My Mountain Trail

Lucky Me!

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Here’s a pic of Lori in the kitchen creating some new, yummy, gluten-free stuff. Well, sometimes it’s yummy, sometimes it’s just gluten-free. Given our taste training, it’s hard to make gluten-free baked products. When it is good though, it’s an eye-opener… and a belly-filler.

Wow, What a Day!

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Yesterday was just an amazing, beautiful day! Lori and I rode our bikes up over Mt. Tam and then down to Bolinas. Bolinas was, er, funky as usual. And a little foggy too. Then we rode back along the coast through Stinson Beach and back up the mountain. My peddle is now adjusted properly, so it was all fun and only a little pain on the steeps. Here is a picture of Lori cranking her way through the steepest switchback (about 13%) on the way up. And, she does it smiling!

She’s awesome!

Here’s another picture I took with the M6 the other day. I was photographing brushes with the digital camera and decided to snap a quick self portrait using the flash. The picture makes me look much older than the 25 years I claim. Ha!

And, finally two more from the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge in Philadelphia. I stopped by there on the way to the airport last Thursday. It was a beautiful, warm morning. I had about 45 minutes to spare, so I got the chance to walk around quite a bit. The leaves were really colorful.

Autumn

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

The last few days on Mt. Tam have seemed a lot like Autumn, and even a bit like Winter. On Monday we had a “gully warsher” as my OKFree friends might say. Oh, okay, I might say it too. Anyway, we had about 3″ of rain in no time flat, and all the trails turned into rushing streams — not to mention the small pond in the basement. Then things cleared up some and we had the crystal clear atmosphere that you only get after a good storm.

Even better (at least around here) is when you get a good storm and there is residual cloud and fog cover. This picture of San Francisco shows some of that going on as I ran on Mt. Tamalpais on Friday. It was beautiful, which is normal but always enjoyable. This picture was taken last Friday after the big storm (5″) on Wednesday.

This next picture was taken along Rock Springs trail, just below the Mountain Theater. The red leaves are on poison oak, which just flames all over the place this time of year. If someone didn’t know what poison oak looks like, all they have to do is come visit the mountain in late October and look for red leaves. THAT is what a poison oak leaf looks like.

Next up is some more fog as the sun set on Monday evening. It was glorious indeed.

Now I am in Pennsylvania, and it is Autumn here too. And the weather is warm. I doubt that will last much longer. Here is a picture of a playground and trees from across the street from the company I am working with.

Happy Birthday Hal!

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Today is my brother Hal’s birthday. Let’s see…He must be 48 now. Wow, almost middle aged! Happy birthday bro’! And congratulations for making it this far! I hope your day is a great day.

The picture here is of Hal from our adventure last summer on the Oklahoma Freewheel. Rumor is that he and Dad are going to ride the OKFree again next year. It was a lot of fun, though challenging at times. I hope they stick with their plan. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and will probably try to join them for at least part of the ride. Maybe all of it if the timing works.

I’m sure Dad and Hal have been putting miles in to get ready for their ride. For me, I haven’t been on Eddy too much lately. I bought some new pedals and haven’t gotten them adjusted quite right, so I’ve been avoiding him. Time to fix that and start putting some time back in on that Brooks saddle again. OKFree will be much more enjoyable that way, and hey, it’s even kind of fun to ride around here too…

Oh yeah, and Lori is going to be getting serious w/ her new Guru soon, as she cranks up for Ironman Utah. Yeah, better get on Eddy or I’ll be in pain for the next six months just trying to keep up with her! Gotta go… But first, one last “Happy Birthday Hal!”

Eddy! Eddy! Where are you?! We’re going riding…