I recently traveled down south to the land of pine by way of a train that would make the 1800′s steam engines look like a Concorde Jet. I met up with a friend who had yet to traverse the highest hill east of the Mississippi.  The trip was a whirlwind of mountains, parkways, meeting up with long lost friends, new friends, food comas, pubs, sampling local brews, new books, hours of listening to bluegrass, discovering guacamole isn’t the devil’s food, and learning that sleeping in a hammock on a windy night is a poor choice.

Since most of you have likely already seen the pictures, I’ll limit myself to just a few highlights of the awesomeness that was our trip.

US Park Police, ruining Parkway bike surfing since 1927.

What’s a good road-trip without a great soundtrack?

And a little eye candy to round out the post:

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll take the easy route by skipping words and just posting a few highlights, including a video,  from recent weeks.

The sun finally broke free of Winter's icy hold, revealing row after row of leveled corn.

Green, everywhere was green!

Left alone long enough, the bicycle would soon be overcome by the forest.

Can you spot the runner, aka Dad?

It’s tough to get shots while riding. I’ve tried pulling out the camera and snapping the front wheel but this is about as interesting as watching ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’. In this clip I tried filming the ride by holding the camera in one hand and grabbing the bike with the other. This gave mixed results, including a few crashes. Long story short, if you value your life, don’t try to ride and film at the same time. Any other riders have ideas on how to capture the view without spending $$$ on a helmet cam system?

If you couldn’t watch ‘Cloverfield’ or hate shaky-camera-seizure-inducing movies, don’t even attempt to watch this. For everyone else, what do you think? (apparently YouTube stripped the resolution as well, sorry about the blur + shake)

What I was going for was something more like this:

Oh well, maybe when I have sponsorship from the USPS, I’ll be able to afford a nifty camera crew to follow me around. Bring it on Lance.

In this new home, I now have more than enough space for those boxes of books. With the recent purchase of another bookshelf, the empty shelves are taunting me with their space and I need your to help fill it. To get started, I created a quick list of some of the books I’ve already read, and then a second list of those on the wishlist.

Already read: http://tinyurl.com/y7dmanj

Amazon wishlist: http://tinyurl.com/y4z5tv7

Should I buy any already on the list? What’s missing from this list? On first glance, I think there’s definitely a lack of fiction on the ‘already read’ list. To remedy this, I’m thinking of something with a tragic ending (think the ending on Revolutionary Road), or maybe some Hemingway?

The trip began with a questionable landing at the Salt Lake City airport during the first blizzard of the year. After a 30 minute wait on the tarmac, we gated, grabbed the gear and hit the road. A few hours into the drive south, the weather took a turn south. The road began to ice over and the snow piled up. Ahead of us, a brand new jeep overturned when the driver lost control on the ice. Another car slid headfirst into the cliff lining the side of the road. One of my two great fears in life is driving on ice (this is after four winters of working at ski resorts and commuting through blizzards at the crack of dawn so some four year-old could try on a pair of skis and hate it…totally overrated). We eventually topped out on a mountain pass in a deadlocked section of traffic. An 18 wheeler ahead had jackknifed and no one could get around. I spent the first hour wondering if we were going to spend the night sleeping in our rented mini-Hundayi on the middle of the interstate. Four hours later, we crawled down the other side of the pass, into the wide open (and warmer) desert.

The next day began in Zion National Park. Surrounded by the brightest oranges, reds and yellows nature creates, we hiked through waterfalls, along ridges and up Angel’s Landing. Angels Landing tops out in  a ridge about 10 feet wide with several hundred foot cliffs on both sides. It’s all sandstone with a layer of loose sand on top, so one misstep and you’re falling to the valley below. Luckily the National Park Service realized having park visitors plummeting to their deaths on a daily basis wouldn’t be the best marketing, and installed a safety chain along the way. White knuckles locked, we hiked up to the summit for a spectacular view of the cliffs and valleys of Zion.

More Zion pictures: http://tinyurl.com/yf8ot2j

Don't look down...

Trying not to drop the camera

Waterfalls in Zion

Day two was spent at Bryce Canyon. Even if you’re not an avid hiker, I highly recommend making trip at some point. The views are spectacular, and there’s nothing else like it.

More Bryce Canyon pictures: http://tinyurl.com/yh5or8g

Bryce Canyon from Queen's Garden

Wall Street in Bryce Canyon

Looking down on what we hiked in Bryce Canyon

Day three, we arrived at Capitol Reef National Park. We hiked up a slots canyon, as narrow as 8″ in some points with a few cliffs to climb along the way. Definitely not for the claustrophobic or those with a fear of heights.

More Capitol Reef pictures: http://tinyurl.com/ye2mgxb

Sand art

Day four we hiked through Arches National Park. If you’ve seen a Utah license plate, you’ve seen one of the smaller arches in the park, Delicate Arch. In my opinion though, this isn’t the most impressive arch of the park. Landscape Arch, the longest natural arch in the world at 290 feet, is spectacular. Unfortunately due to falling rock, you can no longer hike under the arch to get a real feel for how massive this really is.

More Arches National Park pictures: http://tinyurl.com/yhkgoaa

Turret Arch

Landscape Arch

Day five, the final day of the trip, we visited Canyonlands National Park. Like it’s name implies, there were lots of spectacular canyons to hike through. Highlight was the ancient cliff dwellings, built on the side of a lone mesa in the park.

More Canyonlands pictures: http://tinyurl.com/y9gcu2s

Sunset in Canyonlands

Canyonlands National Park, home of mountains beyond canyons

Ancient cliff dwellings in the Canyonlands

Regardless of which vice you pursue, one of the greatest times of the year to enjoy any of the above is early fall. While the leaves haven’t yet begun their annual change to reds and golds, the temperatures are beginning to cool, and the rain is holding of.  There’s finally more time to enjoy the outside without having to don I’m going to summit Mt. Everest weather gear.

After the stress of entering the final weeks of my first home purchase, a busy workweek, and still adjusting to working days instead of staying up until 4 a.m., it was time to celebrate life away from the cube.  I briefly considered a de-stressing session in Peter Gibbons gangster style, but decided that might be a poor choice.  Instead, this past week was full of rides through corn fields, terrorizing the wildlife, and general good vibes. Below are a few pictures, nothing fancy, from the week of de-stressing.

The fungus is among us.

Wildflowers along the trail.

Making the world's flattest trail look difficult. This is right before I went for a smile on the camera, missed the obvious rock in front, ended up face down in the dirt.

No fancy photoshop artistry here. I just can't take a steady photo, or focus an automatic camera, while kayaking.

Riding through the corn cathedral, no clue who or what lay around the next corner.

As if the world doesn't have enough sunset pictures, here's one more.

With my new YikeBike, I’ll quickly become the sole focus of everyone, from hot urban chicks decked out in full leather, to middle-aged men sitting in traffic who aren’t watching the chicks in leather. Even better, since my YikeBike tricycle wheels won’t fit a normal bicycle, I won’t feel obligated to stop and help the stranded woman with a flat tire on her oldschool bicycle. Lastly, since I don’t have to exert one ounce of energy on pedaling and breaking sweats, I can focus on wearing my mega-fashion-armani-klein-faded-glory scarves and overcoats to impress the chicks in leather.

Yes, I’m sure if the YikeBike could speak, it would agree that it “yikes to get around”.

Prices start at £5,000 (or U.S. $238,493,324,321.87).

* I may have a slight addiction here. In my defense, not all of the two wheels actually roll

Either way, while it’s been a nice run of 3.5 day weekends, all good things must come to their (well deserved) end. In a few weeks, I’ll be sitting in my cube on a Friday afternoon, suffering through another customer call to India (oh the irony).  As a personal bailout/stimulus package for those long afternoons, I’ve decided to post a few highlights below.  I’m counting on these stories to provide a rescue in the middle of a long customer call.  And since most of my six blog readers all work on Fridays, I’ve included a comparison with what they’re likely doing at work, while I’m out adventuring.

While you were sharpening your pencils and throwing them at the ceiling on Thursday, I was out doing this:

Then on Friday*, while you were dealing with a “my-universe-is-crashing-down-and-I’m-at-the-center-of-my-own-little-world” crisis client on the phone, deciphering the latest office memo, and watching your day tick away, I was here:

*Also Friday night, at 11 pm for a nightcap ride.

Ahh, three day weekends how I’m almost missing you already… mostly just the sleeping in part though.

I planned to do a separate write-up for each of the days I was in the mountains, but it’s over a week since the trip and I’m just now starting the project.  Rather than taking a month or three to write the posts, I think I’ll combine everything into one short post. I’m cutting out most of the details so sorry for the choppy writing. I’m an editor at my night job, but that ends when I leave work…

DAY 1 – Emerald Lake: Couldn’t sleep much the night before. Winds were blowing into our campsite in Moraine Park off the Rocky Mountains at a sustained 40 mph.  When you’re sleeping two people in a 1.5 person tent (12 sq. feet?) with the tent threatening to blow away at any moment, you have a lot of time to think. Luckily I brought the French press coffee maker along and an extra strong coffee shook out the rough night with a cup of black.

Viewing the Rockies from Emerald Lake

We started the trip with an acclimatization hike from the Bear Lake trailhead. This is a relatively mild hike, starting out at 9,475 feet, and topping off at Emerald Lake.  The trail was beginning the spring thaw out from the winter snows, and still had several feet of ice and snow throughout.  Apparently this must be considered the most mild trail in the Rocky Mountains as we passed a family pushing/carrying on back a stroller through the boulders and snow.  This did nothing to make the trail seem less like I was running a marathon on Everest.  The views at the lake were spectacular; we even caught a few skiers making their way down the ridge from the mountains above.  My friends living in CO say they ski 12 months of the year. I think I need to relocate.

DAY 2 – Loch Vale: Feeling a little more acclimated today.  We drove up to another trailhead, Glacier Gorge, and began the long(er) hike up to Loch Vale.  This trail passes by a few waterfalls and rapids before entering a long narrow canyon approaching the lakes.  Just as we were about to enter the canyon, a storm blew in with blizzard winds and stinging sleet/hail.  We took shelter under a boulder and held out for 30 minutes.  After a few attempts at turning around and hiking down, we decided to push for the summit.  A few minutes later, the sun came back out and the views returned.  We reached Loch Vale and found ourselves staring into some of the strongest winds yet; luckily the sun was still out and the snow was holding off.  And the incredible views of Loch Vale made up for any bad weather we’d endured to reach this point.  We took a few ton of pictures, explored the valley, and then began the trek back down. Just in time too as another blizzard/sleet storm rolled in.   Just as we reached the car, the sun rolled out and temperatures climbed.  Like the locals say, ‘if you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes’.

DAY 3 – Long’s Peak/Chasm Lake: Long’s peak is the only 14,000 foot mountain in the Rocky Mountain National park.  I should preface this section with a note that my dad bought me a ‘Guide to Colorado’s 14ers’ book for my birthday.  I’d used this book to plan my assault on this mountain for several weeks now.  We started this trail and faced what seemed to be a never ending section of switchbacks. Seriously.  These switchbacks were like hiking on a treadmill.  Finally, we broke the treeline and started the hike up through the alpine wild flowers and snowfields.  Long’s Peak was peaking out from behind the clouds above us and provided an inviting, if teasing, view.  After several false summits, we reached a major intersection, only to be faced with the strongest storm yet.  Since there wasn’t any lightening or thunder, we decided to press our luck and continue along the ridge.

In Colorado, it's always a long walk up

We came up to a section that stands out to me as the most daunting section of any hike I’ve ever attempted.  It was almost on par with climbing up a cliff face, realizing you were stuck at the crux of some crucial move on the route, and then realizing you were climbing above your rope. Right before you fall off.  Before us was a long, uninterrupted stretch of steeply angled snow slope.  Above and below us was melting snow, with mini-avalanches crashing down from the cliffs above every few seconds.  With no rocks to hold onto, no ropes to protect in case of a fall, and nothing but tennis shoes, we set off across the face.  You really couldn’t stop anywhere along this route since you were completely exposed.  At any second, one of the avalanches above could come crashing down on you, sweeping you down the snow face and into the waterfall cave below.  I don’t think I looked up (or down), or even away from my feet for the entire 372 steps across the slope.  We made it, no problems.

Crossing the ridge below Long's Peak. You can see some of the ice crashing down near the top of this shot.

The last part of this trail involved a climb up a 35 degree ice and snow wall to reach the Loch Vale. Again, we had no gear for climbing the ice; just our tennis shoes.  After kick-stepping our way up the ice face, we reached the summit (Loch Vale) which sits at around 12,000 feet.  The sheer cliff walls of Long’s Peak stood before us, along with a fresh storm.  At this point, we knew there was no chance of making it up the final 2,000 feet and 4 miles of Long’s Peak, so we enjoyed the incredible views of Chasm Lake, and watched the fog rolling up the valley covering our tracks.  One day, I will return and conquer this mountain.

DAY 4 – Ute Ridge Trail: The Ute Ridge trail starts out at 11,400 feet and runs almost flat along a high ridge. With no trees to block the views, you’re surrounded by spectacular scenes from the Rocky Mountains.  Everywhere you look is wide open views of awesome.  This was a pretty short hike compared to the rest.  Saw some wildlife, cool rocks (if I went back to school now, I’d study geology) and lots of snow. The last two miles of the return trip involved a white out blizzard and lots of stairing at my feet. When it stopped, we had about a minute to get pictures before everything suddenly melted.  I managed one shot of slush.

DAY 5-6 – Dude Ranch and Loveland Pass: Cutting the sleeping in a tent portion of the trip short, we decided to roadtrip through Colorado and visit my dad’s friend’s Dude Ranch.  This is a high class ranch; think ‘City Slickers’.  I met a (one of) former managing editor for the Chicago Sun Times, a pediatric cardiologist, and a couple from the UK who had just returned from Peru, New Zealand, Thailand, Nepal and several other locales.  Needless to say, I realized I will need to find a new job before I can ever dream of taking vacations like theirs.  On the drive back towards Denver, we pulled off at Loveland Pass.  I’d done this hike once before but that was in Winter, wearing full ski regalia.

Friendly wildlife

This trip started out a lot warmer and I quickly realized I was carrying way too much gear 30 minutes into the hike.  We reached the first summit, 12,015 feet, after one mile and took a quick rest stop.  From here, it was down and up another ridge to a 13,000 foot mini-summit called ‘Cupid’ with great views of Gray’s and Torrey’s Peaks (both 14′ers).  Again, forced to turn back from our 2nd 14er summit attempt by weather, we retraced our steps back down the mountain.  Lucky for us, there wasn’t any lightening with this storm as we were stuck high on the ridge for the majority of the hike.  The wind blew, the sleet and ice flew, the temps dropped, and I was thankful for all the extra gear I was hauling around.  As we neared the bottom, we skied (in tennis shoes) down the last few snow slopes.  Again, I was reminded of how I need to relocate to the mountains.

A ‘miscellaneous’ photo album of pictures from driving around the park between the hikes can be found here.

Colorado, I will return.

In my quest to find new (dry) escapes on two wheels, I came across the sport of bicycle polo.  For a rad demo, check out Androsky Knauer‘s video of the CPCV09 Bicycle Tournament in Paris (warning: might not be office safe).  While you’re watching this, I think I’ll go dig out one of my bikes and join a local league in the city.  Anyone want to place bets on how long I last as a rookie?

The basis for this idea: “This is an opportunity for the bicyclists to start contributing to our roads… everybody needs to contribute to what’s there… if there were not bicycles we wouldn’t need bicycle lanes,” says Mr. Kriger.

In many cities, you could simply switch this around to read, “If there weren’t cars, bicycles wouldn’t need special lanes.” In my opinion, this must be one of the least thought-out ideas of all times. For one, how could they possibly enforce this rule? Go door-to-door and count the number of bicycles at each house? Good luck here. Between three family members, we have eight bicycles. That’s $432 every two years. True story.

In response to whether or not a small fee would actually discourage people from cycling, Kriger responded, “If a small fee discourages something, I would suggest they probably aren’t very ardent to the cause to start with. I think there are very few people who would stop biking because of the fee.”

Sorry 5-year-old child learning to ride a bicycle. You can’t afford to pay $54 every two years so I guess we’ll have to take your bike away…I wonder if they would have a bicycle collections agency to collect all the delinquent bicycle tax citizens bicycles?

Maybe we should start charging moms with baby strollers for using the sidewalks. Or the handicapped for requiring new sidewalks to include the dip cut at intersections to allow easier road-to-sidewalk transition? Any other potential pedestrian taxes I may have missed?

Excuse me while I put my foot in my mouth.