Thanksgiving

Today...we gave thanks! Especially for the snow in the past week!! Got our first day of skiing for the year at Solitude. It was truly that, especially after noon, when everyone left. Was a good day to try out the telemark skis again. Just when I think I am getting the hang of it, I start falling all over the place. Oh yeah... AND MY LEGS ARE DEAD TIRED!!!!! Oh well, I'll keep working on it.

Anyway, we are going up to Yellowstone for the XC ski festival. Should be fun, as they have a good start on the snow for the year. May also shoot up to Big Sky and downhill for a day?

Post later.
rk

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.

Look, A New Post!!!

First- sorry for the delay. Can't believe the last post was August 1!!!
My "New Fall resolution" will be weekly blog updates.

SO much to tell. I added a new peak to my list of Wasatch Mtn peaks. I finally climbed Mt Timpanogos this weekend. Karen has done it a couple of times, but I seem to have always been somewhere, doing something. Finally, I decided to take the plunge and ignore all the talk about the "sketchy" spots at the top, that might bring out my subtle dislike of high edges/ledges. I must admit this is much worse on a bike, but even some hikes I get afflicted and really have to keep moving or I will be there for awhile (probably until someone gets me about 6 beers to let go of the wall!!). Anyway, I figured I could always turn around and wait at the lake level. Turns out it was not bad at all. Lots of scree, and fairly a wide path all the way to the summit at 11,749'. Not even any altitude problems! Since I haven't hiked in about 2 years, I was somewhat concerned about a 15mile walk with 5000' elevation gain (and then loss) and if it where possible. Mauna Kea in HI, was 13,300, but we had a ride to the top, and felt kinda crappy up there. Maybe because we went from sea level to 13,300'?

Had lots of company on this hike. A great group of 7 people that all hiked about the same pace, plus lots of the furry white things you see here. Amazing where these guys can walk!!( If you double click on the image it gets bigger.) So, another peak, more sore legs but 9hours of fun!! Why can't I seem to find fun exercise that lasts 2 hours instead of 9-10hrs?
I must be "broken".
rk

Aloha (Finally...)

It's only been two weeks since we have been back, but has taken that long to catch up. Hawaii was lots and lots of fun!! We spent a day in Maui, then flew to the Big Island for 8 days of fun and travel in our hotel on wheels- Holo Holo. Holo Holo was the name of our VW vanagon camper that we circled the big island with. Same year and model as ours. We went from Hilo to Volcano N.P. and spent 3 days there. Lots of hiking, relaxing, some driving around. The old lava flows are crazy! Just flows down and covers anything in it's path. Walked across the lava lake, hardened for 400 feet down, though lots of steam coming up trough the cracks, kinda freaky!
Next we continued south and west to Hookeena beach park for a night on the beach. Quiet, cozy place. Nice sunset.

Next we continued on to Kona. Left the beach early in the a.m. to get to Kona in the morning for a run. We had to do a long run that day so we decided to run the second half of the Ironman course, from Kona to the energy lab and back. Man, does it get HOT in the energy lab. Took a cool shower at the beach shower to cool down then finished up. Very tough run. Definitely would be hard with 112 miles in the legs.

The next night we took a guided tour to the top of Mauna Kea for sunset. A nice bus to the 13,800 foot peak to watch the sun go down over Maui. Very pretty, very cold and little oxygen! After sunset we went down to 9000' for a star show. Got to see Saturn (with rings), a nebula, and some other stuff I think they made up!!
Next day we drove from Kona to Hawi (Ironman bike turn around), then continued on to The north side of the Island for 2 nights at another beach park, with the waves crashing on the shore only 20 feet from the van. Very soothing.

Then, I had to go to "work". Next up, the resort on Maui.
rk