Double Cross

Cyclocross season is here!! I have had a couple races already, but this week was a double cross weekend. One saturday and one sunday. I am too old and out of racing shape for that. I have been racing in the Men's Masters A category, always have in the past and finished mid-pack, but this year, I am lucky to finish on the same lap. Usually last, or near the bottom. This week was 3rd to last. Sunday, I decided to race on my singlespeed because it is only 40 minutes, not an hour. Things didn't go much better. I was 2nd to last. Though, I was totally undergeared, compared to a number of the people. Live and learn. I did have fun though, in a tiring, brutal way. No Crashes!!

Saturday night we went to eat at Metropolitan, then to the Ballet. Carmina Berona was the first of the season. It was very nice. Great music, a little different ballet, as it mixed modern dance in, but good none the less. Ballet 2 is Nutcracker in December.

Lastly, speaking of old, give a shout out to Brian this week as he turns the big 40!!!

Weekend road trip

Whew, what a week"end". Karen had a few days off, so we packed up the van and headed south. Our plan was to go to Vermillion Cliffs area in Kanab, UT and try to get a permit to hike the wave. Unfortunately, 84 other folks had the same idea, and we were no one of the lucky 10. Soooo, we drove to wire pass and hiked in to the junction with Buckskin Gulch. Though we only hiked about 1/2 mile downwash and maybe 1 mile upwash, we got LOTS of cool sites. What an amazing area. Make us want to do the whole hike to the Paria river junction, though would have to wade some of the holes? Might be worth it.

We decided to stay around and try our luck on the next morning as well. Better odds (only 64 people), though same results. So we pulled out the map and headed for the north rim of the Grand Canyon. On the way to Glen Canyon dam, just out of Page, Az we saw this beautiful "site". Note the pollution ring above the stacks. Glad we need the energy!

Anyway, driving out of Page to the south was amazing. Desert and red cliffs. Until we started driving up to Jacob Lake, then from Pinyon pine to Ponderosa and high forest with COOL temps. The drive from Jacob Lake to the North Rim is one of the best in all the parks I have been to. Once we arrived we B-lined it to the campground to get a site. As luck would have it they had one, on the LAST night they are open for the season. Lodge, food, store, water, all was being shut the next day. We took the site and headed for a look at the edge in the Grand Lodge. Nice place, though can't imagine it would stay there with any earthquake above a 7.0. Anyway, pretty deep hole in the ground. Some smoke and hazy clouded the air, but could still see well. We got up the next morning and headed down the Kaibab trail with intentions of only going a short way. About 3 miles later, we decided to turn and head back up. This is where I learned, never let Karen lead. Took us 1.5hrs to walk down, but curiously, the same to walk back UP!! Maybe I should have stopped to "take more pictures". Actually, over the 3 day weekend, I took 184 pics, that I have whittled down to "only 66".

We then headed home, planning to go to Zion and camp to brake up the drive, however as luck would have it, all campgrounds were full. Decided to head home. Great trip! Van is key!!

More black and white

After last weeks post, I decided to put a few more B&W pics up. Some are from our CO trip and some more from Hawaii. If you want to see some cool infrared pics go to the Triathlete site from this past weekends Ironman in Kona. By the way, a way cool race for the men, in case you missed it. Dog fight to the end. Will be on NBC on Dec 18.

At left, a small flower begins to form on a plant in the lava fields. Great place, with the intersection of rain forest and lava fields. Next we see a small fern, that has grown across each other. We called it the butterfly fern.

Finally, the Great Sand Dunes National Park. These are from the day we hiked the sand dunes to the top. A long, tiring walk actually. Great going up, like walking in sand!!, but hot coming down!! We had gone up by 7am too. Can't believe all the yahoo's going up at 10am when the sand was that hot!!
Going down south to UT/AZ border soon. Hope to get some canyon shots. Stay tuned.

Hawaii in B&W

As promised, another blog entry within a week. Looking back at the Hawaii pics from our trip, I decided that it was time to post some of the B&W pics that I took. There is so much contrast and texture, that it makes taking B&W's pretty easy. Kinda like living in UT for outdoor landscapes. The horses are in a field up on the rim road outside of Waimea toward the north end of the island.
When we stopped at one of the black sand beaches (can't remember the name) to look for some turtles I spotted a small pond. Great light at that time of day. Nice lily pads and flowers.

Finally, while we hiked the trail to the Kilauea lake we happened on lots of ferns and fiddleheads along the rain forest section of the trail. Dark, lush, moist area, all on the way to the solidified lava lake at the mouth of the big eruption that was not too long ago. Pretty cool, if not eerie to walk over a solidified lake of lava.