Birds and Other Matters

I ran and hiked around Chuckanut this morning, for about three hours. I took the drive to the trailhead at Larrabee Park slow, stopping a couple times on Chuckanut Drive to check out the swans, snow geese, and storks, seen above. I have no idea whether these birds are all the same, or technically different, but they are big, they are white, they are loud, and they have long necks. They are also all over the Skagit this time of year. Later, they head up to Alaska, I think. Eagles are supposed to be here too right now—this is the Bald Eagle Festival weekend—but they avoided me this morning. I might go find them tomorrow.
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So, for my “run”---(I’m taking some license in calling it that)---for my run, I left from Larrabee Park and went up by Fragrance Lake, then up Chinscraper, and then ran the full C-nut Ridge to Dan’s Traverse. Turned it around from there, did some backtracking to Cleator Road, and then ran down and around Fragrance again. I have not been doing hills since the cold spell, and I really felt it going up—I was absolutely awful early on, mostly hiking and huffing. It was cold, really cold, 25 degrees cold. That’s my excuse. It was cold and my blood needed to warm up. Plus I had a chonga bagel beforehand.
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Once on top, I did sort of better though, and it’s all because I plugged into music. I’ve gotten away from music in my running—big mistake. The first song was Abba’s SOS. Abba is the BEST palindrome group of all time, and this is the greatest palindrome double down ever. (Sorry Aha--it's just true.) The second song then was Pearl Jam’s Not For You, and I like the guitar on it. The third song was Kenny Chesney’s Don’t Blink, which is a pop country song about not blinking or your life will go by before you know it. Lots of wisdom in country songs. Admittedly, minds may differ on the quality of these songs, but the minds that differ are wrong—these are good songs. So, clear skies, long views, and good tunes. I needed that. My new training strategy is to listen to more music when I run.
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Parking lot at the top of Chinscraper/Cleator

Partially frozen Fragrance Lake

Clear skies, looking out towards Orcas and Lummi Islands

Mount Baker, Pacific Rim of Fire