

This poor truck has been waiting a long time for a tow...

Me and Paul at the mine entrance.

Sunset in the desert.

I do feel I need to say there was some stress related to this trip.  However, it was an almost magical experience to visit the Racetrack and see the moving rocks.

Camping, Hiking, TREES!

I feel the need to explain how I got a four day weekend.  If only the weekend activities interest you, skip the next paragraph and start where you see the*. 

I work nine hour days.  This means every other week I have a three day weekend.  The government counts pay periods in two week increments.  During training we had 'normal' weekends, Sat/Sun.  At the end of the second week of training, we had our third day, Fri, off as well.  Since Sunday was the start of the new pay period, we switched to our actual lieu days for the rest of the season then.  Now, not everyone got three days since the new pay period started on Sun and some people work Sun; yet they still got two days.  Since my days off will be Sun/Mon and the second Tues of the pay period, I got a four day weekend, Fri-Mon.

*With the prospect of a four day weekend and wanting to get up to the tallest point in the park before it snowed, five of us decided to camp near the trailhead and get an early start Saturday morning.

We left the dorms Friday afternoon for the Wild Rose campground.  It was up Emigrant Canyon and was quite lovely.  Still, no trees.  Notice the blue pack with the yellow flower.  Kate's most recent procurement and loving it!

We stopped and wandered around the charcoal kilns for a bit in the morning.  I was more interested in the pinion/juniper forest we were in.  Trees!  Oh, how I've missed you!

Having government keys and a friend with a vehicle that could handle the road, we bypassed the trailhead and parked up the access road for one of the park repeaters and cut off about four-five miles from the 14 mile round trip hike.  Having hiked almost three days straight, my legs were ok with this.

Jeanette, who has the same pack I do, and the rest of our group strung out along the trail.

Telescope peak: 11,049ft and our goal. I think it's quite lovely, for a peak.

My goal was to get to the bristlecones.  I was in desperate need of some trees and to see these wonderful pines I'm deeply attached to was heavenly.  I could have sat in the grove and not made it to the peak and been completely content with my hike.  Hooray for the b-cones!

I did make it to the top and we had lunch and enjoyed the view.  From Telescope, we could look west and see Mt. Whitney (it's there amid the dust), the highest point in the lower 48.

We could also look east into Badwater Basin and see the lowest point in the US.  Kind of cool. 

My usual contemplating pose, this time it's the Panamint Range.

Our group at the top: Me, Lauren C., Paul S., Jeanette M., and Drew K.

It was a wonderful, wonderful trip.  It was originally my idea, but it was those I went with who made it possible.  Thanks!

And for those interested in my NaNoWriMo progress, I'm moving write along with my spy novel (pun intended).  As of yesterday the 12^th, I'm at 23,996 words.

Hottest, Driest, Lowest

Greetings from Death Valley National Park!  After a quick visit to Houston and some horseback riding with friends in Nevada, I rolled into the park on the 20^th.  I found the visitor center where a welcome packet was waiting for me, along with directions and keys to my new house.  I found the house, which is a dorm, and unloaded and unpacked in some pretty surprising heat.  The last two weeks I've been in  training.

I do not have internet at the dorms, nor do I have cell service.  A storm took out the my provider's tower a couple weeks ago.  Not having service in Nevada the past two summers, I'm ok with that.  internet, and not getting it, this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me.  Internet is mostly how I keep up with friends and the only way I apply for jobs.

The past two weeks I've been in training.  Up and back to the Castle on the commuter van makes for long days.  We've been able to get out and explore and have had some trips to old mining sights and hikes through canyons.  A group of us are going camping tonight, then hiking the highest peak in the park tomorrow.  I'll try to stay as current as possible with my posts, updates, and pictures.

 

Here's a quick glance at the last two weeks. Enjoy! You'll notice no pictures of Scotty's Castle, where I'll be working. I've decided to dedicate an entire post to the Castle some point soon.

 

 Welcome to the park!

Yup, I work for this company!

Lowest: 282 feet below sea level.  There is a sign on the mountains behind me that tells you where sea level is.

 Salt!

Some of the folks I'll be working with at the Castle this winter: Me, Walter, Eric, Alex, Lacey, Keegan, Jeanette, and Paul (seated).

 

Wandering around one of many abandoned mine sites in the park.  The park is 3.5 million acres.  That's a lot of places to explore.

Messing around with the winch that was used to send buckets of gold down, and empty buckets back up the mountain.  Don't worry, we had to hike it up and it was intense.  No trees, no shade, no cover, and steep. 

 Chris demonstrating his balance and yoga skills.

 Chris, Carrie, and I: more goofing off.

Starting our hike up the canyon.

 Layers.  If you're a geologist, this is definitely a place to explore.

 More views of the canyon.

Quick trip up to Natural Bridge.

I'm a Mudder!

What a whirlwind of a weekend.  I took a half day Thursday, had my car loaded and waiting for me in the visitor center parking lot, and I was off to Seattle to participate in my first Tough Mudder on Saturday the 29th.  If you are unaware of such an event, the website says it's probably the toughest event on the planet. 

I met up with my friend Robert, who talked me into this in the first place.  He ended up not being able to compete, but I was all systems go, if very nervous.  We started with a team of eight, then ended up with half going at 9:40, and half (me included) at 10.

Just to get to the starting line we had a wall to climb over.  I thought as I swung my leg over, I've got this.

Ashlie, Chad, Lindsey, and a very, very nervous Kate in the staging area before the start.

We were off, I completed the first obstacle without difficulty, and went on to what the Mudders call the "Arctic Enema".  Yes, those are pools of water, and yes that's a lot of ice they are putting in them, and yes, I had to swim in that ridiculously cold water...

...and I almost didn't make it.  I jumped in to about mid-chest deep water and the cold was an immediate and indescribable shock to my system.  There was a board running across the pool, cutting it in half, which meant I had to put my head under the water to get to the other side and the exit of the pool.  With my rapid breathing and heart beat because of the cold, I couldn't hold my breath long.  I did my best, and down I went and it was painful.

Well, that board went a lot lower than I thought and I didn't make it on my first try and had to come up for air.  The last thing I wanted was to go down again, but I did, used the base of that board, way, way down there, to leverage myself under, and came up on the other side through a good foot and a half of ice.  It literally took all my strength to pull myself out of the water.  This picture below doesn't show how badly I'm shaking or how weak that cold water left me.

After running for a couple minutes, I felt much better.  There were more walls to climb over, which got taller and taller and I was thankful for strong men who sat on the top and helped haul me over.  There were walls of slick mud to go up and down and many hands proffered by others to help pull and boost.  The spirit of camaraderie during this time was amazing.  Perfect strangers, working together to accomplish tasks, with the goal of helping people and not racing for the next obstacle.  The spirit of teamwork was awesome and I enjoyed doing my part to help others as well.

Almost to the end, a very dirty Kate.

One of many mud hills to climb.

There were monkey bars and there were rings.  Below these obstacles, was very chilly water.  This was very close to the end.  Prior to this, we had to carry large logs.  After that obstacle, my arms were pretty much done for and I swung out on this ring and splashed right into the water and swam the rest of the way.

Me and Ashlie, pausing for a picture.  Remember how bright her tank was when we started?  How white the writing on my shirt was?

Crawling under barbed wire. There were a lot more obstacles but I don't have pictures of all of them, and I don't want to bore you with details of the whole event.

I attempted all obstacles and completed all but one.  The second to last was "Everest".  It is basically a really big quarter pipe that's been greased down.  You run as fast as you can up this slope and hopefully grab the hands of the guys waiting to haul people up.  First attempt I didn't make it and slide down the pipe and a good way across the grass.  Not pleasant.  I tried again, you can see the determination and focus in my face.  I missed again and had absolutely nothing left in me energy wise and didn't complete the obstacle.  I'm ok with that decision and even a few days later have no regrets.

We ran as a team through the electro-shock therapy, which was unpleasant but not as bad as I thought it was going to be, and crossed the finished and received the official Tough Mudder orange sweat band.

Post race, Robert getting as close to my dirty self as he dared.

Me and Ashlie, my partner through the whole thing, bless her heart!  Done, tired, dirty, starving, but still smiling!

They had showers set up where folks could rinse off. I'd brought clothes, but when I felt how cool/cold the water was, I said I'm no longer competing, ain't happening. They also had a large pile of dirty, nasty shoes. I bought a cheap $10 pair of sneakers for the event and they definitely got donated. They'll be washed and sent to barefoot people somewhere in the world. I feel good about that.

I made my way south to Portland where an old roommate from USU days was kind enough to let me clean off in her house.  She even did a load of my muddy laundry.  What a friend!  I was able to meet her seven month old baby, Faye.  She's a very happy, very smiley little girl and I would have held her more if my arms weren't so sore.

I was also able to stop in Corvallis to see Greg and Jennie.  It was wonderful to see them and spend time with them, however short it was.  Ah, Jennie, how I miss you!

I made it to Burns, OR Sunday evening, then drove the rest of the way home on Monday.  Part of my trip took me on I-80 in Nevada.  I passed through Battle Mountain, NV, and had to stop and get a picture.  Probably the most crude picture I've ever posted on my blog.  My apologies to those I offend and to those who don't get it.

It was a wonderful weekend and I definitely will be doing another Tough Mudder.  It was AWESOME! 

(A big, big thanks to Jessica P. who gave me tips, clothing suggestions, and overall encouragement as the time grew nearer and my fear of dying increased.)