Our Winter/Spring Weekend

Was this past weekend a late winter weeknd or an early spring weekend? I'm still really not sure. Judging by our activities though it may have been a little bit of both.

On Friday we went cross country skiing at the Sundance Nordic center. Unfortunatley the trail was mostly mush due to the warm temperatures. We still managed a quick loop through Middle Earth and arrived safely back at our car despite having a few near death experience coming down some steep runs with no stopping power in the wet slushy snow.

Later that day... we didn't get enough of a workout from the skiing so we decided to go on a quick bike ride. We did a short 12 mile ride around the neighborhood to stretch out our legs. God, I love biking.

Friday night, (unrelated to physical activity) we saw the Flying Karamazov Brothers at Abravenel Hall in Salt Lake City. It was a juggling act that performed in conjunction with the Utah symphony. Some of the juggling was impressive, but too much of the show was centered around cheap laughs rather than juggling performances. For instance, one of the "numbers" were these four middle aged men dressed in tutu's doing a mock ballet. It was amusing, no doubt, but felt a little like I was watching a "cultured" version of a "Jackass" episode (if there is such a thing). The best part of the evening was hearing the symphony perform a medley of music from the Russian composer Shastakovich (sp?).

Saturday morning, we packed up the car and headed down to Moab for the weekend. We started with an 8 mile hike around the permiter of Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands National Park (I believe it's actually called the Syncline Loop trail). Although much of the trail was in the sun and very warm, we ended up walking several miles through a shaded canyon where everything was still frozen and covered in snow. It was strange to transition between these two extremes on the same hike.

Saturday night I discovered that it was bad to mix large quantities of alcohol, sugar and fried food. We ate out at a Mexican Restaurant in Moab and I decided to cut loose a little bit and have a few drinks with dinner. The specialty that night was a pomegranate margarita. It sounded interesting, I had never had a pomegranate drink before. And so, I ordered and drank 3 of them.

I don't think that it was the alcohol itself that did me in. But something in the combination of the alcohol, sticky sugary sweet pomegranate margarita mix, the 3 baskets of chips and salsa that I ate while waiting for a table and the two mammoth sized enchiladadas that I ate for dinner made me feel really not well. I spent the remainder of the night moaning and groaning and trying very hard not to let anything touch or otherwise put any pressure on my stomach for fear that it might rupture and spill out the vile concoction that I had shoved into it earlier that night.

Sunday was dedicated to biking. In fact, my original inspiration for a weekend in Moab came from the desire to road bike through Arches. We ended up in Canyonlands rather than Arches but it still satisfied my craving for miles on the road bike. In fact I even think that the ride in Canyonlands was better than riding through Arches.

We kept a moderate pace riding from the visitor center out to Grand View Point; a short 12 mile ride on a brisk Sunday morning. But on the way back I split off on my own and decided to haul ass in order to atone for my previous nights indescretions. With the wind at my back and a slight downhill grade I achieved a top speed of 39 miles per hour... yes, on a leg-powered road bike. It was way cool.

I continued riding past the car at the visitors center and continued on to Dead Horse Point; about another 15 miles. I had been there several times before but it was Rosey's first time. We spent a couple of minutes gazing down at the gooseneck before returning back to the car for the day.

I ended up with a grand total of 52 miles for the day. Certainly not my longest ride (compared to some of my rides last year), but not bad for a ride in mid-February. I was disappointed, but not surprised, to discover that I had lost some of my stamina over the winter. Towards the end of the ride I was really struggling to find energy. Hopefully, I will regain it all when I start riding to work again.

We rounded out the day by doing some off-roading in Rosey's rodeo. Her vehicle is no longer new by any stretch of the imagination. It was a little unnerving to hear all of the squeaking and rattling as we traversed the rocky road. There were a couple of bumps where I was convinced the whole thing was just going to fall to pieces and that we would have to hike back out. In the end, the truck held together and we were rewarded with an incredible, up-close-and-personal view of the gooseneck in the Colorado river. It was a worthwhile diversion.

We woke up this morning to discover that our Spring Weekend was over. The weather suddenly remembered that it was February and decided to snow again. We drove home under ominous black clouds and light snow and arrived to 5 inches of snow in the driveway. I however, refused to let go of my Spring weekend. The weather was going to have to pry it from my cold dead hands. As an act of defiance, I decided to shovel my driveway in shorts and sandals.