What's up?

What's up everyone. I have been posting, etc. on Facebook. So, if you are looking for the latest. Find me there. Thanks.

Our Times

From today's news:

Economic rebound not as energetic as hoped for - Exxon Mobil 2Q profit sets US record

My Heros

These guys are my heros. From Trecker:

"Hi everyone,

Here's the latest on what's going on up on the pass. The snow is still
quite solid above Lower Lost Man trailhead and the pass won't open to
traffic until at least June 7th.

Here's a link to a story about the trip Natalie and I took around the
Lost Man on Memorial Day.

http://www.fastersk ier.com/news5407 .html

Thought that was cool, and don't have much to say myself. Heading out to the East Coast today. Always traumatic. I remember something about bicycles. Not sure what . . .

Miwok 100K

Hey all:

Jean ran her first big race of the season last weekend, and I have a couple of shots to prove it! The race was the Miwok 100K, in Mill Valley/Marin County California. The run started at dawn at Rodeo Beach and then up to Muir Beach, Pan Toll, past Stinson Beach to Randall and back. 100K = 62.47 miles. Here are a few shots:

Rodeo Beach pre-dawn: the usual anxious milling around:


The ladies getting ready to run. It was pretty chilly on the beach.


The racers then all walked out to the beach for the start. The walk was sort of the equivalent of the neutral start in cycling. People were talking, joking around, running into their friends, wishing each other well, etc.


They crossed this bridge to the beach and the lights started to come on. That's when you realized that the start was a pretty cool place. I've been to a few of these now, and I think this was the prettiest start so far.





Ready to start: (in the lower right hand corner of the shot below is Dave Mackey (white shirt, white visor) of Boulder, CO. This day, he would run the race in 7 hours 53 minutes and shatter the course record. If you do the math, that is an average of 7.5 minute miles for 62+ miles. Astounding.)


Then up the beach and up the trail:

Once they were off, I went back to the hotel and back to bed, as always. I then loaded up the car and drove around Marin to run support, with everything except the camera. So, I visited Muir Beach, Stinson Beach, the National Seashore, Muir woods, the Panoramic Highway, etc. and have no pictures. Bummer. It was beautiful, trust me.

12 hours 9 minutes later, I had the camera again when JC crossed the line as the 20th female. Her goal was 12 hours and top 20, and she made both. Nice Work SP!!

Happy May Day!

SPRING?

From NWS:

...HEAVY SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM MDT FRIDAY...

OCCASIONAL SNOW SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TODAY AND TONIGHT. THE SNOW WILL BE HEAVY AT TIMES...ESPECIALLY NEAR THUNDERSTORMS. TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 16 INCHES CAN BE EXPECTED BY FRIDAY MORNING.


Snow Removal Workers of the World Unite! A little dusting wouldn't be bad, but check the wind. Ugh. Rode to work anyway. Ha!

Crustski the Clown

Hey all! Hope you are well. Last weekend I got the opportunity to try something I had never done before. The Treckers were nice enough to take me Crust Skiing. For those of you who don't know what this is: In spring in the mountains a hard crust forms on the top of the snow remaining from the winter. Early in the morning this is strong enough to hold you weight, and crust skiing is simply taking your skate style cross country skis out in the morning and skiing on it. The beauty of this is that you can ski all over place, basically where ever there is snow. So, there is no issue of sticking to any trail and you can cruise out in any meadow and just wander around and glide. We skied in Maroon Creek. Check it out:

Trecker cruising on the crust at the creek's edge:

Tele-Gliding the crust back down:

Once we got up a little higher, we skied out into the meadows on either side of the road. You don't have to follow a trail of anything. You just pick where you want to go and head over there. Nat with Pyramid Peak in the background:

Mike cruising the meadows, with quintesential Colorado in the background:

Yours truly with Pyramid:

Up past the end of the road we skied across the lake and had a snack. The view back down the valley. You can see our skate tracks leading up at the bottom of this one:


The view up:

There was a long discussion as to what we were actually looking at from our picnic spot. We later determined that we were looking at the lower reaches of Pyramid.

The key to skiing the crust is to get out of there before it softens up in the spring sun. So, we headed down, but not before the Treckers skied around the lake, and I took a few shots of them on the far shore:

Great day. Super fun. Thanks again to Treckers. Until next time: Be safe out there kids.

April the 16th

Happy Birthday to Ian MacKaye:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_MacKaye

http://www.dischord.com/band/ianmackaye

http://archive.salon.com/people/conv/2001/01/08/mackaye/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TFNXUsr7gM

He is apparently 46 this fine day. Older and still more core than me. Gives me hope. Thanks for everything.

Great fixie for thrill seekers on Craig's List:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/608546617.html