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

Why are these people smiling?

Because it's BIKE Season!!

More pics at:
http://jenyjomtbbliss.blogspot.com/
and
http://www.edemtbs.blogspot.com/

Tokyo too

Stop by ZJean and scroll down to older posts here for more from our days in Tokyo.

Hokkaido Snow

Just rolls off the tongue doesn't it: "Hokkaido Snow"

I am the last one left. Since this is my powder shot post, I am going to include a little more scenery and narrative. Also, I encourage everyone to scroll through the lower posts for more narrative, more incredible powder shots, and even further back for more on our trip to the incredible country of Japan. You can also head over to zjean.blogspot.com for more cultural and arty shots by MJ.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that this entire trip was a gift from my wife Jean for my 40th birthday. People remember their major birthdays for a lot of reasons. I will remember mine for this trip, but mostly for how fortunate I am to be married to the energy, creativity, sass and love that is MJ. SP: Thanks for always being game. Did I mention she's a ripper (see posts below).

Okay, on Day 2, it cleared a little as we started up the hill.



Soon, low and behold, we had some blue sky:


and we could finally get a look at where we were:

I have more of those I could post, but many people don't seem to be interested in the scenery (EdE?). There was some slide activity, but it doesn't seem to go anywhere. This debris was in one of the best areas to start down.

Did I mention the skiing? Yours truly:

And the SNOW? (Click on these, they are big.)


Toshisan:

These are more Pando shots. I think the one above is just awesome. I am not sure I have said this enough: the quality and quantity of snow here is unmatched in my experience. More Toshi:

Add to that the experience of self-powered back country skiing in the remote recesses of an already distant land, and you get an inkling of how lucky we were. This area is non-motorized travel only. No heli, no cats, no sleds. I think Toshi was the one who told me "there will never be a lift here". I hope it's true. Just breakfast and sweat, and sometimes some Pocari Sweat. Look that one up.

A few more of our friend and leader Ross:

And when the day is through, the truck is waiting:

and it is back up the road to Ryounkaku:

Day 3 was Ross MJ and me doing basically the same. I have no pictures and Pando was on his way to Myoko. More of the same, and then a cool alternate onsen up the road. You will just have to take our word for it.

Well kids that's it, and thanks for playing along. I have a ton of photos, and we have stories to tell. Brad, the onsen switches every morning . . .

Thanks to Ross Matlock for organizing the trip, and thanks to Brad, Scotty and Pando for putting up with us and making it all the better at every turn. See ya next year.

Sugar Booger

So, some where along the line Craig, who works with kids a lot, started calling Jean "Sugar Booger". It has stuck (no pun intended).

Ross had a way of leading us to spot after spot of totally untracked snow and then turning to us and asking who wanted to drop in first. Typically, he could barely finish the question before SB hit it:


This was the lightest snow I have ever seen (yes I have been to Utah). Hokkaido is definitely the home of the "cold smoke":

Above is another sick shot. Thanks Pando. Craig made us all look so good Jean was wondering why we didn't get him for our wedding.

Pretty good for a girl. Can we ride that one again?

Toshi (above) that same day; Why are these people smiling?

Skin to Win/Ross and Scotty

We skinned to all this stuff and there was not another soul in sight. Actually, the exceptions were two French dudes, who were the coolest Frenchies I think I have ever met. (Say it Frenchie: Pow-dere.)

Scotty "The Easter Bunny" McGee:

One of the best things about Japan is the Junk Food. They have all kinds of killer candy that is available everywhere through vending machines. Scotty always had candy of some sort on him. Hence the moniker "Easter Bunny".

Ross:

Thanks to Ross for always breaking trail.