Palin Could Possibly Be Our President!
Yeah, it scares me too. Go vote, fools. OBAMA! ...or whomever you deem appropriate.I could use my typical blogging sarcasm and say something to the effect of, "Oooohh my! Being a professional cyclist is a busy enough occupation, so you can't even imagine how busy the off-season can be! It's no wonder that I haven't completed any blog posts in a while." But that would be anticlimactic lie. The truth is that the off-season is awesome and I'm having a ton of fun continually looking for things to do. Where do I begin?I learned from my friend Bill McKibben that every US dollar spent on goods or services is equivalent to burning 1/2 liter of oil. That is, to produce that good or service on average requires 1/2 liter of oil to go up in smoke. Don't believe me? Well then DRILL BABY DRILL! Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?! In any event, I happily learned that fact while reading a library book (free) and then shortly thereafter went for a run with my new pair of shoes that I purchased on sale ($40 off). That is one longest educational segues that I've ever used to tell you that I've taken up trail running. While I'm no Garrett Peltonen with his marathon length outings on a whim, I'm still enjoying having awesome trails just out my front door.
Here I am atop the Flatirons in Boulder. Yeah yeah yeah, there are all too many people who put themselves into danger by climbing well over their perverbial heads and need to be medivac'ed off the Flatirons. Well I didn't need no help because I have trail running shoes. Duh.I've also tried my hand at cyclocross racing here in town. Being a thick skinned New Englander, I figured that I would be able to hold my own against Boulder's finest. Moreover, I've proudly won a pair of cross races in my lifetime, so I consider myself a seasoned pro. As for the races here in town, being perfectly frank, I got smoked. Twice. Granted, both races were fun, but the first was miserable because of the 36 degree temperatures and the constant drizzley rain, while the second I was handicapped with two flat tires, including the first just 60 seconds into the race. Thankfully I was thoroughly entertained by being able to chase bike-handler-extraordinaire Tom Zirbel. We fiercely battled it out for a placing in the low to mid 30s. I skipped my third cross race of the season this weekend in order to save my hard earned cash and head up to Estes Park. Garrett and I are BFFs and so we had our picture taken in front of the famous clocktower used in the Back to the Future films!
Actually no, that is a lie. It's just a regular clocktower.Garrett is working hard with two business partners to create an outdoor adventure touring company. I've designed the company's logo and it's absolutely awesome... but there's rumor that they aren't going to use it. I'm offended. Anywho, I was Garrett's first guinea pig up Long's Peak (14,255') a few weeks ago, which was a blast. We left at 4am in order to avoid possible storms and to catch the sunrise.
Sunrise over Denver.
Garrett is a good guide because he knows the names of all the sections. This is "The Palisades." The top of the mountain is referred to as "the Summit." Brilliant.A few weeks later, also known as yesterday, we set out on another big adventure. This time the group consisted of me, Frank Pipp, Randy Reichardt, and homeboy Garrett. I tagged two more 14'ers with Torreys and Grays Peaks. This trip was pretty darn cool for me because I'm no hiker by any stretch of the imagination and therefore getting two 14'ers in a day was rewarding. It was especially cool for the other guys because they snagged these two summits AND now today are going to knock off two more 14,000' peaks, after camping out in the wilderness last night. My heroes! And now some pictures:
Sun just coming into sight over a barn. Very picturesque.
Despite that there is one member of our team ahead of me, I smoked everyone to the summit of both peaks. I'm like a billygoat or a yak or a sherpa, or some hybrid combination of all three!
Randy was annoying me with how closely he was hiking to my heels, so I punched him in the schnozz. Actually, no that's a lie also. Randy suffers from DNLS, or Delicate Nose Lining Syndrome, so he bleeds out of his nose when the going gets tough and whlie the tough get going.
Here's our team at base camp 3 with Grays Peak in the background.
This is a shot from Grays towards Torreys. See that zig-zag down the left side? Well the three guys went straight along the ridge while I went solo down the zig-zags. Dangerous? Not smart to descend that sheer icy face solo? Ummm yeah probably, but I made it home safe and sound so I don't give a hoot.
An amazing view to the west. And an especially beautiful face in the foreground.Hopefully this last link works. This should be a video of the summit: King of the World