World's Best Commute (commutes #64 and #65)

On days where I can avoid early meetings, I can ride the Bonneville Shoreline Trail from the Hogle Zoo/Pioneer Park to city creek. It's a short ride from my house to the trailhead, and a short exit ride from City Creek to my office. It's a tough ride first thing in the morning - I usually need to leave the house close to 6a.m. to be at my desk showered and ready to roll by 8a.m. I was lucky enough to do it on back to back days last week, a rare occurrence.

The climbing starts right away, with a mix of steep and non-so steep climbs. A few minutes of effort yields the first view of the mountains to the West, the city, and the great Salt Lake.

After some rolling single track, a brief jaunt through Red Butte Garden, and some more single track and tough climbs, the base of dry creek is reached. The far peak in the middle is the goal for the climb up dry creek, which is a good steady climb getting steep in the last couple minutes. The fast guys ride it in 8 or 9 minutes, I'm thrilled if I do it in 12.

Here's a view down back down the climb after riding a short way past the switch back nearing the top.

Here's the view towards the west from the top of dry creek.

The climb up dry creek is the last of the major climbing in the ride, although there remains another steep hill and some more climbing after that.

Here's a view of the city... getting closer now.

Just some nice single track, with a nice downhill and some rolling, twisting trail.

The ride finally tops out above city creek, rewarding the rider with some nice panoramic views prior to starting a fast, extended downhill section into City Creek.

Memorial Day Weekend

The three day weekends that bookend the summer call for extended time in the saddle. Unfortunately, my appetite for saddle time waned, as the weather was akin to memorial days experienced in my hometown.

Even if the weather had cooperated, there was the nesting instinct to overcome. With the new bambino on the way, the urge to visit Lowes was upon us...

... as was the desire to move the one piece of furniture from upstairs to downstairs that requires a circuitous route through the bedroom window to the kitchen door at the head of the stairs.

Still, I suppose it's nothing to lose your head over.

Another Weekend

While there was certainly a good share of drudgery this weekend involving post camping cleanup and other chores, there was some time for fun, mostly in lieu of sleep.

I was able to do a dawn patrol ride on the shoreline trail Saturday, with a new cog in the back. Interestingly enough, a 2 tooth difference on the back cog makes a very noticeable difference to the legs. Starting on the trail I did not think I'd be able to get up dry creek, but by the time I hit the climb I was warming up to the task, and was able to crank it out starting from the switchback where it gets steep.

Here's a view of downtown Salt Lake looking Southwest from the top of dry creek.

Here's a view from dry creek looking at the single track that heads to city creek. This is my commute on mornings when schedule, weather, and motivation line up.

Later that day there was a book fair my employer puts on for families with readers 12 and under. The kids get to bring home some books, there's food and often some entertainment, and the kids always have a great time.

This year, in conjunction with the book fair, security opened up the cube farm to visitors. Here's a shot of the family enjoying my pen. You can imagine the tour... this is my phone, this is my desk, here's my window, here's my table, here's my guest chair. The gig may not tour well, but we do some very cool stuff, it's hella cool as the kids (well, not my kids) say.

Sunday morning saw more dawn patrol action, this time riding West along the frontage road to Saltair and the marina. It's a fun ride - good for riding tempo, with nice scenery with the lake, the mountains, the migratory birds, and the assortment of discarded sofas and mattresses.

Below are some pictures of Saltair and the lake from the marina.

The only glitch in the ride was a malfunctioning bike computer... the power reading is obviously too low - perhaps some burned out LEDs make the leading digit read 1 instead of 4.

Finally, as a shout out to fellow geeks, no ride would be complete without graphing the data captured during the ride.

Moab 2008

One of the neat parts about the school the kids attend is the annual camping trip. This year's trip featured camping, hiking, and river running in Moab.

Conor was eager to hit the road the day of our departure, ready to try his stream machine on the river. In addition to lessons about geography and hydrology, a hard lesson was learned about the efficacy of the stream machine shown in the picture vs. an adult wielding a 5 gallon bail out bucket! Ah yes, the school of hard knocks.

The drive down was not too bad, if you can reach that zen-like state hurtling through the desert while ignoring the jibber-jabber of your children. It took the kids about three hours to realize our constant reply of "4 hours" to their question of "how long until we get there" was a ruse.

The scenery on the way down was nice. The scale of the land reminded me of the greatest movie ever

The campsite was very nice, right on the river. Luckily the temps never got out of the 60s, so the lack of shade was not a problem.

We did a short group hike to the Corona Arch the first night. The small blue thing under the arch is a person, which gives you a sense of the scale of the arch.

The next day was a boating trip on the Colorado river. It was quite cool on the river, and with water temps in the 50s I got a bit chilly sitting in the front of the boat. I can definitely understand how people get into boating - it's a lot of fun hitting holes and waves in the rapids while furiously paddling the raft. Next year I will have a waterproof camera and should get some good shots.

The last day featured a hike up Negro Bill canyon (I just hike 'em, I don't name 'em). This is a fun hike, with a nice arch/stone bridge at the top. Reyna proved fearless, refusing help going up and down sketchy parts of the trail, or at any of the stream crossings. Check out the pictures of the kids in the light coming through the arch at the top of the hike - Chiaroscuro anyone?.

 

Fun for Cats

Is your cat bored? Does it just lie around the house all day, punctuating long periods of sleep with the occasional nosh and saliva bath? Then why not do your cat a favor and purchase a play set such as the one pictured below? Your cat will have hours of enjoyment exploring a magical land complete with dinosaurs, unicorns, and sharks. Hours of amusement, guaranteed.

DNF

Rode my first intermountain cup race in the singlespeed division this weekend at 5 mile pass. I struggled at the start mostly due to nerves, but then felt better and got it going, attacking the climbs and staying off the brakes on the downhills, only to flat coming down off the hike a bike (I pinch flatted on the descent into the hike a bike).

Still feeling ok about things, I removed the detonated slime tube and had the tire changed in fairly short order. I was able to ride the following steep descent more aggressively than normal, and carried good speed through the flat section, only to find I'd pinch flatted again on the bottom part of the second descent.

At that point, as I was out of tubes, my day was over. After about 10 minutes of hiking I stopped to help someone else make a repair, and flagged down Leslie who had crashed earlier and was limping out with a bent rotor. I was able to bum a tube and ride back to the start.

My friend, and team mate finished third on the day - I had to console myself with being happy about letting it rip downhill. Now if only I could do something about line selection and avoiding rocks... might need to go with prescription sun glasses.