A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

This past Memorial Day weekend Rosey and I got out on a 5-day long road trip through the Southwest. On the way we passed through 5 states (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona), saw 2 national parks and 2 national monuments.

Our first stop on the trip was Carlsbad Caverns National Park. This is a park that has been on my list of places that I've wanted to see for several years. I'm kind of a sucker for a good cave tour and I heard that this one was supposed to be one of the best. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. I think that it's fair to say that this was the coolest (neatest) cave that I've ever been in.

I've never been able to get very good pictures in a cave and this trip seemed worst than most. All I managed to get was some shots of complete darkness. So, our only recorded memories from this park will be of the entrance to the caves :)


The cave was just massive and it was decorated with some pretty unbelievable cave formations. There were all of the normal formations that you might expect like flowstone, drapery, popcorn, stalactites, stalagmites and columns but there were also a handful of unique formations. The most interesting one, I thought was called the lion's tail. It was a stalactite that had grown a ball of cave popcorn on it's tail. It was pretty neat. I was also impressed by the fairyland. It reminded me a little of Goblin Valley only with the hoodoos being made of cave formations instead of redrock.

Our second stop was in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. To be honest, this wasn't a park that had really been on my list of places to see, but it was so close to Carlsbad that I figured it warranted a visit if for no other reason than to expand my collection of National Parks Maps :) I think that Rosey and I were both glad that we stopped. We both appreciated the desert landscape and the beautiful and unique mountains and I think that Rosey was particularly thrilled to learn about the geological history of the park (which I'll let her explain in her own post).


We took the better part of the 3rd day of our trip and did a 14 mile hike through the Guadalupe Mountains. The scenery was spectacular and it felt unbelievably good to get out and do some real hiking after spending the 2 days on the road.


On Day 4 we started our trek back home. Instead of going back the way we came we took a slight detour through central New Mexico and stopped by White Sands National Monument. I was impressed to discover that it is the largest gypsum sand dunes in the world.

I also thought it was really neat to learn how the dunes were formed. Apparently water running off the nearby mountains carries alot of dissolved minerals with it. The water settles into lakes in the valley which because of the heat dry up over the summer. As the mineral rich water dries it leaves massive gypsum crystals in the lake bed. Over time the crystals are broken down by the wind and blown into the nearby dunes. It would have been neat to go and see the crystals in the lake bed but unfortunately that part of the park is only accessible via ranger led hikes in the fall.

We didn't stay that long in White Sands and we really didn't do that much hiking. But we did stop to play in the sand. I had a lot of fun walking barefoot through the sand dunes. I was worried it would be too hot to go barefoot, but the sand was actually pretty cool and there seemed to be a surprising amount of moisture just beneath the surface.

Day 5 found us in a small town in Arizona where we had bedded for the night. We still had about 8 hours of driving ahead of us straight up highway 191. I had chose this route hoping that we would get to drive through Monument Valley. As it turned out we didn't get to see Monument Valley but we did get to stop at an unexpected fourth National Park (actually Monument).

As we were driving up 191 we stopped at Canyon De Chelly National Monument in Chinle, Arizona. The park was unique in that it appeared to still be occupied by Navajo residents. In fact there was only one trail in the entire park that you were allowed to hike without a special permit or Navajo guide. It was really quite interesting to see actual residences inside of a national monument.

The canyon was amazing. Rosey pointed out that it looked like a smaller version of Zion Canyon. At first I didn't agree but I started to see the similarity. We didn't have a ton of time so we toured the park by car stopping off at some of the viewpoints along the way. The most impressive viewpoint was of Spider Rock.


I'd love to come back sometime and backpack and/or mountain bike through the park. We just need to figure out how to get a Navajo guide that could keep up with us :)

A Month of "Finally"'s

May has been a month of "Finally"'s for me.

• I finally rode my bike over Nebo after having the goal for over a year and making several attempts.
• I finally hiked the Zion Narrows after numerous failed attempts (due to plans falling through) over the last several years.
• I finally dropped below 200 lbs after thinking that I was real close at least 3 times over the last year.
• And this weekend I will finally get to see Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico after wishing for several years to go see it.

May has been a pretty good month :)

Now, if only there were enough time left in May to finally climb Spanish Fork Peak.

A Whole New Century

It's taken a whole lot longer than I had originally planned, but this week I finally dropped under 200 lbs. I haven't been this light since I graduated high school. I want to keep working to drop another 10 lbs or so to clean up a few of my jiggly spots, but I'm getting closer and closer to my 'ideal' weight.

Going Kevlar

After another two flat tires within 24 hours of each other, I decided that I had finally had enough with my current tires. So, I swapped in my old Roubaix tires for a set of Specialized Armadillos. The Armadillos are made with a layer of DuPont Kevlar (a material commonly used in bullet proof vests) to be extra puncture resistant. I'm hoping that it gives me bulletproof tires but I'm betting that I'll manage to puncture them within a week :)

Conquering Nebo

I finally did it! Yesterday, I rode 48.5 miles from my house in Spanish Fork to Nephi over the Nebo Loop. I hit the highest point of the ride at 9300 feet above sea level. That's 4700 feet of elevation gain from the lowest point at 4600 feet above sea level.

There was a bit of snow on the road once I got up to the higher elevations, but for the most part it wasn't covering the whole road and I was able to find a path through it. However, there were a handful of times when I had to get off my bike and walk through 10 to 20 yards of snow that was completely covering the road.

My biggest obstacle was a massive tree that had fallen. It was too big to climb over so I had no choice but to go around it. Going around it meant climbing 10 feet or so up the hillside. This wouldn't have been a problem had the hillside not been covered in snow. I got three steps into the climb before I was up to my waste in snow. With a little bit of persistence I was able to finally make it to the other side and continue my ride.

I definitely wasn't setting any speed records yesterday. I completed the ride in just over 4 hours. Of course, I couldn't expect to keep a 20 mph average over a route like that, but I think that I was still riding a little slower than normal. First of all, Rosey and I had gone on a 12 mile hike through the mountains yesterday and my legs and body already felt a little fatigued. Second, I was fighting a pretty ugly wind for the first 10 miles of the ride. On top of being generally demoralizing, fighting that much wind kind of zapped a lot of my energy before I even got to the hard part of the ride.

Now that I've got Nebo behind me, I'm starting to set my sights on other climbs in the area. The Alpine Loop is likely to be next on the list. I'd also like to tackle Fairview to Huntington. I'm hoping that with enough training I can compete in the Alta Hill Climb this year. And, of course, the ultimate goal... Haleakala!

Best Practicer

I was awarded the "Best Practicer" award by my piano teacher today. My teacher said that out of 30 or so of his students that I was the most dedicated to practicing regularly. I was really quite flattered :) They apparently give awards to recognize students every semester.


I wouldn't have guessed that I was the best practicer, but then again, I do practice 45 minutes pretty much every day before work. Weekends are my weak spot as I am often out of town and/or engaged in other activities.

The problem with an award like this is that now I'm really going to be conscious about making sure that I practice so that I feel like I earned the recognition. Hmmm, come to think of it, maybe this is a reverse psychology kind of thing and I really wasn't the best practicer at all :)

Lighting Doesn't Strike Twice...

... but apparently flat tires don't abide by that rule. I was out riding at lunch, cruising down Springville Main street at about 28 miles per hour (I love that stretch of road) when all of the sudden I felt the bike bouncing in rhythm with my pedal stroke. That's a sure sign that the rear tire is going or has gone flat. As I slowed to a stop I could hear air hissing out of my rear tire. I discovered as I inspected the tire that I had ridden over some sort of twisted, rusted metal roofing staple.

Fortunately, I keep a spare tube and a CO2 catridge handy for repairing flats. Within a couple of minutes I was back on the bike and made it safely to my lunch destination (Subway).

Later that day... I was riding home from my piano lesson through Hwy 89 in Mapleton when I heard a sharp pop and then a whole lot of hissing. Within a couple of seconds my rear tire was completely flat. The offending piece of road debris was no longer stuck in the tire, but the impression left in my tire looked like it had been caused by a thumbtack. Now who would leave one of those sitting in the middle of the road?

Fortunately, I keep a spare tube and a CO2 catridge handy for repairing flats. Oh wait, I already used my spare tube and CO2 catridge. Damnit! Luckily, I was able to get ahold of Rosey just before she was about to head out on a ride of her own. She was gracious enough to come and rescue me.

I'm starting to think that I need steel belted road bike tires :)

Nebo Loop, Take 2

One of my goals from last year that I left unfinished was to ride my bike over the Nebo loop. It's a 30 mile ride through the mountains that gains and then loses about 4500 feet of elevation.

Yesterday, I made another attempt on the loop. My ride started from home and I made it 20 miles before hitting snow on the road just before Payson Lakes. Although I covered only 1/3 the total distance of the ride*, I managed to climb 3000 of the 4500 feet of elevation gain. And I'm confident that I could have kept going if it weren't for the snow.

* The 30 miles counts from Payson to Nephi. I started my ride in Spanish Fork which adds about 8 miles before getting to the start of the loop. So, I really only rode 12 of the 30 miles... roughly 1/3 of the total distance.

You win some, you lose some

I've always enjoyed watching the touring productions of various Broadway shows that are hosted in Salt Lake City by Broadway in Utah. However, this year was the first year that I've bought season tickets. One of the advantages of season tickets is that you get good seats to the shows that you really want to see. One of the disadvantages of season tickets is that some times you end up with tickets to shows that you're not that interested in. In the past week, I've had both.

Last weekend, Rosey and I got to see "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" at Capitol Theatre. Prior to buying the tickets, I didn't even realize that that DRS was a Broadway show. I only knew it as a movie with Steve Martin. It was a spectacular show. One of the best that I've seen in a while. It was an all-singing, all-dancing, all-entertaining raucous of a show. Although, it was apparently a little too risque for the delicate sensibilities of some members of our Utah audience... half-way through the show about 15% of seats in the theatre had cleared out :)

Last night, on the other hand, was a much less pleasurable experience. We had tickets to see "One Man Star Wars" at the Rose Wagner theatre in Salt Lake City. It wasn't a show that held a lot of natural appeal to me, but I was encouraged by all of the positive reviews that it had gotten. About 10 seconds into the show I knew that I was in for trouble when the sole actor started voicing the opening score for Star Wars while acting out the plot text floating over the "screen".

Fortunately, the show was only an hour long and only encompassed the original Star Wars trilogy. However, that entire hour I spent feeling like I was on the outside of an inside joke. The audience kept laughing hysterically at, what seemed to me, to be the most inane humor. Maybe I'm just not enough of a die-hard Star Wars fanatic (which, of course, I'm not) but I barely broke into a chuckle once during the entire show.

April Training Recap

It was my goal to ride 200 miles a week in April. That means that I should have hit over 800 miles over the course of the month. Unfortunately, I fell short of that goal and only got 714 miles of riding in. I think that the weather was the largest factor in not meeting my goal. There were still quite a few days that I couldn't ride because of the rain.

As I look forward to May, I want to keep the same total mileage goal, but I want to focus on riding fewer, but longer rides. In April my longest single ride was only 52 miles. Most of my riding was accumulated by lots of short 12-20 mile rides (i.e. commuting back and forth to work). I really need to get in longer rides to start building my endurance.