Man, it's hard to explain how much I love coming to the Swannanoa Gathering every year! For a full week, I get to hang out with people who love music as much as I do, with dozens of possible playing partners and harmony singers lurking behind every corner of the campus. We take classes during the day, four of them each day, and get to immerse ourselves in some sort of acoustic guitar (or other instruments, as you shall see) classes for a full week. You take your meals on campus at a pretty standard college cafeteria, and at night, you have a variety of concert events and open mics to sample. Plus, you can stay up as late as you can stand it, to listen and play all sorts of music all night long. Awesome.
Jeff and I try to get in some trail running to start our days, though. Let the record show that most of our fellow campers aren't even awake by the time we get back to the dorm after a run. They look at us like we're aliens or something. Maybe we are? :-) The trail we like the most is called Suicide Ridge. Now, it has its ups and downs, but "suicide?," I'm not so sure it was aptly named. The toughest part of it, really, is the rather steep and nasty climb up a series of switchbacks to get up on the trail proper. Once up there, we make some number of loops of the Ridge trail itself, before calling it a morning, and heading back to campus.
Monday, we were out the door at 6:30am, and started out with a short loop around the campus. Then, across the nice bridge, over to the other side of campus, around the chapel, past the President's house (College President, not "W"), down a little road and some little houses, finally reaching the trailhead. I was interested to find out how the new Garmin would do in the deeply forested woods and the twisty trail. We've always just guessed in the past as to how far the run was. This year, I hoped to nail it down a little better.
We ran side by side to the trailhead, and then Jeff "let" me lead on the trail proper. I've always suspected it was so that my taller frame would take down all the spider webs on the trail. Jeff is a faster runner than me, so I'm sure I wasn't out in front to set a solid pace. :-) The campus is at about 3000 ft elevation, so I'll count these runs as "altitude training." Up the trail we went. I set a good pace, and this year, I didn't even walk on this part of the trail. Good for me. Maybe I am in better shape this year? Huffing and puffing a bit, we reached the top of the entry trail, and turned onto Suicide Ridge proper. Jeff dropped back once we got on the main loop up there, presumably so that in case I fell, he wouldn't crash, too.
It's really beautiful running on these trails, away from everything, with nothing but our footfalls, our breathing, and the sounds of the forest waking up to break the silence. I sailed along, having fun, as we carefully zipped down the twisty backside of the trail, then up and down, and finally up a steady uphill finish to the end of the first loop. Jeff showed no desire to lead the second loop, so after a quick conference to make sure we were doing another, I led out on lap two. More of the same, really, but when we got to the end of that loop, I needed a quick breather. Jeff was looking to put in more miles than I was on Monday, so he went on for lap three.
I took 30 seconds to catch my breath, and then, mainly because I felt a little silly about stopping, I ran "backwards," or clockwise, on the trail. I turned around after about a half mile, and finished up my third lap just ahead of Jeff as he came around. He continued for lap 4, and again, after a brief rest, I headed backwards on the trail for a hill repeat or two. After a couple of those, I waited on Jeff to finish his last lap.
Soon enough, he appeared through the darkness of the forest primeval (ooohh, poetic, huh?), and we headed down and back to campus. Retracing our steps, we finished by cruising up the hilly loop around our dorm. I scored about 5.2 miles for the day, at an average pace around 10:00/mile. Considering the terrain, that's probably about right. I was certainly working hard. Jeff had just over 6 miles for his day.
With the rest of campus stirring out of its stupor, we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. I hoped to get three runs in during camp, four at the max. So this was a good start.
After a huge breakfast (why is it that I only eat a substantial breakfast when I'm not at home?), we made our way to the morning classes. My first class was the one I was most excited about, Fingerstyle Ukulele. Yeah, I know. Isn't the uke that goofy little strummy instrument that Tiny Tim played on "Tiptoe Through the Tulips?" Yep. But, you haven't heard what Del Rey, our teacher, can do on this tiny package of musical fun. We had 10 people in our class, some of them armed with more than one uke. Serious ukesters, it seems. The first day of class was huge fun. I mean, how can you be in a bad mood when your day starts with the sound of a class full of ukulele players? Songwriting was the usual deal. Part group therapy, part literary soul-searching, and part "search your feelings." We didn't have anyone in the class with obvious psychotic tendencies, so I felt good about the week there. Believe me, this isn't always the case with a songwriting class. :-)
Lunchtime was spent with Jeff and some of our old friends at Swannanoa, and after a quick visit to check e-mail, Jeff and I practiced some songs together during the rest of the lunch break. My afternoon classes were Swing Guitar Improv and a Performance class. Swing guitar was fun, as usual. I just love playing those chords. The Performance class would spend the week talking about stage fright, repertoire, set lists, and we'd get to perform in front of our fellow classmates before the week was over. The teacher was a laid-back sort of guy, so I felt good about that class, too.
Dinner, and then it was time for the Guitar Week staff concert. Our teachers only got one song each to show us what they do in a full concert setting, but there was some spectacular playing on stage! The highlights were many, but my favorite moment was when my ukulele teacher, Del Rey, and her musical pal showed off their act. She was just shredding on the uke while Steve James, a fine blues guitarist and singer, pounded out the rhythm behind her. It was just great!
Anyway, we mostly hung out that night too, after the concert, had the usual beer or two (I stuck with Gaelic Ale on Monday), and again, checked back into the dorm around midnight. Amazing restraint, I'd say.
Tuesday morning, Jeff and I headed out again for Suicide Ridge. This time, we only did two loops of the Ridge each, and finished the whole run together. Jeff said that I was running plenty fast, so that was an encouraging thing to hear. We scored almost exactly 4 miles on Tuesday, just over 41 minutes. Our last mile was 8:45 pace, though, so you can see what the trail running portion must have been like. While out on our first loop, by the way, we passed Tom, a guy from Michigan, coming up the other way. We'd see him again later in the week...foreshadowing. :-)
Classes on Tuesday were about the same. I felt pretty frisky all day long, except for a short sinking spell after lunch settled in. I managed to snap out of my mini-slumber before it was a problem, though. Tuesday night didn't have a scheduled staff concert, so we had the evening to ourselves. The ukulele girls (my classmates) were jamming away that night, and it was funny to watch them draw fellow campers like moths to a flame. We did some singing that night and some playing, but again managed to get back to the dorm by 1:00 or so.
We took a scheduled day off of running on Wednesday, and interestingly enough, I felt more sluggish that day than the first two days. Could there be a link? The ukulele girls (I can't print the name that they gave themselves, but it was funny) were hurting in class on Wednesday. They all wore their shades, inside, for the whole class that day. Funny. Jeff and I performed for a class learning Orkney tuning, with an arrangement we did in that tuning for two guitars and two voices. That teacher, Steve Baughman, is a pal of ours by now, and he always invites us to sing for his class to show some of what you can do with that tuning. It's always a pleasure to be able to do that, to sort of be a Stunt Guitarist for a brief moment. (For you Guitarists, that's CGDGCD, tuning big string to little string). That night, we had the Folk Week (singer/songwriter) staff concert, and although it was pretty good, there weren't as many "Wow!" moments as in past years.
We turned in again before 1:00, deciding to intentionally avoid the manic late-night jam-a-thon that was building before our ears.
So, midway through Swannanoa 2006, my fingers didn't hurt, I hadn't lost my voice yet, and I wasn't a walking musical zombie. Was this a Good Thing, or a sign that I'm becoming a fuddy-duddy? The jury was still out on these questions... :-)
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