So I have been sick for the last week. I think I just have a common cold, although I have been telling everyone that I have the swine flu so that they will think Im that hard core. The worst part about being sick is probably blowing my nose in class. I can't help it. It's a necessity if I don't want a respiratory infection, but the professors just don't understand. I went to office hours the other day and my prof. said, "Oh yeah, you're the guy that blows his nose all the time. What do YOU want?"
And also I can't ride my bike. Ally will tell you that my bike and I have a semi-platonic connection: when I can't ride, I tend to be cranky and irritable. So for the last week I have been sick, cranky, irritable, and blow my nose a lot. Let's just say I'm not the greatest person to be around.
Yesterday was the first time that I have felt good enough to get on the bike. Today, I rode with Michael Carey. We had a nice ride out east even though it was windy. Michael has been playing a lot of tennis, and it seemed the strokes weren't helping his fitness. I made him hurt even though he is a stronger rider than me. On the way back, I ran into Lance Armstrong. I said hey to him and we talked a little about the UT cycling team. I was riding next to him not paying attention, and all of a sudden, he says, "Well, this is my house, so...uh.... see ya i guess." I said, "Oh okay cool, well.... I have no idea where I am...." He asked me whether I would be able to get back, and I assured him that I could, even though I had no idea where I was. After wandering around for about 45 min, (after a 3 hr ride) I called Stark and had him come pick me up. I don't know that getting lost was worth it to talk to Lance, but whatever, I guess there are a lot of people that would kill to get to talk to him. Now, TEXAS FIGHT!!!! Time for the football game!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Texas OU Weekend
Last weekend was Texas Ou weekend, and so I was in Dallas and Garland to watch the game. We drove up Friday evening and had dinner with my parents. Mom cooked grandmother's stew and had lots of good fruit as well. Erik, Stark, Ryan and I gorged ourselves until we couldn't eat anymore. Ryan wasn't planning on eating because he had already had two dinners that day, but indulged anyways. Afterward, we went over to my grandma's old house, where we would spend the night.
After changing, we met up with Ingrid, Erik's sister. She was having a house party, and was very nice, a great hostess! After much merriment, we crashed early back at grandma's house.
The next morning, I made waffles for everyone, and we left about 9:30 am for the 11 am game. I thought it would be a great idea to take the DART light rail. It is fast and efficient, and would take us straight to the fair. The only problem was, that half the people going to the game thought the exact same thing. Train after train was completely packed! There were people crammed so tightly, that none of us could find a spot! It took almost 2 hours before we got the game. By that time, it had already started, so we missed kick-off.
Texas won! Way to go! I think the offense did not play outstanding, but the defense definitely wrecked.
After the game, we were famished and decided to get a famous Fletcher's corn dog. Everyone else seemed to want one too..... The line was enormous and everyone seemed to be okay with cutting to the front. I almost had to pull two old men apart because they were fight about who was and who wasn't in line for corn dogs. They were fighting over corn dogs! They were good though after 45 minutes of waiting. After eating, we went to the car show, which, in my opinion, is the only good reason to stay at the fair.
When were getting ready to leave, we saw this huge line of people waiting for something. I asked a guy what they were waiting on and he said the train. You have got to be kidding me. Our only way back to the cars was a two hour line for the train. We decided to take a cab. So did everybody else at the fair. A cab was impossible to find. We walked out of the fair and into one of the shadiest parts of Dallas. I called my mom and asked her to come pick us up. A cop stopped and asked why we were sitting around. He said this is a pretty bad neighborhood and should probably go back to the fair if it got dark before our ride got here. I guess he thought that someone was going to jump us!
We finally got home safely to our cars and back to grandma's house. We showered and went to Emily Snow's house, where everyone except Nick and I were staying for the night. Nick and I had to be back for church in Sunday morning, so we drove back home and got to Austin about 12:30 am or so.
All in all, a fun weekend, but waaaaay too many people! If I ever go again, I think I'll have a helicopter drop me from a rope to my seat and then come rescue me out of the stadium after the game.
After changing, we met up with Ingrid, Erik's sister. She was having a house party, and was very nice, a great hostess! After much merriment, we crashed early back at grandma's house.
The next morning, I made waffles for everyone, and we left about 9:30 am for the 11 am game. I thought it would be a great idea to take the DART light rail. It is fast and efficient, and would take us straight to the fair. The only problem was, that half the people going to the game thought the exact same thing. Train after train was completely packed! There were people crammed so tightly, that none of us could find a spot! It took almost 2 hours before we got the game. By that time, it had already started, so we missed kick-off.
Texas won! Way to go! I think the offense did not play outstanding, but the defense definitely wrecked.
After the game, we were famished and decided to get a famous Fletcher's corn dog. Everyone else seemed to want one too..... The line was enormous and everyone seemed to be okay with cutting to the front. I almost had to pull two old men apart because they were fight about who was and who wasn't in line for corn dogs. They were fighting over corn dogs! They were good though after 45 minutes of waiting. After eating, we went to the car show, which, in my opinion, is the only good reason to stay at the fair.
When were getting ready to leave, we saw this huge line of people waiting for something. I asked a guy what they were waiting on and he said the train. You have got to be kidding me. Our only way back to the cars was a two hour line for the train. We decided to take a cab. So did everybody else at the fair. A cab was impossible to find. We walked out of the fair and into one of the shadiest parts of Dallas. I called my mom and asked her to come pick us up. A cop stopped and asked why we were sitting around. He said this is a pretty bad neighborhood and should probably go back to the fair if it got dark before our ride got here. I guess he thought that someone was going to jump us!
We finally got home safely to our cars and back to grandma's house. We showered and went to Emily Snow's house, where everyone except Nick and I were staying for the night. Nick and I had to be back for church in Sunday morning, so we drove back home and got to Austin about 12:30 am or so.
All in all, a fun weekend, but waaaaay too many people! If I ever go again, I think I'll have a helicopter drop me from a rope to my seat and then come rescue me out of the stadium after the game.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Blog for Texas Cycling
I wrote a blog recently for Texas Cycling. It can be found here.
This week starts the start of my fall/winter training. Lots and lots of riding. For now, I will be riding at pretty low intensities and racking on the miles. The only problem is it won't stop raining. We'll see how this goes!
This week starts the start of my fall/winter training. Lots and lots of riding. For now, I will be riding at pretty low intensities and racking on the miles. The only problem is it won't stop raining. We'll see how this goes!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Ride with Lance Armstrong
Thursday night I was getting ready to go to bed and thinking about where I would ride on Friday morning. I decided to log on to my twitter account, which I rarely do, to see what all the cycling stars were up to. I saw a post by Lance Armstrong that said. "He Austin, let's go ride. 8:15 am MelllowJohnny's. " Uh, okay. I'm there.
Friday I got up and put on my Texas kit and headed to Mellow Johnny's bike shop. I brought along some flyers for the Sweatin' Burnt Orange bike tour that UT is putting on to hand out to other people that showed up to ride with Lance. There were about 200 people standing around. Most were in riding gear. Some were in street clothes, just there to take pictures. I handed out all of my flyers and got some people that seemed interested in the ride. You can get a lot of riders that want to sign up when you say "3 kegs of RealAle beer at the end of the ride" as your hook line.
About 8:30 am, there he was. Lance Armstrong. In the flesh. It was a little surreal for me, considering that he is the main reason why I was standing there with shaved legs and in a Lycra cycling kit. He stood there for a minute or two as some big-whig supporters of Livestrong took some pictures with him, and then we started to ride. So many people! Because I had been handing out flyers, I was in the back, so I slowly started to move up. I knew that I would soon get dropped because of street lights. It was such a big group that we were having to run a lot of lights and people in their cars looked quite confused.
Once we got out of downtown, it was smoother sailing. I got up to the front and all of a sudden, I was riding next to Lance! He looked over at me, took a look at my Texas kit, and said "Howdy." Then he put his horns up. I smiled and gave him the horns as well. It is probably a little embarrassing how excited this made me. I fell back into the pack, and was smiling the whole time.
It's funny how small Lance is. He is actually only 5'9". When you see pro football players in real life, you are always amazed at how much bigger they look in real life instead of on TV. But cyclists seem bigger on TV, smaller in real life. That coupled with the fact that the greatest cyclist maybe ever is willing to ride with normal people, that's pretty cool. It made him seem like a person instead of a demigod.
At one point, I was up near the front, and we got on to a really nice stretch of road. A pro guy from Team Six was riding next to me and said, " What an awesome road. I'm gone." And just like that, he attacked out of the pack. He got a gap, and then Lance decided we should reel him back in. Lance took a monster pull and then some other people took pulls at the front, trying to catch. We slowly rotated through until it was my time to pull. I took a short pull and then Lance came around me to bridge the last 20 ft or so. Pretty cool experience.
We slowed down a bit to finish off the ride. Then Lance said he had to go to the airport and turned right to go toward the airport. His car followed him, and left us to ride home together. Altogether, a successful ride. I got to get some training in, and got to talk to the biggest American name in cycling. Cool.
Friday I got up and put on my Texas kit and headed to Mellow Johnny's bike shop. I brought along some flyers for the Sweatin' Burnt Orange bike tour that UT is putting on to hand out to other people that showed up to ride with Lance. There were about 200 people standing around. Most were in riding gear. Some were in street clothes, just there to take pictures. I handed out all of my flyers and got some people that seemed interested in the ride. You can get a lot of riders that want to sign up when you say "3 kegs of RealAle beer at the end of the ride" as your hook line.
About 8:30 am, there he was. Lance Armstrong. In the flesh. It was a little surreal for me, considering that he is the main reason why I was standing there with shaved legs and in a Lycra cycling kit. He stood there for a minute or two as some big-whig supporters of Livestrong took some pictures with him, and then we started to ride. So many people! Because I had been handing out flyers, I was in the back, so I slowly started to move up. I knew that I would soon get dropped because of street lights. It was such a big group that we were having to run a lot of lights and people in their cars looked quite confused.
Once we got out of downtown, it was smoother sailing. I got up to the front and all of a sudden, I was riding next to Lance! He looked over at me, took a look at my Texas kit, and said "Howdy." Then he put his horns up. I smiled and gave him the horns as well. It is probably a little embarrassing how excited this made me. I fell back into the pack, and was smiling the whole time.
It's funny how small Lance is. He is actually only 5'9". When you see pro football players in real life, you are always amazed at how much bigger they look in real life instead of on TV. But cyclists seem bigger on TV, smaller in real life. That coupled with the fact that the greatest cyclist maybe ever is willing to ride with normal people, that's pretty cool. It made him seem like a person instead of a demigod.
At one point, I was up near the front, and we got on to a really nice stretch of road. A pro guy from Team Six was riding next to me and said, " What an awesome road. I'm gone." And just like that, he attacked out of the pack. He got a gap, and then Lance decided we should reel him back in. Lance took a monster pull and then some other people took pulls at the front, trying to catch. We slowly rotated through until it was my time to pull. I took a short pull and then Lance came around me to bridge the last 20 ft or so. Pretty cool experience.
We slowed down a bit to finish off the ride. Then Lance said he had to go to the airport and turned right to go toward the airport. His car followed him, and left us to ride home together. Altogether, a successful ride. I got to get some training in, and got to talk to the biggest American name in cycling. Cool.
Monday, September 28, 2009
UT MTB Race Weekend
"Someone may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it."
-Steve Prefontaine
This last weekend, Texas Cycling was out near Comfort, Texas, for a great weekend of camping, mountain bike racing, and road riding. Some of the guys went out just to ride around the Texas hill country, but I was there to race mountain bike. I had never raced a lot of mountain bike, so this was my first real, full mountain bike race. For some reason, I wanted to win more than usual. At races, I always get a burning desire to completely demolish the field of riders that I am racing with. Now I really wanted to win!
This weekend there were three races, TimeTrial, Short Track XC, and XC. The first race was the time trial, which was a four mile loop around a mountain that you do by yourself. My goal was to catch at least two people in front of me. The officials let people go every 30 seconds, so that means that I would catch my 30 second man and my minute man. Ordinarily, I am pretty bad at time trialing. I worked pretty hard over the summer to try to get better at it (on road) so I was hoping that things would go pretty well. I knew that my weakness was going to be technical sections, because I am not as comfortable on a mountain bike as most of my competition. But, I had better lungs and stamina, so my plan was to go as fast as possible on the straight parts to make up for my lack of technical skill. It worked. I got first in the time trial by about 20 seconds! It was also some of the hardest riding I have ever done on a mountain bike. i was about ready to quit halfway through, but knew that I had to keep going. Andrew, a guy from Baylor got second, and I immediately knew that he would be my main competition for the weekend.
The second race was Saturday afternoon. After lounging and eating under the live oaks scattered around the ranch that we were racing at, I had to get back on the bike. To say that I didn't want to race this afternoon would have been an understatement. But I was in first place for the overall competition, so I had to defend my title. The short track cross counntry (STXC) is a race that involves a very small loop that you go around many many times. It hurts. Bad. It was so cool to be the leader in points because I got to line up at the front and no one said anything. From the time the official blew the whistle until the end of the race, my legs were on fire. I started reasonably near the front, about five guys back. Andrew was second. I knew that at some point he would pass the weaker rider in front of him and then he would be gone. I had to stay on his wheel for that. Sure enough, about halfway into the race he 'got on his horse' and sprinted into the lead. I quickly passed four guys at once and got right on his tail. None of the other riders could match his pace. I barely hung on. Going around turns, I took any chance I could get to let my redlining heart rest. At three laps to go, we were well out in front of the rest of the riders. My heart had stopped beating so hard at this point so my plan was to stick to his wheel like gorilla glue until the final straight-a-way, and then outs-print him for the win. Luck would have it another way. On the next lap I heard a pssssssh come from my back tire and my back tire started to fishtail as it complete went flat. Crap. There was no chance to change it and get back in the race because there was only two laps to go. I was really mad. I tried not to take it out on my bike too much, but, well lets just say I wasn't happy. I walked back to the finish just in time to see Baylor's Andrew cross the finish in first. I got a DNF. So much for defending my lead. Later Cameron found a huge piece of bailing wire sticking out of my tire.
The Race Killer. I kept it as a souvenir.
The third race was on Sunday and was a cross country race, which is just a regular race. Nothing fancy. My plan was to stick to Andrew's wheel and not let him out of my sight. This worked for most of the race. I had him on the first section because it was flat. We dropped almost everybody except for an A&M rider that was stuck on my wheel. Then the three of us started to climb. Andrew said to me, "Feel free to go around me because I'm going to take it easy here." I said okay, but stayed behind him. I didn't want to over-exert myself on the climb. He went pretty slow. I was not breathing that hard and the Aggie was still there. I kept almost going around him, but every time I just said to myself, "stick to the plan!" So I just stuck to his wheel. After climbing we had a long section of very technical rock, which the hill country is so well known for. It was tough. Soon we dropped the Aggie and then Andrew started to inch away from me. I fought as hard as I could to stick to him, but I just wasn't as good at picking a smooth line. By the next climbing section, he was probably 200 yards in front of me. This climbing section was long and painful, with lots of switchbacks. I gained a little time on him, and every time we would go around a switchback, we would stare each other down, looking for signs of weakness. I tried my best to look in good form, but definitely was not. He was doing his best to keep the distance between us. Then we went back downhill. I could barely keep my arms straight and was having a tough time on the downhill. At one point I took stupid falls twice in a row, I screamed at myself to concentrate and things were better after that. I don't have a lot of downhill mountain skill, but I pretty much just careen down the mountain with disregard for my body. I was trying to win a race here! When we came out of the downhill, I had almost caught up with him! I pushed my legs as hard as they could go. I was gaining time on him, but he looked behind and saw me coming up on him and wisely floored it so that I couldn't catch up. I ended around 20 seconds behind him. The Aggie came in 4 minutes later. We had pushed each other to the limits of our abilities and even though I lost, I still had a lot of fun. I congratulated Andrew and he said he really enjoyed the race and that he wasn't planning on going that hard.
I ended up third overall for the weekend, with the aggie coming in second and Andrew from Baylor in first. The conference championships are next weekend, so I'm ready to kick up some more dust.
-Steve Prefontaine
This last weekend, Texas Cycling was out near Comfort, Texas, for a great weekend of camping, mountain bike racing, and road riding. Some of the guys went out just to ride around the Texas hill country, but I was there to race mountain bike. I had never raced a lot of mountain bike, so this was my first real, full mountain bike race. For some reason, I wanted to win more than usual. At races, I always get a burning desire to completely demolish the field of riders that I am racing with. Now I really wanted to win!
This weekend there were three races, TimeTrial, Short Track XC, and XC. The first race was the time trial, which was a four mile loop around a mountain that you do by yourself. My goal was to catch at least two people in front of me. The officials let people go every 30 seconds, so that means that I would catch my 30 second man and my minute man. Ordinarily, I am pretty bad at time trialing. I worked pretty hard over the summer to try to get better at it (on road) so I was hoping that things would go pretty well. I knew that my weakness was going to be technical sections, because I am not as comfortable on a mountain bike as most of my competition. But, I had better lungs and stamina, so my plan was to go as fast as possible on the straight parts to make up for my lack of technical skill. It worked. I got first in the time trial by about 20 seconds! It was also some of the hardest riding I have ever done on a mountain bike. i was about ready to quit halfway through, but knew that I had to keep going. Andrew, a guy from Baylor got second, and I immediately knew that he would be my main competition for the weekend.
The second race was Saturday afternoon. After lounging and eating under the live oaks scattered around the ranch that we were racing at, I had to get back on the bike. To say that I didn't want to race this afternoon would have been an understatement. But I was in first place for the overall competition, so I had to defend my title. The short track cross counntry (STXC) is a race that involves a very small loop that you go around many many times. It hurts. Bad. It was so cool to be the leader in points because I got to line up at the front and no one said anything. From the time the official blew the whistle until the end of the race, my legs were on fire. I started reasonably near the front, about five guys back. Andrew was second. I knew that at some point he would pass the weaker rider in front of him and then he would be gone. I had to stay on his wheel for that. Sure enough, about halfway into the race he 'got on his horse' and sprinted into the lead. I quickly passed four guys at once and got right on his tail. None of the other riders could match his pace. I barely hung on. Going around turns, I took any chance I could get to let my redlining heart rest. At three laps to go, we were well out in front of the rest of the riders. My heart had stopped beating so hard at this point so my plan was to stick to his wheel like gorilla glue until the final straight-a-way, and then outs-print him for the win. Luck would have it another way. On the next lap I heard a pssssssh come from my back tire and my back tire started to fishtail as it complete went flat. Crap. There was no chance to change it and get back in the race because there was only two laps to go. I was really mad. I tried not to take it out on my bike too much, but, well lets just say I wasn't happy. I walked back to the finish just in time to see Baylor's Andrew cross the finish in first. I got a DNF. So much for defending my lead. Later Cameron found a huge piece of bailing wire sticking out of my tire.
The Race Killer. I kept it as a souvenir.
The third race was on Sunday and was a cross country race, which is just a regular race. Nothing fancy. My plan was to stick to Andrew's wheel and not let him out of my sight. This worked for most of the race. I had him on the first section because it was flat. We dropped almost everybody except for an A&M rider that was stuck on my wheel. Then the three of us started to climb. Andrew said to me, "Feel free to go around me because I'm going to take it easy here." I said okay, but stayed behind him. I didn't want to over-exert myself on the climb. He went pretty slow. I was not breathing that hard and the Aggie was still there. I kept almost going around him, but every time I just said to myself, "stick to the plan!" So I just stuck to his wheel. After climbing we had a long section of very technical rock, which the hill country is so well known for. It was tough. Soon we dropped the Aggie and then Andrew started to inch away from me. I fought as hard as I could to stick to him, but I just wasn't as good at picking a smooth line. By the next climbing section, he was probably 200 yards in front of me. This climbing section was long and painful, with lots of switchbacks. I gained a little time on him, and every time we would go around a switchback, we would stare each other down, looking for signs of weakness. I tried my best to look in good form, but definitely was not. He was doing his best to keep the distance between us. Then we went back downhill. I could barely keep my arms straight and was having a tough time on the downhill. At one point I took stupid falls twice in a row, I screamed at myself to concentrate and things were better after that. I don't have a lot of downhill mountain skill, but I pretty much just careen down the mountain with disregard for my body. I was trying to win a race here! When we came out of the downhill, I had almost caught up with him! I pushed my legs as hard as they could go. I was gaining time on him, but he looked behind and saw me coming up on him and wisely floored it so that I couldn't catch up. I ended around 20 seconds behind him. The Aggie came in 4 minutes later. We had pushed each other to the limits of our abilities and even though I lost, I still had a lot of fun. I congratulated Andrew and he said he really enjoyed the race and that he wasn't planning on going that hard.
I ended up third overall for the weekend, with the aggie coming in second and Andrew from Baylor in first. The conference championships are next weekend, so I'm ready to kick up some more dust.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Halo Training
It has been raining in Austin for around the last week on and off. This makes it extremely hard to ride. On one hand, it is not raining when I can't ride, which makes me want to ride. But then, when I can it is always raining! So lately, I have resorted to riding my trainer, which is never that fun. But Nick came up with an amazing idea the other night: halo training. This is where I ride my trainer and play Halo at the same time. It is absolutely the most fun, ever. A great study break for sure. I have depicted below what I think this looks like. Master Chief shooting up the bad guys on a bike. The bike happens to be one that was designed by Thomas Edison.
I found that positioning my body to use a controller and ride at the same time can be quite difficult. I either put my forearms down on the handlebars, or just sit up and spin with no hands. I also have to be careful not to sweat on the controllers! I have also found that when there are lots of bad dudes to kill, I find my legs stop as I concentrate on the game. I'll have to work to keep my legs moving!
Forgive my poor Photoshop skills, I'm an engineer, not a graphic designer.
I found that positioning my body to use a controller and ride at the same time can be quite difficult. I either put my forearms down on the handlebars, or just sit up and spin with no hands. I also have to be careful not to sweat on the controllers! I have also found that when there are lots of bad dudes to kill, I find my legs stop as I concentrate on the game. I'll have to work to keep my legs moving!
Forgive my poor Photoshop skills, I'm an engineer, not a graphic designer.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
New Pedals
At one of my last races, my foot kept coming out of my pedal when I would pedal hard. That's a great way to crash! So it was time to get some new ones.
The ones I decided on were the Keo Sports. I like them a lot! At first they were a little hard to get into because I had to get used to turning them over the right way to push my cleat into the pedal, but I have it down now. That's really good because while I was learning, I would almost fall at every stop light. I probably looked like I had started cycling last week!
This next weekend I will be racing my first mountain bike race of the season! UT is hosting the race and we are camping out! I haven't camped since my trip back to Texas with Ally so I am pretty excited. I will be mountain biking a lot this next week in order to prepare for the race. Hopefully everything will go well!!
Also, I pretty sure I'm going to take the GRE so I can be prepared to possibly go to graduate school as a fall-back plan if I don't get a job out of school. The future is unpredictable at this point, but actually I am not worried! I am enjoying the uncertainty! I don't think I have ever been uncertain of my future (2-3 years out anyways) so it is a new experience.
The ones I decided on were the Keo Sports. I like them a lot! At first they were a little hard to get into because I had to get used to turning them over the right way to push my cleat into the pedal, but I have it down now. That's really good because while I was learning, I would almost fall at every stop light. I probably looked like I had started cycling last week!
This next weekend I will be racing my first mountain bike race of the season! UT is hosting the race and we are camping out! I haven't camped since my trip back to Texas with Ally so I am pretty excited. I will be mountain biking a lot this next week in order to prepare for the race. Hopefully everything will go well!!
Also, I pretty sure I'm going to take the GRE so I can be prepared to possibly go to graduate school as a fall-back plan if I don't get a job out of school. The future is unpredictable at this point, but actually I am not worried! I am enjoying the uncertainty! I don't think I have ever been uncertain of my future (2-3 years out anyways) so it is a new experience.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Table to Bike Rack FTW
Safety First.
A couple days ago, I went to my friends Kyle and Joseph's house for a cycling officer's meeting. Upon entering their abode, I was stunned by their glorious bike rack that bookended their big-screen tv in their living room. I was taken aback, and inspired. When I got home, I was determined to build a bike rack similar to theirs, to solve the problem of my bikes being sprawled haphazardly around my garage. Ryan, one of my roomates, helped.
We started by going to Walmart and buying heavy-duty hooks to hang the bike from the wall. We soon discovered that it is almost impossible to find the studs in our house. After using a razor and banging on the wall for half an hour, we finally just started nailing nails into the wall hoping to find the stud. This was a disaster.
We also reasoned that the bikes would be too far apart if we were confined to placing one at each stud. Therefore, we concluded that we needed to nail a piece of wood on the wall, from which we could hang the hooks, and respectively, the bikes. We did not have the foresight to buy a 2by4 at Wally World, so we decided to use wood that we could find around our house. Ryan suggested a fence post that had fallen off our fence last week. Too thin. Then we decided that the best piece of wood was a leave from a table that we had found near the honors quad freshman year. We unscrewed the leave from the main part of the table and soon had it nailed up on the wall. It worked perfectly! The bikes were up and hanging neatly from the wall within two hours. Win, Upson House. Best thing about it, we covered up all the nail holes.
hybrid, commuter, race, and mountain (L to R)Friday, September 11, 2009
We Will Never Forget
I still remember in 2001, I was getting out of the shower to go to school when my dad told me that the WTC had been attacked. My friend Collin Huber wrote an excellent blog about September 11, 2001, that was really neat to read. It can be found here.
Second Week of September
This last week was a whirlwind of acitvity! I had my first test, and also tons of things to do with the cycling team and Hill Country UT. These two things have kept me very busy. I am happy to be busy because cycling, being around cool people, and Jesus are all things that I enjoy thoroughly. School is always present, and seems like this semester will be a steady deluge of homework, but not so much as to be overwhelming. I have had some time to just relax at the newly renovated Zilker Park, which is a convenient five minute walk from my house.
Zilker: The grass seems more like a golf course than soccer fields.
The last five days, it has rained. This means that I have not been biking. I've also gained five pounds, which I think is quite funny, because that's a pound a day. I hope this relationship of raining to weight gain does not stay linear, because it's supposed to rain for another week! haha.
I wrote a blog recently about the first week of school for my church, which can be found here.
Now, I must plug SWEATIN BURNT ORANGE!! This is a bike tour that UT cycling puts on every year. We have beer and food and we ride our bikes around the beautiful Texas hill country. So like the three people that read my blog should sign up. More info can be found here.
Zilker: The grass seems more like a golf course than soccer fields.
The last five days, it has rained. This means that I have not been biking. I've also gained five pounds, which I think is quite funny, because that's a pound a day. I hope this relationship of raining to weight gain does not stay linear, because it's supposed to rain for another week! haha.
I wrote a blog recently about the first week of school for my church, which can be found here.
Now, I must plug SWEATIN BURNT ORANGE!! This is a bike tour that UT cycling puts on every year. We have beer and food and we ride our bikes around the beautiful Texas hill country. So like the three people that read my blog should sign up. More info can be found here.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Tour of Austin Day Two
My tour of Austin Day Two was actually the third day of the tour. It was also very stressful.
The course was pretty dicey to begin with. There was a huge corner that had a 130 degree turn and lots of bumps and pot holes. I felt excited and anxoius at the start of the race. I was also happy that my parents and my dog shadow came down from Dallas to watch. In the starting laps I was cornering strong and really happy to be out racing.
There was one section that narrowed extremely fast. On the first lap, people were crowding in around and bumping shoulders because the course went from 20 riders to 10 riders wide. On the second lap, I suppose there was just not enough room for everybody, and I heard a loud "WHOA!" and people started going down around me. By a stroke of luck, I did not go down. Unfortunately, Jacob, one of my teammates and fellow bloggers, went down in the crash.
He ended up being hurt pretty bad. Right at the crash, there were some dumpsters sitting next to the course. Jacob tried to move the dumpsters out of the way with his head. As I watched him, I couldn't help but be frightened for him and started praying that God would protect him and help the medics do a good job. The medics did a great job of stabilizing his head and asking him questions about where he was. Class act. Jacob was responsive to questions that were asked of him. They quickly took him to the hospital to get a CT scan. As he was put in the ambulance, he gave us a horns up!
We lined up to start racing again, and everyone was really supportive of our team and was really nice. I am always amazed at how supportive all the racers are. We really take care of our own. I was really worried about Jacob, and got really jittery, going around the sharp corners slower with less confidence. I was soon dropped. I just didn't feel like racing after that hard crash.
Jacob ended up being fine. I went to go visit him at the hospital about two hours after the crash, and he was already discharged. I was very thankful! Overall, the Tour of Austin, as Joey put it, was the Tour of Suck. Now it is on to mountain bike racing for the rest of the fall and looking toward road racing in January.
After the race, my mom, dad, and I went to Wich Wich to grab a sandwich and talk about life. It was good to catch up with them, as I did not spend many days in Garland after I came back from Alaska.
The rest of the week will be spent riding mountain bike and swimming at Gregory Gym. Oh yeah, and school.....
The course was pretty dicey to begin with. There was a huge corner that had a 130 degree turn and lots of bumps and pot holes. I felt excited and anxoius at the start of the race. I was also happy that my parents and my dog shadow came down from Dallas to watch. In the starting laps I was cornering strong and really happy to be out racing.
There was one section that narrowed extremely fast. On the first lap, people were crowding in around and bumping shoulders because the course went from 20 riders to 10 riders wide. On the second lap, I suppose there was just not enough room for everybody, and I heard a loud "WHOA!" and people started going down around me. By a stroke of luck, I did not go down. Unfortunately, Jacob, one of my teammates and fellow bloggers, went down in the crash.
He ended up being hurt pretty bad. Right at the crash, there were some dumpsters sitting next to the course. Jacob tried to move the dumpsters out of the way with his head. As I watched him, I couldn't help but be frightened for him and started praying that God would protect him and help the medics do a good job. The medics did a great job of stabilizing his head and asking him questions about where he was. Class act. Jacob was responsive to questions that were asked of him. They quickly took him to the hospital to get a CT scan. As he was put in the ambulance, he gave us a horns up!
We lined up to start racing again, and everyone was really supportive of our team and was really nice. I am always amazed at how supportive all the racers are. We really take care of our own. I was really worried about Jacob, and got really jittery, going around the sharp corners slower with less confidence. I was soon dropped. I just didn't feel like racing after that hard crash.
Jacob ended up being fine. I went to go visit him at the hospital about two hours after the crash, and he was already discharged. I was very thankful! Overall, the Tour of Austin, as Joey put it, was the Tour of Suck. Now it is on to mountain bike racing for the rest of the fall and looking toward road racing in January.
After the race, my mom, dad, and I went to Wich Wich to grab a sandwich and talk about life. It was good to catch up with them, as I did not spend many days in Garland after I came back from Alaska.
The rest of the week will be spent riding mountain bike and swimming at Gregory Gym. Oh yeah, and school.....
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Tour of Austin Day One
I was really excited about the Tour of Austin. It is a three day stage race around Austin that tons of people go to.
It was one of the most dicey races I have ever been in. Right before we started, it started to rain. It was just a slight drizzle, just enough to wet the road down. Even though it was barely raining everyone was really freaked and riding really sketchy. Of course, just about 5 minutes into the race, there was a crash. I was riding well when I heard "CRASH!" and people started falling over in front of me. I was able to avoid the crash to the left but almost fell when I hit my right hand on the butt in front of me.
The next 30 miles were pretty uneventful. It stopped raining on the back of the course, but people were still very shaken up by the crash. I was jittery. I hadn't raced in months and then there was a crash in the first five minutes that shattered my nerves. No one was attacking off the front. This turned out to be very boring. A lot of people in the peloton were joking about how boring the race was. I was happy to just sit in!
Five minutes from the finish, there was another crash! But I was in this one. I was right behind the guy that crashed, and there was no way to get out of the way. I had the surreal feeling that you get right before you go down when you tell yourself, "okay im going to crash, this might hurt a bit...." Luckily, I was fine and ended up with just a few scratches and bruises. The guy that ended up on the pavement next to me was sitting there and yelling. His middle finger was bent 90 degrees in the wrong direction. As I sat and watched him, he bent his finger back in place. I was appalled. I couldn't believe that this dude had just bent his finger back in place! I'm pretty sure I would have laid down in the road and cried until the med crew came and picked me up. We ended up finishing the race together. I got 25th out of 60 or so. I race again on Monday, and I hope to do well!
It was one of the most dicey races I have ever been in. Right before we started, it started to rain. It was just a slight drizzle, just enough to wet the road down. Even though it was barely raining everyone was really freaked and riding really sketchy. Of course, just about 5 minutes into the race, there was a crash. I was riding well when I heard "CRASH!" and people started falling over in front of me. I was able to avoid the crash to the left but almost fell when I hit my right hand on the butt in front of me.
The next 30 miles were pretty uneventful. It stopped raining on the back of the course, but people were still very shaken up by the crash. I was jittery. I hadn't raced in months and then there was a crash in the first five minutes that shattered my nerves. No one was attacking off the front. This turned out to be very boring. A lot of people in the peloton were joking about how boring the race was. I was happy to just sit in!
Five minutes from the finish, there was another crash! But I was in this one. I was right behind the guy that crashed, and there was no way to get out of the way. I had the surreal feeling that you get right before you go down when you tell yourself, "okay im going to crash, this might hurt a bit...." Luckily, I was fine and ended up with just a few scratches and bruises. The guy that ended up on the pavement next to me was sitting there and yelling. His middle finger was bent 90 degrees in the wrong direction. As I sat and watched him, he bent his finger back in place. I was appalled. I couldn't believe that this dude had just bent his finger back in place! I'm pretty sure I would have laid down in the road and cried until the med crew came and picked me up. We ended up finishing the race together. I got 25th out of 60 or so. I race again on Monday, and I hope to do well!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Last weekend in Alaska
The last weekend in July, Kenai, Alaska
In the last weekend in July we went to the Kenai Peninsula to go mountain bike the Resurrection Trail. It was one of the best experiences in my life! It rained a little bit on Friday, but the rest of the time the weather was beautiful.
There was also a race the same weekend called the Soggy Bottom. It is a 119 mile mountain bike race on the Kenai. The guys that were racing are some of the best athletes in Alaska. We were on the same trail as them and got to see them at different stages of the race. You could see every time they passed us that they were getting more and more tired!
Friday night, we had wine and lots of steak and brats that we biked in! It was really entertaining to see how the bikes were all loaded up with charcoal and meat and wine. I thought it was funny that one of the best meals that I had in Alaska was on a mountain biking trip.
The scenery was outstanding. We didn't see much wildlife, probably because we were being really loud to keep the bears away. The last section was completely downhill, and it was so much fun to scream down the mountains!
In the last weekend in July we went to the Kenai Peninsula to go mountain bike the Resurrection Trail. It was one of the best experiences in my life! It rained a little bit on Friday, but the rest of the time the weather was beautiful.
There was also a race the same weekend called the Soggy Bottom. It is a 119 mile mountain bike race on the Kenai. The guys that were racing are some of the best athletes in Alaska. We were on the same trail as them and got to see them at different stages of the race. You could see every time they passed us that they were getting more and more tired!
Friday night, we had wine and lots of steak and brats that we biked in! It was really entertaining to see how the bikes were all loaded up with charcoal and meat and wine. I thought it was funny that one of the best meals that I had in Alaska was on a mountain biking trip.
The scenery was outstanding. We didn't see much wildlife, probably because we were being really loud to keep the bears away. The last section was completely downhill, and it was so much fun to scream down the mountains!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Backpacking Denali with Travis
First off, this post is about things that happened WAY in the past. With working coming to a close and trying to get moved back to Austin, it was very hectic and most computer things, such as email, Facebook, and this blog, were neglected. Now that I'm back in Austin, its time to update! Yay! I wrote most things down on paper so that I could remember....
July 23-25
The weekend my family was in town, we decided to go to Denali National Park. It took about 4 hrs to drive up to the park, and we, in Day Family fashion, didn't get on the road until around 9:00 pm. As we drove up, dad was amazed at how long the sun stays out up here. He got excited about it, and it's always cool to see him excited about something. We drove in and found our campsite, which turned out to be the wrong one, but whatever.
The next day, we were promptly told we were in the wrong campsite and to move our stuff. After putting the tents away, we drove down to the visitor's center to get permits for the area that we were going to go backpacking in. I suppose because Alaska is just that hardcore (or for conservation) there are no trails in Denali. If you want to go backpacking, you sign up for an area and hike wherever you want within that area. The only rule is that you can't camp within site of the road. We took the bus out to our area, and then waved goodbye to our parents. Most passengers never leave the bus, so you could see that there were some that looked on with jealous envy.
Setting up camp out of sight of the road was harder then we originally thought. The area was gently sloping up from the road, which meant that you could see a lot from the road in this area. We ended up hiking over eight miles to just be out of sight of the road! We started out by hiking in a river basin, which is a broad flat area that has lots of river rocks in it. The rivers in this part of the park are braided, so they split up and meander around. This makes river crossings difficult but not dangerous. After a while, I realized that we had hiked up the wrong river, and need to be in the one directly to our west. This meant getting out of the river bed and hiking across thick willows. It was tough. The willows were about hip-high, and would crush under foot, producing a walking feeling similar to post-holing through snow.
We arrived at our camp about 10:30 pm (still a lot of light!) and had dinner. While having dinner, a huge herd of caribou came across our path! When on the buses, you could stop for 15 minutes so that passengers can get pictures of caribou. Now we had about 40 not 20 yards from us while we were eating. I've decided that if you want to see wildlife in the park, you should definitely get off the road!
The next morning we hiked back to the road and caught a bus back to the visitors center. For the rest of the day, we did 'regular' tourist stuff, and had a lot of fun.
Oh and the mountain is really big.
July 23-25
The weekend my family was in town, we decided to go to Denali National Park. It took about 4 hrs to drive up to the park, and we, in Day Family fashion, didn't get on the road until around 9:00 pm. As we drove up, dad was amazed at how long the sun stays out up here. He got excited about it, and it's always cool to see him excited about something. We drove in and found our campsite, which turned out to be the wrong one, but whatever.
The next day, we were promptly told we were in the wrong campsite and to move our stuff. After putting the tents away, we drove down to the visitor's center to get permits for the area that we were going to go backpacking in. I suppose because Alaska is just that hardcore (or for conservation) there are no trails in Denali. If you want to go backpacking, you sign up for an area and hike wherever you want within that area. The only rule is that you can't camp within site of the road. We took the bus out to our area, and then waved goodbye to our parents. Most passengers never leave the bus, so you could see that there were some that looked on with jealous envy.
Setting up camp out of sight of the road was harder then we originally thought. The area was gently sloping up from the road, which meant that you could see a lot from the road in this area. We ended up hiking over eight miles to just be out of sight of the road! We started out by hiking in a river basin, which is a broad flat area that has lots of river rocks in it. The rivers in this part of the park are braided, so they split up and meander around. This makes river crossings difficult but not dangerous. After a while, I realized that we had hiked up the wrong river, and need to be in the one directly to our west. This meant getting out of the river bed and hiking across thick willows. It was tough. The willows were about hip-high, and would crush under foot, producing a walking feeling similar to post-holing through snow.
We arrived at our camp about 10:30 pm (still a lot of light!) and had dinner. While having dinner, a huge herd of caribou came across our path! When on the buses, you could stop for 15 minutes so that passengers can get pictures of caribou. Now we had about 40 not 20 yards from us while we were eating. I've decided that if you want to see wildlife in the park, you should definitely get off the road!
The next morning we hiked back to the road and caught a bus back to the visitors center. For the rest of the day, we did 'regular' tourist stuff, and had a lot of fun.
Oh and the mountain is really big.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Welcome to Alaska, Family!
My family got into town two days ago, and it has been non-stop sight seeing since they got here.
I picked them up from the airport on Monday at about 8:45 pm. Right out of the gate, my dad got out his notebook and directed us to the first destination. On Day Family vacations, there is no waiting or resting. We go from one tourism spot to the other, not worrying about sleep or food, until we have seen all that we can.
From the airport we went to Ship Creek, a local favorite for salmon fishing. Even though it was almost 9:30, there were hundreds of people out trying to catch a fish or two. We watched them fish from a bridge that goes over the river. I thought this was pretty funny because my dad usually says that fishing is boring, but now he wanted to WATCH fishing. Maybe he has been watching OLN. Actually it was interesting because you could see the fish in the water and could watch the fishermans' attempts to catch them. There was one huge King (which you have to throw back right now) that kept getting caught multiple times. He was probably 2-3 ft long!
The next day I went to work to go visit the LNG plant down in the Cook Inlet. This plant takes natural gas, cools it to -556 deg F, and then ships it on large barges to Japan, where people use it to fry their eggs. If the Japanese eat fried eggs.... Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) boils at room temperature, so it is a pretty interesting thing to see.
That afternoon, I met back up with my parents to eat dinner. I took them to Moose's Tooth, which is the best pizza place I have ever been to. Although we had to wait for over an hour, it was good to sit and talk. Not to mention when we finally did eat, the Halibut Pizza was delicious. We didn't end up leaving until after 10 pm, so I went home and went to bed soon after.
This weekend, we are driving up to Denali to camp in the park and tour around until Sunday. Then, I am taking them to Seward so they can catch a cruise back to Seattle. Should be fun!
I picked them up from the airport on Monday at about 8:45 pm. Right out of the gate, my dad got out his notebook and directed us to the first destination. On Day Family vacations, there is no waiting or resting. We go from one tourism spot to the other, not worrying about sleep or food, until we have seen all that we can.
From the airport we went to Ship Creek, a local favorite for salmon fishing. Even though it was almost 9:30, there were hundreds of people out trying to catch a fish or two. We watched them fish from a bridge that goes over the river. I thought this was pretty funny because my dad usually says that fishing is boring, but now he wanted to WATCH fishing. Maybe he has been watching OLN. Actually it was interesting because you could see the fish in the water and could watch the fishermans' attempts to catch them. There was one huge King (which you have to throw back right now) that kept getting caught multiple times. He was probably 2-3 ft long!
The next day I went to work to go visit the LNG plant down in the Cook Inlet. This plant takes natural gas, cools it to -556 deg F, and then ships it on large barges to Japan, where people use it to fry their eggs. If the Japanese eat fried eggs.... Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) boils at room temperature, so it is a pretty interesting thing to see.
That afternoon, I met back up with my parents to eat dinner. I took them to Moose's Tooth, which is the best pizza place I have ever been to. Although we had to wait for over an hour, it was good to sit and talk. Not to mention when we finally did eat, the Halibut Pizza was delicious. We didn't end up leaving until after 10 pm, so I went home and went to bed soon after.
This weekend, we are driving up to Denali to camp in the park and tour around until Sunday. Then, I am taking them to Seward so they can catch a cruise back to Seattle. Should be fun!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Hammerman Triathalon
This last weekend I did a tri! But, I'm lazy so I did it as a team. My friend Libby swam, I biked, and Megan ran. This was an xTerra tri, so instead of road biking and running, you have mountain biking and trail running, which makes it much more hardcore. The swimming leg is still swimming, they haven't found a way to make that out of water yet.
Libby swims for Colorado School of Mines, and totally rocked the swim. She is usually a sprinter, but made it out of the water near the front. She gave it her all, and was definitely delirious coming out of the water. I yelled for her to come tag up, and she stumbled over and tagged me.
I started running to the mount zone, where I could get on my bike. A this point, we were second in the team category from what I could tell. The biking was a hard course! Half of it is on cross-country ski trails and half is on pretty technical singletrack. I hadnt done a mountain bike race since last fall, so I was excited to see how I did. I got passed by a couple of really good bikers, one of which ended up winning the whole thing. I was wishing a had a full suspension bike because Anchorage singletrack has a lot of roots due to how shallow the root system of trees here is. I fell on some really quick and blind corners, but had a serious amount of fun on the trails! I finished the 13 mile courses in just over an hour, and tagged up with Megan.
Megan did well on the 4 mile trail run course, but there were some serious runners in our field. We ended up 6th (I think)! I was really pleased with our result and had a lot of fun doing it. If I move to Anchorage, I think I will have to get into Tri's even though my Texas Cycling buddies will make fun of me.......
I forgot my camera, so no pictures!
Libby swims for Colorado School of Mines, and totally rocked the swim. She is usually a sprinter, but made it out of the water near the front. She gave it her all, and was definitely delirious coming out of the water. I yelled for her to come tag up, and she stumbled over and tagged me.
I started running to the mount zone, where I could get on my bike. A this point, we were second in the team category from what I could tell. The biking was a hard course! Half of it is on cross-country ski trails and half is on pretty technical singletrack. I hadnt done a mountain bike race since last fall, so I was excited to see how I did. I got passed by a couple of really good bikers, one of which ended up winning the whole thing. I was wishing a had a full suspension bike because Anchorage singletrack has a lot of roots due to how shallow the root system of trees here is. I fell on some really quick and blind corners, but had a serious amount of fun on the trails! I finished the 13 mile courses in just over an hour, and tagged up with Megan.
Megan did well on the 4 mile trail run course, but there were some serious runners in our field. We ended up 6th (I think)! I was really pleased with our result and had a lot of fun doing it. If I move to Anchorage, I think I will have to get into Tri's even though my Texas Cycling buddies will make fun of me.......
I forgot my camera, so no pictures!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Blackstone Bay Kayak Trip
Last weekend I went another of one of the best trips that I have ever been on. I keep saying this on almost every trip that I have been on in Alaska. This one, I planned and invited all the interns to go for a two day kayaking trip to Prince William Sound out of Whittier, Alaska. The plan was to take a water taxi out to Blackstone Bay, paddle around and then camp, and then paddle back into Whittier on Sunday. Blackstone Bay is famous for its huge tidewater glaciers. Tidewater glaciers are glaciers that empty straight into the ocean. They are quite magnificent when the ice calves, or breaks off, into the water.
We were blessed with excellent weather, which is suprising in Prince William Sound because it is actually considered a rainforest because it rains so much there. It didn't rain on us and there were blue skies each day, which made the trip and paddling more agreeable. Kayaking is fun, except when the wind picks up and you are soaked due to rain.
I was worried about people being immature and trying to flip kayaks or accidentally falling in the water. This can be potentially dangerous, because the water is around 40 degrees. At that temperature, it would not take you very long to get hypothermia and die if you fell in, so you have to be carefull. We taught everybody what to do if they did flip, and told them about how serious it could be if they fell in, and I think this sobered them up. This did not stop us from having water fights with the bildge pumps!
Saturday night we had hot dogs and sat around the fire and talked until the sun set (probably 1:00 am?). The setting sun made the water look like a grey-blue glass. As we sat pondering how pretty the scenery was, I said, "You know, I think Alaska is where desktop wallpapers are born." Even though it was a nerdy comment, I think that comment definitely verbalized what everyone was thinking.
Sunday morning we got up around 8:00 and broke camp really quickly for a group of 14. We had oatmeal for breakfast and then got to paddling. We had 13 miles to go, which equates to around 5 hours. The weather was really warm on the water, probably close to 80 deg. I quickly stripped to shorts and a t-shirt. There was no wind, which made paddling easy, but the sun bouncing off the water and our kayaks made it pretty hot. People started to get a little cranky near the end of the day, but I understood because we were doing a lot of paddling. During the paddle we stopped multiple times to take strech breaks and eat food. On one beach the water was crystal clear, so four or five people, including myself, decided to go for a swim. The water was chilly, but it felt amazing after being hot all day. It felt great to have the sun on me after a long summer of pants and long t-shirts.
Adam called Sunday a sucker day. A lot of times, the weather in Alaska is terrible, and just when you're about fed up and ready to leave, mother nature will send you a beautiful day that will "sucker" you back in to Alaska. This whole summer has been full of sucker days.
Adam called Sunday a sucker day. A lot of times, the weather in Alaska is terrible, and just when you're about fed up and ready to leave, mother nature will send you a beautiful day that will "sucker" you back in to Alaska. This whole summer has been full of sucker days.
Billy and Staphane. That cliff to the right of the picture is over 500 ft tall.
Yum Yum, glacier........
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wolverine Peak: Running Down Hills From Bears
Weather Forecast For Today: Smoke
After work, about 6:00 pm, I decided to go on a hike with one of my buddies, Josh, from work. We had originally planned to do about two hours of hiking and then gorge ourselves on pizza buffet. Halfway through, Josh decided he wanted us to be more adventurous and climb Wolverine Peak, and I grudgingly agreed. I had found a nice little "access trail" that the locals use that cut 30 minutes of driving time by using a different trailhead than the traditional one. The problem was that this trail was getting quite overgrown, which commonly happens when trails in Alaska aren't used. The trail was not so overgrown that you couldn't find your way though.
It was over 80 degrees, which is burning up in Anchorage, so after about 10 minutes of hiking, I was soaked with sweat. There is also lots of smoke in the air right now because of wildfires on the Kenai Peninsula. It wasn't so bad that I had trouble breathing, but you could definitely smell the burning campfire smell all around you. Evidently, they don't do much about wildfires here, so it will be like this until it eventually rains. Another consequence of the smoke is that it makes it extremely humid. More sweating.
Once we got out above the tree line (1hour) the scenery was quite good. As we got higher there seemed to be less smoke, but this could be me just being optimistic. It took us about 2 hours to get to the top. We took a short break and headed back down.
On the way back, we encountered two infamous things of Alaska hiking: bear poop and mosquitoes. The mostquitoes were out in force and could keep up with us if we just walked, so we decided to jog just fast enough so that they could not keep up. It was all downhill so it wasn't that bad. The bear poop was everywhere. With no bear spray, it would not be good to walk through some brush face to face with a grizzly. So as we ran down the trail, I would yell "HEY BEAR!" every couple of seconds so that the bears would hear us coming. They are actually pretty afraid of humans and will avoid us if they can. Because we ran the whole time, we got back pretty quickly. The 10 mile trail took us just over four hours, which is pretty quick, considering we climbed around 2500 vertical ft. Exhausted, I skipped the pizza buffet and went home. After talking to Ally, I microwaved some green peas and went to bed. I was tired.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Kachemak Bay Kayaking Part 2
On day three of the kayak adventure, we explored a different bay in another part of the park. It was more difficult that the day before because the wind was a bit stronger. The waves in most parts of the bay were about 2 ft tall. You can't kayak in more than about 4 ft without the danger of tipping over. Tipping over is very serious because of how fast you can get hypothermia. If you do tip over they advise you to try to get back on top of your kayak, head straight to shore and get out of your wet clothes, and make a fire.
Today was Fourth of July, and it was a beautiful Independence Day. In one area we went, there were tons of bald eagles, and I could not contain my amusement of how surreal it was to see bald eagles soaring overhead on July 4th. They are actually quite an annoying bird, and squawk in a tone that sounds like an old lady dying. Adam says it was their mating call. I guess they are into old ladies.....
We also saw some cool star fish. I got to touch one and I was surprised at how hard they are. They feel like rocks. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of them.
On the way back, we got a good taste of Alaska weekend traffic. Alaskans, for whatever reason, love campers/RVs. They take them everywhere, and tend to drive no more than 50 mph. The tourists on the other hand will only drive 40, so with the combination, you don't get anywhere fast. It was as bad as traffic in Austin! The good thing was is instead of staring at buildings, you are staring at huge mountains in every direction. I think all of Anchorage had been on the Kenai Peninsula for Fourth of July.
Oyster Farm. The balls hold up trays that the things grow on. They were everywhere in this bay.
Crystal clear water! Not sure what the underwater shrub things were: some type of seaweed that was everywhere at low tide.
Today was Fourth of July, and it was a beautiful Independence Day. In one area we went, there were tons of bald eagles, and I could not contain my amusement of how surreal it was to see bald eagles soaring overhead on July 4th. They are actually quite an annoying bird, and squawk in a tone that sounds like an old lady dying. Adam says it was their mating call. I guess they are into old ladies.....
We also saw some cool star fish. I got to touch one and I was surprised at how hard they are. They feel like rocks. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of them.
On the way back, we got a good taste of Alaska weekend traffic. Alaskans, for whatever reason, love campers/RVs. They take them everywhere, and tend to drive no more than 50 mph. The tourists on the other hand will only drive 40, so with the combination, you don't get anywhere fast. It was as bad as traffic in Austin! The good thing was is instead of staring at buildings, you are staring at huge mountains in every direction. I think all of Anchorage had been on the Kenai Peninsula for Fourth of July.
Our water source. Mark was brave and made the climb up the slippery slope.
Oyster Farm. The balls hold up trays that the things grow on. They were everywhere in this bay.
Crystal clear water! Not sure what the underwater shrub things were: some type of seaweed that was everywhere at low tide.
Kachemak Bay Kayaking Part 1
This was one of the best trips I have ever been on. The plan was to drive to Homer on Thursday, get a water taxi across the bay to Kachemak Bay State Park, kayak around Friday and Saturday, and then come back Sunday.
We arrived in Homer around 12:30pm on Thursday. Homer has a huge spit where all the boats are, and we cruised down to the dock to find the captain of our water taxi. When we got to his business hut, we were a little apprehensive about the quality of the kayaks. They were very small! Most of the sea kayaks are bigger and newer but these were old and in need of some repair. Because of this, we searched around for another outfitter that maybe had some kayaks to rent, but everyone was booked solid for Fourth of July. We ended up just biting the bullet and going with the original kayaks.
We figured we couldn't move around because not all our stuff would fit in the smaller kayaks, so we decided to camp on a beach and just kayak in different directions on Friday and Saturday. After we arrived, we set about finding a reliable water source, setting up camp, and exploring in the kayaks. We discovered that one of the kayaks had no working rudder! I decided to take this one and try my best to keep up with everyone else. It is very tiring without a rudder!
After exploring, I started a fire (one match style, baby!) and we sat around and talked and watched the sun start to set. Someone that was camping on the same beach came over excitedly and said they had seen on orca and wanted to know if we wanted to go and try to find it. Billy and I set out in the double kayak to find the orca. Unfortunately, we never found it, but we did see a big school of dolphins! It was really neat to hear them blow water out of their blow hole when they came up for air. It was really hard to get pictures of them because they would only come up to the surface for a second, and then stay under for minutes at a time. We watch the sun set from our kayaks.
The second day (Friday) we set out for Tutka Bay, which is a smaller bay off of Kachemak Bay. It was very pretty. I think the best part was this neat arch that we found that only had about 2.5 ft of space between the top and the water. We found that we could barely get the kayaks underneath if we leaned back really far, so we had fun taking turn going underneath. Along the way I got to see sea otters and porpoises just a few yards from our kayaks, as well as a lot of Bald Eagles overhead. We got back to camp after about 5 hours of paddling. I was completely shelled, so I layed out on the beach and to a long nap, and then woke up for a while to read a book. It was really nice just to relax and take time to get some good rest in. That night, we had another fire and ended up playing card games until about 2:00 am. It still wasn't dark.
I found it even harder to sleep while camping because you can't really black out the curtains in a tent. When I go camping, I usually go to bed when the sun goes down, and wake up when it comes up. In Alaska, I think I would get 2 hours of sleep doing this, so I had to quickly learn how to sleep in broad daylight.
Grilling Salmon over the fire. It was SO tasty!
Me in Tutka Bay. Picture still doesn't quite grasp the beauty.
Sunset while hunting for Orcas. This is now my wallpaper on my computer!
North Slope Trip Part Two
The second day we saw more operations from around the field.
The most exciting thing that we did was, of course, jump into the Arctic Ocean. This is called the polar bear jump. I couldn't ever tell if this is just something that the old guys that have been around forever make up to get a good laugh or if it was for real, but either way it was fun. And extremely cold. I could only stay in for about a minute before I started to shiver. I forgot my swim trunks in the room, so I went in my boxers. Afterwards we dried off really quickly, and stuck around to take a picture.
Another funny thing that I saw was the polar bear cages. Sometimes the polar bears wait in front of the doors, so they put up cages around the doors so that you could go outside, check to see if there are bears around, and then exit. Luckily, the polar bears are only around during the winter.... primarily.
That water in the back there with the ice? Yeah, we swam in that.
Caged animal! Stay back.....
Monday, July 6, 2009
North Slope Trip Day 1-2: June 28-29
June ended with a whirlwind of activities and obligations for me, and I am just now getting time to sit down and write them out. Since Sunday, June 28th, I have only been in Anchorage for one day, July 1st. Otherwise, I was either on the North Slope or kayaking and camping through Kachemak Bay State Park. I will write these posts as if I wrote them day of... or something like that. Whatever.
The powers that be at ConocoPhillips decided to organize a North Slope Trip for the interns so that we could get some hands on experience with the wells and operations that we are working with this summer. Even though I work in Anchorage, the actual field that I work with is on the other side of Alaska, or about a 2 hour plane ride. Dallas and St Louis are closer together than Anchorage and the Kuparuk feild. Our plane left Anchorage about 9:30 am headed for Deadhorse, AK. There is one road that goes into Deadhorse, but it is only an iceroad, therefore closed during the summer months. The show 'Ice Road Truckers,' takes place on this road. The whole community runs completely by itself. There is more to this than one might think: power generation, waste management, etc. This entire time, you are in a climate where during the summer the sun never sets, and during the winter it can get to -80 deg F.
Once we got to Deadhorse, we got on a bus to go to the Kuparuk Field, about 50 miles away. A good description of ConocoPhillips operation in Alaska can be found here. The Kuparuk field is a smaller version of Prudhoe, which is actually run by BP. Conoco runs Kuparuk. We arrived at CPF1, which is where all the workers for the Kuparuk field are housed. The place was much bigger than I expected. In my mind, I had imagined a bunch of trailer homes parked out in the tundra. This building was monstrous, housing hundreds of people. There are enclosed walkways to all the buildings for the winter months. When we got there, was a 'warm' 43 degrees with the sun on you. Needless to say, I was inside most of the time.
First thing on the agenda was lunch! We all filed into the Spark Room, which is a DIY cafeteria/ convenience store. They have make-your-own sandwiches, pre-made sandwiches, microwave dinners, leftovers from last night's hot meal, dairy products, FRUIT, donuts, etc. Best part is: it's all free! All you can eat, 24/7. I was amazed. Expecially because of the fruit. Fruit in Alaska is about 2 times more expensive than in Austin, and tastes 2 times as terrible. But the fruit on the slope is free, and delicious. I have no idea what kind of witchcraft they use to get perfectly ripe fruit up above the arctic circle, but it must be powerfull. At every meal, half of my meal was fruit.
Sunday afternoon was filled with tour the CPF1 facility. This is where all the oil from a section of the field collects, gets processed, and then is pumped down the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline (TAPS) to Valdez (pronounced Val-deez, people get mad if you say it different). The oil is then shipped to Seattle to be refined into gasoline. The facility was big and loud. I am always impressed at how big a 2800 hp engine is.
After the tour, we ate dinner, where I had prime rib and a baked potato with a large helping of mixed fruit. We had no plans after dinner, so I went and worked out in the gym, where I rode a stationary bike for 2 hrs, and then rowed a little. If it wasn't for sportcenter, I would have been bored riding a stationary bike, but I suppose it's better than nothing. I went to sleep by 10 pm, because I had to get up at 5:30 am the next morning. Can't wait for the free breakfast.
I slept better than I have since I got to Alaska because they had true black-out shades instead of the cloth I have hanging up in my room. The room was pitch-black, so I went straight to sleep. Only complaint I have was that my room was right across the hall from the raquetball court, which had someone in it 24 hrs a day.
On Monday, we toured around the field and saw the coiled-tubing rig. I was so excited to see this rig. It is all enclosed so drilling can continue during the winter, and uses the newest technologies. Pretty much, the thing drills new side-wells from existing wells, thus saving money and not disrupting more of the tundra. Les, a production engineer at CPF3, threw us an impromptu BBQ with hamburgers. I was beginning to like the North Slope.
Pictures are soon to come as soon as I have time to unpack.
I guess somebody really wanted that door closed......
Les grillin' some burgers.
Home Sweet Home!!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Jewel Peak Hike near Girdwood
Today we climbed Jewel Peak near Girdwood. This was an incredible hike. I think the pictures speak for themselves. All I will say is that it is amazing how many mountains there are here. Some have never been named, and they are within a short drive of Anchorage. You could spend a lifetime climbing all the snow-covered peaks. This is truly a magical place. Better than Colorado, Utah, and California combined.
A glacier from almost near the summit. There was a lot of snow still on the peak that we had to hike over. And I hiked on a glacier! It actually wasn't any different from hiking a regular snow, but it was still neat. If you look right above the closest 'V' in the picture, you can make out Girdwood, near the Turnagain arm farther still.
Closer pictures of crevasses. You definitely would not want to walk near those without some crampons, rope and a harness.
Glaciers!!!!!!!! Lots of snow and ice.
It was around 75 degrees and no wind on the top, so we decided to get some sun on the summit. This was the first time this summer that I actually felt comfortable in shorts and nothing else! I definitely could use some sun.
A glacier from almost near the summit. There was a lot of snow still on the peak that we had to hike over. And I hiked on a glacier! It actually wasn't any different from hiking a regular snow, but it was still neat. If you look right above the closest 'V' in the picture, you can make out Girdwood, near the Turnagain arm farther still.
Closer pictures of crevasses. You definitely would not want to walk near those without some crampons, rope and a harness.
Glaciers!!!!!!!! Lots of snow and ice.On the top of the peak. It was a big cliff covered in grass and moss. Mountains behind are the Chugach mountains.
It was around 75 degrees and no wind on the top, so we decided to get some sun on the summit. This was the first time this summer that I actually felt comfortable in shorts and nothing else! I definitely could use some sun.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Horseshoes and Handgrenades
Well not so much the handgrendes as the horseshoes.
Our boss of the boss decided he wanted to treat his group to a 'team build.' We went out to the park during a very extended lunch and played horseshoes and ate hotdogs and hamburgers. There were 120 people playing in this horseshoe tournament. Unfortunantly, my teamate, Brynn, and I lost first round. Oh well. I'm getting paid to do this, so I suppose in this case everyone's a winner.
It was also okay because that meant that I had more time to eat food! I had way too many hotdogs, and only one burger. Everybody knows that in the war between hotdogs and hamburgers, hotdogs always win. They are definitely the true american food. Some will disagree, but I will ask them, can you get a hamburger at a basball game? No you can't.
After that they sent us home early. So yeah, not my most productive day, but it's okay because it was mandated by my boss. After work, we tried to hike some, but it was raining the whole time. We hiked about 2 hours until we were totally soaked, and then went to Sicily's for their incredible pizza buffet.
Other interns that work in the same bullpin as me: Billy(OSU), Mike(MTU), and Kirsten(UT).
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
55 deg windy and raining = Good Alaskan Ride
Instead of describing my ride yesterday I have made a wishlist instead.
Kenneth's Wishlist for Cycling in Alaska:
Kenneth's Wishlist for Cycling in Alaska:
- full fingered gloves
- wind proof vest
- rain coat
- cycling pants
- cycling bib knickers
- better chain lube (I've tried 3 so far, none work well enough)
- thicker socks
- better base layer
- shoe covers
- non-white bibs
- clear sunglasses lenses
- common sense
Of course, I could buy all this stuff at a local bike shop (yes, they sell common sense, but I don't recommend that product because it makes you slower). But the bike shops close at 6:00.... and I'm riding until 10:00.
Usually, if it rains, I head straight for home. Yesterday, I wanted to do 50 miles. At first, I was avoiding the rain squalls like a ninja avoiding throwing stars. Then I got hit by the Daddy storm. As my fingers went numb and I started to shiver, I just smiled. Alaska is fun. I did 60 miles instead.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Earthquake!!
Today I was sitting at my desk, working away, minding my own business. I was listening to music with headphone because one of my office-mates was discussing his project with a coworker. All of a sudden my desk started to move around. I thought that the office-mate was kicking my desk, and I thought that this was very rude. But then I realized that the whole room was moving back and forth, side to side. It took me a good ten seconds to realized that I was in an earthquake.
The lights were swinging back and forth and the building was kind of groaning. I am on the 13th floor (lucky). I had never been in an earthquake before and it was very interesting to feel how everything moves, first up and down and then side to side. It felt as if I got up out of my chair too fast and got really dizzy. It went on for about a minuter or so and then everything was back to normal. My first instinct was to run to the window to 'see the earthquake,' like it was a tornado or something. Obviously, there was nothing to see.
The USGS later said that it was a 5.4 size earthquake on the Richter Scale, which is the largest one that Anchorage has had this year. The epicenter was 50 miles away. Luckily, it wasn't so large that we had to dive under our desks or anything like that. Evidently, the ConocoPhillips building is designed to withstand pretty sizable earthquakes without damage.
The lights were swinging back and forth and the building was kind of groaning. I am on the 13th floor (lucky). I had never been in an earthquake before and it was very interesting to feel how everything moves, first up and down and then side to side. It felt as if I got up out of my chair too fast and got really dizzy. It went on for about a minuter or so and then everything was back to normal. My first instinct was to run to the window to 'see the earthquake,' like it was a tornado or something. Obviously, there was nothing to see.
The USGS later said that it was a 5.4 size earthquake on the Richter Scale, which is the largest one that Anchorage has had this year. The epicenter was 50 miles away. Luckily, it wasn't so large that we had to dive under our desks or anything like that. Evidently, the ConocoPhillips building is designed to withstand pretty sizable earthquakes without damage.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Happy Solstice in Alaska: Flat Top
I have a new holiday. June doesn't really have any good holidays, so now I will celebrate Solstice Day. So Happy Solstice to you all.
This year to celebrate, I climbed Flat Top Mountain with a couple of my friends. We started hiking in bright daylight, at 10:00pm. It was by far, the windiest conditions I had ever hiked in. In some places, I think it must have been blowing over 60 mph. My hands were very frozen all the way up and my checks felt like they were on fire. Part of our group decided to turn back early, and four of us continued to suffer up to the top. When I finally made it to the top, I knew why the wind was blowing so hard. There was a gigantic storm in the higher mountains to the west of us, and it was blowing rain all the way to us from more than 30 miles up the valley.
View of the sun starting to set from halfway up. 11:45 pm
At the top we joined a group of about 20 people just sitting around having a good time at the top. One said he planned to bring his trampoline up this year, but because of the wind, thought better of it. We sat a talked about our travels with the people, snapped some pictures, and decided it would be best if we headed down. It was about 45 deg and the wind was carrying rain from the storm, and I was the only one with a wind-proof jacket. Well my jacket is supposed to be wind proof, but it wasn't working quite as well as the name implies.
Me against the storm. The wind was blowing.
As we left, the people told us we had to wait just a little longer, until 12:15 am. When officially the sun goes below the horizon. We counted down from ten and then all screamed, "HAPPY SOLSTICE!" It was just like new years, except no kissing. After that we said our goodbyes, and everyone wished us a happy solstice. As we were going down, people were still coming up, and it was 12:30 am! Even though the sun was below the horizon, there was still plenty of light to see by, and I felt a little bit like a tourist because I was carrying a flashlight that I definitely didn't need. Although there was one guy that topped me in the tourist no-nos: one old man had a pick-ax for a mountain with no snow, and a pistol-grip shotgun in case he saw a bear. Nowhere else in America will you see people carrying shotguns on hikes within a city - or anywhere.
Wishing all in this picture a happy solstice, especially incredibly-loud-jacket-man (from Austria?) and Jeremy (in black with the beard)
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Mayor's Marathon
Today I ran the Mayor's Marathon. Okay, not the whole thing, just part. They had options where you could just do part. I don't think that I would have difficulty doing a marathon right now, if I went slow enough, but I don't like running six miles, much less 26.2. I'll ride my bike incredibly long distances to feel accomplished. I also went on a 30 mile bike ride today, so overall I burned around 4000 calories. But it's not over....
This afternoon I did rest and watched Warren Miller movies, which is this guy that films skiers doing incredible things. A lot of the shots he does are in my backyard, Girdwood, which arguably has some of the best heli-skiing in the world. Or so the Alaskans say.
Tonight is the solstice! Hoorah. To Texans, this is not a big deal, but to Alaskans it's a huge party. I will partake, Alaskan style of course, by climbing one of the tallest mountains in the area (Flat Top) and then hanging out until the sun sets! The idea is that by going to altitude you can see the sun just a little bit longer. This is a bittersweet moment, because we are in the middle of summer, which brings relative warmth (highs of 70 deg), but now for the rest of the year, the sun comes out less and less.
I really want to swim and get some sun. I have seen some of my friends' pictures on Facebook, sitting out at the pool and getting a tan. No such luck here. I suppose I could always jump in Cook Inlet- for about 30 seconds before I start to get hypothermia. Maybe I can find an indoor pool with UV radiation lamps. As Warren Miller says, "You better do it now, or you'll be one year older when you do."
This afternoon I did rest and watched Warren Miller movies, which is this guy that films skiers doing incredible things. A lot of the shots he does are in my backyard, Girdwood, which arguably has some of the best heli-skiing in the world. Or so the Alaskans say.
Tonight is the solstice! Hoorah. To Texans, this is not a big deal, but to Alaskans it's a huge party. I will partake, Alaskan style of course, by climbing one of the tallest mountains in the area (Flat Top) and then hanging out until the sun sets! The idea is that by going to altitude you can see the sun just a little bit longer. This is a bittersweet moment, because we are in the middle of summer, which brings relative warmth (highs of 70 deg), but now for the rest of the year, the sun comes out less and less.
I really want to swim and get some sun. I have seen some of my friends' pictures on Facebook, sitting out at the pool and getting a tan. No such luck here. I suppose I could always jump in Cook Inlet- for about 30 seconds before I start to get hypothermia. Maybe I can find an indoor pool with UV radiation lamps. As Warren Miller says, "You better do it now, or you'll be one year older when you do."
Friday, June 19, 2009
Hike over Anchorage and the missile base
I had another successful hike to the not so great unknown mountainous parts of Alaska. I had heard about some great views of Anchorage from the top of this hike and that it wasn't too hard, so I invited all the interns to go as a group. We ended up with seven people: Me, Kirsten, Joey, Aubrey, Mike, Mike's wife Jessie, and their baby Lilly. It was a good group. Joey and Kirsten were still in the mindset of hiking in Texas, so they both wore shorts. I know that there were times on the hike where I was a little cold wearing pants, long sleeved shirt and a jacket, so they must have been freezing! Really, it was the wind and lack of direct sunlight that made it cold. This was supposed to be one of the windiest parts of Anchorage.
Before we got to the top, the Mike Morgan family decided to turn back because the baby was heavy. I don't blame them. I don't think I would want to carry a baby either! The view from the top was very nice, and it was cool to see all of Anchorage as if I was looking at Google Earth.
Pictures!
Aubrey, Kirsten, And Joey hiking up
On the top with Anchorage behind us
On the top
Before we got to the top, the Mike Morgan family decided to turn back because the baby was heavy. I don't blame them. I don't think I would want to carry a baby either! The view from the top was very nice, and it was cool to see all of Anchorage as if I was looking at Google Earth.
Pictures!
Aubrey, Kirsten, And Joey hiking up
On the top with Anchorage behind us
On the topThursday, June 18, 2009
Racing in Anchorage
I went out to my first Alaskan race today. It was great!! It was a TT on Fort Richardson, which is a US AMRY and Marines bases. My TT skills were definitely lacking because I have been going on 80+ mile rides at low intensity. Plus in general, I don't like TT's. I like the game that you play when you are in a large peloton or breaking away from said peloton. But it was fun to say the least.
Racing definitely got my competitive spirit going again. My drive for riding was starting to wane, but one good race and I'm back in it 100%. I guess I just love the competitive drive aspect of sports, biking in general. Also the friendships gained on rides are priceless.
I also thought that I might be better than everyone here because their season starts in May and goes to September, while Austin cycling season is pretty much year round. This is simply not the case. I forgot about cross-training with cross-country skiing! There are some fast guys up north, and there will be some great competition for me.
The next race is on Saturday, which is also the summer solstice. The plan is to race in the morning/afternoon, and then climb Flat Top Mountain to watch the sun set at 12:30 am. Should be fun!!
Racing definitely got my competitive spirit going again. My drive for riding was starting to wane, but one good race and I'm back in it 100%. I guess I just love the competitive drive aspect of sports, biking in general. Also the friendships gained on rides are priceless.
I also thought that I might be better than everyone here because their season starts in May and goes to September, while Austin cycling season is pretty much year round. This is simply not the case. I forgot about cross-training with cross-country skiing! There are some fast guys up north, and there will be some great competition for me.
The next race is on Saturday, which is also the summer solstice. The plan is to race in the morning/afternoon, and then climb Flat Top Mountain to watch the sun set at 12:30 am. Should be fun!!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Casual Ride .... Maybe still interesting?
I went on a ride today that was pretty interesting. Of course, it rained.... again. I am getting used to the rain though. In Austin, I would never ride in the rain. I think I did it once. It rains so seldom that you can just wait for a nice day. Here it rains every other day at least, so you would never get any training in if you didn't want to be in the rain. Actually, today I didn't even expect it to rain, but sure enough it did. When I get back to Texas this Fall/Winter, I imagine I will be able to ride through anything.
I saw ANOTHER moose today. Actually, just about every time I go biking I see at least one moose. At first I thought this was really cool to see such a large animal, but actually they are quite annoying. This one was a bull that had just started to grow antlers and was straddling the trail. There was no feasible way that I was going to get around. I sat there pondering what to do for a couple of minutes until another biker screeched to a halt behind me. He said he knew another route and so I followed him around for a while, which was aggravating because A: he went incredibly slow, and B: he insisted on riding on the sidewalks, which I abhor. It's a sideWALK, not a sideride. That's called a bike lane. But no matter.
Not so paved..........
My goal today was to combine two routes that I really have grown to like. One kind of hard to get to, but I figured I could find a way around. I looked on Google Earth to try to find unmarked paved paths and/or roads and... was successful! On GoogleEarth, you can plainly see a path, or something, that connects the two roads. So I set out on my journey. Come to find out, the 'road/path' was not as paved as I thought. It was actually a dirt trail. HUH. Well I had no other option so I just went down this path on my road bike. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. So yeah. With the rain, though my bike got really dirty. Oh well, I guess I'll have to clean it again!
Not long after I hit the dirt, I wasback on the pavement and the rest of the ride went smoothly. And Wet.
I saw ANOTHER moose today. Actually, just about every time I go biking I see at least one moose. At first I thought this was really cool to see such a large animal, but actually they are quite annoying. This one was a bull that had just started to grow antlers and was straddling the trail. There was no feasible way that I was going to get around. I sat there pondering what to do for a couple of minutes until another biker screeched to a halt behind me. He said he knew another route and so I followed him around for a while, which was aggravating because A: he went incredibly slow, and B: he insisted on riding on the sidewalks, which I abhor. It's a sideWALK, not a sideride. That's called a bike lane. But no matter.
Not so paved..........
Not long after I hit the dirt, I wasback on the pavement and the rest of the ride went smoothly. And Wet.
I thought this sign was hilarious. Don't see many of these in Texas.....
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Bird Ridge Hike
On Wednesday, I did the Bird Ridge hike, which goes to an overlook of the Cook Inlet. It is about a 15 minute drive from Anchorage, so it is a perfect hike to do right after work. Plus the sun is up until at least 1:00 am (haven't stayed up later...) so there is no chance of getting caught in the dark.
It's very comical to me, but I think that Alaskans have never heard of switchbacks. They probably think a 'switchback' is some sort of camel. Actually switchback camel has a nice ring to it. I joked with on fellow hiker something about how "you Alaskans don't know what switchbacks are, obviously!" He replied, "Ah yeah we don't need 'em." I said, " well you're going to have erosion problems on this trail soon," and he asked me what erosion is. This conversation brings up two interesting points about Alaskans that I find very interesting. One, they are convince their ruggedness translates to superiority, and two, they seem to love being in the outdoors but don't really care what they do to their environment.
To understand point one, all you have to do is mention something about the lower 48 to any true Alaskan. Anything that you bring up will be harsher, colder, bigger, pricier, or more hard core than it is in the lower 48. This, for the most part is true. Especially the price part. Food has to be about 1.5 times more expensive here. Also, it is much colder. I, in fact, am cold all the time, but I'm getting used to it. I would agree that Alaska is more rugged or hardcore than anywhere else I've been. Also the ruggedness is closer in proximity to major cities (major being Anchorage, pop. 250,000). An Alaskan's logic would say that the rugged climate breeds more rugged people. This might be true, but they also think that this means that they are superior, which is simply false. Everybody knows that Texans are superior to everybody.
Point number two: every Alaskan that I have met seems to love the outdoors, but doesn't really care about the environment. This is quite different from the lower 48 stigma that only hippies and environmentalists go on hikes to the mountains. Everyone enjoys the outdoors here. But nobody cares about erosional problems caused by not having adequate switchbacks on trails. If a trail went straight up a mountain in Colorado, someone would quickly make switchbacks so that there would be minimal impact on the environment. In Alaska, if you want to get to the top of a hill, you walk straight up the ridge until you get there. Nobody cares about erosion. I have a theory to why this is: its not that Alaskans are intrinsically uncaring, it's just that they have come to realize that there are so few people in Alaska, it doesn't really matter where you go, you still won't impact the vast spaces. In Colorado, if there is a magnificent view two miles from the highway, you will soon have to concrete the path because hundreds of thousands of people a week will want to do that hike. I guess in Alaska, if everyone in the entire state did the hike once a week, they might have to take the same measures.
Bird Ridge was no exception to the lack of switchbacks and went straight up a ridge for 2000 ft of vertical elevation gain in four miles. While we hiked, the Cook inlet tide was coming in. It was neat to see how the water rises from an areal point of view. The top of the ridge was breath taking and had 360 degree views of mountains and snow. I couldn't believe that we had just driven 15 minutes out of Anchorage for this! I still had 3G service on my phone! I used this in fact on the way down, to the dismay of my hiking buddies, to call Ally and my parents. It was funny because when you ask someone what they are up to at the first of a conversation, you never expect them to say, "Oh, just hiking down a mountain."
Anyways, here are some pictures below. It's supposed to rain the rest of the weekend so I'm sure I'll have some ridiculous story about how I rode my bike in the rain, which is really gross here because of all the sand they use for the snow in winter. I guess no one bothers to pick it up.
Sorry to nerd out, but this is a perfect example of a glacially formed valley. Notice the 'U' instead of the 'V' that you usually see with river formed valleys.
Bird that tried to attack me and then sat very still for a picture. Ptarmigan, I believe.
Turagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. This was soon full of water.
Beautiful Fireweed in the mountains.
It's very comical to me, but I think that Alaskans have never heard of switchbacks. They probably think a 'switchback' is some sort of camel. Actually switchback camel has a nice ring to it. I joked with on fellow hiker something about how "you Alaskans don't know what switchbacks are, obviously!" He replied, "Ah yeah we don't need 'em." I said, " well you're going to have erosion problems on this trail soon," and he asked me what erosion is. This conversation brings up two interesting points about Alaskans that I find very interesting. One, they are convince their ruggedness translates to superiority, and two, they seem to love being in the outdoors but don't really care what they do to their environment.
To understand point one, all you have to do is mention something about the lower 48 to any true Alaskan. Anything that you bring up will be harsher, colder, bigger, pricier, or more hard core than it is in the lower 48. This, for the most part is true. Especially the price part. Food has to be about 1.5 times more expensive here. Also, it is much colder. I, in fact, am cold all the time, but I'm getting used to it. I would agree that Alaska is more rugged or hardcore than anywhere else I've been. Also the ruggedness is closer in proximity to major cities (major being Anchorage, pop. 250,000). An Alaskan's logic would say that the rugged climate breeds more rugged people. This might be true, but they also think that this means that they are superior, which is simply false. Everybody knows that Texans are superior to everybody.
Point number two: every Alaskan that I have met seems to love the outdoors, but doesn't really care about the environment. This is quite different from the lower 48 stigma that only hippies and environmentalists go on hikes to the mountains. Everyone enjoys the outdoors here. But nobody cares about erosional problems caused by not having adequate switchbacks on trails. If a trail went straight up a mountain in Colorado, someone would quickly make switchbacks so that there would be minimal impact on the environment. In Alaska, if you want to get to the top of a hill, you walk straight up the ridge until you get there. Nobody cares about erosion. I have a theory to why this is: its not that Alaskans are intrinsically uncaring, it's just that they have come to realize that there are so few people in Alaska, it doesn't really matter where you go, you still won't impact the vast spaces. In Colorado, if there is a magnificent view two miles from the highway, you will soon have to concrete the path because hundreds of thousands of people a week will want to do that hike. I guess in Alaska, if everyone in the entire state did the hike once a week, they might have to take the same measures.
Bird Ridge was no exception to the lack of switchbacks and went straight up a ridge for 2000 ft of vertical elevation gain in four miles. While we hiked, the Cook inlet tide was coming in. It was neat to see how the water rises from an areal point of view. The top of the ridge was breath taking and had 360 degree views of mountains and snow. I couldn't believe that we had just driven 15 minutes out of Anchorage for this! I still had 3G service on my phone! I used this in fact on the way down, to the dismay of my hiking buddies, to call Ally and my parents. It was funny because when you ask someone what they are up to at the first of a conversation, you never expect them to say, "Oh, just hiking down a mountain."
Anyways, here are some pictures below. It's supposed to rain the rest of the weekend so I'm sure I'll have some ridiculous story about how I rode my bike in the rain, which is really gross here because of all the sand they use for the snow in winter. I guess no one bothers to pick it up.
Sorry to nerd out, but this is a perfect example of a glacially formed valley. Notice the 'U' instead of the 'V' that you usually see with river formed valleys.
Bird that tried to attack me and then sat very still for a picture. Ptarmigan, I believe.
Turagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. This was soon full of water.
Beautiful Fireweed in the mountains.
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