When there are lots of flower pics

... then you know there were a lot of rest stops! At one point I sat staring at a tree for at least 10 minutes, wondering if it was a sugar pine.  I finally decided it was and moved on after catching my breath.  Check out all the red on here, red actually means faster (honest!).

Todays bonk point--bonk food, the one and only Reeses cup leftover from my birthday.

There was a point on the trail where these flowers were lining both sides,  I should have stopped there for the picture--

This was actually way prettier than it looks here.  The contrast with the cactus always amazes me.

I rode some uphill better than I have in the past, but today cornering was really freaking me out.  I told Craig I would ride it better tomorrow--profound thought, you don't have to ride it better, just ride it if you enjoy it.  I think I'll ride tomorrow.

EDIT:  Kyle update, first surgery a few pins in the scaphoid, and a wired up clavicle, there was not enough  "real estate" to plate it.  Second surgery, carpal tunnel release.  All in all he's recovering well, his hand surgeon said the only limitation may be he won't be able to put the hand in a push up position.

Holy Sh*t

 Never tempt the gods of fate, Karma, the Universe, or whatever.  We got a call from Kyle tonight, he thought he may have broken his shoulder and wrist skateboarding with Moa.  One ED visit later: broken clavicle and scaphoid.  Craig is up there now, he has to get an ortho consult and possible pin in his hand.  It wasn't supposed to be Kyle.

Baldwin Loop vs School Loop

 

Today I got the chance to do Baldwin Loop, note the way I rode it is only 2.34 miles, I didn't record the way I walked it, maybe I walked it twice.  It's a quick ride with definitely more walking than I thought I would do, but I liked it.  Craig is back from SC and we rode it together with him waiting for me a lot.

And yeah, this was my bonk point today, but I came prepared with M&M's.  They probably didn't help me ride better, but life is always better with M&M's.

This is last weeks School Loop ride with Ker, 5.63 miles in 33m 34s--crazy time difference, especially with the increase in distance, maybe Baldwin was harder than I thought, or School Loop easier than I thought?

I tried to practice some of the skills I learned last year at a clinic I went to, it definitely helps if you do what they teach, but sometimes it's counterintuitive, more practice, more practice.  On another note, Summit opened today, maybe it's me getting old but I'm a little more hesitant than I remember being before, backyard trails are really super nice.  I'm going to the high school tonight with Kyle to learn to ride stairs, what's the worst thing that could happen--clavicle? wrist?  Earlier retirement!  Naw that's bad karma, shouldn't be thinking that!

School Loop

 This morning I took Moa to the dog park, and finally rode school loop when I got back.  It was a really fun trail.  I met Kerri at the Maple entrance and pretty quickly had to walk a section, but kept going.  It's single track and lots of rocks which my bike handles really well.  I probably had ridden half of it when I officially bonked.  Like need M&M's bonked.

This was my bonk point, my plan was to turn around at that point, but either way would have been uphill, so I walked some and rode most of the rest of the trail.  I'm really glad I finished it because now I know I can, there'll still be some walk points, but hopefully fewer with time.  Also makes me want to ride Baldwin Loop. Maybe next weekend.  

And it's done!!

Grands

 This weekend was all about the grands.  We celebrated Kyle J's birthday, I would say he had quite a grand day!

He spent the rest of the weekend learning how to drive a stick, he did so well he drove himself and Kael to practice yesterday.  I think Kerri has him convinced that it doesn't have the guts to make it back up the hill if  he drove it down.  We'll see how long it takes for him to give it a try.

I did some granddog sitting, Moa is stuck with me for the week.  We hiked the new Baldwin Loop on Saturday, it's really a beautiful trail, parts of it are very piney, foresty, and parts very scrub even with some flowering cactus.  Moa loved it and I was able to let her off leash to chase squirrels.  The only bad thing about Baldwin Loop is it's a loop, when I realized I had started the loop for the second time, I was not a happy hiker, I finally stumbled upon an exit point, but it's not well marked yet.

Sunday Kerri and I rode the ranch again, I never put my bike in my car and oops, realized it doesn't fit, so I rode from the house, it's not a hard ride but the uphill home isn't too fun.  Moa went too!

Monday was a barbecue at Kerri's there were fireworks over the lake at 9:00 but I decided not to brave the traffic and didn't go.  I could hear the booms, but couldn't see anything from the deck.

The best part, lots of hot tub time, a great reward for hiking, biking and lots of dog walking.

See this cute boy...

He just led his team to the league victory and won the individual league championship! Congrats Kael on an awesome win!

 

Last day....

We had a fun time this morning, but sadly it's our last ski day unless we go to Mammoth.  I'm not sure that's in the plans, at least not for a few weeks.  We also got out the mountain bikes.  I took mine home a few weeks ago thinking I'd get some riding in--I didn't, so we took our bikes back up the mountain this weekend.  My plan was to ride school loop as far as I could go, game rules:    1) if you have to walk because it's too technical, keep going  2) if you have to walk because your cardio sucks, mark that spot, turn around and go just a little farther next time.  On Saturday Kerri wanted to ride so we did Erwin Lake, I'm always up for Erwin Lake, it's probably the flattest ride on the mountain, and then little Kyle wanted to ride it too so we did it again as an evening ride, surprisingly I rode it better the second time.  So I didn't get to do the pretest on school loop, I probably could have this afternoon, but didn't.  It was a good weekend!