Elephant Man

Look at that mug. What a goofy looking guy. I think I had said once before no selfies, but in my defense I was trying to capture the steam coming off me in the cool temps.

So, the story of how that came about, I guess.

This past weekend was brilliant. One of those ones that just make you really want it to never end. Maybe it was something in my head making me feel that way, because nothing special happened. It was all pretty run of the mill stuff.

Saturday morning was taken up with running all over the place to get kids to activities, pick them up from activities, run errands, take the kids back to activities, and the rest of the stuff that comes along with the business of living.

But come 3:30, I was finally free to go for a ride. I had wanted to do the Dias De Los Muertos bike ride up at Hatcher's, but with the other things going on, just didn't work out. So, instead I let the wife know early that I was planning to go for a two or more hour ride. I wasn't sure where to ride, though. I have the Nates on the bike, so I didn't want to ride too much pavement and I wasn't sure that I felt like driving somewhere just to go for a ride.

After much deliberation, I decided to hit up the Crevase Moraine trail system and try to hit up some single track before the snow flies.

It was the right choice. I've obviously not been out there for a while as I stumbled onto a whole slough of new singletrack. Awesome, flowy, not terribly technical single track. Just good, clean fun riding bombing down the downs and hammering up the ups.

All in all, I was able to stitch together just about ten miles of mixed trail riding, including some double-track ski trails and the single track. Got some amazing saddle time in, completely by myself, take in some great views, and get a bit sweaty and muddy.

In the end, I put in 20 miles and was in the saddle for 2.5 hours. I'd have loved to get more miles, but riding trail and going a bit slower is better, any day, than pounding huge miles on the pavement.

Sunday was likewise great fun. Took the whole family up to Hatcher's so the kids could do some skiing and the wife and I took the dogs for a bit of a walk up the Willow Fishhook road. Didn't get any pictures from this outing, but it was beautiful, though getting dark by the time we got there at 4:30. Damned time change.

Now it's back to work after taking yesterday for doctor's appointments and not commuting.

The doc told me all in all things look good. I do need to do something about my blood pressure and weight. Crazy that I ride as much as I do and still I'm way too heavy and my blood pressure is well past the point where I should probably be on meds. Heredity... it's a bitch. As such, I might just include occasional updates as to my diet and my progress here. I guess I have to start counting calories now and watch those portion sizes.

This picture makes me cry...

The woods are like this for about a half mile or so - the dump is just up wind of the woods here and the trash just blows and blows.