Sweet taste of sucess!

Hi Guys,



It is 90, humid, and the beach is way warm in the Caribeean. Just finished crossing the entire country of Costa Rica by Cycling, hiking, Whitewater rafting, and sea kayaking the last 50 km on the Pacuare River. The Class IV whitewater on the Pacaure lived up to its namesake. I learned a new definition of Hot while hiking and have a lot of respect for those who pick the coffee that soo many consume. Bike Hike Adventures and Coast To Coast Adventures did a fantasitc job.


Sloths are so slow, the 2 toed guys have moss growing on their backside. Howler monkeys make the funniest loud sounds and a Bird Montezuma Pendula (spelling) mocked me this entire trip


So weird, cannot access any email, but facebook is the only thing I can get out on except rarely get out on my website.



Due to a lack of internet or phone access, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!



Side note, the spell checker is in spanish, so everything was mispelled.

Adventure

Hi Guys,

What a nice feeling to be in a warm 80 degree place and have your luggage join you on your flight. All is well

Mike

Moab-Golden Spike-Poison Spider

Hi Guys,

Here is another post of Moab! The snow has finally left and got out for a 25 mile road ride this weekend. I nearly lost feeling in my toes by the time I got back. I guess at 38 degrees, riding on the road takes it out of you pretty quick.

If you haven't noticed, the world tracker on the left of the screen has reset.

Being the rockclimber he is, Scott likes to get close to the edge of the cliff.


Scott talks about his base jumping idea with a mountain bike. Not really, but the photo makes it seem that way. These cliffs were steep.
Mike B from San Diego riding the rock edge.
Here I am riding down the same rocky ledge. This is one place you really don't want to fall.
Here is the entrance to Arches National Park as looking from the Moab Rim.
Looking back up the highway from the entrance to arches, here is the rim that we were riding.

These rocks were fun to play on. Still not a fan of these kind of heights, but it was neat to see the rock crawler jeeps go right up and over here.

Matt and Scott hanging out on a ledge.

Hope you enjoy the photos. More to come later.

Mike

Gemini Bridges-Golden Spike-Poison Spider

Hi Guys,

I find myself once again going outside and finding snow. I managed to get on the mountain bike today for a chilled 40 minute ride. I had 2 layers of gloves, 3 shirts, 1 vest, hat, bike pants with warm bike stuff and was still cold. It is really hard to ride to work when the snow keeps falling. Ski school is in full swing and it is fun to see kids finally get it.

Below is the last day of the Moab MTB trip photos. Our 17.5 mile day grew to 33.5 when one member of the group got fed up of the hike-a-bike sections of the golden spike to portal trail and decided to go down into poison spider greatly increasing out day.


This is a panorama photo. Note there are two pictures of me in this photo. Kind of weird.

Here is the group going over the gemini bridges. Really cool arch.

Trey had a thing about destroying every tube he had. This was another tubeless tire that had to get a tube.

We found this great climbing rock on our ride. One guy said this rock was known as the "crackhouse". Kind of weird, except, there is a 3~5 inch crack down the middle of it. If you were a really good climber, you could hand jam upside down the whole 100 or so feet this is long. You are only 3.5 feet off the ground but it looked ridiculous.

Here is Matt playing on the rock.

Here Scott is playing on the rock. If you look behind Scotts camelback, notice the crack in the rock. That is where you follow the crack for an insane climb.
Trey actually didn't puncture a tire with this demonstration. Hanging out.
With my sprained wrist I gave it a whirl...not to well. The wrist wasn't very happy with me.
And to round out the group, Mike B from San Diego is hanging out.
Here is Matt, dropping down the rock trail. It is kinda fun to think that jeeps go up this stuff.

Scott takes a more direct line off the biggest drops he can find.
Mike B on the Ibis Mojo makes this drop look easy. That carbon fiber bike sure looked nice.
At a lunch stop, here is looking back toward gemni bridges area. There is a lot of rock, scrub and nothing.
Looking the other way, we are heading along the rim in the picture all the way to the right side of the below photo on the edge of the rim. That is where we were supposed to go down.

Mike B riding up a nice long rock hill.

You know you are strong when you can hold up a rock from crushing your buddys bikes.

Oh wait, I can do it to...must not take that much strength.

Here is a panorama of the rock looking into the canyon nearby. Where the guys are standing is a serious overhang. Kind of freaky when you look at where we were standing when you are aways away.

We started to find oil drips from a Jeep that didn't fair so well. It was almost better than the trail markers.

Going up the hill in the above photo, we made our way to the rim looking down above Moab.

The next post is continuing along Golden Spike trail along the rim trying to find the portal trail, one guy getting fed up with us and taking us all down the poison spider sand dunes of death trail.

Hi All,

Skiing this year has been great...well until the great flood of 2009. The snow in the front yard is gone and now it is in the mid 40s lower 50s. Long gone are the 3 1/2 ft snow banks on the side of the driveway. Now it is much easier to get around.

Below is the start of our last day in Moab. Below is Gemini Bridges. Note the ghost image. This is a stitch of 3 photos. This day started out as a 17 miles trip, ending up around 34 miles.

More SNOW!!!

Hi Guys

Sunday Night, Jan 4th. Elevation 200ft above sea level, still more snow falling. It had finally melted off the grass and the pile from shoveling the sidewalk was all that was left. Don't worry, tonight the "rain possible snow" forecast turned out to be 4 inches in 2 hours and still snowing.

Our last snow was cold and dry, this stuff is great for snowmen and sliding around. Nice thing is people are just chaining up rather than piling up. We are just not set up for massive amounts of snow here. Everything is built on a hill.

Not too late to sign up your 6~12 year old with Alpine West Ski School www.alpinewestskischool.com to learn how to ski and Snoqualmie pass. Who knows, you may get me for an instructor.

Looking forward to the first day of work for you the year...if the snow continues...maybe not.

Sekiu

Happy New Year!

I celebrated new years with a Nerf gun war, watching the snow fall outside again. It actually snowed soo much at the pass, they shut it down, and shut me down from skiing today...bummer.

Below is my trip to Sekiu Washington. All off these picture of water are of the Straights of Juan de Fuca. We are at sea level. I like the road sign below.



Below we have the beach, and the old lighthouse building in Clallam Bay in the distance. Note the snow covering on the beach.
Looking the other way, after 2 days of rain, still had snow on the beach. If you look in the distance, you can see the white wash from the waves blending in with the snow.
The river swelled and came right up to the water. It was cold!
Here is a pano of Sekiu with snow. Don't see this very often.
Ironic, this place is called the Breakwater Inn. Always wondered how the rock wall gets destroyed.

Here is a view of Sekiu harbor and some really neat sky.

This is 5 pictures together from the road of massive waves pounding the jetty. Glad this wasn't fishing season.

The Sekiu river as it meets the straights. Big waves. Lots of snow...really fun.

This photo takes the phrase bridge to nowhere to a new level. Actually the enviro-nuts prevented the city from saving the beautiful park that used to exist before the river took it out.

Note the waves crashing higher than the land.

Another view of the bridge, waves, and snow on the beach.

Sekius Rowes (Rose) the salmon and harbor.

Happy new year and enjoy.