OK, I would love to be taking Kodak Moment shots of my family on a palm studded Hawaiian beach, but I'm not in Hawaii. And I probably won't be going soon. I've got to save money for a tandem with a nice brass bell and a basket on it.
So, instead of Hawaii, I'm 1/2 mile from my house where there is this big, big power pole, and it's made of steel. Steel rusts, and then the concrete holding up the steel rusts, or gets a rust bath I guess. I take a picture of the rust-bathed concrete.
Now if I could photoshop my family into this photo, it would be just as good as a Hawaiian sunset, only better, because I didn't have to pay to get there. I walked. With my son and my dogs.
What more do we really need? Maybe a shaved ice would be nice, but that's about it. Oh, and some crashing waves. Well, and then there's those palm trees I see in the Outside Magazine articles that tell me where I should go next.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Rust
Big Nuts
I remember as a kid, while learning photography, that I didn't like to be bound to traditional subjects like people, flowers or pets, at least not in the traditional ways. So I cut off the bottom of a beer bottle with a hacksaw, stuck my macro lens inside it, and took a picture of my dog peaking in the top.
Another time I waxed my white car up real nice and shiny, then hosed it down to make a half-billion water droplets. Next I placed chocolate chips in rows amoungst the water drops, and out came the macro again for some pretty weird shots. Then there was time I made a lemon meringue pie soley for the purpose of taking close up of the "waves" on top.
I guess the thing is, macro photography is always there to explore, and it's just the ticket when you need a kick in the creative hind end.
A kids best friends
My perpetual adventure buddy these days is my 4 year old son Torin. My wife is too busy being a mom, and my teenagers are too busy being teenagers. So Torin and I hike, bike and ski together. This summer, he'll be big enough to go on the outrigger canoe with me, and for sure he'll be paddling a double kayak.
This picture is from what Torin calls "our mountain" because it's practically right in our backyard. You can't throw a baseball and hit it, it's not that close, but maybe three throws would do it, or two if you were a pro.
There's a badger hole up here that we like to go look at, hoping that someday it might be re-occupied. On the other hand, I suppose it's a good thing that it's vacant, as I think badgers are pretty shady characters. We did spy some coyote tracks in the mud, and I wondered how many poodles were missing in the neighborhood.
Fortunately, our neighboorhod isn't rich enough to support a poodle population, only Golden Retreivers, Labrador Retreivers, maybe a Husky or a Brittany Spaniel. The good dogs. The ones that bark, not yap. The ones that chase balls and lay in your lap and swim a lot in the summer. Good dogs sure make really great friends.
Trailer Life
It seems like a great idea in theory; get the whole family together out on a beautiful winter afternoon bike ride, smell a few flowers along the way, maybe play on the kids toys and act like a kid. Bond a little. Do something a little different than the normal routine, which is usually nothing for most folks around this time of year.
So what happened? Why am I riding by myself with my two youngsters? 40% Off at Old Navy. Yep. My wife and teenage daughter high tailed it to go shopping, conveniently leaving 30 minutes before the youngsters were due up from their happy nappy and the scheduled ride time. Oh well. I got a bit of extra riding in today, and my kids had a blast as always.
I think my son (on the trail-a-bike) will be doing some bike touring with me someday. He seems to be able to ride for quite awhile already for a 4 year old. The only problem is he likes to sleep-ride after about 10 miles.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Triple Americano
Mmmmm! Americano and cream!
A nice ride yesterday in mid forty degree weather, no snow, no slush, no rain, and no problems. No hurry and no worry. After about a 3 week hiatus, Craig was able to join me for a short ramble up the valley to the world famous Anjou Bakery. We devoured a cup of hot tomato soup before returning home to watch the Tour of California.
This was just what I needed after a leg-smoking ride yesterday that tested every bit of my early season form, or lack thereof. All I need to do is get in good enough shape to ride two-a-days in Moab in another 5 weeks. I think I'll be good to go.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Ice Age
Now this was some fun paddling! I felt like I was playing the old video game "Asteroids" as I wove in and out of ice chunks in the Columbia River, The source of all the ice was the Wenatchee River, just upstream, which had been frozen solid at the mouth for several weeks. Then all of a sudden, whamo, it's 40 degrees for several days in a row and the ice started to quickly break up.
I drive or bicycle commute over the Columbia River to work every day, so I noticed the ice sheets starting to come down a few days ago. I almost waited a day too long to go paddle amoungst the icebergs. On the day these photos were taken, I was able to navigate up one side of the Wenatchee River, but about 1/2 of the river was still chock-a-block full of ice, up to 3 feet thick. The next day I rode my bike over a footbridge on the Wenatchee in the same place I had paddled, and the river was empty of ice altogether. It's really amazing how quickly warm temperatures can affect an ice sheet that is so seemingly permanent. It's like I just witnessed my own mini global warming experiment. Kind of makes you think about it a bit more.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Wind Slab
Another avy control day.18-20" of new snow sounds great, but when the 100 MPH winds come, all bets are off for a good day of skiing. This is what Denali must look like after a good windstorm. 48 hours of super duper high winds created some great formations in the snow, like this one at Mission Ridge, but ruined the powder skiing. I think all of our new snow ended up in Quincy or Ephrata, about 30 miles to the East. Surprisingly, we had very few results today. The best part of the day was the snowcat ride up in the dark which always provides some entertainment. Oh, and my brothers yardsale at the bottom of Shot 6 near the microwave ;-)
High Voltage
Nice work brother Mike. Good form, perfect placement. What more could you ask for besides some powder?
Bad weather where?
The mountain passes are getting absolutely hammered with snow right now, and even our local ski area just 15 miles away is getting positively terrorized by wind (see photo below). So it seemed impossible to pass up the opportunity to go for a sunny but slightly breezy ride, just because the weather is so contradictory.
I put on my front and rear bags to remember what it feels like to ride with a light load on, and I didn't like it too well. The brevets coming up in less than a month near Seattle are self supported, so you do need some kind of baggage system to carry enough clothes, tools, and food to complete the ride. However, last year I dumped the front bag because it makes my bike handle weird. The Steelman I ride is a cyclocross bike, not a touring or brevet specific design, so it's not really designed to carry a bunch of stuff. That said, it is a capable bike, and is super comfortable.
My brevet partner is trying to convince me to use my carbon Trek road bike this year, but it has even more limitations: No fender eyelets means I have to resort to Raceblades, which are o.k. to an extent, but not up to Seattle Randonneuring standards. And let me tell you, the folks in Seattle will let you know if your fenders are not up to spec. Also, the Trek won't hold a frame pump well, which means bringing a mini-pump. And then there is the problem with spoke breakage on a fancy wheeled machine like the Trek. A roadside repair just isn't going to happen, and so my ride would be over. Plus, do I really want to subject my Dura-Ace equipped wonder bike to all that rain and road grime? The Trek is far more energy efficient than the Steelman, but so what. After 8 hours of riding, I'm going to be wiped out no matter what bike I'm on.
100 MPH
This is a view down the mighty Columbia River, just a few miles North of Wenatchee. In the distance, up there in the clouds, is Mission Ridge. For the past 2 days, Mission has had sustained winds of over 70 mph with maximum gusts reaching 116 mph. During one 9 hour period, the wind gusted over 100 for 8 of those hours. With a combination of the wind with new snowfall, avalanche duty is certainly in my near future.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Lunchbreak in Sage Hills
One of my Winter workouts is a quick trip up to Sage Hills at lunchtime for a quick snowshoe. This one was a bit cold, windy and snowy, but still fun. The deer were pretty well snuggled in out of the wind, and not too interested in me. I've seen cougar tracks up on the ridge top twice now, and I keep thinking I might run into one someday. Those big cats are pretty abundant around here, but I have yet to see one in the wild, which is pretty weird.
I made a Survivor Man type video at the top that I thought was pretty funny. I was having a bad morning at home with some pretty difficult teenager issues, so this hike/ Survivor Man parody definately lifted my spirits. Happiness tends to be where you make it I suppose. The problem is, this kind of happiness is just a temporary band-aid to cover the sadness that I feel. Not that a band-aid isn't a great thing, just that when you take it off, the reason for the sadness is still there.
The hike was still a worthy endeavor in it's own right however: excercise, fresh air, beautiful views, wildlife, etc., and it also gave me time to reflect on the events of the day. Not a great day, but tomorrow will be better, and the next day will be beter yet.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Winter Ride
The Seattle International Randonneurs are piling on the miles over in the relative comfort of 40 degree rainy Seattle weather. Over here in Wenatchee, it's a bit chillier, so the miles are barely adding up. The first brevet of the season is quickly approaching however, so the snow is no excuse to show up empty handed at the innagural 100K Populaire on March 2nd. 2 weeks later is the 200k, and then a trip to Moab with my buddies, so the training must go on. I actually really enjoyed this 3 hour ride, mainly because I brought along a change of base layers (wool of course), and had a nice 20 minute stop at the Anjou Bakery for a triple Americano and a pumpkin seed muffin. The tailwind on the way home helped too.
