Spring is a time to "Expand Your Horizons"

So I've been really busy and on the go.  Reasons include spring, bike riding, volunteer activities, and house projects.  Plus I just spent a week at Mom's helping her out after hip replacement surgery.  She is doing pretty well, but the road to full recovery is still ahead.  I wanted to catch up on the blog while I was up in ND, but we were without TV or internet for the first four days due to the super-friendly but small-town, laid-back, do-it-on-North Dakota-time tech support of her ISP.  After that I was too busy packing Mom's stuff for the upcoming house to house move, cooking, trying to get some training in, and watching baby calves be born.  As a result, these pictures that I uploaded on March 17 are just now entering the world wide web.

Some signs of spring!  Crocuses in the front yard...

We have the crocuses interplanted in the buffalo grass lawn to give it some spring interest, since the buffalo grass doesn't green up until it gets hot.

And rhubarb in the backyard*...

*The rhubarb is now two and a half feet tall and ready to be made into pie.  The crocuses are done blooming but the tulips are coming in.  Spring happens so fast!

Outreach #1: Expanding Your Horizons

This spring, I did a new thing. Well, sort of. I had participated in Expanding Your Horizons when I was a wee young scientist in junior high. Expanding Your Horizons is an opportunity for 6th through 12th grade girls to spend a Saturday morning in various science workshops of their choosing.  "The main goal of EYH is to get young women excited about and interested in science, math and technical careers, where men still hold a majority."  The workshop leaders are all professional female scientists and the activities are supposed to be aimed at showing the girls cool things about science and science careers.  When I was in 7th grade, Mrs. Reile and Michele Clark's mom chaperoned a group of me and my classmates to the EYH in North Dakota. We rode the six hours to Fargo in the back of Mrs. Clark's pickup truck, which had a topper on it and lots of blankets and pillows for our comfort.  We stayed in a hotel, a big treat for us but probably one hellacious night for the poor business travelers in the adjacent rooms.  I can't remember all the workshops I attended, but I do remember thinking that the chemistry of milk and working in a lab was really cool!  No doubt, EYH contributed to my desire to study and make a career out of science.  

So now it was my turn to give back.  I mentioned the invitation I had received from the EYH organizers to my friend, Katie, who I have come to know through the Salt Lake Chapter of the Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG).  She was just as excited as I was and already had an activity made up that we could modify for this group.  Our workshop was called "Rock Detectives".  At each station, the student would examine the rock or mineral specimen and answer some questions about its identity.  One station contain a sample of talc.  The student needed to figure out that it was softer than her fingernail and therefore had a hardness of less than 2.5 on the Mohs hardness scale. She then had to sleuth out the name of the mineral on the bottle of baby powder. 

Overall, the girls seemed eager to learn and glad to be spending their Saturday in "school". 

A few of the girls were really interested and we hope that the spark of a young geologist was ignited!

Outreach #2: Science Fair Judging

Later in March, I organized six volunteers from AWG to judge the regional science and engineering fair.

I did it last year, and had a great time interacting with lots of bright young women. This year was the same, only extra rewarding because one of our winners from last year had another excellent geoscience-related project and was able to win our prize again!  She is now a sophomore in high school and a student member of AWG; she says she wants to have a career in the earth sciences.

We gave away over $700 in cash and prizes to the top three geoscience-related projects by girls in each of three age divisions.  It was fun to see kids so excited about science, plus I learned that your food will stay colder in your cooler longer if you keep the cold melt water in the cooler than if you drain it out.  Isn't science cool!

Race Report: Cholla Challenge. Intermountain Cup mountain bike race series race #2

First, I must establish that my husband is the most selfless, helpful, supportive human being in the universe.  I offer this proof:  during the two days before I was to drive to Hurricane, Utah to the Cholla Challenge mountain bike race, he 1) cleaned my truck, 2) cleaned my bike, 3) fully tuned my bike, 4) took the truck to the gas station for a fill up, and 5) did all of this with not a hint of jealousy or self pity that I was going to get to go play in the warm sunny desert while he had to stay behind in the cold and snow and then go to work.  Yup, he is a keeper!

I headed down to Hurricane/St. George with Kathy and Bob on Friday.  I pre-rode the race course with not a hint of trepidation or nerves like I had last time.

Saturday it was off to the races.  The Expert women started a minute behind the Pro women and just in front of the Singlespeeders, but despite a pretty good turn out, the 7.5 mile course was not overly crowded.  I had another horribly slow start and went into the first slickrock section in 9th out of 10. What is wrong with my starts!  I passed a few gals in the slickrock with no trouble and then settled into a nice pace that I figured I could hold for what would turn out to be almost two hours of racing over 21 miles.  I did pretty well at holding that pace, even while some jerk Sport-class guys made bad passes and nearly forced me into the cacti.  The course is technically pretty easy and contains a few sections of long double track where I was able to drink properly.  I'm still struggling with getting enough fluid, since I have forsaken my trusty Camlebak for water bottles.  I thought I was in 6th for most of the race, and didn't see another female rider for over an hour.  Then, a couple of miles into the third lap I passed another gal in my category.  Looked like she was bonking so I sped up to put some distance and seal up 5th place.  After the finish line, Jennelle told me I took 4th.  Results show I did, by two minutes over the girl I passed, which was also a minute and a half behind the 3rd place gal.  I wonder, if I had really pushed it on the start, could I have stayed with third place girl?  Still,  I'm happy with 4th place.  Here is a pic of the Expert podium.  I think the volunteers in the background of this picture are hilarious.

It was a good race for me. I didn't have any tactical errors, except my usual slow start, rode steady and hard, and ended up winning this fine tuque and ribbon.

Coffee after the race at Over the Edge and a tasty dinner with lots of fast teammates served up by a strange owner at Baristas.

After dinner, I got one of those phone calls you really dread.  My sister called and said they were on the way to the hospital with the ambulance carrying my mom. She had fallen and broken her hip.  Mom is 79 and has osteoporosis, so of course I was way worried.  Xrays and a CT scan at 1 o'clock in the morning revealed it was indeed broken but that surgery would probably fix it.  She had the sugery on Easter (not such a Happy Easter, huh!) and is recovering in the hospital now.  Hopefully she heals fast and without infections.  I hope to get up to help her around after her stint in the rehab unit.  

 Preparing to ride on Sunday.

Sunday I tried my hardest to hang within sight of Kathy and Bob on the Gould, JEM, Hurricane Rim loop, but they are just way too fast.  Still had a helluva great ride at high speed* on one of my top five favorite trails before the long drive back to winter.

* I rode this last year after the Desert Rampage race and it took 2:49. Sunday my ride time was 2:20.  Half an hour faster this year - can't complain about that. :-)

Race Report: Desert Rampage. Intermountain Cup mountain bike race series race #1

Last weekend was the season opener for the Intermountain Cup series in Saint George in the southwest corner of the state.  A large Revolution/Peak Fasteners team turnout made for a fun weekend of racing and riding, that is, after I got over my nerves.

This would be my first attempt at racing in the Expert Women category. Five years ago when Drew introduced me to racing, I started in the Beginner category.  Later that year I moved up to Sport, skipping the Women 35+ category.  A couple of years ago I was doing really well in Sport, but last year, probably due to lack of focus and a lot of time spent in the West Desert for work, my top finish was 8th, well into the bottom of the pack.  I needed a goal for this year.  A reason to get on my bike when I would rather pick out a new bedspread or a hundred other things that sorta-hafta be done, but really don't. Thus, my upgrade. 

Drew and I drove down on Thursday night, staying at a large VRBO rental home that Jim reserved for the 14 of us.  It felt a little like college: hanging out, eating pizza, sharing showers.  Nice flashback. The bikes had somewhere to hang out too.

Bike fest

Pre-ride

I pre-rode the course twice on Friday.  I new I would be nervous for this first race, but I didn't really expect to feel sick-to-my-stomach nervous an entire day before the race!  Studying the course and talking through it helped, and by race time the next day, I felt a lot better.  Whatever lay ahead would be a learning experience, right?

Drew and I both did two laps of the course, but my new category starts about 8 minutes ahead of his.  There were an awful lot of racers on course at one time.  Nearly 300 bikers on a 6-mile loop makes for a lot of passing and getting passed.  There are a couple of ravines in the course where passing is impossible, but for the most part we could do our thing. 

Drew, on course.

It was a good race for both of us; Drew placed 13th of 38, which I think might be one of his best short race finishes.  I somehow managed to pull off 4th out of 11 by keeping a steady pace, passing a gal that was a stronger climber than me on the downhills, and holding off another competitor in the second lap.  I think I might have cost myself a podium finish by entering an off-camber section of the trail at a bad angle and skidding out. Oh well, that's racing.

Lucy, in blue, accepting her 4th place ribbon.

After the race, lots of teammates stuck around, enjoying the warm weather and cold beers/chocolate milk.

Saturday night consisted of a pizza buffet at the flop house and a required run (by that I mean drive, since Jen's suggestion to walk was met with loud protests from our tired legs) to Nielsen's Frozen Custard.  Sunday, we woke to rain and cloudy skies, so we picked the sandiest, slickrockiest trail we knew, Church Rocks, for a group ride before heading back home.

Drew, Chad, Doug, and Jim on Prospector Trail near Church Rocks.

All in all, a great weekend complete with better than expected results.

Will drive south for dirt: part 2

Day 5: More dirt

  

 

 See those smiles?  Those smiles are because of this:

  

Desert singletrack: smooth, then rocky, then gentle, then steep, but always a blast.  On night #4 of our trip, after the piezookie, we drove the 30 odd miles to Boulder City.  We stayed at the historic Boulder Inn, built when the dam was being constructed in the 1930s.  It has been nicely restored and we felt special staying where professional road cyclists stay during their spring training camps.  (Did George Hincapie ever lay his head on our pillows? I can only dream.)  The hotel had a great breakfast included in the price of the room and we recommend staying there if you are ever in Boulder City.

Boulder City was created to house and feed the constructors of the Hoover Dam (then called the Boulder Dam).  Today it seems its main function is as a tourist stop for visitors to the dam, but more recently the town has made great improvements to a canyon just on the edge of town called Bootleg Canyon.  There are miles of mountain-bike trails and tricks like bridges and teeter totters, and a zipline.

We visited the Hoover Dam a few years ago, but didn't have bikes.  This time, we came prepared to ride the Boulder Canyon trails.  We put in about two and a half hours on trails called: Middle Lake View, Upper Lake View, Girl Scout, Caldera, Boy Scout, Skyline, and East Leg. 

Here is a two minute video to give you a feel for the trails.

If you want to see where we rode, you can check out this GPS track in Google Maps.  I forgot to turn the GPS off so you get the track of us driving around town, looking for a pizza place to eat, too. 

My bike looks tiny in this picture.  It feels tiny because it is so light. 

  

Darn cool rocks too.  Most of the trails were over altered volcanic rocks that I intend to investigate more next time we return. 

After the ride and lunch we pointed the car in the direction of Flagstaff, Arizona.  To get there, you must cross the Hoover Dam.  A new gigantic bypass highway is being built so that traffic will not have to wind down the canyon to the top of the dam and cross on the dam.  This thing must have taken some engineering.

 

  

The pictures don't really give you a sense of the scale of the thing. It is grand. 

So then we were in

 yes, that's Arizona.

That night we stayed in Flagstaff.

Day 6: transit

We checked out Flagstaff briefly the next morning.  Nice looking town with a lot of snow since it is at such high elevation (~6900).

  

  

But then it was back on the road again via Route 66 before turning northeast to drive through the Navajo Indian Reservation and into Monument Valley.

  

Going this route from Vegas to Moab was not the most direct, but neither of us had been through Monument Valley, and I really, really wanted to go.  It was so worth the extra couple of hours.  There had been snow recently, which only added to the incredible beauty of the landscape. You can click on any of the pictures to get a larger view.

  

  

On the north end of Monument Valley you cross the San Juan River at Mexican Hat.  Just north of the "town" is this rock called Mexican Hat Rock and behind it is Raplee Ridge.  Good thing Drew was driving, because I was in awe. 

Raplee Ridge is in the Monument Upwarp in southeastern Utah. It is a long, narrow, folded anticline that formed about 70 million to 50 million years ago.  The folds are just so visible!

 

After the third or fourth photo stop. Drew convinced me we needed to make tracks to Bluff to try to tap into a wi-fi network in Bluff so Drew could try to trade some work days around.  We ate fry bread, of course!  When in Rome...

Eventually, through a desert covered in snow as deep as it has been seen since 1972, we made it to our condo in Moab.

  

The original plan was to spend a couple of days mountain biking in Moab, but because of the aforementioned record snow, there was no dirt to be found.

  

So instead I had plenty of time to sew new covers for our patio furniture.

  

And they look dang good if I do say so myself. 

  

So that was days 7 and 8. On day 9 we headed home and two hours later Drew left for work.  What a great American road trip!

Note: this post is being brought to you from our automobile on Interstate 15 by using my phone as a modem.  Now this is mobile blogging!

Will drive south for biking; part 1

Drew being the senior captain that he is, gets everyone's first choice for vacation bids: late February.  OK, maybe not our first choice, but with 8 days off together, who's complaining.   We decided to road trip a big loop through parts of the Southwest.

First stop: Saint George to get in a quick pre-ride of next week's mountain bike race course.  It was our first time on dirt since November, and even with rain threatening and chilly weather, we had happy bikes and big smiles.  Also helped that we serendipitously ran into our Buzzard friends and had a tasty dinner with them.

Day 2: the search for more dirt.

Sunday we bolted from soggy Saint George and headed for the Strip.  Las Vegas, Nevada, in the Mojove Desert is where we sought the sun and dirt.

We drove straight for the Blue Diamond trails

and got in a good 3-hour ride to cure our stationary-bike trainer blues.

 Things sure are spiny in this part of the world. Joshua tree, Yucca brevifolia.

After the ride, we headed for our hotel.  We got some strange looks as we wheeled our bikes through the casino lobby at Planet Hollywood, but it was fun to stay on the Strip and enjoy a nice meal ...

and wander in the indoor shopping mall.  Everything in Las Vegas is so fake, it is real.

Neither of us likes to gamble. In fact, we think it is a stupid waste of time and money.  But since we had just spent too much on dinner, I decided to try to win some money back with a dollar.  After figuring out how the slot machine works, I put in $0.50 and won $3.25.  That was enough for me.  It took us a while to figure out how to cash out though.

Day 3: Rain and Ride

It rained most of the night and some of Monday, but we did manage to get in a short ride just before it got too dark to navigate the cacti.

Most of the trails were pure sand, but near a place called Muddy Springs, it was super muddy.  Guess we should have figured that out.

That night we gorged like the carnivores we really are at one of those Brazilian steak houses where men wander around the dining room with a large skewer of meat, slicing a hunk off for you if you chose to feed.  We rolled out of there.

Day 4: Time to work on those technical skills

Unbeknown to us, friend Brad had recently moved to Vegas, and through the magic of Facebook, he discovered we were in town.  He and his friend John offered to show us some trails near Red Rock Recreation Area called the Cowboy Trails.  Oh what fun!

That is until Drew fell the wrong way down a rocky slope and came back up with a little less skin.
 

The trail ends at an overlook with a great view of Las Vegas

The trails were so fun we had to go back and ride them again after Brad and John went home. 

For two mountain bikers who have been snow bound for months, this was a beautiful site indeed.

Good rides deserve to be capped off with good beer, food, and a piezookie at BJ's for dessert.  

Our next post will continue to log the adventure. Stay tuned.