serendipity snow

I just happened to be in Canaan, WV for a couple of days when the first snowfall happened. Chipper does a betting pool for the first frost and the first snow. TB won the date of the first snow. I bet he had no idea that it was going to be 8 inches for the first snowfall!

Canaan is so beautiful and so fun when it snows. Morgan and his college buddies got first turns down the slope at midnight and then woke up early and skied with me and Chipper, TB, and CB. That was great fun. Plus it is amazing to see these kids master the Tele turn. My advice to people who are trying to learn to tele is "ski like a kid" ...preferably a kid who grew up in Canaan Valley, though.

Yes, I did go cross country skiing. But very gingerly! Uphill skiing, like biking, is the best. Downhill skiing is a bit sketchy especially in the thicker stuff. I felt a like more of a beginner...stiff, bent over at the waist, and generally timid. But you can believe that I was going to ski good and not eat any wood, nor do any damage to my little green bones.

But it was a good, friendly snow, not too fast, not too slow. As it warmed up in the sun on Thursday, our skis stuck a little, but actually it was amazing october conditions. Like Chippy said, "It would of been in the top ten of last year's skiing conditions"

On the way up to Canaan I went up Scherr mountain and to my surprise they have put windmills up there. Its pretty freaky when you don't know the windmills are there, then suddenly these huge white blades are going by. I don't want to see windmills everywhere, especially on public lands, but they seem better than dirty coal. It would be wonderful if towns could put up windmills and keep the power local.

Biking vs. Hiking

Tim and I did a nice gravel road loop over in WV through the towns of Job and Whitmer. It was my first ride over two hours and on gravel. The climbing felt great. I was a little nervous on the downhills because I'm a little bit like a sack of potatoes on the bike. But that old saying about never forgetting how to ride a bike is so very true. Biking helps my leg feel better.

We went over to Seneca for the second annual Spruce/North Fork/Fire Jenga weekend. Of course, I'm feeling a lot better about my life now that I can ride a bit again. I don't feel like the loser sitting in the corner, so I was more than happy to provide shuttle for the boys and Churtle. Melissa and I hiked to the top of Seneca Rocks. This is a tourist trail, but its still climbs 1,000ft in 1.5 miles. I kept looking at the fat people smoking their ciggies doing it, so I knew that even with my limp and weak leg, that I could do it. The view from the top is amazing. But going down was harder and my limp got worse. So at this point biking is much easier than hiking.

Ruby and I went down to Stauton last night to cheer on the cyclocrossers. Its a tri city series...Foof, Rock Town and Staunton( which I don't know if they have a nickname for their town) It was a great turnout and a good course. JB is looking very honed with his fitness and cross skills. DeDe and Misty looked really fit, too and it was good to see mumbles work hard. Poor Mckeegan...endo on the first lap!

Nick Waite is back in town! He rocked out on my brakeless fixie at the cyclocross race.

3 month xray

Dr. Chappell said my fractures are healing. The gaps in the breaks are starting to fill in. This is great progress. He said no running, but biking outside is okay. But I still need to be very, very careful and no danger dabs. I need to work on my range still to get back to my normal gait. I'm still limping a lot.

YEEHAA!

What an awesome week its been! Tim and I celebrated our birthdays this week. We went to the Fort Lewis Lodge near the end of the SMT trail. Normally, we would ride there and back, but Tim rode at Boy Scout on the way out and I read some Hunter S. Thompson. Then we had some target practice at Dog Graveyard. It was really exciting and scary, too. Maybe I could make it to the Olympics in shooting.

We also had a birthday dinner at Blue Nile and stayed up very late that night. Tim loves his "Heelies" that I got him. We had to check out some Youtube videos of some heelie pros in action. They are all 8 years old. I think Tim could turn pro in a couple of weeks.

The SVBC MTB Festival was gorgeous. There were lots of friends there and great riding conditions. Lots of people rode Grooms because it will become part of Wilderness before too long . Also , there was a huge group doing trail maintenance on Wolff, which should make it a nicer singletrack climb as well. My sister, Beth, rocked out for three days of trail riding on carbon stead.

Foodles rocked the Trek Navigator at the six pack downhill on Boy Scout. Mumbles took video and showed it Saturday night with the rockin slide show that Kevin Keane and Moody did. Carpong will be riding next week since he got a smokin fast 4:01. The highlight of the weekend for most was the dual slalom course. The former activity was late night dodge ball, but now the minibikes other wise known as little kids bikes or pixies bikes rule. It was harder for me watching people have so much fun at the mini bikes and keg rolls than it was to see them riding singletrack. My big ego wanted to get in on the shenanigans and it made me realize all the little things that my ego does to try to win "situations" I think racing was a good outlet for that and now I have to find other ways to approach some things.

The Navigator gave me my first ride outside at the festival! It was nice having a "girls" bike for easy stopping because that is the sketchy thing still for me. I like to have my foot touch down while my butt is still on the saddle, even thought its not completely necessary. Its funny because it has big downhill tires on it. Its a rad bike. I took it over to the Trek Demo folks to get "worked" on. They didn't get my joke.

But today I did a carbon remount. I put on riding shorts, riding shoes and a helmet and got on my top fuel for my first real ride in 3 MONTHS! I only went clipless on my good side and of course only on the road.

It was awesome to get out. Everything felt good, but rusty and still very limited. It feels so good chugging up a hill. Its funny how easy everything comes back, though. Which is very comforting to me. It feels natural. Well except my butt.

So to quote Lambie "I'M SO PUMPED!"

I also have discovered photo booth on my mac. Anything for a good laugh...it keeps you happy, healthy and sane. So keep on laughing people...its all we got sometimes.