Hike to Palomas

This morning Dylan and I hiked up to Palomas Peak, well I carried him. We met up with Marc Ripper, Matt L. and Matt B. who were out there climbing. We spent a couple of hours out then gave Marc a ride back into town so he could work while the Matt's climbed a bit longer.

Palomas is a really pretty area on the back side of the Sandias with a moderately long approach. It takes about a half an hour to hike in through some pretty varied vegetation. Open fields, scrub oak, then a section that feels almost like a rain forest, then come the big pine trees in a section that just makes me want to ride a mountain bike, and finally the trudge up the hill through mixed trees and some cactus as the slope faces south in places.

Matt, who was working Entertaining Mike Tyson 5.13b last time I was out came OH so close to sending it today. He fell going to the juggy finger lock that you clip the last bolt off of, though you do have to get to it and readjust on it before you can clip, so a move and a half from sending. Marc Ripper pulled of 2, 5.12-'s, not sure of the names, by 11am. They headed up at 6am from town. Here is a shot of Matt on EMT.

There are these really cool trees along the first section of wall that you come to at Palomas that grow right out of the base of the wall horizontally for several feet that make great benches and such. Dylan had fun play around on one of the smaller ones. Sitting on a rock and leaning back against it.Climbing over it.And trying to crawl under it, though it kind of looks like a cage as well.Later in the evening when Linda got home from work she introduced Dylan to bubbles and he was ecstatic. Video will come in the next post.

A weekend of riding

Had a good weekend.

On Saturday Linda got to spend the Day with Dylan while Chris and I headed out to White Rock to do the Valles Caldera Double Crossing 200km brevet. It starts at the Overlook in White Rock and heads towards Los Alamos and over the caldera, out to Fenton Lake (really pretty out there and I had not ridden that road before) then back to Hwy 4 and down to Jemez Springs. A quick stop for a breakfast burrito at Deb's and mile 70 and back up over the caldera to White Rock by way of Bandalier NM. We got very lucky with the weather as there was a 40% chance of rain and the forcasted winds were 15-20mph. No rain though it did threaten and there were occasional gusts of wind but really nothing too bad. A very pretty ride.

On Sunday I took care of Dylan while Linda rode the Santa Fe Century with Joanna and Doni in just about idea conditions. It was about 80 for the high with little to no wind.

All in all I think we did pretty well for being very under prepared. Not having riden more than 50 miles yet this year and only about 6-7 hundred total in the calendar year. Though I'll addmit I did pay the price trying to stay with 3 racers, 2 had just finished the Tour of the Gila and the third had just won his age group in the AZ state TT championships. Needless to say I blew big at about mile 40 and could no longer get my heart rate above 150, then at about mile 110 event though I still could not raise my heart rate my power output jumped about 50 watts. Kind of wierd but it always seems to happen on long rides.

Linda would have rather climbed on Sunday and I'm glad that we did not, it makes it easier for me to avoid climbing if I don't actually go to a cliff even though I don't bring my shoes. The next couple of weekends it should be easier to avoid climbing since we will be in Hawaii for a wedding and some more time with my parents and sister.

No photos, que malo.

Long Time No Write

OK, so here is the shot of Linda's lip. This was about 3 days after it happened.

So on Saturday the 2nd I rode with Chris and Joanna from town to the Sandia Crest at 10,600 feet, good climb and with the intention of riding back into town. Only problem is is was snowing on us for the last 2-3 miles going up and pouring on us on the way down. Chris put it best,"I was trying to brake and peddle at the same time to stay warm". We called Linda to come and pick us up once we were down off the Crest Rd at the first gas station. Later that afternoon Linda headed out for a ride on the Look 585 Elle that she had been testing out. It is set up with standard 700c wheels instead of the 650c wheels she has on her bike. She forgot the extra spare tube and turned around pretty early and on her way back turning onto a side street her front wheel just skated out from under her. I was not there so I have no idea what happened but it looks as though she caught her upper lip on the stem clamp at the steerer tube or something to get the nice puncture. Needless to say, when she got home her ride was done.

On Sunday the weather looked bad up at El Rito and since Linda did not feel all that gunho we went to the Enchanted Tower instead. Linda climbed really well, getting up Straight on till Morning 5.12c with one hang on her first try but did not get back on it.

On Monday I ordered the camper shell for the truck, a Leer 180, which has the 4 inch or so rise above the cab, better for camping and transporting bikes.

On Tuesday evening my parents drove into town to help watch Dylan while I set for the Jr Regional competiton at the gym. it kind of sucks that when my parents come to town I generally have to work some pretty long hours so I don't get to spend as much time with them as I'd like. Though I know they really come out to see Dylan anyway. My parents got some riding in while I took breaks during the middle of the day when the gym is busy with menbers. My mom test rode the Look and the 48 cm Cervelo R3 at Fat Tire and ended up getting the Look, the same one that Linda crashed on. On Saturday it seemed as though the comp went OK, I left after the morning session and have not had a chance to ask about how the afternoon went.

On Saturday morning Mom, Linda and Joanna rode from Tijeras to the crest and back which is about 40 miles. Then in the afternoon after they were done, Dad, Chris and I did the same ride. We had a nice family dinner out tha evening and may parents left on Sunday morning.

On Sunday we pretty much just hung out and rested, at least that is what I did. Other than finally getting the swam cooler hooked up and some weeds picked up that had been pulled and tearing somemore ivy off of the house, though I did manage to stay in bed till 10:30 which was nice.

Oh to have no shame,

And here is the truck that we are trying to sell, if you know anyone that is looking $6500 OBO

Yes it is late, Weekend Report

I know, I'm late. We had an entertaining weekend and a busy week.

On Friday Dylan and I headed up to Ponderosa, the Sattelite area, to boulder with a guy that is new to town, Jerod (sp?). He is from back east and moved out to ABQ for the climbing, yes there are other places I would choose ahead of NM for climbing, maybe his older brother being here had something to do with it as well. Any way, we had a good time. I managed to do a problem that I'd tried periodically over the years but not managed to do previously. Dylan learned that as you dig down in the dirt it gets colder the deeper you get. It was also our first time out with the new child carrier, Dylan enjoyed it enough to fall asleep in it towards the end of the day out.

On Saturday the family headed to El Rito so Linda could climb with the Gym's adult team that she is a part of. Our group was about 12-15 people, there were 2 guide groups out, each with about 10 climbers and perhapse another 10 climbers as well to go along with 8 dogs. If you've been to El Rito before you'll know that this is a huge number of people to be in the area and there was definately some friction between the groups. Dylan had a good time hanging out with Anna K. aka: Accorn. I did not bring climbing shoes to make sure that I took the day off and Linda came OH so close to sending Pocket Rocket 5.12-, which would have been the first time she had climbed the grade in a day. Oh well, there will be other routes and oppotunites and she still wants to get back to it to finish it off.

On Sunday, I headed up to Palomas Peak to climb with Chris, Jesse and Matt L.. Chris is just starting to climb again after taking a break of a couple of weeks so he was just climbing easy with Jesse. Matt and I did a warm up with them than went to work on a couple of routes on the slab and the franks walls. I'd been wanting to get back to Sanke Dance for OH about 3 years to finish it off since I'd done it with one fall on my second attempt. I hung the draws and the opening crux seemed a lot harder than I remembered and I was no sure I could even start the route. I did find some better beta for the top where I'd fallen off before, so that was encouraging. It seemed as though sending mostly then revolved around doing the boulder problem at the start. I was nervouse starting up it the second time because you don't really have an opportunity to relax before the tough moves begin. I managed to pull the crux much more easily, more like I remembered it feeling then just executing the sequence to the top. It was nice to have sent a route that equals the hardest that I've done, 5.13d and a couple of other people who have done the route have even suggested 5.14a, so at least it should be solid at 5.13d. Snake Dance is a good route with a boulder problem start to a good rest then a serise of moves that gets progressively harder untill you are over the lip of the overhang. Matt was working on Entertaining Mike Tyson 5.13b which is a short, powerful route that I'd wanted to try and do on my first try. With beta from Matt I was able to pull off the flash. EMT is a really fun route that packs a lot into about 25 feet of climbing. All in all a pretty good day of climbing.

Linda and Dylan got a call from Ali in the morning to say that she and Paul were taking their daughter, Charley to the Bio Park. Charley is 3 months older than Dylan and we see them ever couple of months, we should try to get together more often as Dylan really like the "older" ladies.

and fish are super interesting as well,

I've finally started to let Dylan control his own food more which naturally leads to a bigger mess at times. Sometimes I wonder if he isn't trying to kill himself with how much he stuffs in his mouth at once. Here he is taking a tiny bit of banana,

On Monday, Linda test rode a nice Look 585 ella to work an home. She really liked how the ride felt but was not so hot on the lack of standover, she does not like to get quite so intimate with the top tube of her frame, so we are still looking. I rode out with Dylan in the trailer to meet Linda and Betty and ride home with them. On the way out I managed to roll the trailer, pretty scarry moment I must admitt, got to be careful of those bridges with 6" steel thresholds that you have to make 90 degree turns off of. The 5 point harness worked great, Dylan didn't budge and the wheels and the handle stick out enough that the actual carrier didn't even touch the ground, but he did get a little scarred, though he willingly got back in after I took him out to check on him and let him walk around a bit.

As further proof to those out there that are concered that he may have been hurt of knocked silly, here is some video that I took later that evening,

OH, PS the new truck arrived today, so if you all know anyone who needs a vehichle, we are looking to sell my old Tacoma 4x4, extended cab, V6, topper included.