Jefferson

oops, been too long since I posted.

2008-09-02T03:35:18Z

Just got back from a great weekend in the Collegiate range. The CEO of our company gave us Friday off, so this was a 4 day weekend.
I drove up Friday morning. I went to the North Cottonwood Canyon Trailhead

From there I hiked 4 miles west to Kronke Lake. Kronke is a wonderful spot just north of Mt Yale. Then it was 2 more miles up and southwest to Browns Pass at (N 38 51.224, W 106 21.642).
From there it was down hill about 2.5 miles to my first campsite at N 38 53.051, W 106 20.982.

The campsite was in the Texas Creek drainage and was on the north side of a clear spot affording great southern views of Scorpius and Sagittarius. I woke in the middle the the night to incredible views of Orion and Taurus among others.

The next day I made for Cloyses Lake. This was a tough day since first I had to go 2 miles down Texas Creek before making my way cross country up to Pear Lake. There were often game/usage trails, but following them was like playing hide and go seek.

From Pear Lake I crossed the Continental Divide and dropped down the "Lake Fork of Clear Creek" to Cloyses Lake. I was supposed to meet some friends here to camp, but when I got there they had not arrived, so I set up camp above the lake.

They finally showed up just as it was getting dark, so we sat around chatting and then went to bed. Again the stars were out and the weather was beautiful.

On Sunday Amber, Elliott, Ian and I climbed Missouri Mountain (14067 ft). From there we traversed south-west to Iowa Peak (13831 ft). Just south of Iowa is Emerald Peak (which I climbed back in July). Once done with that we returned to camp. During this whole time it was raining and pretty chilly. Most of the 6 of us were neutral on whether to stay or not, but there were 2 votes to bag it and 4 abstains, so we headed out. We only had 1 4wd vehicle on this side of the mountains (my Jeep was still at the North Cottonwood trailhead). We piled the packs and gear 4 people and 3 dogs into the pickup and they headed down to to Rockdale. Elliott and I hiked the 3.5 or so miles down in a relatively short time. Eden and I headed to get my Jeep before it got dark while the rest of the crew made for Buena Vista to find a place to get some grub.

We ended up at a pizza place called Pizza Works. Great food, but slow service. Then it was home to the springs to sleep off my excessively sore muscles.

Off for the weekend

2008-07-04T18:12:17Z

Off to the Wet Mountains. We'll be camping near Lake Isabel in the San Isabel National Forest, but that NF is huge, so if you care we'll be headed off to near San Isabel, CO. The camp site is just off the left of the map along 371 just before it dead ends.

This a tradition that has formed up among a bunch of my friends (mostly from Colorado College). About 20 adults and 10 kids (sometimes more sometimes less) go up and spend the weekend hiking, hanging out and playing games.

More when I get back.

Loving the Rockies

2008-07-02T02:59:31Z

Last week was a b**ch. By the end I was so stressed out from work that I was on edge like I hadn't been in years. My fuse was about 2 nanom eters long.

So, Friday I left work a bit early and headed for the mountains with a friend of mine. We drove to the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness area. We left my car at a place called Rockdale on the north side of the wilderness. We then drove down to the Pine Creek trailhead on the east side and hiked till it got dark. We camped in a nice little forested area about 3 miles in from the trail head.

On Saturday we had a very long day ahead of us, so we were on the trail by 7am. We hiked up through the absolutely stunning valley through which Pine Creek runs. This is a wide open valley with a wonderful view of several 14ers on either side. Unfortunately neither of us brought a camera, so no picts. (We were both trying to keep our packs light, and my camera is pretty heavy)

On the north side of Pine Creek were Mt Oxford, Mt Belford and Missouri Mountain, all over 14000 ft. On the south Mt Harvard stood out above all. Harvard is the 3rd highest mountain in Colorado. In addition to being a great mountain, Harvard is the source of a great annecdote from my great-great grandfather Stephen P. Sharples.

When on top of the mountain we came to the conclusion that it was not as high as a peak to the north-west. So according to an agreement entered innto by the professors it was called Yale. It is about 14,300 feet high. The higher peak was called Harvard.

Family legend has it that Yale was named such because the first climbers of it were Harvard partisans and decided to save the name for the higher one they saw in the distance.

We continued up Pine Creek until we reached an area where we could climb to a pass between Mt Emerald (13904 ft) and Mt Iowa (13881 ft). The pass was 13345, so we left our packs in the pass and summited Mt Emerald. Then Elliott summitted Iowa while I took a break.

We then dropped into the valley of the Lake Fork of Clear Creek. (We had left my car at Rockdale at the bottom of this valley) We camped in a lovely spot in the valley.

Sunday we discovered that our campsite was in the shadow of Mt Iowa, so the sun didn't actually hit us till almost 9 am. I was not really psyched about the cold, so I stayed in my sleeping bag relaxing.

Once the sun finally hit I packed up, and Elliott packed up gear for a day hike. I had to be back at work Monday, but he had two more days, so he was intending to hike back to Pine Creek while I hiked down to my car. We headed up to a place called Lois Lake at which point we separated. He took his two dogs (Max and Brangwen) up to summit Mt Huron (14003 ft) while I explored the area around Lois Lake and then headed back down to my car.

I had to ford Clear Creek to get back to my car. It wasn't very dangerous, but I had to be careful. The current was strong enough that I chose to follow all of the fording rules. (Always face upstream, never cross your legs, etc) After the ford, it was a short 200 yard walk up to my car and I was free.

It's amazing how much clearer your mind can be after spending a weekend in the mountains. Life is good.

Working and Gardening

2008-06-07T03:21:27Z

There's not really a lot to report this week. Work has been nuts recently. The project I've been working on for the past couple months is due to integrate in a week and a half or so. This means that we are frantically trying to get all the work done so we can thoroughly test it in time for its due date on the 17th. Things are looking promising on being done.

On a nice work note, I have managed to get work to pay for a trip to San Jose this month. It perfectly fits that they need me to visit our site in SJ, on the days just before my parents are throwing a part for a good friend. Since I was going to go to that anyway, it is a nice bonus that I can get my company to pay for it.

Gardening is going great. My plants are growing like crazy. I'll plant the last parts of my vegetable garden this weekend. Hopefully will take some time to get some pictures up when that's done.

Peace

Hockey Tournament

2008-06-01T02:16:09Z

Well, this year's Arizona Hockey Classic is over. Our team the Pikes Peak Posse went 1-1-1 in round robin play and did not make the playoffs.

The Women's team Old School made up of a bunch of our friends went 4-0 and took their bracket's championship.

The first two games were lots of fun, but at the end of the 2nd game I pulled a groin, and ended up sitting out our last game. We won our first game, tied the second and lost the third. I don't know which is worse, getting beat or watching my teammates get beat and not being able to do a thing.

So the hockey didn't work out great for me, but the socializing and just hanging out was great. With over 80 teams, most of whom are staying at the same hotel, there are plenty of opportunities to meet other hockey players and just have fun. Scottsdale has a gazillion great restaurants and so that part of the trip was a complete success.

As for the groin, I'm taking it easy for a couple weeks as I'm told to "wait until it feels good, then wait to more weeks." It doesn't cause any pain unless I do something that specifically stretches the muscle like throwing a ball or skating.

Hockey Tourney

2008-05-23T05:35:21Z

I'm heading off early tomorrow to play in an ice hockey tournament in Phoenix, AZ.

For anyone who wants to follow, they don't have their results page for this tourney yet, but it will be under 2008 Arizona Hockey Classic on this page

If you want to follow, our team is the Pikes Peak Posse and we are playing in the Paradise Valley Division. Our first game is 9:50 PM Friday.

More Hiking

2008-05-23T05:28:43Z

On the 18th my friend Elliott and I (along with his 3 dogs) headed up to the Waldo Canyon trail head to go for a hike.

It was pretty late in the day as I had hockey practice earlier, so we got started around 4:00 pm. Normally this is a 7 mile hike. You hike out a couple miles do a 3-4 mile loop and then hike back the same trail. On this day, however we decide to do the long part of the loop and then to head up towards the town of Cascade. This involves climbing up to a ridge. Once there we followed the ridge for a while and then found a trail that returns you back to the Waldo Canyon trail about a mile in. The ridge featured some amazing views, but the lighting conditions were not very good for taking pictures.

All in all I figure we did around 8 or 9 miles total.

While still on the Waldo loop, we had this great view of Pikes Peak that made for an awesome picture.

Been out hiking

2008-05-23T05:16:49Z

Meant to post about both of these earlier.

On May 11 I went for a hike with my friend Mark who is spending the year working in Denver before heading elsewhere.

We've both been busy so haven't had much time to hang out. Sunday was a beautiful day. Warm and sunny. We started out of Palmer Lake. We hiked up the trail to the second reservoir then up to a ridge which we followed out to Winding Stair Road. Hard to say how long we went, but line of sight it was a bit over 3 miles, but we were far from going direct, so probably in the 7-9 mile range.

As always there were some nifty rocks, so here's Mark...

Spring in the Rockies

2008-05-08T02:30:41Z

Springtime is here at the base of Pikes Peak. I've been busy caring for the plants I put in last summer.

The raspberries are starting to grow (but probably won't produce fruit this year)
The Yarrow and Catmint are going gangbusters.
The Tulips are flowering.
The hops are climbing the trellis.
My mint, lovage, sage, chives, thyme and oregano are all producing.

For those of you who live in other places, this might not seem that amazing, but here at 6000 feet of elevation, spring comes late but no less beautifully.

Here is a shot of the tulips I planted along my fence.

And I also have this colorful visitor. He makes a lot of nice, and some nifty little holes in my trees. Luckily, I have vinyl siding, so he isn't knocking holes in the house.

Snowstorm - coolness

2008-01-29T05:48:11Z

Normally, a snowstorm in January in Colorado Springs means nothing. This one is cool though because of how it came in.

I was driving back from my roller hockey game an I spied what looked like steam from the power plant near downtown. This is something that I am very used to seeing, but tonight I saw it and it looked a little strange. Then I realized that it just kept going. Over 5 mins it gathered up looking like a great white wall. Up until this point I was driving parallel to the cloud, but I then turned towards it. In the span of 100 feet, I went from seeing stars above me to almost complete whiteout! A quarter mile later, the snow was already forming a layer on my grass. Clear to collecting snow in 1/4 mile.

How cool is that. I hope I never lose the sense of wonder and beauty that the world can inspire.

Roku Rocks

2008-01-27T07:07:02Z

I spent the morning and early afternoon hiking Blodgett Peak just outside of the Springs with my friend Elliott and a couple of his friends. If I manage to do so, I'll try to write up a post about that later. The part that is really cool is that after that I took a nap and then spent the evening setting up my brand new toy.

I bought a ROKU-Soundbridge-M1001 a network music system that acts as a stereo component, playing music as through your normal system. As we speak I am browsing through the thousands of Internet Radio stations that you can configure to play in your soundbridge. You can also play content from a media server on your home computer. I have begun the long task of ripping my CD collection to Vorbis.

This is just too too too cool.

Sustainable Food systems

2008-01-25T04:38:32Z

Just got back from a lecture at Colorado College by Joel Salatin, the owner of Polyface Inc a farm in Virginia that concentrates on sustainable farming and local food systems.

Some people may know if him from Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma", but Joel Saltin is a self described lunatic environmentalist libertarian christian capitalist. His message is about setting up sustainable and transparent food systems.

He rails about the industrialization and distancing of food production. The industrialization of food production leads to large mono-cultures instead of self sustaining ecosystems. Stacking large amounts of livestock on top of each other greatly increases the prevalence of disease in the food chain and leads to unhealthy land.

By "distancing" I refer to what Mr. Salatin describes as the loss of a direct relationship with where your food comes from. By hiding the where food questions, the current food establishment is able to do many things that are either unwise or unethical. Joel points to some of the more egregious examples of the industry's excesses such as feeding the processed remains of cow carcasses to the next generation of cows, a practice which many scientists believe has fostered the propagation of Mad cow disease.

Salatin was a very entertaining speaker and most of what he says makes sense. He does have some rather extreme views that I think are overdone. He seems to equate science with government and corporate control. (Hence the Libertarian bent) In my opinion, his issue is with corporate funded science, not with science as a whole.

His talk didn't really tell me a whole lot more than I got out of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and visiting his web site, but his call to arms is one I think we should all take into consideration each time we consider what to eat. By local whenever you can.

More Catching up : Yard Work update

2007-10-25T01:16:07Z

With the exception of cleaning up a few bits of leftover rock, the landscaping project is done.

Here are a couple shots of what I did with the 18 tons ?!?!? of rock that were delivered at the beginning of summer.

The Front of my yard after rock has been applied.

And the side yard.

Long overdue Trip Report

2007-10-24T06:50:10Z

The last few weeks have been madness (hopefully more on this later, but we'll see)

This post is a summary of my Desert Southwest trip that I took at the end of September.

Day 1 - September 22

Left Colorado Springs around noon. Headed west on US Highway 24. The aspens were changing, leading to some beautiful opportunities for pictures.

I continued west to US 285 and then south into the San Luis Valley where I turned west on US 160 to head towards Durango. I camped in a campground called Lower Piedra about 50 miles east of Durango. After I cooked and ate dinner, I was just finishing cleaning up when the rain decided to come around for a visit. This sent me packing into my tent where I proceeded to read and relax.

Day 2 - September 23

I awoke to continued rainfall. I stayed in bed hoping it would go away so I wouldn't have to pack up wet camping gear. Finally around 9 or so, I gave up and got up. After packing up I continued west through Durango and over to Cortez, Colorado.

In Cortez I turned South which kept me on US 160 (though it also picked up the amusing US 666). A few miles south we passed over into New Mexico a few miles from the Four Corners (The only spot in the US where four states come together at a single point). I stopped there to do the tourist thing and run around so I could say I had been in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico all at once. The weather wasn't great, so I didn't take any pictures here that were worth sharing.

After this, I continued east on US160 to Tuba City and thence over to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Entering the Canyon from the east is a good idea because it drops you at Desert View which has a campground that is more targeted at people who are used to camping rather than the RV parks and chaos of the campgrounds over at the main Grand Canyon Village. Needless to say I camped at Desert View and was treated to a lovely sunset. The sunset itself was tough to photograph since you had to look directly into the sun, but I did get this nice shot of its side effects.

Day 3 - September 24

And now for the first misadventure of the trip. I woke up this morning to find the right front tire on the Jeep almost completely flat. Luckilly I had a can of the "Fix-a-Flat" stuff and this was enough to get me going. I do have a full size spare, so I had a back up, but if I hadn't been able to field repair the main tire, I would have lost valuable time finding a mechanic to fix my tire.

After dealing with the tire I was off to do the tourist part of the South Rim. I drove the 25 miles over to the heavilly built up Grand Canyon Village. It was a strange juxtaposition to camp out and then venture into the realm of people, most of whom were staying in the various hotels that sit at the village.

The western most part of the park's easilly accessable area is restricted to park buses, so I hopped the "red" route which takes you out past several overlooks. I got off at the first stop then hiked a couple stops forward, got back on the bus and repeated as necessary. At the first stop called Trailview Overlook, I got a kind stranger to snap this photo.

I continued out along the red route stoping and reboarding the bus as I saw fit till I got out to the Hermit's Rest, which is the end of the bus line. I hiked another half mile out past there and the returned, taking the bus back to the Grand Canyon Village.

From there I took another bus out to the South Kaibab Trailhead a few miles east of Grand Canyon Village. From there I hiked a mile or so down to the aptly named Ooh Ahh Point

From there I hiked down another half mile to Cedar Ridge then hiked back up to the trailhead. The total distance on this part was a mere 3 miles round trip, but the 1140 ft of elevation change made it seem like more. After that I returned to my car and drove back to my campsite at Desert View.

I never totaled up my total hiking for the day, but If I add up just what I recorded, it was a total of about 8 miles of hiking.

Day 4 - September 25
Today I relocated from the South Rim to the North Rim. This includes a 215 mile drive to go about 10 miles line of sight. The North Rim is 1000 feet higher than the south and the climate surrounding it is quite different. This shot shows the forest at the north rim, which is quite different from the scrub and brush at the south rim.

From the north rim, you are treated to a whole different set of views of the Canyon.

The North Rim Campground was full, but just north of the park is the Kaibab National Forest where it was simple to find a National Forest Service Campground.

Day 5 - September 26

Back into the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for several hours. Drove out to Cape Royal and went out to see the view. Cape Royal is impressive since it is surrounded on every side by the canyon. It is a narrow spit of land that sticks way giving a great field of view.

Along the road to Cape Royal, I drove through a still smouldering fire. At the trailhead at Cape Royal they had fire fighters stationed to answer questions as to what what going on. Park policy is to let fires burn unless they threaten structures. This particular fire was started at the end of July by a lightning strike. It had burned a little, almost died out and then flared up again. At this point it was pretty much dying down, and was under constant surveilence. There were several spots as I drove out the road where I saw smouldering trees, so the fire wasn't completely out. Neat.

After that, I got back on the road and headed west and north to get to Kanab Utah where I headded north along US89 till I reached Utah State Hwy 12 where it was a quick jaunt to the east to get to Bryce Canyon National Park. After setting up camp in one of the park's campgrounds I did some quick exploring before returning to make dinner. After dinner I decided to go over to the Canyon to play with my new camera. After numerous attempts at getting it set for low light photography, I managed to get this photo...

This is pretty neat as you can see a good shot of Bryce Canyon, but what I find coolest is that if you look carefully you can see Sagittarius at the left of the picture and Scorpius at the right. The brightest spot is Jupiter and just below and to its right you can see a reddish star. That one is Anteres, a red supergiant. I especially like that you can see the reddish tint of Antares.

Day 6 - September 27

Spent the morning wandering around Bryce Canyon. First I drove out the road to see all of the vistas and views as you continue around the park. This road goes out to wonderful spots like Rainbow Point, Natural Bridge and many others. I returned to the main section of Bryce and went for a hike along a 3 mile loop. At the bottom of this loop I was down in the canyon and used my trusty tripod to get this shot...

After a nice 3.5 mile loop, I returned to my car and headed for Capitol Reef National Park. From Bryce this entailed a 100+ mile drive along Utah Hwy 12.

Partway along this road, you pass through a very small town called Boulder (no not at all like the one in Colorado). Boulder is the home of the Anasazi Indian Village State Park. This is a small park based around the archeological dig of an ancient Anasazi village. Definitely worth the stop.

Unfortunately, with all my dilly-dallying, my plans were thrown a small monkey wrench. Once I got to Capitol Reef National Park, I discovered that the campground was already full. After discussing with the ranger, I backtracked about 30 miles along Utah 12 back to the Dixie National Forest and a nice little campground called Single Tree Campground. I camped out and relaxed, planning on getting an early start the next day.

Day 7 - September 29

Woke up, ate breakfast, packed camp and hightailed it to Capitol Reef National Park. My first order of business was to reserve myself a campsite for that night. After doing so, I continued off to see the Waterfold Pocket. The Pocket is a 100+ mile fold in the crust of the earth. Pictures of it were the primary reason that I wanted to visit the park. I'll talk more about the park later, but first I'm going to concentrate on the fold.

From the visitor center you continue 15 miles along Utah 24 till you pick up a road that heads south along the fold. There is another road that goes north along the fold, but I didn't have time to check that one out. The road south is paved for the first 7 miles, but then changes into a dirt road. The road was in good shape except for a few spots where the sand got deep and was rutted out. At about 15 miles on the road you re-enter the National Park itself. I continued down the road another 25 miles and then did a bit 4 wheeling to get to this spot. It is called the Halls Creek Overlook and looks to the north along the Waterpocket Fold.

From here (about 40 miles from the highway), I worked my way back up to an area called the Stike Valley. This is a particularly impressive section of the Waterpocket Fold. You can drive up into the fold and then along it to the north. There is a 4wd road that leads up the Muley Twist Canyon. I started up this road, but a mile along, there were highway barricades across the road. I geared up and hiked up this road the 3 miles to spot where I could hike over to a great view of the fold.

I don't know why they had the road blocked off. The ranger at the Visitor Center didn't know why either. The road was flat and clear for my entire hike along it and there was no weather threatening. The road was along a stream bed, so maybe they were worried about flash floods on other days.

After the hike it was back to the Campground. It was a nice clear night at first, so I spent some time stargazing before bed.

Day 8 - September 29
Decision time. I could extend my trip by one more day or I could head home today. The weather reports were showing bad weather coming from the west and I kind of wanted to have a day to clean up and relax before rejoining the workforce. After some serious deliberation, I decided to head for home after spending the morning exploring more of Capitol Reef National Park.

I like to describe the park as three parks in one. There is the Waterfold Pocket which I discussed already. There is some wonderful canyonland sections through which I hiked this morning, but the canyons are very similar to what you would find at Arches or Canyonlands. The third part is of Historical interest. The Fremont river flows through the park and has been a focus for human habitation for at least 1200 years.

The people of the Fremont culture lived in the river valley from as long ago as 700 CE. They left pictographs and petroglyphs in the canyon walls.

Later Mormon pioneers settled in the valley. They founded the community of Fruita which is now the location of the Park Headquarters. They planted fruit orchards which are a primary attraction of the park to this day. For historical reasons the park maintains the fruit orchards and allows park vistiors access to the fruit for a small "you pick" fee.

I highly recommend Capitol Reef to anyone heading through central Utah. It has attractions for several different interests. Additionally, the campground is nestled between fruit orchards and is located at a relatively low 5000 ft above sea level. This produces mild temperatures even during the fall. My night in Capitol Reef was by far the warmest night of my trip, and looking at reports, that wasn't just coincidence.

After exploring the various attractions of Capitol Reef I took Utah 24 east till it joins Interstate 70 just west of Green River. (If you have driven 70, then you know where it enters some red rock formations west of Green River. This road comes in right where that occurs.

At this point I was on Interstate for the first time during my trip. (I thought about trying to avoid interstate entirely, but there is no other even one quarter reasonable route from Capitol Reef back to Colorado Springs.

I took I70 east into Colorado and over to Avon. Avon is just a few miles west of Vail and is also where US24 branches off from I70. It was early enough that I still had some light left, so I decided to take a side trip through Leadville and over to Buena Vista. There is a nice little mexican hole in the wall in Buena Vista that I really like and the timing was just perfect for me to get there for dinner. I drove over and through Leadville. The views of Mt Massive and Mt Elbert were quite impressive as the sun went down. From there it was down to Buena Vista for dinner and then back east along US24 till I got back to Colorado Springs around 10:00 PM.

Great Trip.

Back and Safe

2007-09-30T14:24:08Z

Got back late last night. Great trip. I'll be posting more later on today after I do some image selection.

Vacationing

2007-09-22T16:29:17Z

Off for a one week road trip down into the Southwest. Headed for Grand Canyon, Bryce and Capitol Reef National parks.

Pictures and reports when I get back.

Genius, utter genius

2007-07-20T16:14:00Z

Take a look at the linked comic, and then click next to see the second of the sequence.
http://www.homeonthestrange.com/view.php?ID=211

Calling the Bible a bunch of Jesus Fan Fic may be the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

That and the fact that I've seen every Dr Who ep referred to... Gotta love it.

Yard Update

2007-06-21T05:19:32Z

So I've been continuing my landscaping project. 18 tons of rock is a !^&@&!@ing lot.

As of today, I think I've passed the halfway mark on moving rock. Once that is done, I'll still have to acquire and plant a mess of low water plants.

At least the plant part is fun.

My Garden survived a hail storm, and at this point I have
Lettuce, Mint, Chives, Thyme, Dill and Parsley all producing enough to be used.
Still waiting for the Tomatoes, peppers, basil, and lemon cucumber. (will be a while on these)

I also planted some lovage this year. I'm looking forward to trying that. It's supposed to be similar to celery.

aufwiedersehen

PS: In an amusing note, live journal's spell checker didn't understand "aufwiedersehen" and suggested that I use "overdosing."

Partway through my insanity

2007-05-30T05:48:16Z

Ah, traveling to Phoenix for an ice hockey tournament. Yes we were skating on frozen H2O when the temperature outside was over 100F.

We had a blast and I'll try to get some pictures up as soon as I get some. My digital camera is on the fritz, so I'll have to get phots from others.

Our team was the Colorado Springs Posse. We won our first two games and then lost our third. This was enough to get into the playoffs, but we then lost in the semifinal game.

I'm now back in Colorado Springs. My co-worker Melinda and I went for a nice little 8.5 mile mountain bike ride in the sloppy wet sand and mud that currently covers the course for the 24 hour bike race we are riding this weekend.

Somehow riding in wet sand is just a bit harder than riding on nice firm packed sand.

Hopefully the course will dry out a bit before the race starts Friday at 6.

Cheers

Ride of Silence - Share the Road

2007-05-17T02:20:17Z

I just got back from participating in this year's Ride of Silence.

Every Year on the 3rd Wednesday of May, cyclists around the world gather for rides to remember those who have died or been injured while riding on public streets. We do this to raise awareness and ask that we ALL share the road. Cyclists, Motorcycles, Pedestrians, Truck drivers, Cars and all other users.

So on this day I remember several people who are gone but never forgotten.
Abigail Frederick - My good friend Catnip's mother who was killed in an accident along a country road near Whitefish, MT in August of 1991.
Jennifer Nesbitt - A college friend with whom I used to play bridge. Killed in a bicycle accident with a truck on Uintah Street in Colorado Springs in September of 1993.
Joseph Nordby - A friend and coworker who was killed when he was hit by a cement truck coming blindly out of an alley in September of 2000.

To those, and to any others whom I have forgotten or just did not know, tonight's ride goes out to you.

The weather today was overcast and we had some rain during the ride. Perfect for the feelings going through everyone's mind.

Peace

Welcome to Me

2007-05-11T03:01:08Z

Ahh, I've finally starting acting like it's the 21st century.

I don't have a lot to say right at the moment, but I hope to have more.

For what it's worth, I've got a whole bunch of stuff coming up this summer.

Summer Project: Xeriscape the area of my yard outside the fence. (tree bank, devil strip, green strip, whatever you want to call it)
    Status: I have 12 tons of river rock, 6 tons of Denver granite (mostly a kind of rose color) and several cubic yards of mulch.
       I have started to process, and will keep updating as things go.

Summer Plans:
    May 25-28 : Phoenix Hockey Classic : I'm playing in an Ice Hockey Tournament. Mostly an excuse to hang around partying by the pool in a plush resort.
    June 2-3 : 24 hours at E-Rock : 24 hour relay bike race. I'm on a team of 8 trying to get as many 8.5 mile laps in as possible.
    July 4-8 : Clanping : Annual camping trip with my friends. Special Bonus, this year my friends Elliot and Eden are getting married (yes, to each other)
    August ? : Annual Morison Homestead Land Trust meeting. Meeting about the house in Peterborough, NH. Owned jointly by several family members. (More on this later)

Well, that should be enough to start with.