Crooked Creek Pass

Woke up this morning and headed back up to Sylvan Lake (ya... if you jump in it makes you a better reader.....) for a 5 mile climb up a rocky dirt road to the top of crooked creek pass from the Sylvan Lake Campground. We drove up to the campground which is 15 miles from Eagle. It was a nice steady climb that required some good power output. Natalie did an awesome job. Not sure how long it took us, but I would guess a little over an hour. Prolly about 10 minutes to get back down. While we were up there we saw lots of wild flowers and a couple of mule deer.

Things I Learned

I did my first Wednesday night mountain bike group ride tonight. There were five of us. We rode for about 3 hours leaving at 6 and ended up with 19 miles. I learned several important lessons:

1. When they say there is only like one more short hill...... it means that there is more like 5-6 hills that each are going to make your lungs burn (from trying to breathe at 10,000 ft) and are going to make your legs hurt so bad you think they just may actually fall off.....

2. When they say that something is steep, uphill or downhill, they really do mean it. So steep in fact that you may have to walk, although on the downhills if you are willing to risk life or limb they may be rideable.

3. Mt. Biking in Illinois is not even close to the same as it is at altitude in the mountains with guys that have been doing it for many years. We have hills in IL and even have a few steep hills, but there are no steep hills that go up for 2 hours at a time. There is just no way to replicate that other than by actually doing it and it freaking hurts.

4. Anytime you go downhill, don't take it for granted, cause you will have to go back up at some point.

5. Mt. Biking really is a blast! and Don't forget to bring food!

6. Always be aware of the guy that shows up for the ride with hairy legs and baggy shorts! He is prolly stronger than you can ever dream to be!

7. It takes 3-4 years of living here in order to memorize all the trails and where they go to and come out at.

8. There are parallel trails called itch and scratch! Go figure!

Ok then, we started out climbing for about 2 hours, then we stopped to regroup. I kept up good for the most part, at times I struggled, and at times I was faster than the others. Each time we stopped for a breather they explained to me where we were and where we had been and where we were going. This is going to take me a while. They talk like this "We are going to climb for 50 more minutes up to that saddle, from there we will climb another 20 minutes up to that nipple sticking out over there, then we will go around the back side and come up that ridge over there. From there we will have 20 minutes of downhill, then a couple more short easy climbs to connect with the star wars trail and the death star downhill. From there it will be a mere 10 minutes back into town." No joke, this is what they told me and I was like yah, uh huh, good one, sounds like a plan to me..... We did end up going up abrams coming down star wars and death star (I walked my bike down this descent since I was more than a little scared of it) along with some other really cool trails. My legs and arms are fairly scratched up (that was the trail we were on) and I did go over the bars twice, although both times i was moving slow and almost able to catch myself.

In the end I am super worn out. Excellent training! Awesome guys to ride with! and I had an absolute blast!

Juiciest Burgers Ever

It's funny Nick didn't tell this part of yesterday...
I found this recipe on allrecipes.com a while back for the "juiciest hamburgers ever." We don't eat red meat often, so these burgers are a huge treat for us to have them and last night was one of those special nights. So, there's corn on the cob that was grilled in foil and then the beautiful, juicy burgers, some nice wheat buns and all the fixins - onion, tomato, lettuce, pickle, ketchup,mustard...all ready to go, sitting on the table, waiting for me to get off the phone with Tina. It wasn't exactly a phone call I wanted to rush - she had just finished a job interview and I wanted all the details - plus we hadn't talked in a few days. So we talked a bit, blah blah, then Nick starts going ballistic. We all know Nick doesn't get upset very often, so he must be mad...like, super mad. Apparently, Wrigley had struck again. (Marc knows what that means!) So Wrigley ate one whole burger and part of another...which is quite a bit considering I only made four to start with! He's quite sneaky, that Wrigley is...neither of us saw him take the first or second burger off the serving plate. But once he was caught, Wrigley comes all crawling up to mommy...like I can protect him from the wrath of daddy??? Tina made a comment...it does not sound like daddy is very happy. I said no, relayed the events to her and quickly got off the phone. Needless to say, Wrigley and Rusty high-tailed it to their cages where they spent the rest of dinner. Sophie hid under our bed once Nick got to yelling at Wrigley and she only came out after dinner was done. Of course, that didn't take long when half the dinner went to the dogs :-)

New rule: keep food on the counter until we are ready to eat, to prevent against unruly weiner dogs taking our dinner!

I thought Marc would especially love this entry...think pot roast on the table at his house, waiting for him after a long day at work, and little, innocent, angelic Wrigley comes along, gets on the table, and eats the pot roast right out of the dish!

Here's the link to the recipe for those burgers...seriously, they're awesome!
JUICIEST BURGERS EVER

Hiking, Flies, Fridge Decorations, and $5.00 Bargains.

We drove up to the ski resort of Beaver Creek this morning for a hike to a high mountain lake with sandy beaches. 6 miles round trip. Then we found out no dogs allowed (we had wrigley and rusty) and it was a six mile hike from the trail head, the parking lot was another 2 steep miles from the trail head, so we just decided to nix that idea. We then headed up to Sylvan Lake about 17 miles south of Eagle up in the mountains. After some good four wheel drive rode that had Natalie gripping the car door with all her strength for fear of slipping off the mountain, and me holding the steering wheel with both hands just to be safe
we ended up at Sneve Gulch Trail. We decided to give it a whirl. It was a steep ascent for about a mile. Then we had an issue.... The dogs were pooped and the FLIES were terrible. Since the dogs wanted to sit in the shade about every ten feet or so and the flies were so bad we just decided to turn around and call it a day. As you can see the scenery was beautiful, as was the company (Natalie) :) From the pics you can see the lake down below. That is where the trail started and how much we climbed in that hike of a mile. It was freakin steep I tell ya! It reminded me of climbing mt. rainier.... one foot in front of the other foooorrr eeevvveeerrrr......... well it wasn't really that bad.

When we got home it was time for some yard work. We bought this weed eater yesterday at the Thrifty Shoppe for 5 bucks. Natalie wanted to give it a whirl and chop down some weeds. She made a Valiant effort, but there were some ferocious weeds to be chopped down, so I ended up finishing the job for her. Although she had already done most of it. Doesn't she look good handling power tools???? She's a natural. Talk about a steal, that was a good deal. Not the best one ever, but it works and definitely does the job.

Yesterday we got a letter in the mail from Mom. My little cousin Hannah had drawn/colored us a picture of our new house... as described by mom most likely. It is a picture of a house on top of the mountain. It became the first decoration on our refrigerator. Also with the letter came pictures of Hannah, Dylan, and Tyler. All cousins of mine. You may recognize them from the wedding. Dylan was the ring bearer. Cute pics! Thanks guys! Go Twins! and Cardinals!!!! ....................................................... ok, ok, i guess it is ok if the cubbies do ok as well.. ..........................................................................................wait what am I saying, BOO CUBBIES!

Abrams Creek/Worlds Greatest

So I printed off this trail map for the Abrahams Creek/Worlds Greatest Trail and headed out for a good mt. bike ride this morning. Ended up 2 hours later back at where I had started with 15 miles of riding gone by and not a darn clue if I had followed the map correctly or not. Every time the map said to go one way, there were 2 other possible ways to go that were not on the trail description so I just kinda had to guess. About 7 miles in there was a 0.5 mile doubletrack that it said was steep. Oh man! was it ever steep I ended up after 0.2 mile spinning out on some loose rock and had to walk my bike for a bit. I hate walking my bike... The whole point of having a bike is so you dont have to walk/run! Made it up that, crossed a cattle gate and enjoyed the 2 miles of downhill that is the Worlds Greatest Trail. As steep as the uphill was before, this downhill was crazy. I was rubbing the back tire with my ass cause I was hanging off the back of my bike so I wouldnt go over the handlebars! (yes Andy I do not enjoy going over the bars when there is no snow to land in.)
One time in Springpatch we had about 12 in. of snow. Andy and I went out for a ride of course... had to cause we never get that much snow, and riding mt. bikes is still fun... Well we came up to a snowbank that was about 3 ft. high with about 1 foot of powder on the other side. In my normal showboating way I said check this out. I got going about 15-20 mph toward the snowbank... just thinking I would go right through it and into the snow on the other side. Well the snowbank was a little harder than I had bargained for and my bike stopped immediately but I unfortunately didnt! Fortunately the snow on the other side was really nice and soft. After I had unburied myself I turn around to see this woman walking just cracking up and Andy has also lost it. He says, "That was one of the coolest things that I have ever seen, that was AWESOME! Let's go have some chocolate to celebrate this wonderful feat!" The woman says, "WOW! my son would have loved that, you just made my day! That was so cool!" Well.... what can I say, Glad to be of service!!!

Anyway, I ended up back about where I had started. Turns out I hadn't made a wrong turn until about 2 miles left to go. Ended up with 15 miles in 2 hours of riding. Not bad, not good either, but it was hard, and I got some sun and a good workout.

Hoping to do a couple crits this month, but its hard getting motivated to go out and train on the road bike when the mt. biking is so awesome. I am going to do a group ride on the mt. bikes on wednesday, so hopefully I will get to meet some of the locals and figure out some of the local trails. Tomorrow is a hike with Natalie and the dogs up by Beaver Creek Ski resort, then yard work and road bike time.

The Boneyard

Natalie and I both tried out a new mt. bike trail today called the boneyard. It is about 1/2 mile from the house and goes uphill about 3 miles, then has a fast 3 mile downhill. It climbs about 800 feet in those 3 miles. Lots o'fun. Natalie is getting ready for her Mt. Bike camp this weekend in Breckenridge. I will be camping with the dogs while she is learning mt. bike skills and having fun.

Thank You

As we were driving home from the airport last night, I was already thinking ahead to what I would write on the blog. The first thing that came to mind was just a big ol' "man, that was fun and I am so lucky." What a fun time we had in Vegas! Thank you to everyone who made it so much fun. I'm thankful for the safe travel, the relaxing times by the pool, the good conversation with friends, the "exercise" dancing the night away at the piano bar, the new things I learned about Hoover Dam...I could go on and on...and I think I will. It was so nice to meet such friendly people in Perry, Emily, Greg, Susan and Kathy. Although they were new to our group, they fit right in and were so much fun! Melissa & Jennifer, I appreciate you for your independent spirits...and man girls, you both look good! Kyle, thank you for coordinating the Dam trip (mom do you see the Dam word???) and for driving us even if we were a bit annoying as passengers. Sue, thanks for being fun and I look forward to your retirement trip to Hawaii :-) Marc, thank you for being my big brother and I can't wait until we go to Wrigleyville for the World Series. Tammi, thank you for being the person we were all jealous of with your big winnings! Meghan, thanks for all of your witty comments...they are never-ending! Darren, thank you for entertaining us with your administrative education...it was so good you could join us! Tina, thanks for being you and being crazy! Kira, thanks for being as type-A and driven as I am...it really helped on the scavenger hunt. Paul, thank you for being such a good dancer and teaching Nick all of your moves. Ron, thank you for dinner and your wealth of information about Vegas. Sally, thank you for being the guest of honor...I can only hope you had half as much fun as I did! Nicky, thanks for being my friend and husband and for having such a good time living life. All of you...Thank you for being my friends. It was hard saying good-bye yesterday, but I know I will see you again...soon :-)

P.S. I have lots of funny pictures and videos that I"ll get emailed and snail-mailed ASAP!