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12.21.06 Solstice...Sunrise 7:55, Sunset 4:20=8:25 hours of daylight. The cool rain falling made it seem like it was dark at about 3:30. Tomorrow the days start to get longer. Took a run down through interlaken this afternoon and a lot of trees are down from last weeks windstorm on the trails. PS--the camera was at the bottom of my ski bag, so it was lost for the weekend, but not forever. 12.20.06 Gas, Cash & Skiing... The morning after a massive windstorm/winterstorm hit Seattle we fled east & north over a few passes. Unknown to us at the time we left Friday morning was the extent of the power outages east of Seattle. To make a very long story short, after hitting Snoqualmie pass we realized there was no gas to be had for a stretch of 150 miles. Running low and not wanting to be stuck we drove back to Seattle for gas. 3 1/2 hours after leaving home we were back at Snoqualmie pass pushing on through slick roads and snow. Made it out to the Methow, where the power was also out, running low on cash, the manager at the grocery store gave us a $100 since the cash machine didn't work (phone lines were out) which allowed us to grab some final groceries before heading to Lost River. Finally about 8 hours after we started, and having to walk the last mile through 2+ feet of dry fluffy snow to the cabin (wasn't plowed yet) we arrived for "vacation". Temps were in the low teens during the day and near 0 at night, cold for us maritime folks. I only need blue wax about once every three years. A few highlights were a Rogue Shakespeare Stout in front of the fireplace after a nice ski under beautiful sunny skies and crisp 12 degree temps. A bowl of soup at Cinnamon Twisp after a hard, hilly ski on bitterbrush and barnsley loops and before a 2 hour snowshoe up pipestone canyon. All 10 of us huddled in front of the fireplace with no lights, heat, stove etc for two nights, telling stories. Skiing down from Sun Mtn to town after putting in a few hours. Helping Summer volunteer at the Methow Conservancy. No pics since I seem to have lost my camera, (after breaking the lcd 2 weeks ago). Total of 9 hours skating, 2 hours snowshoeing for the four days. A nice base builder... 12.14.06 Everyone knows its windy...60-70mph gust forecast for Seattle tonight,plus 2-3 FEET of snow in the Cascades. Could make for an epic trip over to the Methow Valley for 5 days of nordic skiing. Might be a little too unstable to go BC skiing, but if Loup Loup opens we'll try to sneak in a day on the tele skis. Can't wait to get out of town and play in the snow for awhile. Hopefully the passes will be open in the morning and we can get out of town in time to make some tracks in the afternoon. 12.09.06 Ski Report...29 degrees, 39" base and heavy snow falling during the 2+ hours we skated. Tried to hook up with the crystal springs sno-park trails about 13k from the trailhead, but they didn't seem to be groomed (and we had to hop over a creek) so we stuck to the JWT. Tracks were soft, bumpy and cut-up.... on the way back it was the same except plowing through 2" of fresh snow. Was good skiing though, long and steady with only a couple two minute stops during the 2:15 skate session. Next week we'll be skiing in the Methow, with 180k's of groomed trails at our disposal, a decent little ski hill and plenty of bc skiing since we'll have 5 days in the valley. 12.05.06 Mr. Inconsistent... I've never claimed my tele skiing was any good, and SB supplied me with a few photos from last weeks Crystal session to illustrate my point. Sometimes I get it going and feel ok, other turns I flail and stack.... A pic is worth a 1000 words, so enjoy the 2000 words below. (sbentsen photos)
Not so bad... Crystal Mtn 11.24.06
crash and flail with an eye on the camera....(note good ski separation) Good thing I bought a helmet this year. 12.02.06 skate session...25 degrees, sunny skies, corduroy grooming (well sort of) A great first day out on the skate skis today with RW and Summer. We put in a bit over two hours of flat, slow skating, working on nice solid technique. Pleasantly worn out by the time we got back to the trailhead
Summer heading towards Stampede Pass, 12.02.06 12.01.06 running home...Nice run home after work today, easy way to sneak in a little exercise. Was a chilly 35 degrees (with no jacket) as I ran under a bright moon. Dark on the trails through interlaken, but it smelled great, piney and damp. A nice 40 minutes up the hill and across the top. Scraping a few pair of skis to get ready for the first day on the xc gear up at Hyak tomorrow morning. Should be great skiing, sunny and temps in the 20's. Work on some easy no-poles skating, and try to find the balance/rhythm. Nice that I got my first issue of the Master Skier last night in the mail.... 11.29.06 Slip-sliding away II...The snow is pretty much gone, but some good sections of glare ice remain (not to mention now we're getting rain on ice) Tried to cut up a side street, testing my ability to smooooooothly apply power on the orange crosser. Got some wheel spin on the climb and lost the front end, spinning around a 180 degrees. Managed to unclip but it was too slick to stop, so I just slid on two feet, dragging the bike til' I could get some controly. Nice and icy. The rest of the ride was pretty straight forward, managed to keep my ass off the tarmac, have some fun and make it home, that qualifies as a nice ride. Nordic center and sno-parks are firing up the groomers this week and will be open by the weekend, so time to get the skis scraped and brushed for the opening weekend of the nordic season. 11.28.06 Slip-sliding away...Full on off-camber style commute today. 22 degrees and icy after last nights inch of slushy, wet snow. Riding the cx bike north across the hill was super-sketchy, using all the slow-speed techy singletrack moves to to keep upright on the road. Was fearing the drop down through interlaken as it's usually the worst road for ice on the commute, but it was in good shape. U-bridge was treacherous, could barely keep in the pedals with all of the icy frozen ruts and black ice. Finally dropped down and around and slid up to the bagel shop for coffee and bagel. Best commute of the winter so far... The cold stings though, I was wearing a puffy jacket, knickers with wool 3/4 long johns and windstopper nordic gloves and was just about right... not sweating, but not too cold. Mt. Baker ski report is reporting over 144 inches (thats not a typo) in the last week and they are requiring transceiver, probe, shovel in bounds on chair 6! Crazy shite. 11.26.06 Wrapping up the long weekend... Super sore from tele skiing on Friday, I guess my glutes weren't quite up the to challenge. Got out for nice run with some stairs thrown in under snow! and rain this afternoon. 34 and raining is pretty damn high on the misery index. But, all the Seattle Marathon runners we saw were suffering for a lot longer than the hour we ran, so I'm not going to bitch. Tomorrow, with any luck, I'll be riding to work in the snow, snagging some first tracks on the single down Interlaken. Of course it never snows in Seattle when they say it's gonna, so I won't plan for it til' tomorrow. 11.24.06 Day #1...Crystal Mtn is reporting 59" of snow in the last 4 days and I think they may be correct in saying that. Fanstastic day with thigh deep shots of pretty sweet snow lingering in the trees. Stephen,Summer, Mary and I soaked it up for 4 hours of prime turns (and plenty of crashes) My tele-skiing needs some help, (I'll post Stephen's pic of me doing the splits) but I had fun and it was great to be in the mountains,flailing in the deep pow. A perfect way to work off the caloric excesses of turkey day. Totally worked tonight, sitting on the couch, working on a Jolly Roger seasonal brew. We couldn't have asked for a better day to start off the season. 11.23.06 Happy Thanksgiving... Ahh, 4 days off. Plans are to go for a run today and then spend some time pulling together the tele gear before dinner with family and desert with friends. Up early tomorrow and off to Crystal Mtn for a day of skiing off todays indulgences. Should be prime condtions as its been snowing hard in the mountains all week. 11.21.06 gnats and riding...Had a crosstown appt yesterday, felt so good to be outside in the sun (and later rain) on the bike after being cooped up sick all weekend. Pretty nice to riding during the day as well, without needing lights. Got soaked on the way back though, the sun disappeared and cold, cold rain replaced it. Put a new tire on the cx bike that didn't quite clear the fender....a gnat like buzzing was making me crazy. 11.20.06 sick... all weekend spent mostly indoors, fighting off a cold with a nasty sinus headache. I hate being sick, pisses me off. A crew did go down to Tacoma to catch (watch) the USGP cx race... some good riding on the course with a killer run up and tacky, twisty turns on an otherwise fast course. Too bad Tim didn't make it out, it would've been a good weekend of racing. Now the only hope is to get healthy for the long weekend coming up. Did manage to see Borat as well. Funny but not quite up to all the hype in my opinion.... 11.16.06 full circle...I saw a bike locked up outside the grocery store last night, with a deriviative of a classic sticker, it said, "one less fixed gear". It does seem that fixies are everywhere in town... it made me laugh. 11.10.06 step into the liquid...Cold and rainy all day, we snuck out for a run through the park, trees dripping, slicks leaves etc. Strangely, it felt good to get wet and cold, a conection to the outdoors. At least this storm cycle is cold enough to bring snow to the mountains, Crystal is threatening to open on Wednesday. 11.08.06 king of the mtn...10 minutes before riding home, the skies open up and a cold rain begins to fall. I roll down over the bridge and through the neighborhoods, enjoying the chilly ride and I'm catching up to a guy right before turning on to the steep pitch that bypasses interlaken. He keeps looking back as I'm reeling him in, minding my own business. I close to about ten feet and he pops out of the saddle and throws down a hard attack, puncuated by looking back 3 or 4 times. What the hell? We're commuting...for a moment I wanted to counter, but just laughed and cruised up the hill and across the false flats, letting him wonder if I was gaining. 11.07.06 VOTE!! Study the issues, read the initiatives carefully and get out and vote. Take the time to make a difference. Apathy isn't a choice. Plenty of sites to help you out with endorsements and info. League of Conservation Voters outline issues and candidates from an environmental viewpoint. Seattle is about to float away, we're getting pounded by rain. Got lucky last night and was able to ride home in the only break of the day. This morning it was coming down hard, wet & warm. Leaves clogging the drains, 60+ degrees and pouring. (without even a chance of snow in the hills) The new fenders worked well and I was pretty dry beneath the battle gear by the time I coasted into work. 11.03.06....Snow forecast for the cascades this weekend, hopefully the base will start to build for the nordic season. I'm ready to get out onto the skis. Slippery ride down the hill today, rain-soaked leaves littering the hairpins on interlaken. Got a little squirrely but made it to the bagel shop without any problems. Supposed to rain all damn weekend. 10.30.06 flat....Beautiful, cold sunny morning, rolled out on the bike and my rear tire was flat... damn. 75 strokes with the mini-pump and down the hill I went fingers crossed. I'm sure it will need another 75 to get my ass' up the hill tonight, but I'm too lazy to fix it right before riding home in the dark. BTW: Kentley Scarponi is talking trash on his new blog....tormentthereaper I have no idea what that title means or what sort of rants he'll spew, but it should be entertaining once he hits his stride... 10.29.06 Schnee....Winter in the mountains today, 34 degrees at the trailhead and in the mid 20's with 30 mph winds in the high country. I froze my ass off but had a great time, running til' the snow got deep and then walking out to ridge lake (and gravel lake which I couldn't see). No views, unless swirling snow, wind and fog count.
Southbound on the PCT, 10.29.06
The Kendall Catwalk--looking a little more sketchy that it really was (especially since it was out of the winds) 10.28.06 larches.... Sweet article in the NYT yesterday about the larches of WA pass and the surrounding area. Every fall I can't get enough of the golden larches. The article is High Mountain Hiking with a Golden Reward (log in might be required). Pulling together stuff for a long hike on the PCT tomorrow (if it isn't snowing). Hoping to put in 16 or so miles to Alaska mtn. A mix of hiking and trail running if the legs and weather are willing. Will adjust plans depending on the morning weather. 10.22.06 walking & running.... Perfect fall hike up in the Teanaway this afternoon, we missed the larches but got plenty of fall color on the hike up Iron Peak. Gorgeous views of the enchantments, mt. stuart,rainier,adams and a host of others. Got a chance to also scope a few mtb rides in the area from the summit. It was chilly up there, feels like winter is just around the corner. A good walk since the legs were worn down from an 1:30 trail run at cougar mtn on saturday. Tonight, posting a few pics and sipping on a black butte porter feels pretty good.
Mary, Stephen, Summer and Marina-summit of Iron Peak 10.22.06
Marina-summit shot 10.20.06 3D....Met up with gang to see Marlin & Christine's new slideshow of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. They are friends of ours who spent 3 months riding through central asia last year and shooting 3d photos with a 50 year old stereoscopic camera. Great images of huge mountains and desolate valleys along with lots of culture. (then went to Cameroon for a few more months of touring) Definately put the stoke into wanting to take a big trip.
10.16.06 ss cx....is back on the road for winter commutes. After being without a wheel for a few weeks, finally got the singlespeed cx bike made whole again. It's a damn fun bike to roll down the hill, through the park and over the bridge to work. Need to tweak the inadequate fender set up, but after that I'll be ready for the rains that have returned. 10.08.06 two pics....from last weekends trip to the methow. Jeff C rails the final corner on the sagebrush sidehill section and the gang descends from the highpoint above maple pass on a gorgeous fall day.
JC rolling the kona single 09.30.06
the gang going down maple pass, whistler mountain and cutthroat peak in the background 10.02.06 methow bliss....I live in (and love) Seattle, but something about the Methow valley just makes me feel like it's my home. Not sure if it's cuz' I grew up in Colorado and the pine forests, aspens and crisp fall days remind me of the carefree days of youth or what.... No matter every time I roll over WA pass or turn up onto hwy 153 I feel like I'm back home. So, thursday night we loaded up the bikes and rolled into the starry night. Slept under the stars at Klipchuck with cool fall breezes rustling the dry leaves all night... Summer and I had a somewhat aborted ride on friday that left me annoyed and frustrated, but Summer was cool with the 1:30 we got in and RW showed up with a cold beer to help calm my jangled nerves. A cracked valve hole led to an ongoing comedy of errors (mostly pilot error) It just so happened that I forgot a spare tube after tearing the valve and flatting just after we topped out of the climb. A not so quick fix got me about 5 minutes before blowing out of the cracked valve hole again. To make a long story short I got another tube and flatted for the third time in 15 minutes and called it a day. Saturday we rolled up to an old favorite, discovered the rumored singletrack connector over the top and it was good, very good. Sidehill singletrack with great views out over the valley. It concluded with a long sagebrush lined ridge run that dumped you out at the best section of trail on the standard loop. Definately elevates the ride to the next level. So good Roger and I stayed for another lap... Sunday a incredible hike through larches up and over heather and maple pass in the North Cascades. Hopefully I'll have a few pics up soon. 09.28.06 Sketchy commute this morning.... Beautiful morning, cool breeze, sun rising over the Cascades. Must've been so nice that all drivers forgot to pay attention. Rolling north, a jetta tries to beat me to the traffic circle, only yielding at the last minute when it became apparent that he would hit me if he kept gunning for that (my) spot...asshole. I moved on, intent on enjoying the ride, cruising into the drop down interlaken I was looking forward to my favorite left hander followed by a fast sweeping right hander....A few cars coming up the hill so I made sure to keep tight on the inside... right at the apex the second car is trying to pass a cyclist also going up. So at 30 mph I've got the back wheel locked up and am staring down a car right in my lane, a few curses, and tightening down my turn gets me out unscathed but pissed... Big flush of adrenalin through the legs as I pedal the last couple miles into the office. Be safe out there!! Rolling north and east tonight through the north cascades to the Methow. 3-days of mtb under golden larches, aspens and sage. Might be warm enough to even sneak in a last swim... can't wait. 09.25.06.... Cramming the last bits of summer before work/school gets underway this week. Got out thursday for a nice fall trail run up hugo peak at Pack Forest, Summer and I took a hike to headlee pass/elan lake on on saturday. (damn that climb to the pass really tears up the calves. Tonight a nice ride with TJ after work in glorious sunshine. Something about sneaking home right as it gets dark makes you feel you've been squeezing all that you could out of the day.
Summer crossing the talus beyond headlee pass on the way to lake elan 09.23.06 09.20.06 Rally Ho: Wednesday Night Mercer Club.... Twas' rainy, cold and breezy when I left work. Spent the first few miles convincing myself to enjoy the weather and go around MI on the way home...many reasons besides the weather not to do it, (no food, a few things needed gettin' done etc.) but I managed to show some spunk and rolled the island in reverse. The floating bridge was dismal, but the island wasn't too bad, a little chilly. The miles floated by and soup for dinner was a fine compliment to the blustery weather. Amazing how different the roads seemed when going in the opposite direction. Couldn't figure out exactly where I was for about the 1/2 the ride. 09.19.06 Tuesday Night Mercer Club....The last two tuesdays have seen the group ride shrink to...one. It's been a crazy week at work though, so it was a nice decompression to get after it on the bike. Legs felt a little heavy and stale, but who cares. Was a great night, after a morning of heavy rains the skies cleared up and the roads dried out in time for the afterwork spin. 09.18.06 Stale blog.... Been a few days since I've stopped by to update the slightly moldy javasport. Still drying out from the first real rainy commute in a long, long time. Sloppy, soaking, stinky shoes, knickers heavy and wet, rain jacket on, hat under the helmet etc. Couldn't find the clip on fender for my roadie, so that sucked a bit. Wet, slippery and messy, I better get used to it. 09.12.06 worked....squeezing in the last bits of afterwork fun (without headlights) these last few days. Met JW for a good trail run on cougar mtn in the setting sun on monday night. Running trails I had never seen, as the sun set and my stomach complained. Was totally beat down by the end.... Met RW last night for a ride, but he got called away as soon as he arrived and I was left to my own devices. Feeling tired, I contemplated a right turn--which leads a few miles up the hill and home. Or I could rally and take the left around the NE of the lake. Went left and got in a nice 2:30 of riding on a sunny, breezy night. Came back across the bridge into Seattle as the sun was dipping below the horizon. Time to dig out the lights. BTW, was totally beat down by the end.... a theme? This morning it's gray, drizzly and quiet. Time for a second cup-o-coffee.. 09.10.06 chronological sunday....coffee, sunday paper, waffles,farmers market,run the trails in discovery park,coffee and snack, nap, bbq...a few other mundane things (more mundane?) 09.09.06 fall in the high country.... Kachess is like a Whitman chocolate sampler... a little bit of everything. Steep road climb and hike a bike on the up, the down has rocky type scree at first, then smooth fast singletrack through high country meadows, then a plunge into rooty, droppy singletrack for a few miles, creek crossings more twisty meadow singletrack and a final switchbacking plunge on loose scree and sketchy rock before a high speed finale down a smooth trail. 09.08.06 rally time....Kentley Scarponi rallied me from bitchin' about tired legs blah, blah, blah, and we met up after work for a nice roll down and around for a couple of hours last night. Twas' good to catch up on his Durango 100 report (mud,rain,no brakes, altitude,pushing etc.), sounded like a big day on the bike under some tough conditions, especially for a sea-level dweller. KS has this super-geeky gadget that I have to admit I'm beginning to covet. A garmin gps device that tracks the ride distance, maps it to motion based, elevation etc, etc...A screenshot from google earth is below
KS rode down from Edmonds and met me for a down and around... 09.06.06 up tempo....RW fresh back from the swanky Aspen scene was feeling good and driving the pace last night, leaving TJ and I to suck some wheel. Smooth, strong pulls that left me figuring out how to pull through. I tried to throw down on the final twisty 3k's of MI but not sure if I did much damage to anyone besides myself. Another perfect summer evening ride with the crew. Went home and watched a gorgeous sunset over the Olympics and rummaged up some dinner. On a related note, that sun keeps setting earlier and earlier... 09.05.06 Weekend....Choppers, mini-bikes, watermelon, bbq, beer, trail runs, bikes, LOST, hiking granite mountain, sleeping in,running, naps, salmon, housecleaning, ski-trip planning, bike room cleaning, donut etc.
Sunday we climbed this (Granite Mtn)(this pic was taken skate skiing last winter looking across at granite mtn)No snow now, hot and dusty for 3800 verts 09.01.06 Beats me....what we're doing this weekend, maybe hood river in the Orygun territory for some mtb action. That along with Mt. St Helens riding or Lewis River could be a sweet weekend. Have to see how motivated we are to fight the crowds on the last big amatuer weekend of the summer... But, I do know what I'm doing in February--We're getting 5 days at the Wallowa Huts for bc skiing in Eastern Oregon. Supposed to be great, earn-your-turns bc skiing, a sauna hut and a couple of yurts for sleeping and eating. Pretty psyched that SB is pulling this together and it's going to happen. 08.30.06 In the nic-o-time....TJ and I finished last nights blustery loop of the MI just as the sprinkles began to fall from the sky, a few minutes later while eating dinner it began to pour big fat raindrops. The first real rainy day we've had in a couple of months. Time to start thinking about where I put the fenders I guess. 08.28.06 A few pics from yesterdays MF ride....22 miles of classic PNW singletrack on a hot summer day.
Trailhead bridge-plus good swimming
Some sections were lush, flowy and smooth
...others were rocky, groveling sections--it was all good though 08.28.06 Middle Fork....Finally got out to the MF of the Snoqualmie trail yesterday with C & D. Pure PNW river trail-with rolling narrow tread, lots of rocks, roots, ups, downs through thick forest. Much of the time was right next to the river and views were pretty incredible when you got an opening in the canopy. We did an out and back which netted us about 4 hours of pure singletrack pleasure followed by a nice swim in the river. This trail had been closed to bikes for the last 10 or so years, but the local club (BBTC) finally managed to get the FS to open it on odd days for bikes. 08.25.06 ouch....Legs are crushed today after a week of enjoying perfect summer evenings on the bike and with the running shoes... Think I'll rest up today and try to drum up some weekend mtb'ing action. Feels good to be sipping coffee on friday morning, pleasantly sore and planning more. Saw the Backcountry Rag on the newsstands yesterday, loved the skiing last year but I'm not quite ready to give in yet. Got lots of late summer/fall riding to do before the brain starts thinking about earning the turns... 08.24.06 August Nights....Perfect late summer ride on Tuesday. RW and I headed north up the lake, cool & sunny with a ok breeze coming out of the south. Even though we were both tired from Sunday's ride at Palisades, the hammer was down every time the road went up. Suffering, playing, enjoying the evening as we rolled for 3 hours around the lake. Legs were shot by the time we crested the last hills and rolled home. 08.21.06 good week(end).... Lazy day saturday with a nice long run, a bbq, a nap and few errands since we were in town. Yesterday met up with a good crew and we rode Corral Pass & Palisades. Huckleberries were in season and the mountain was out. A great day to be on the bike. Trails were a bit dry and dusty since it hasn't rained in forever. Biggest gripe was how many new ride-arounds occur at almost all the root clusters down on palisades. Ironic since about 80% of the people riding these days are on full-boingers, and the roots are not that big. Felt damn good to be in the high country, working the bike on a long, full day in the saddle. 08.18.06 good week....Finally a week that I managed to get back to normal. Good ride with RW, TJ on Tuesday, a quick and rowdy lap of the island that put some pain in the legs. Got out Wednesday morning at 6:00 (damn early for me) to squeeze in a run on the roads and trails north of the house. Was great to be up and out before a busy day. Yesterday took a trip up to Magnolia, one of the prettiest rides in Seattle. Views of the Puget Sound, Alki, Space Needle etc and fairly quiet windy roads with lots of stairstep climbs to punch it on. Today probably just an easy spin up the hill, save the legs for the weekend. 08.14.06 sea kayaking....Too lazy for words, photo trip report below from 3 days in the San Juan Islands.
Cap'n Hayes reporting for duty, North Beach, Orcas Island 8.11.06
Our tour guide for the weekend, Becky, who put the whole trip together and navigated the rips and growlers that preyed on amatuers like me.
Island life, plenty of time for climbing trees
...and gorgeous sunsets
Joe gets the boats loaded for our early morning paddle to Orcas
lazy days on the water, 8.13.06 08.10.06 sea kayaking....off to the San Juan Islands tonight, for a 3-day sea kayak trip to Sucia Island. Should hopefully be a pretty easy paddle if the weather is good, (important since Summer and I aren't that sea savvy). Should be beautiful with the full moon and plenty of islands and coves to explore. Also a shout out to DV8 who will be rolling out of zuma' tomorrow afternoon. One of these years.....( I keep saying that) I'll get out there, but this year (again) I'll have to live vicariously through dv8's blog. Hope he has a nice ride. 08.09.06 everything but....Been crossing a bunch of things off the big outdoor "to do" list this summer (b-day tour, sw chutes of adams, yosemite), and it's been great, but have definately missed consitently getting some more miles on the bike. Got out last night for 3-hours with Roger. The legs didn't have the August snap, but it felt good to be rolling around the lake, putting in some miles. I've missed it... That said, we're Kayaking in the San Juan Islands this weekend--so it was good I got out. After that nothing but riding and some trail running til' the snow flies 08.07.06 hoopin' it up....Quick trip to B-ham this weekend to hang with Rachel, Alan and the soulsurfa's (corey & ye) up from Hawaii. A bbq, karaoke and a little hula hooping to cap off a saturday night. Unfortunately we had to head back to the city and couldn't join Alan up at Galbraith on his new Kona 2-9'er... Would've liked to take it for a spin on the trails.
Rachel rockin' 3 hoops....nice! 08.02.06 Pix....A giant yosemite photo gallery is up... I tried to trim it down to a more manageable number of pics, but couldn't edit anymore. Check it out.
08.02.06 storytime....I just finished reading a fantastic trip report by Lowell Skoog, blending history, family and desire to be in the mountains on the local backcountry skiing site. Well worth the few minutes to read "The legend of Sigurd Hall" Finally back on the bike today afer a few post vacation glitches including a neighbor who accidentally locked up my bike and some cannibalizing of the fleet before vacation left me with only the ss. Felt great to drop down interlaken and push the pedals. 07.31.06 Back from the Backcountry....Fabulous vacation in Yosemite NP. A 6-day backcountry trip through the park was filled with unbelievable high-country views. Tragically my camera couldn't really do them all justice, but I tried. Along the way we climbed Half-Dome (on the easy route up the cables (I'm no climber)), summited Clouds-Rest for crazy views, swam in the Merced and popped a few blisters along the way. Full pics and trip report should be coming, but for now a few pics...
John Muir's "Range of Light" lives up to its billing-Matthes Crest 7.23.06
Glowing Dome @ Sunset--UFO?
Stephen & Mary at a perfect swimming hole--Yosemite NP... 07.20.06 TV and vacation....Another day spending the hour before work watching the topsy-turvy tour. After this week I have no idea what to expect when I click it on around 6:45am with usually the last 40k's or so to the finish of these alpine stages. Good stuff, I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't watched yet. I needed to watch this morning, because tonight Summer, Stephen, Mary and I roll south to Yosemite and a 7-day backcountry trip. Pack is loaded, food is bought, coffee ground, ipod is charged yada yada yada. Should be hot in the valley but manageable up high (in the 80's to low 90's) so....til' July 31st--cuz I'm on vacation.
from the archives--a trip to Yosemite in 2003 07.18.06 Alpe'....Rolled out of bed, plunged the french press full of coffee and watched the telly' from 6:45-8am as the boys of the tour assaulted Alpe d' Huez this morning. Gritty at the front with Schleck riding himself into the ground to take the V...good stuff. I rolled into work with a bagel only 35 minutes late... 07.17.06 Centerfold!!.... sneaking in a few moments of bleary-eyed web-surfing/coffee sipping to start my Monday morning and who should I see on ttips.com? None other than Stephen, skiing shirtless in the SW chutes on Mt. Adams from our trip last month (Mary will be so proud). Ahhh, web centerfold fame, hopefully he'll still ski with us after this breakthrough. Check it out and download if for your screensaver Now we just sit back and wait for the "skiing shirtless is unsafe" thread to appear in the TTips forum. Mellow weekend around the hood', getting ready for our trip to Yosemite for a week-long backpack trip.
Morning web-surfing and who should I see? 07.11.06 It's contagious....Summer has been struck by the SS-virus... she tried a little bit of singlespeedin' on our Methow trip last week and is taking delivery today of a new On-one Inbred single-speeder--just in time for her trip to Hood River/Mt. Hood this weekend. I'm pretty psyched to see her on a simple, single bike and hope she likes it as much as I do... 07.07.06 Friday.... Hmmm, sunny weekend coming up, so many possibilities. I think I'll start by going for a lap of Mercer Island to shake off the work week tonight, then play the rest by ear. Interesting read, some of Ed Abbey's unpublished letters are in an article on the Orion website. 07.05.06 Long Weekend....Singletrack, Summits, Swimming....must be summertime.
Clockwise--I didn't clear the log (photo RW), Swimmin' hole was flowing fast, Big Craggy from the summit of Burch mtn... 07.05.06 Long Weekend....Nothin' like a 5-day weekend to improve the mood. Temps were in the upper 90's in the Methow, but the riding up high was near perfect. Hot, but not totally ridiculous. It was good to get three days of singletrack in, the summer has been lacking in mtb action, so it felt great to put 13 hours or so in the saddle. Legs were actually a little better than I thought they would be, having RW set a nice pace helped on the long hot Saturday ride. Sunday we rode/pushed up Burch mtn, while the rest of our group hiked the trail. Was suprised we were able to ride about 80% of the way, not much worse than I can usually do on my geared bike. Snow patches up high made me abandon the loop trip and drop back down Falls Creek. A great techy, slow-speed descent up top that opens up into a cruiser at the bottom. Good stuff. Plenty of swimming in two lakes and a creek felt pretty damn good as well. A few pics later today. Stephen put up some good shots of our Adam's trip last week on Flickr. Check'em out... He was even nice and didn't post a bunch of me augering into the chutes as I flailed in the heavy mank near the bottom. (it does look like I need to tighten up that stance though) 06.29.06 Dawn Session ....Different type of dawn partrol for Corey/aka single fin this morning. He's in Seattle for a conference so we hooked up for breakfast. The only spot we could squeeze into the schedule. Was good to catch up on the surfing lifestyle and trade some old stories from the Seattle days. Looking forward to August and when Ye will be along too and we can get into the mountains like the old days. Rolling eastward to the Methow for the the weekend and the 4th of July--nothing but singletrack, swimmin' holes and campfires to occupy our time. I'm over the spring skiing bug after the 13 hour day on Adams and ready to put in some more miles on the single...Hopefully some snaps on Tuesday or Wednesday when we return to the city life. 06.27.06 Pics ....Just put up a big set of pics on flickr of our Adams-SW chutes ski... You can all analyze Stephen's technique as I fired away with the rapid burst method of shoot now, edit later. 06.26.06 SW Chutes-Mt. Adams ....On the hottest day of the year, we summited Adams on the south climb route and skiied off summit and down the SW chutes. The chutes were incredible, consistent, fairly steep drop for 4,000 vertical feet and we got about 7,000 vert of descending for the day. The top of the chutes were pure hero snow, the bottom third was pretty heavy and caused a mental breakdown that left me flailing for a 1k, which pissed me off to hack up such a perfect line. Managed to gather myself a bit and make some tentative turns to finish up the chutes. Alan was his usual smooooooth self and Stephen after a three month layoff for a hairline fracture looked like he hadn't missed a day. The skiing was challenging after the climbing 6k under a hot sun, but was nothing compared to the zig-zagging traverse as we tried to contour/navigate back towards our camp through trees, pumice,drainages that lured us to the wrong way and rock bands. It took us a couple of hours to make it less than two miles and then another 20 minutes to find the tent...but the day wasn't over and we had to pack up, ski down to trailhead and walk back to the car, before grabbing pizza in Hood River and then driving home. We finally got back to Seattle at 2:30 in the morning... We won't even get into the lack of coffee in the morning and water in the afternoon. Some pics below:
The plan
We headed up Saturday night, hiking for about an hour and then camped around 6300 feet.
Mt. Hood to the South as Stephen climbs up to the lunch counter at 9400
Alan and Stephen on the summit, Mt. Rainier behind Stephen's elbow
Stephen styling the SW chutes with Mt. St. Helens in the Background
Alan hitting the afterburners 06.23.06 turning back the clock....On this friday evening of the first weekend of summer in the year 2006 I'll be reaching past the bikes in the gear closet to fish out the tele skis. For this weekend we will attempt, under forecast gloriously sunny skies to climb and ski Mt. Adams. Adam's is the second highest peak in WA and offers in good years a 7000 vertical foot descent. This is a very good year. The biggest obstacle to success is generally seen as exhaustion. It's a long slog up the ridge to the summit. We're hoping to ski the SW chutes off the mountain which touts 4000 vert, 35-40 degrees of pure corn. I"m borrowing/fitting some crampons tonight and tomorrow we'll drive to down to Hood River and then up to Mt.Adams where a crack-0-predawn start will hopefully get us the summit just as things soften up to perfection. Fingers crossed that we get lucky. 06.21.06 casual tuesday....We admittedly hav e a pretty damn lax dress code at work, but it is an office and some minimum exists. Rode in yesterday in my daily commute knickers from hypnotic designs, only to realize as I was changing that I had no regular pants to wear. Not sure if my office mates knew what to think of my man-pri's... Nice ride last night with TJ, pleasant lap of MI with good company and sunny skies.(and a clean bike since I finally gave it a new tire and a little tlc) 06.20.06 weekend snapshots.... As promised a few photos from an overnight backpack in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness
Sunset
stumbled across a nest tucked into a grass hummock
North Face of Mt. Stuart 06.19.06 bikin' & hikin'.... A nice loop of MI on Friday night to kick off the weekend--my conti tire tread started to delam'from the casing just when I got on the island, leaving me with a big flat spot on the tire. Also the ever present fear that it would blow off the rim in one of the twisty corners if it gave way. Finished the ride with my fingers crossed and it held all the way home. Saturday & Sunday we went on a backpack trip up in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness above Icicle creek. Overnighted at Stuart Lake and the climbed up to Colchuck lake to have lunch and watch some climbers on dragontail. Good to be out of town in the woods. Should have some pics up tonight. 06.16.06 summer rain.... Walked out the door with the steed into the rain this morning, coming down pretty good so I put on the jacket, 5 minutes of pedaling later it was dry and warm. Only wet spots were under the trees on the drop through interlaken. Which was too bad as the rain felt pretty good on this warm Friday morning. Heading east tomorrow into the cascades for a weekend backpack trip, a little dry run for a our weeklong Yosemite trip next month. 06.12.06 Where do the weeks go?.... Another week slipped by with little updating--I guess the same old things haven't seemed newsworthy this last week amongst all the other things going on. The usual riding,running in limited quanties is still going on... stuck in the some, but not enough category. We also managed to break in a few new sports over the weekend with a dance, dance revolution set, a long game of croquet and a sunset sail on Lake Union--With a weekend like that it sounds like I'm getting soft. PS: The light on the Olympic mountains this morning was incredible as I rolled into work 06.04.06 Teeters, Totters we all fall down.... rolled eastward over the cascades for a low level chiwawa gathering at the bavarian bikes and brews fest... actually became a chumstick gathering since we never crossed beaver summit, but instead camped right next to the singletrack, the stunts and the beer garden. Gee and Yosef raced but Stephen and I came late to the party...played a bit on the stunts and then met up with the crew after their race. I snuck out for a couple hours on the single. It was great to be out in the early evening, on a perfect singlespeed trail. Rolling the uphills, lots of flowers and pine forest and then twisty quick descent full of water bars on tacky-fast singletrack. So good I had to take a second helping/lap. I rejoined the crew in full pursuit of tasting the 14 micro-brews on tap for the crazy low price of $12 for all you could drink. midway through the evening Stephen talked us into the sketchy slide.. basically a teeter with a slider attached to it. So you get some good speed, roll onto the teeter and then lock up the brakes, which causes the slider to glide the full-length of the teeter (then totter?) while you track stand and then hopefully roll off. I must have bailed 25 times, couldn't ever quite get the hang of track-standing yet sliding yet tottering...I'm not sure if the time in the beer garden helped or not... Stephen and Geestik both pulled off a sucessful ride though After that it gets hazy, the beers flowed, bikes were discussed, the band (chumstick liberation front) played, stories were told and another perfect bike centered day was entered into our collective memories. As the chiwawa motto goes, a lifetime of memories---forgotten.
Stephen riding the skinny on the chumstick in the early afternoon
cruising on the single above freund-later afternoon
...once again the sketchy-slide sends me to the ground in the evening (photo cred: yosef)
Somewhere near the end, the band having quit and Geestik takes the microphone... 06.01.06 Emerging.... After three days of couch surfing with absolutely no activity I managed to go back to work and sneak in an easy 35 minute run in the warm rain for my southbound commute home. Felt good to move around a bit and sweat out a few of the germs. Hoping to be back in action for the weekend. (Fingers crossed) 05.30.06 Sick again....Damn, came down with version 2.0 of my cold from a few weeks ago. Getting pretty tired of wasting a sunny day(s) not feeling up to speed and it's handicapping any attempt at fitness. Anybody who has spent time in Moab has found themselves relaxing in the sun at the Mondo,drinking coffee and flipping through the irreverent Canyon Country Zephyr. High Country News has an article on it's founder Jim Stiles in it's most recent issue. Some interesting stuff about recreation, enviromentalists, Abbey and canyon country...Read "Clinging Hopelessly to the Past 05.27.06 3-day weekend.... This blog has been pretty stale as of late--kind of a weekend warrior version of itself... Celebrating the wedding of our good friends Roger and Malia this weekend, today was kayaking followed by Mexican food and margarita's. Not a bad way to spend a saturday. We never take advantage of the fact that we can ride our bikes ten minutes downhill, rent a kayak and spend a few hours working through the arboretum and Union Bay natural area. We got some good pics of a great blue heron and got in a good workout as well. (and then ate a big, big lunch before pedaling up the hill for short nap and the rest of our saturday) Tomorrow is their big day and we'll be heading west of the city for the celebration/ceremony. And monday we're looking at bc skiing, cycling or something depending on the weather. Finally started playing with the Flickr account Mike sent me last fall as a backup/archive, click here for a full-size image of the heron
Great Blue Heron, Lake Washington 5.27.06 05.20.06 Mini Bike Races.... Well sickness and warm weather kept up from bc skiing at WA pass, but that was o since we could now for sure attend Stephen and Mary's annual mini-bike extravaganza (+scavenger hunt this year). When you mix single-speed 16" wheel bikes of various condition, alcohol and a Lemans start it's a hole new twist on racing. I managed to finagle the hole shot after getting boxed out on the run and we cruised through the bike races with style, unfortunately the word scramble portion of the scavenger hunt and our "long-cut" put us well out of contention. Twas a great way to spend a saturday night though.
Sean and Joseph take the lead. The start had us running into a pitch dark alley to grab a kids bike and crank out a hot lap around the block... 05.19.06 Nyquil, sinutab and many naps.... A lost week--after a great ski came home and promptly came down with a nasty spring cold, but couldn't really take any time off of work so I was struggling through in a haze of sinus meds--hoping my nose would stop running and my head would stop pounding. Finally began to emerge from the funk yesterday, still pretty tired but off the cold medicine and feeling a little more normal. Sucks to be sick on the nicest week of the year, been beautiful outside with weather in the low 80's. 05.15.06 Birthday Tour Trip Report and photos.... Having driven over Hwy 20 countless times, and gone on a few hikes up near the pass I've always wanted to ski the birthday tour, supposedly named for a methow local who gave themselves this tour as a birthdya present... and it's been referred as that ever since. Every year something comes up, or it's a bad snow year, too busy etc. etc.... But this year the snow is deep, the weather was supposed to be beautiful and coincidentally it was RW's bday this week. We decided to make it happen. 4:45 I picked up Roger and we rolled into the Cascades, full moon setting over the Olympics and the sun rising over Three Fingers as we made our way north and east up into North Cascades National Park. The tour was perfect, jaw-dropping scenery, fantastic corn snow and good company. I put the full trip report into the captions of the photo album. Pics of the birthday tour 05.14.06 Birthday Tour/Washington Pass bc skiing.... trip report and gallery later--was up at 4am so not feeling very literate
Skinning up the larch filled bowls towards the cornice, which we booted up and around on the far left.
Peaks!!!
Roger Climbing towards the second pass after a long sweet run down Madison Avenue...(right near the peak visible in the upper right corner) 05.08.06 windy.... A nice long 3 hours in the saddle yesterday with TJ and Summer--battling the wind and blustery weather. Was good to get some miles in the legs and have some compadres to keep the motivation up. 04.30.06 walking, wind & flowers.... A short ride down the blvd on Friday, followed by fish tacos, cerveza and trip planning for a yosemite adventure this summer. Then saturday we rolled east to the Yakima Skyline trail for a quick early spring backpack trip to scope out the wildflowers and soak up the sun. Was a steep xc hike up the 2200 vertical feet to the rim and then we contoured north a few more miles. The sun was tempered by a cold wind gusty to about 40 mph as we pitched the tent and cooked dinner. Incredible displays of flowers, lots of birds and big views as well looking over the Selah and cities to the east from high on the ridgetops.
Yakima River Canyon below Roza dam
pink flowers and soft hills
Threatening skies on Saturday brought a few drops of rain from passing thunderstorms an gusty winds in the evening...this is heading up to the rim early in the hike. 04.27.06 Rest, Reverse, Repeat....another sunny day in Seattle had me taking long way home, trying to squeeze in some basin miles. Legs were a bit tired from Tuesday, but gave them a day off the bike before reversing that loop and heading N. up the burke, over the steep side of little juan and through rolling hills sandwiched between 520 & I-90 where the richies live... Felt good to get another 2:40 of solid work in the saddle. I hate this time of year cuz I've got no snap, but on the other hand every time it's fun because every time you ride you can feel the tarnish coming off and a little by little the strength coming back... 04.26.06 fifty....Rolled the lake loop CCW with Kentley Scarponi and a two others last night. Short sleeves and shorts for the first time all season made for a pleasant jaunt... once I got over the twinge in my calf I felt pretty good as we rolled through the rollers into and out of Medina and then up over Big Juan. Bonked a bit in the last 5 miles, but got 50 miles in after work and was home for a plate of delicious enchilada's by 8:15. 04.25.06 Get'er done.... After not hearing anything for 2 months about the start list for the Cascade Cream Puff 100 miler in Oregon, I assumed I didn't get in or it was cancelled. So I just went about my business, doing some tele skiing, some nordic skiing, some bouts of laziness the last few months with a little trail running and commuting on my bike.... inconsistency was what I was most consistent about. I really wasn't in to much of a hurry to rack up the miles since the skiing was so good this winter. But I get back from Ohio and they've posted the Creampuff Start List and for better or worse my name is right at the top o' the list. So it looks like I'll be single-speeding a 100 miles and a bajillion vertical feet of the Oregon Cascades in about 8 weeks. It would be correct to say that I"m a bit worried about racking up enough miles in the next two months, (especially with some more BC skiing on tap when Washington Pass opens up) but what the hell--I need a big ride to keep me hungry, get me back into fighting shape and it was a great/hard event when I did a few years ago (with suspension and gears!) The summer is filling up with CCP in June, a trip to Yosemite in July and hopefully a few days in Sun Valley as well. Ohio was good, warm and springy. It was great to see family, but I ate to much, spent to much time in airports and sitting around. For those people that travel for busy-ness, I don't know how you do it... Was happy to get back to the west, where I belong.
Spring has sprung in the midwest 04.20.06 Oh-hi-ho.... Heading east at the crack-o-dawn to visit my 97 year old grandma this weekend. So no skiing, riding etc. Maybe a run through Dayton if I get the time. 04.18.06 Two-sday.... Managed to score a nice walk to work today at 6:45 in the morning...it's about an hour trek with birds chirping and a cup of coffee for company. Tonight I rallied for a long after work ride around the north end of the lake...seemed epic with my untrained legs. Got almost 3 hours in the saddle by the time I manged to get back across the bridge and up the hill. Was humbled by my early season form, but it was a great night to be on the bike. Fresh snow covering the Olympics and Cascades, 3-fingers looking wintery from the Kenmore, blue herons in the wetlands near Juanita, along with evening light on Mt. Rainier made the suffering a little bit easier as miles rolled by. 04.17.06 Poetry.... Classing up the blog with a little poetry today. I saw this on my mornin' web-surfing and it pinpointed the weather we've been having the last few days. From winter on Saturday to springtime on Sunday..and changing every few minutes. The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is w th an April day. When the sun is out and the wind is still, You’re one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, a cloud come over the sunlit arch, And wind comes off a frozen peak, And you’re two months back in the middle of March. - Robert Frost. 04.16.06 tax day.... Full on winter up at Crystal Mountain yesterday.. 10" in the last 24 hours and about 5" of new while we were skiing. Gusty winds up top in the afternoon hitting 54 mph according to the telemetry sites had my tracks filling in as fast as you could make them. Visibility sucked and the foam on my goggles disintegrated but we made turns (most of us) til' the lifts closed. Was super tired at the end, but the windblown powder below lucky shot was too good to pass up. Besides it was the last weekend, so you gotta go the whole day. I still have to will my upper body to face the fall line in the manky steep stuff, but it seems to slowly be getting better. Today was a genteel easter brunch...mandatory requirements to dress in your easter finest yielded some unwieldy combinations pastel, seersucker and lack of taste. After mimosas and bloody marys the croquet tournament got underway for the better part of the afternoon. Good stuff. 04.14.06 Busy, busy.... Last day up at Crystal Mtn tomorrow, we're gonna sneak in one more day of riding the lifts for this season. Winter Storm Warning in effect for the Cascades and a forecast of up to 12" of freshies by tomorrow. Should be a prime day to seek the goods. I need it, this week has slipped out of control and I haven't really done a damn thing exercise wise except for riding to work and home... feeling the need to get out and work off some laziness. 04.11.06 rider down.... Sad news in the PNW racing scene as a rider died Saturday during the boat street crit. I didn't know him well, but knew who he was and had raced with him many times over the years at seward park.... Sad news. Below is an excerpt from today's cyclingnews.com Washington state racing community and bike industry figure Brad Lewis died Sunday April 9 of an apparent cardiac arrest during the Boat Street Criterium Pro 1/2 race. He was 38 years old. Lewis was riding for the Recycled Cycles team, of which he was a founding member. He was one of the Northwest's most prolific racers over the last 10 years. He worked for component maker Full Speed Ahead in Woodinville, WA and had previously worked for Raleigh USA. He is survived by his wife, Emily Westbrook, a professional bike racer riding for Team Tamarack. Well over 200 people attended an evening vigil at Recycled Cycles on Monday evening to honor Brad's memory. Funeral services will be in Seattle on Monday, April 17. A memorial fund is being established by Raleigh USA to help the family. Everyone at Cyclingnews extends their condolences to Brad's family, friends and colleagues. Rest in Peace.... 04.09.06 stuff.... A little of everything these last few days, a mellow spin after work on the roadie down the boulevard to Seward Park, felt great til' we turned around and I realized we had a nice tailwind out of the north fueling our progress. A little culture when we saw a play with TJ in the starring role. A gigantic apple fritter was consumed and spring sluff/slush skiing was enjoyed at Crystal along with a sunburn. The clouds burned off and we had a fantastic day with warm temps. Almost everything off of High Campbell had sluffed by 12:00 and the slide paths were actually the best skiing, a firm bed of snow on last weeks crust. The death cookies and pinwheels littered all of the steep slopes and powder bowl was some of the mankiest snow I've ever skiied. But it was fun and we had a good crew out in the sunshine...spring skiing is the best. 04.05.06 numero uno.... The first Tuesday evening ride of pacific daylight time was held under sunny skies with a nice little breeze and pretty moderate temps. A gang of four (mostly on time) rolled a lazy tempo around Mercer Island, stretching the legs once or twice. I felt ok, but the pace was pretty casual and we kept it in the small chain ring for about 98% of the ride. Could tell that the legs don't have much power, but that's to be expected after a winter of miscellaneous snowplay. 04.04.06 Tuesday Night Mercer Club.... Daylight savings brings on the weekly Tuesday night ride (usually around the N. end of the lake). Today we're going to stick to the island for a nice lap. Should be good to get a few hours in on the road bike. I've only ridden it once this winter, sticking to the cx bike for commuting these last 4 months or so. Pumped up the tires, lubed the chain and rode the rb into work today, twitchy, fast and fun. Looking forward to putting in some miles on the bike instead of skis or running, but knowing lots of cycling fitness needs to be earned back after winter. 04.03.06 End....Last day up at Hyak was somewhat anti-climactic. Soft, slushy tracks after a lazy start made for ok skating, but not the kilo-clicking pace of the last time out. The climb up to Windy Pass was good and the pass was living up to its name with high winds and blowing snow. Enough blowing snow to close off the upper part of windy acres (I tried, but the tracks were filled in on the lee sides with about 8 inches of windbuff snow that made skating impossible on the climbs) Skated back around to the rockdale loops and put in another hour or so until my feet cried uncle. The bitter irony of dropping cash on a new pair of top-shelf skate boots has been that my instep hurts like a bitch after two hours of skating with a lot of hills. Fine on the flats or shorter skates. My cheap old Alpina's were never a problem...ughhh. That's probably the end of the skate season, unless we go to Bend, OR later this spring, but the spring BC skiing should be heating up and daylight savings time means time to start logging miles on the bike during the week. 03.30.06 Ice, sharks and the hour.... Twice this week the afternoon coffee has been a double shot of espresso over ice, that can only mean two things, the heat (unadjustable) is on way to high in my office or it's feeling like spring. Actually both of those last things are true. Shots on ice is a fine way to enjoy an afternoon beverage. Blaring headline in todays Seattle Times Fixed-sated: Coasting is for poseurs. Fixed-gear bikes are about the pedaling Now that fixies are on the front of the paper and they feature a guy who runs a finance company in the article it's safe to say they have (thanks fonzie) jumped the shark... The apogee has been reached. Spring ahead this weekend, a glorious extra hour of sunlight in which to ride and recreate after the work day ends....last weekend of nordic up at Hyak so I think one last Mt. Catherine loop is in order on Saturday or Sunday. 03.25.06 Spring skiing....Summer and I spent the day up at the pass making turns on a warm day with plenty of sunshine and slushy snow. Perfect spring skiing conditions to wile away a saturday morning. We skied until the snow got a little too sun affected and then rolled down the hill-good times. Followed up with a short nap and a good book. 03.24.06 Progressive....Sweden to go oil-free in the next 15 years....something we Americans could only dream about. The whole article is in the guardian 03.23.06 Trickster.... It gives us all hope--a coyote on the loose in central park--they think he may have gotten across a railroad bridge or swam the river. A curious coyote working his way through midtown traffic for the quiet confines of the park?? It's possible, but does take communication...NYT has an article on exercising with your mate and the perils,pluses and pitfalls. We manage to pull it off pretty sucessfully 90% of the time, but have gotten better about telling each other when you need to hit the jets and get the heart rate up... "Can this workout be saved" is the full article in today's paper. 03.20.06 Reader Feedback.... "javasport is like when you grab the 5-day old cup of coffee on your desk thinking it was the freshie you just poured... Big swig... Blah! Stale." Ah the intrepid reader has a good point, could even be a new subtitle for the blog. Keep those comments coming! Sqeezed in one last big weekend of snowplay in the methow, next trip over it will be camping, singlespeeds and campfires. Took friday off and Summer and I rolled over the passes on a springlike day... Lunch at the bakery in Twisp and up to Mazama for some skating. Tragically it was a tough day of skating. Unbeknownst to me I was missing an insole in my boot and my foot was unhappy, much whining, bitching, moaning occured. Also it was about 45 degrees and the snow was baked pretty good by the time we got to ski after driving over. Made it more work, less glide. No complaints though, it was better than working. Saturday was all about skiing the Loup, Summer on her new randonee set-up and I was breaking in some boots. Perfect spring skiing, a live band and no lines made for a great day. There is nothing extreme about the loup, nothing pretentious, just having fun sliding on snow. Keepin' it real. A little dinner and a walk over to the mazama community center to watch a "good night and good luck" finished off the day. Perfect Sunday conditions, had to go early to beat the sun affects, but I skiied down the valley on great day. I was traveling solo and just put in a nice long tempo ski for ~20 miles. I felt pretty good, the snow was holding up and it was warm and sunny. One of the better days out on the boards. 03.14.06 Spring comes to the Cascades.... A change is coming, equinox is next week. A nice run home after work, a mix of trails, parks and roads with a big hill smack in the middle. Felt good to stretch the legs before finishing some work on the computer. 03.12.06 Where are we???.... Sure doesn't seem like the PNW this winter. The mountains got a couple feet earlier this week. Today, at the nordic center it was fresh tracks and bluebird skies. To top it off the Snoqualmie nordic club was having a bake sale at about the 4km mark of the Mt. Catherine loop. $1 for a ziploc of four chocolate chip cookies added to the pleasure. Slow tracks, but a gorgeous day to be out skiing in the mountains. Got in a lazy 2:30 hours before heading down the hill to take a nap and work on a few projects. 03.08.06 Winter Storm Warning....a cool and rainy ride down the hill this morn', a second cup of coffee and news that the cascades might be getting up to two feet of snow today/tonight--winter isn't over yet. 03.06.06 Tele-cratering....Up at 5:45 on Saturday, mucho coffee, breakfast, grab the boards, packs, etc and out the door. Neither Joseph, Stephen or I had ever skiied Bullion Basin before so we figured it would be an exploratory tour. Beautiful clear skies and powdery snow on the way up. A few navigational blunders cost us a bit of time but all in all not to bad. After topping out on the ridge, digging a quick pit and having a snack we dropped over the backside towards Union Creek. Pretty nice untracked snow, a little heavy and sun affected, but there was no complaining. I'm still amazed at the various ways I can crash on my tele skis, over the front, random hip checks, and a million other variations of tele-crashing. I have no doubts I looked pretty laughable pockmarking untracked slopes with body prints. From there we skinned back up to the ridge, sweating like mad in the sunshine and complete lack of wind. Had a bite to eat and then skinned up to East Peak. From there a traverse and a nice long run down to the Bullion basin road and back into the ski area to sit on the deck, drinking beer. In between east peak and the beer was a long, sunny southwesterly slope with a string of craters, massive wobbly GS turns, a small incident with a tree plus a whole bunch of laughs with the crew. (and some nice tracks from Stephen & Joseph) A nice 6 hours of skiing with huge views and good turns. A few more pictures from Joseph are here
On the ridge above Bullion Basin, so many untracked lines
Stephen ready to drop into Union Creek basin...
Joseph just before our first run, after that we skinned back up to this spot and then to the high point over his shoulder (east peak)
Me, upright for a change and terrorizing a poor defenseless tree...(photo credit-whookey) 03.03.06 Beacon, probe, shovel.... Banging around the house trying to get the bc skiing gear together for a early morning wake up call. Heading down to crystal for hopefully some bc skiing, although if snow conditions suck we may skin up to the mid-mountain lifts and do a little poaching. With plans to skate on sunday the weekend is shaping up nicely. Hopefully I'll be too busy to update this stale blog til' Monday. (and hopefully you're all out gettin' yours and won't be sitting in front of the computer til' Monday) 03.02.06 Sunny days.... It's been really nice these first two days of march, tripping the internal clock to start thinking about getting out on the bike for something a little more than commuting---although plenty of snow still exists for sliding of various sorts... Nothing better than the springtime tug-of-war when you have more options, plenty of snow in the mountains, but warmer temps and longer days in town making you think road ride. 02.27.06 From the Archives.... BJK sent me this gem, unearthed from the days before digicams and scanned in for posterity. This classic photo of me circa 1994. I was a so-so expert racer racking up miles on the car and racing at dusty ski-hills around the pnw, wearing my spot bagel boys jersey with pride, my beloved bridgestone mb-1 with a rock shox mag-21 installed after bending the original rigid fork (run with a softride stem ala djernis) I've still got the bike, living in the basement as a 1/2 assembled ss. The trails we were riding are now long, long gone. Bulldozed into a sprawling subdivision. Those were the days, life was simple, always plenty of time to ride...thanks for the trip down memory lane bjk!
02.26.06 Lucky bastard On the way, in an area where spruce and fir mingle with quaking aspen, in a cool and shady well watered place, I discover a blue columbine, rarest and loveliest of the mountain flowers. This one is growing alone---perhaps the deer have eaten the others---there must have been others---and wears therefore the special beauty of all wild and lonely things. Silently I dedicate the flower to a girl I know and in honor of both her and columbine open my knife and carve something appropriate in the soft white bark of the nearest aspen. Fifty years from now my inscription will still be there, enlarged to twice its present size by the growth of the tree. May the love I feel at this moment for columbine, girl, tree, symbol, grass, mountain, sky and sun also stay, also grow, never die. 02.24.06 Snow Dogs An unexpectedly fun commute today due to waking up and seeing snow covered roads (sends fear into Seattle drivers hearts). Super dry and crunchy up on the hill meant I couldn't even get the bike to slide at all, but farther north we got a nice mix of icy,slushy,snowy on the drop down interlaken. Sketchy corners and slick straightaways had me watching for off cambers and gingerly nursing the cx bike through the turns. A final trip up and over the U-bridge which was totally ice covered before dropping into the bagel store for a cinnamon raisin bagel and machiatto...Good times--haven't really got a snow ride in this winter until today, makes you feel like a kid again. 02.24.06 Olympic Fever A fine evening of Olympian pleasures.... waxing the quiver of skating skis, enjoying a sierra pacific winter ale, whilst watching Chandra Crawford, who seemed to symbolize everything that's right about the Olympics and sports in general was winning the women's skate sprints on CBC. A fantastic kick up the hill in both the semis and the finals sealed the deal. She was so happy and the Canadians' were going crazy. Would've loved to see Becky Scott make the podium as well, but she had a tough race. A few more pics and report is over at skifaster.net (Picture from skifaster.net)
02.20.06 Chiwawa-palooza 06'---"A lifetime of memories..., forgotten" We managed to get in a backcountry tour, a midnight sled session and some sweet k's on the skate skis over the weekend. Toured up skyline lake/heather ridge on Saturday finding plentiful stashes of windscour,breakable crust, suncrust, windslab and every once in a great while a few sweet tele-turns were found in the deep forest. 3300 feet of questionable turns on windy cold saturday afternoon. After a call from ex-pat gangsters in hawaii, a few too many drinks and big dinner we headed out to the sledding hill for a few midnight runs, what possessed Nathan to grab the kayak we don't know, but the resulting spectacular crash looked painful (he concurred). Using a shovel as a paddle on the boilerplate he picked up an alarming rate of speed and then rolled the boat... Sunday was all about blueberry pancakes, warm syrup, crispy bacon, eggs and copious quantities of coffee. Then it was to the Leavenhoochie ski hill for some skating---with firm tracks and sunny skies our gang of 5 clicked off the k's and repented for the excesses of the previous 36 hours...No pics from Sunday since Geestik & crew were putting the hurt on me... Today, I rest, rehydrate and count sledding bruises...
Stephen skinning up above skyline lake
Alan stylin' off a windlip 02.18.06
Christine ready to shred/sled
Nathan moments before he rolled the kayak--(he should've gone with the carbon paddle) 02.17.06 Rest then Repeat... Headed east into the frigid cascades tonight for the umpteenth chiwawa-palooza on the frozen banks off the chiwawa river. Geestik's hosting a rag-tag group of skiers, climbers, skaters, snowshoers and quite possibly a few drinkers (of course almost all orignally entwined by the bicycle). I's got to get home from work and round up tele gear, the bc gear, my skating gear a few toko poles for friends gleaned on a bro deal and rally into the mountains. We're hoping for bc skiing tomorrow and a nordic session on sunday--puncuated by some meals, sledding, olympics and laughs. Fabulous commutes this week, dry and cold with morning light on the snow covered olympic mountains everyday and fiery sunsets... No complaints for this commuter. 02.13.06 The surreal life part II.. This mornings post is worthless without at least one or two pictures. Yesterday was made to seem even more unbelievable after riding to work today in a misty rain.
Skating Sunday-Roger climbing up above windy pass 02.12.06
BC skiing Saturday--A rare sight, Summer making the switch to randonee skis 02.11.06 02.13.06 The surreal life... A nordic session so fine yesterday, as to almost be unbelievable on this Monday morning. RW and I hit the parking lot and suited up under bluebird skies and warm sunshine. Skate lanes were firm fast corduroy up high and the views were spectacular. After the long, sweaty climb up cold creek to windy pass we skied a new loop up top with wicked steep ups and crazy downhill chicanes surrounded by big peaks. Windy acres was its name and I'd never seen it groomed beyond the overlook until today. It was in a word, spectacular. After frying our legs skiing up above windy pass we cut down around over to the frontside trails and took a few hot laps on Dawn's run for the first time in a couple of years. At this point we could barely even ski we were so tired, but it was so good and so nice outside that we just kept going for a little bit more. A fun trip down through the alpine area at Hyak on the whippy skate ski's just magnifed the grins. One of the best days of the year. S,C,K and myself mixed it up on Saturday and got in a little backcountry (mis)adventure that was long on all the skills of bc touring, but pretty minimal if you're counting turns. Was fun to get out and skin up through big Doug firs above the Pacific Crest Trail, testing out my new pack and practicing some route-finding skills. Summer got a chance to use the randonee boards to go up for the first time which was cool to have her skinnng up through woods after years of snowboarding. I skied a little higher and made a few extra turns on a bulletproof crust above the forest and then we all traversed, crashed, sideslipped and flailed down through the crusty snow and tight trees. A few, hopefully minor injuries and the realization that big trees and manky snow are a lot harder to ski than tearing it up at the resort. More practice was the lesson of the day. 45 minutes of avy beacon practice at dusk finished off the day. A few photo's tonight. 02.12.06 all quiet on the pacific northwestern front... The blog has been growing a bit stale as of late. Maybe I'm still recovering from a humbling weekend--haven't had too much to write about. Trying to get back into the routine of the gym, riding & running afer being sick and/or out of town. Looks to be a sunny weekend in the mountains which we can use after a January with only two dry days... Stoked for the Olympics to start tomorrow. I've got the cbc.ca site bookmarked to keep abreast of the coverage. Skip the US "in depth" coverage in favor of actually just watching the action on the Canadian Broadcasts. Eurosport also has some good xc info. 02.06.06 like a lamb to slaughter... Glad to be sitting at my desk recovering a bit today...I poo-pooed my cold last week and told myself that I would be tapered for the rendezvous race. After a fast trip over the mountains we skiied for a couple of hours on Friday out of the town trailhead and I told myself afterwards that I was just a little stale after a week of inactivity. Friday night I tossed and turned with a nagging sinus headache and figured I would just "tempo" the race...fast forward to 10:04 Saturday and I'm off double poling off the line in my wave start. Instantly it's pretty clear that I don't even have a tempo day in me, or anything close... Gapped off by about 10 or 15 feet in the flat first kilometer spells trouble on the 10k climb up to Rendezvous pass. I got back into my group and tried to go steady but couldn't hang on. No strength, slow/soft/sticky conditions and a challenging course was my perfect storm. I was having doubts I could even finish with only 4 or 5k's to ski. At the finish I was totally and utterly spent and near DFL. I guess humility is a important part of racing as well. Some days you're the hammer, some days the nail... A nice consolation was hearing Geestik gutted out a gritty performance to place 5th. But when the racing is done, it's time to move on rather than mope. Good times spending the rest of Saturday in the mountains & snow. Sunday a great ski down the valley from mazama to winthrop. It was Summer's first crack at skiing the length of the valley trail and under glorious sunshine she cranked it out with style to spare. We dropped Geestik and his gear in Twisp to watch the superbowl and then rolled home. 02.02.06 Sickness, tailwinds & racing... Been miserable all week, fighting a lingering cold that's been annoying the hell out of me. Not quite sick enough to stay home, but feeling crappy enough where you can't do much else besides, sleep, work and watch tv (my brain has been to foggy for reading comprehension). Only exercise has been the short commute to work on the bike. Getting grumpy Wicked tailwinds out of the south this week has made the ride down the hill effortless. You can easily fool yourself into believing you've got good legs as I'm whisked northward. Almost too much wind for the single, I really have to spin to deliver any extra speed. Racing the Rendezvous this weekend. A few weeks ago I was pretty excited about charging this pretty hard, but being out sick has me less excited about the big climbs and nasty trails up above cub creek. Decided to go anyway because it's a beautiful point-to-point ski on gorgeous terrain. The little kickers will hurt, but hopefully this will flush the cold from my system. I'm looking forward to 3 days of skiing, starting tomorrow. 01.30.06 Revelation... Spent yesterday tele-skiing all day and did something I pretty much never ever do. Usually I spend all day on the ragged edge of control and ability, getting routinely pummeled on steeper slopes and doing whatever it takes to keep up (and upright) Yesterday Roger was just on his third day of tele skiing and the Captain hasn't been skiing a ton so they were game for taking it easy so I just practiced. Working on monomarks, balance, edging the rear ski, trying to be a little more aggressive and getting the upper body to commit to the fall line. And damn if it didn't help. Slowing down to speed up I guess. One of the better days skiing lately with 11" of new overnight and temps in the low 20's made for some great runs on the backside. Only drawback was the flat light just before quittin' time, It was like skiing in a milk bottle.... I got pummeled a few times on terrain changes I didn't even see to Roger & Brents amusement... 01.24.06 FOMO... A persistent condition that can strike at any and all times. Usually provoked by a friendly email, phone call or blog. FOMO is the Fear Of Missing Out. Why just this last weekend I had to endure an aggravated episode. Stephen telling me about the bluebird skies and powder shots on the best day of tele skiing of the 05-06' season at Crystal--ouch that caused a pang--since I was pacing around the house trying to kick a cold. Sunday, Summer, Mary and I had a pretty damn fine day of fast tracks at Cabin Creek, but I'd be telling a lie if a little pang didn't strike when Geetstik told me about how the Methow was in top form and the two-day pursuit race was as good as it gets. Luckily Alan rarely rubs it in, but was probably at Baker getting after it... Now it's only Tuesday but we're already trying to decide between some skate skiing this weekend, maybe a day riding the lifts on the tele boards or getting out for a little bc tour for a bit. I can't decide what sounds best,plus I've got a few family obligations to squeeze in as well. I've got a serious case of FOMO...It usually strikes in mid-winter when the options for outdoor play are vast and the daylight is limited. 01.22.06 cabin fever... After kicking' around the house the last few days trying to fight off my cold I was suffering from a little cabin fever and had to get out. We busted up to cabin creek amongst the beginners, the families out for a tour,the racers and everyone in between. It warms my heart to see so many people out on the nordic boards, but it was a little too much of slalom course at times. As long as they don't try to move out of your way you can negotiate crazy bottlenecks of people standing at all the junctions without even breaking your tempo. Snow was near perfect in the morning, fast, fast, fast and I was on a new set of freshly ground and hotboxed skis. Simple pleasures. We left the crowds behind up on Ozabaldy loop as Summer tackled the relentless kickers on that nasty little loop for the first (possibly last?) time. Finished the day with about 1/2 hour of nice tempo on the viking loop. A bowl of soup for lunch and time for wee little nap on the couch made for a fine Sunday morning and afternoon. 01.20.06 cold... feeling one coming on, popping vitamin C, trying to get 8 hours of sleep and taking it easy for a few days. I don't wanna be sick. (especially now that the weekend is within sight) 01.18.06 Tree wells... The last ten days saw much of the Cascades get seven to ten feet of snow, creating some great skiing. But today the paper has a Third Death inbounds in a week. Two at Mt. Baker and now one this afternoon at Stevens Pass--all from tree wells. Mt. Baker posted an excellent tutorial on dealing with these hazards... Check it out and make sure you've got a trustworthy partner who is paying attention when seeking out the stashes. 01.17.06 la luna makes me happy Oh to wake up this morning and see the silvery moon hanging in the western sky...meaning the ride this morning would be rain free.... simple pleasures. 01.16.06 snowplay part II After a night of nordic racing on friday we rallied a big crew to hit stevens on the tele skis on Sunday. Great snow conditions after a week that saw huge dumps throughout the cascades. It was Summer's first day on randonee skis after snowboarding for many a season and Roger's return to tele sticks. Was great to see them stoked on a different form of snowplay and good to know a few more bc partners should be coming into the fold. After skiing together for a bit we split up and tried to keep Alan in sight as we ran laps on the backside all afternoon long. My tele legs still need some work when I get tired or it gets steep. I kinda of fall apart at that point and all the bad habits come out to play. The only thing more epic than the burning of my thighs was the drive down the pass. Between Baker being closed and MLK weekend, the trip home from the mountain was crazy bumper-bumper traffic for an insane amount of time.
The brunch patrol, ready to hit the slopes at the crack of 10:45 01.14.06 shrugging off apathy... We overcame the urge to go out for dinner and enjoy a relaxin' friday night by busting up to the pass through friday traffic and steady rain that threatened to derail the whole mission got up to hyak just in time to suit up/sign up and ski a quick 3k's before busting out a time trial. Quite a shock to the system and it turned out to be more of a super hard tempo ski than a TT due to fears of completely blowing with a lap to go. It's always fun to ski fast and ragged for a bit. Then I went looking for Summer on cold creek in dark. Forgot my headlamp so it was just working on the zen feeling of the snow beneath the skis and gliding through the woods in the dark, making the effort of getting out all the reward one needs. Mt. Baker has too much snow to open this weekend. 9 feet of new snow and persistent warm-fronts coming through all week have made the conditions to unstable to open up. Crazy after last years dismal winter of little snow that areas would be closed from too much this year. We're switching gears and heading up to Stevens with a good sized crew--should be a fun day of turns and we've still got Monday for yet more play. 01.13.06 lungbutter... Got plans to hit the nordic time-trial series at the pass tonight, a narrow window that doesn't allow much warm-up, but if I bust out of here pretty close to 5:00 I can be racing by 6:30 or so. 6k's skate tt followed by some easy social cruising by headlamp. Weather is shaky, but we'll see what happens. Nothing like skiing for a few minutes and then going all out. That's gonna hurt so good. 01.13.06 crazydeep... We've got plans to head up to Mt. Baker on sunday for a little tele trauma, should be crazy deep. They're closed today due to too much snow, with over seven feet this week! Today's report is below. Tis' feast or famine in the Cascades it seems the last few years.... Slope Conditions: CLOSED DUE TO AVALANCE CONTROL AND SLOPE STABILIZATION We have received 87 inches of snow (7.25 feet) in the past 5 days and due to the tremendous snowfall and a warming trend today, we are CLOSED TODAY FOR AVALANCHE CONTROL AND SLOPE STABILIZATION. Due to a warming trend, the rain and large amounts of snow, avalanche control work is going to take extra time today. Mixed snow and rain and rain are expected today with the freezing level slowly dropping on into tomorrow. We anticipate opening the ski area again tomorrow, and will update this report this afternoon with additional operation information. 01.11.06 rhyme thyme... From those good humored folks who keep us safe in them, thar' mountains... Courtesy of the Northwest Avalanche Center WEATHER SYNOPSIS FOR WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY More wind, rain and snow? Stop it you say- But haven?t you heard, There?s more on the way? For a time at least, The jetstream is back- And headed right at us, On a very fast track. After decreasing tonight, And brief drought in the morning- The snow should increase, And bring an avalanche warning. Weak layers will be buried, With wind slabs we?ll make- Along with brief warming, To spice up our cake. An old crust at the bottom, Weak layer that?s no stranger- Add a big heavy slab And you?ve got some high danger. So be avalanche aware, Wherever you go- It?s time to focus, And stay on top of the snow. 01.10.06 Heart of Darkness... Although the solstice was weeks ago, we are now into the deepest darkest depths of winter. The count is still going strong at 25 days of precip and today is no exception. I can live with the riding in the rain in town, but when the Cascade passes are getting rained on as well it starts to hurt. We are having what would be the snow event of the winter if we could only get rid of just a few more degrees on the thermometer. Alpental was reporting 18" of snow in the last 24 hours, but now it's raining. Avy forecast is high and outlook is grim for the next few days. Weather like this makes ones thoughts turn to Moab and/or Fruita, a few emails already going around, putting out feelers for a springtime trip to sunshine & singletrack. 01.08.06 Twitchy... With yesterday's shabby coverage and finishing my nordic session with 45 minutes of drenching rain still fresh in my mind I couldn't bring myself to go tele skiing or skating up at the pass today. Would've loved to get out on a little bc tour, but conditions were spotty so I balked and reach deep into the gear closet to pull out the road bike. Roads were dry and pale winter sun was poking out between the overcast skies so I pumped up the tires and put in a couple hours. I always forget how twitchy and fast the roadie feels since I've been riding the cx bike to work--too bad my legs were only up for some easy, early-season miles. This of course freed up some time for copious cups-o-coffee and a big breakfast with the Sunday paper. Always suprises me that a national newspaper covers some truly random items. In the business section today they had a decent size article on the Life-Link Avy probe. Always something interesting... 01.07.06 Yet again... headed up to the nordic center today to escape the city and put in some k's. A few showers on the way up but the weather was looking pretty good. Way to warm though, 37 degrees broken clouds and a little sunshine as I rolled out on the long climb up cold creek to windy pass. Somedays Hyak must have the worst grooming in the west, despite asking a few trails hadn't been groomed and I had to power through a few inches of rainsoaked snow and at one point hop over a creek and double pole for awhile til' he started grooming again and of course the usual swales, cambers and ridges they manage to carve into the snow... Rolled out to the windy acres overlook, nobody ever up there (including the groomer) and took a good look at Granite Mountain. A prime objective on the tele skis this season once we get a bit more snow, today it was looking a little bony though. After skating back over to grand junction I took a few loops on the inner trails, but Dawn's run, my fave hadn't been groomed yet. Then the rain came, in biblical quantities, as I dropped down towards hidden valley. Was making tracks to the car, but it was still 6 or 7 cold, wet k's to the car. The rain made for fast tracks, but couldn't quite overcome the misery of skiing in the pouring rain.
Scoping the lines on granite mountain, ascend up the left hand ridge and descend the same way or down one of the ribs on the main face depending on snow stability. 01.06.06 Rotting... Putting on wet gloves, smelling my stinking, slimy wet bike shoes across the office, leaving for work with the drumbeats of rain on the roof, riding home in the filthy road-spray on the gravel coated roads is normal. It's been raining all week, weatherman said 19-days straight of measurable precip. The first day it bugs you, but after that you don't care. Just suit up, pull on various combo's of gear that don't matter cuz' you'll either be sweaty or wet. Best to just slip into the trance of going out the door, into the dark and waking up as the rain trickles in your shoes and runs down your face. To worry about the rain is to let it win, just ride... GeeStik is getting into the small-time promotion business--putting on a niche event in a niche sport...I hope to make it out to lend a body to the cause, but have no illusions of being able to ski 100 miles at this time. Got to admire his pluck though. Brutal is the only description, I get twinges of tendonitis just thinking about it. Swing by his site for the latest dirt on the Chiwawa 100 Someone finally making some sense on political issues? A good editorial in the NYT today by Thomas Friedman addressing US (over)consumption of oil and how some of those $$$ are funding nasty regimes and terrorist organizations, hindering democracy. I pasted a couple excerpts below and you can read the whole article that flushes out the relationship between conservation and foreign policy here "...What's so disturbing about President Bush and Dick Cheney is that they talk tough about the necessity of invading Iraq, torturing terror suspects and engaging in domestic spying - all to defend our way of life and promote democracy around the globe. We need a president and a Congress with the guts not just to invade Iraq, but to also impose a gasoline tax and inspire conservation at home. That takes a real energy policy with long-term incentives for renewable energy - wind, solar, biofuels - rather than the welfare-for-oil-companies-and-special-interests that masqueraded last year as an energy bill. Enough of this Bush-Cheney nonsense that conservation, energy efficiency and environmentalism are some hobby we can't afford. I can't think of anything more cowardly or un-American. Real patriots, real advocates of spreading democracy around the world, live green... ...But when it comes to what is actually the most important issue in U.S. foreign and domestic policy today - making ourselves energy efficient and independent, and environmentally green - they ridicule it as something only liberals, tree-huggers and sissies believe is possible or necessary." 01.04.06 Short-Timers... Hit the gym last night and Oh-my, the crowds, they were thick. Everybody is still gung ho on the third day of the year, straining, training, squeezing out one more rep. In a few weeks it will be back to normal with the usual suspects. 01.02.06 Worked... A rainy day begging for a second cup o' coffee after ringing in the new year on skis in the mountains. We skated many loops at the hatchery in Leavenworth with gang. Dougie driving the pace well past conversational as we skied. A fine way to end 05' with an anaerobic bang.. Margaritas and Mexican food with friends in Leavenworth and a strange trip to a little party with a great big bonfire in the middle of nowhere with a host that went by the name of "chicken" kept us all up until late into the night. Started 06' off properly on the tele skis with Stephen at Stevens Pass. My thighs burned, ego was kept in check with numerous variations on crashing: crossing tips, getting my backleg to cross behind the front, numerous hip checks and various other "techniques." We found some really good pockets of snow and it was amazingly uncrowded, never waiting at the chair. They were reporting 6" of new, but the trees were still holding most of the weeks 20" of fresh which was still in good shape. Was fun but I'm crazy sore today, leg presses and curls are no preparation for the real deal. Driving down out of the mountains with Summer as the clouds parted and we got a little glimpse of the sunset was a perfect ending to a great first day of 06'.
Stephen celebrating the New Year on the backside of Stevens Pass 01.01.06 |
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Temps in the 40's as we rolled east over snoqualmie to ride Kachess. Could still get away with just a wool jersey for the most of the day, but it was definately cool and breezy up high. Kachess ridge is always a kind of a no choice fitness test. If your (my) legs are ok I can muscle the single up the grade, but if not it's a painful leg-breaking slog. JW and I rolled the climb in the cool, breezy morning, noting the the changing colors on all the hillsides. Tore a valve stem off my rear tire somehow but we got that fixed, scampered over the hike-a-bike and let it roll on the downhill.
Taking a break from skiing this weekend for the first time since early December to celebrate our 1st year anniversary down in Portland... A year ago Sunday we were outside getting hitched up in Mazama after a day of skiing with the all of our friends.... I'm a lucky man is all I can say. Since I had to write the ceremony I managed to sneak in a little Ed Abbey since he's a bit more eloquent than I. I also wanted the ceremony to reflect our personalities.... The sentiment still holds and the I'll let ole' Cactus Ed in this excerpt from Desert Solitaire speak for me on our first anniversary just as he did last year...
