We went into this weekend knowing that come hell or high water, we were going to make it a good one. And we accomplished that and then some.

Right around noon on Saturday the plan became to go camping and fishing on Saturday night. Melissa, Alex and I headed out to Beaver Creek Reservoir aroud 2:30 to stake out a campsite and get in some early evening fishing, and were met by Rebecca and James a few hours later who brought the cooler of beverages.

Unlike Melissa and I’s first two fishing trips of the summer, we didn’t catch a thing - and I don’t think we had so much as a bite in about 2.5-3 hours of casting and reeling in - though some people around us were having great luck and there were tons of fishing jumping in the water. But all was good as we headed back to the campsite and shared some beverages while eating grilled corn on the cob, brats and macaroni salad and generally living the good life.

More beverages and Catch Phrase ensued as the stars came up, and eventually the s’mores came out in full force, to the point that we (minus James) almost made ourselves sick while demolishing seven Hershey’s bars between four of us (along with countless ‘mallows and an entire sleeve of graham crackers). Melissa, Alex and I then capped off the night with a little midnight fishing where we were once again stone-walled before retreating to the tent.

Breakfast consisted of eggs and turkey sausages (as well as some BBQ chips), before packing up and heading out. However, Melissa and I (with Alex by our side since her day license for fishing had expired) couldn’t resist taking one last crack at the fishing hole. Unfortunatley, we came out empty-handed despite Melissa’s stroke of brilliance in hooking the last of the breakfast sausages to hooks - perhaps trout prefer bacon?

So off we went, not to Alamosa, but rather to South Fork (conveniently only about 6 miles from our campgrounds) for the 2011 Logger Days Festival. Simply put, if the ESPN’s Great Outdoor Games are the major leagues of lumberjack sports, then Logger Days are like the minor leagues - but that doesn’t mean they are any less awesome. Plus, there’s a fair going on at the same time. So before the real competition started, we grabbed some mugs of old timey soda at the Wild West Soda wagon (sarsparilla is awesome, plus there black cherry and cream sodas were pretty awesome as well) and did some great people watching.

Then the awesomeness started. We got to watch the cross buck (two person saw), single buck, overhead chop, small/medium/hot saw competitions, and then the accuracy fall competition (trying to drop a 20-plus foot pole onto a soda can).

But it was in between the main events that I got to realize a childhood dream of mine during the volunteer audience relay competition. While I would have preferred to do something like the overhead chop or run a chainsaw, those are probably a bit too dangerous for volunteers from the audience and weren’t a part of the relay - DANG! So, I happily settled to be a member of my team’s cross-buck, which served as the final leg of the relay (following the axe throw and the choker wrap).

Scott (from Glenwood Springs who I teamed up with on our relay team for the saw) and I got a quick lesson in the intricacies of the 2-man saw before we (Team #2) got going:
1. Always PULL, never PUSH
2. Keep the saw level
3. Maintain a wide, balanced stance - and don’t move the feet once you begin sawing
4. Start slow

The cross-buck saw. Not me in action here, but a good representation of what it looks like.

Seemed easy enough. Our axe thrower had a little trouble sticking the projectile into the target, but Alex was quick on the choker wrap and before we knew it, we began sawing. It seemed that Scott and I got into a fast groove quicker than any of the other groups and seemed to be making great time. However, we failed to keep the saw level and got ourselves snagged pretty bad a little over halfway through the log. So bad, in fact, that we had to lift the saw out of the log and reposition. Clearly, it killed our time. Team #2 ended up finishing fourth out of four teams (but still just one spot away from the podium - so that’s pretty good right?), but it was still pretty awesome to feel the flannel and plaid coursing through my veins for a few moments while working a big-ass saw.

Following the competition - and a really big turkey leg for lunch - we headed back to Alamosa still with one more awesome event before the weekend was over: the final installment of the Harry Potter movies.

Good flick, good weekend, but not good that it had to end and that I’ve got to be at work today (sigh).

But, on the bright side, I will be seeing if my leg is ready for running today. The MRI and X-Ray results were extremely perplexing. It seems that there is no damage (tearing or degeneration) of the achilles - which is good news. However, that means there was no visible evidence as to why I should be experiencing pain primarily on the tendon. So, the doc’s feeling is that it could be some ankle bursitis (retrocalcaneal bursitis). And since there is nothing visibly wrong with the tendon itself, he recommended we try a cortisone shot into the bursa sac located between the heel bone and tendon on the right foot. We did this last Tuesday, and while there’s still some general tightness and some sore areas around the ankle, I haven’t been feeling much (if any) pressure being put on the achilles itself. So, the doc said to go ahead and try out running today, and we’ll see what happens. Here’s hoping for some good things.