Sailing with Kat and Lauren

Kat and Lauren came up from Portland for the weekend to visit and so we gathered up a group of friends to go for a sail in Lake Union and Lake Washington on the Midnight Sun, a really nice 28-ish foot wooden boat. We brought along brunch food and cooked up a great meal as we sailed to Bellevue where some of us took a dip before heading back to Lake Union. Here are some pics from the great day on the water:

Hiking near the Snoqualmie River and Duck Dodging

I joined Chris, Jill and two San Francisco friends on a trip to resupply a trail crew working in the mountains above the Snoqualmie River. The highlight of the trip was definitely stopping at the Goldmyer Hot Springs on the way back. I've been to a bunch of hot springs but this one blew all the others away by far. A series of cascading pools emerge from a 15 foot cave (the dark area in the picture below). The pools themselves are nestled near the edge of a waterfall and a steep, moss covered slop dotted with old-growth trees. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera, so I nabbed this picture from another website. I'm definitely planning to go back to the hot springs in the winter which has the potential to be a pretty epic trip involving a 5-10 mile by skis or snow shoes!Here are a few pictures from the hike:

After the hike, we all got back together on Tuesday for the Duck Dodge sailing race that happens weekly in Lake Union. It's called the Duck Dodge because you have to dodge the Duck Boats (and ducks) while you're sailing which only adds to the fun of the racing. There's nothing like a near collision or two to let you know that you're having a good time. The wind was blowing really hard, so it was a pretty exciting race, even if we did come in last place!

Making it to the Pacific

After leaving arid Bend I headed up and over the Pacific Coast Range toward Portland. As I neared the top of the pass by Mt. Hood, the trees got bigger and the air wetter. After days of being in super hot Colorado and Utah, it was really nice to be in a wet, green, mossy climate!

I met up with Kat in Portland where she moved just a week earlier. We spent the weekend exploring around Portland by bike (what an awesome city to bike in!), eating dinner with friends, and exploring the beaches on the western Oregon Coast. I could definitely see why people move to Portland. The biking is great, the city is a manageable size and Kat and I were even given a free cookie in a coffee shop when we said that we had both moved to the area. That would definitely never happen in DC! Here are some pics from our weekend of exploring the area:

Visiting Rico in Bend

Just after I left Moab, my stereo decided to die...which made for a really long, long drive through Utah and Idaho. Where route 128 to Moab was my favorite road on the trip, my least favorite road was the 400 or so mile stretch in eastern Oregon to get to Bend. Man was that boring. But I made it to Bend and made up with my high school friend Micah who is living there for the summer before heading to Jackson for the winter. Bend seems like a pretty cool town. Rico and I sampled some good local beers and went for a great hike up the Tumalo Mountain Trail. After hiking we went for a swim at a great swimming hole north of Bend called Steelhead Falls which is definitely a must-stop spot if you're traveling between Portland and Bend (good luck finding it though...it's kind of hidden...and yep, that's just a random video I found on youtube of some guys swimming at Steelhead Falls). Here are some photos of my hike with Rico:

Sweatin' it out in Arches and Moab

After a great couple of days biking in Fruita, I drove down to Moab to check out the legendary slick rock. Everyone told me that late July is just about the worst time to ride in southern Utah...and everyone was right. It was a frickin' oven in Moab. I had to stop and go swimming three times in the Colorado on my drive to Moab to cool off. Once I arrived, I did a little exploring around Arches National Park, which is amazing but best seen in the fall or winter, and then scoped out a camp site. It was still 98 degrees at 9pm, so sleeping was a little tough but it cooled off by 11pm or so.

I did a quick ride on the slick rock trail before I ran out of water and it got too hot. I didn't make it around the whole Slick Rock loop, still had a fun time riding with a dude from England who I chatted with about the riding scene over there while zooming up and down the perfectly smooth rock faces. If you're ever driving to Moab or Arches, you should definitely take route 128 off of I-70. This was my favorite stretch of road of the whole trip by far (see picture below). Here are some pics:

Biking in Fruita, CO

I spent two days riding in Fruita, CO which I've decided is one of my favorite places to ride in the country. My first day I rode the 18 Road Trails which had smooth, flowing lines and grippy surface that allowed you to really fly through turns. I also found a free campsite right by the 18 Road trailhead, so that was a bonus. The next day I rode the more technical Kokopelli's Trails which offered some incredible views and challenged my ability to stay upright. Someday I would really like to ride the Kokopelli Trail from Fruita, CO to Moab, UT...but riding 142 miles in the July heat would be sure suicide so I'll have to save that for another trip. I rode until about 1pm each day before retreating from the heat to cool off in Fruita's public pool and the sandy Colorado River. Here are a few pictures from the 18 Road Trails and the Kokopelli Trails:

Long's Peak

A week after doing the race up Mt. Evans, I joined three of my cousins, Jim, Marc and Justin to hike up the 14,259 foot Long's Peak. Every afternoon at around 2pm thunderstorms roll through the mountains of Colorado. To get off the mountain early enough, we started hiking at 1am. We chatted the hours away as we trudged up the mountain, headlamps lighting the way. Once we got above the treeline we were able to look behind us and see 15 or so sets of headlights from groups that were behind us. We watched a beautiful sunrise from the boulder field as we climbed up before getting into the really tricky steep, exposed sections. The final part of the climb was super steep, exposed and down right scary. My cousin Jim who is a rock climber said that it was about as steep a slope as he would want to climb without ropes. Aside from a Nalgene that slipped out of Marc's backpack and shattered on the rocks below us, we made it to the top safely at around 9AM and were rewarded with some great views. We took our time hiking down and just as we got below treeline, the rain started so our timing was good. We got back down to to our car around 2pm for a total of 13 hours of hiking. All around it was a really fun mountain to hike and a great end to my trip with my cousins. Check out a slideshow of the trip here (if you want to see larger versions, click on the slideshow twice):

If African Americans were a nation....

From the NYTimes.com:

"If black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with the AIDS virus, the Black AIDS Institute, an advocacy group, reported Tuesday...

Nearly 600,000 African-Americans are living with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and up to 30,000 are becoming infected each year. When adjusted for age, their death rate is two and a half times that of infected whites, the report said. Partly as a result, the hypothetical nation of black America would rank below 104 other countries in life expectancy.

...the United Nations said that for every two people who received treatment (in the world), five people became newly infected."

Wow. That is scary. How come we don't hear more about this I want to know?

Read the full article here.

Even 12 year olds in Boulder are FAST!

After hiking up to Loch Lake on Wednesday, I got in the car and headed into Boulder for another shot at the weekly short track race. A couple of weeks ago when I did the first short track race, I did the B category and though it felt like I finished last, I ended up 34th out of 51 starters. Since I was still recovering from Mt. Evans and had gone on a 4 hour hike earlier in the day, I decided to do the C category instead and see how fast they were.

I lined up with the 32 other starters with a light sprinkle coming down, which was nice as it kept both the heat and the dust under control. I started a bit slow in around 10th position but worked my way up the field until I was in third position behind a TIAA-CREF/5280 rider who looked like a junior. I rode behind him until the last lap when we caught two lapped riders and I was able to jump in front of the group, forcing the TIAAF-CREF to wait behind lapped riders on a downhill section as I rode away. I was pretty certain the TIAAF-CREF guy was going to beat me in the sprint, so my sneaky last lap move allowed me to get second. After the race I stopped to talk to the TIAA-CREF guy and congratulate him on a good race. The guy who I beat it turns out is only 12!! Watch out for Michael Dessau's name in 10 years or so! The guy who won the race, Zane Godby, is also only 12! Man, those kids in Boulder are fast. Both Michael and Zane ride for TIAA-CREF/5280, which is one of the best road development teams in the country. The program seems to be working as Michael is the national time trial champion for the 10-12 age category (the video below is of Michael winning TT nationals).

Hiking with the cousins

On Tuesday I met up with my cousins Jim and Mark to do some hiking for a week. This is the first mini-reunion of sorts that we've organized with just the cousins of our generation (Justin and Steve planned to join us later in the week). We're all into outdoor pursuits, so doing a hiking trip seemed like a good way to catch up and spend time together. The plan was to do small hikes during the week in preparation for doing Long's Peak on Saturday. To get our hiking legs under us, we did a short hike up to Loch Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park. We took the 6 mile hike easy and enjoyed the views along the way.
We got up to Loch Lake just as the usual afternoon storm rolled in, which happens at around 1 or 2pm most days in the mountains. We shot a few pictures, had a snack and quickly hiked down as the thunder started rolling in.