Back on track

The holidays are over and now it is time to get back to work. First and foremost I had a great time visiting friends and family over Christmas. Our flights were crazy, and we just snuck through the bad weather, so I think we were meant to visit. I am afraid that I really over-ate, and I am feeling it on my runs. All I got for Christmas is 5 extra pounds of the good stuff (fat). I am going to have to work extra hard to get back in shape. The trails are definately water logged. There is a good 10 cm of water on a good portion of my run. It makes it interesting though. The snow and wind really did a number on the trees as well. There are many logs laying over my routes, but I just treat them like hurdles, I actually prefer the dead-fall. So I have high hopes for my next four months of training. If I can stay healthy, I hope to start getting into the 30-50 km range for my long runs by the end of April.

I have had a tradition of snow shoeing New Year's Day for almost five years now, and I was able to do it again this year. Me and a friend drove up-island near Port Renfrew to try and shoe the San Juan Ridge. It was a great time. It happens to be the first time I ever snow shoed in rain. There was a good 30 cm of snow on the ground, but it was just soaking us with rain. As we climbed elevation, the temps dropped and it turned to snow. It is really interesting seeing a rainforest covered in snow. Seeing the contrast between the greens of the needles, moss and the stark snow is really awesome. The snow deepened with every 100 metres until it was easily 100 cm +. We didn't make our goal of intercepting the ridge, but there wasn't any where to park nearer to our objective. I look forward to going back in the summer and running a good portion of the 37 Km trail.Just a shot of me towards the end of our snow shoe tour.My friend Nels demonstrating one of the disadvantages of being over 6 feet tall. Moss and snow is a pretty sweet contrast.

This is just a shot of the trail we were hiking. It is an awesome spot and I can't wait to return.

I have also started up with my studies. I have the task of creating an operations manual for each piece of equipment in the experimental petrology lab. It will be challenging but Exciting to make the project my own. It would also be cool to have the knowledge to build my own experimental high temperature igneous petrology lab if the opportunity arrises in the future. I also recieved the thin sections I had made of the rocks that were collected from Mount Shasta. Thin sections are ultra thin slabs of rock (thinner than paper) adheared to a glass slide. The sections allow you to use the optical properties of minerals in polarized light to make important observations. I have included a photo or two I took under the microscope while first looking at the rocks. They kind of look like a kaleidascope. It will be a lot of fun to start analyzing them under the Laser Ablation Induced Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (LA ICPMS). I am also anxious to start melting some rocks and doping my samples with ore elements, to see how the metals behave in various temperature, pressure, and oxygen fugacity conditions. This semester will be pretty intense, and I have a huge learning curve to overcome but I love a good challenge and I look forward to each task. I will also be teaching an Earth systems lab section so that will be fun as well. I love being busy and having tons of items to accomplish each day. I am also preparing to look for huge ore deposits (Elephants) this summer. I have allready targeted several areas around the world. I have some exciting opportunities and partnerships set up and I am really anxious to start my hunt for these giant ore deposits.

This is a 40 X zoom of an andesite sample from mount Shasta under plane polarized light and the same slide viewed under cross polarized light below.These two slides are a different power and sample.