I wondered how far leaves could really fly

This is pretty much all I've been up to so far this month.  How about you?

The sun it don't mean to hurt I guess

You know what I love most about my life?  When someone tells me on Wednesday that I should join them on a trip that lasts Thursday through Sunday, I can go ahead and do it if I want.

One of the other post-docs told me about a mountain biking trip she and some others had planned.  "You should come," she said.

"It sounds like a lot of fun.  Maybe I should."

"Oh, you're coming."

It was settled right then and there.  So, I packed my stuff that night, showed up at her house at 7:30 the next morning, and then we were off.  We drove about four hours to Canyonlands where we picked up the permits she and her husband had applied for a year ago, and then we were on the trail.  Six mountain bikes, two Jeeps loaded up with camping gear, food, etc., and a guy on a motorcycle.  Off on a four day ride along the White Rim Trail.

As you can see, the scenery was fantastic!

On average, we rode 25 miles a day.  We had two and a half days of very strong winds.  Some of the girls were actually blown off of their bikes.  Multiple times.  Luckily, the wind died down on the third day so we didn't have to fight it on the last climb out of the canyon (about 1200 feet in elevation over the course of about a mile and a half).  

At the onset, I wasn't sure I'd be able to ride the entire way, but I knew I had to give it a try.  I made it.  I can't believe I did, but I feel pretty awesome about it.  Of course, then I found out that there are people who do the whole thing in one day, then I didn't feel quite as bad ass.  Whatever.

I didn't tell my boss I was going.  I just told him when I got back.  His response?  "Good.  It sounds like fun."  He's awesome!

I might have some more stories to tell from the trip over the next couple of days.  Stay tuned.

I need some air that no-one's been breathing

I seriously don't know where the time goes anymore. I went on a hike last weekend, and meant to post about it before now, but better late than never I guess.

It all started when I posted one of the pictures from the drive I went with on my brother on Facebook. One of my old high school friends commented on how gorgeous it was, and then said that the next thing I needed to do was meet her and her husband for a hike the next morning. I haven't seen either of them since high school, but it was a hike I'd been wanting to do all summer long, but thought there would still be too much snow to make it up that high. There was still snow, but she said they'd heard it was passable, so I joined them. It wasn't a hard decision to make. I'm really glad I went. It was nice catching up with the two of them, and the scenery was simply phenomenal. Here are some of the pics I took.

It's been a relatively cool summer, so there were still plenty of wildflowers:



As expected, we did have to cross a few snow fields:



The view from the other side of the first snow field wasn't too shabby:



And it just kept on getting better. This is my favorite picture from the hike:



Here are some hikers and their dog that were crossing another snow field in front of us:



The scariest part for me was that I'd lost my sunglasses, and was worried about getting snow blindness. I had to squint my eyes as much as possible while walking across the snow so as not to burn my retinas. I think I did sunburn my eyelids, even though I'd applied sunblock, but better the outside of those than the eyes themselves. Luckily, everything turned out fine.

We eventually came up along a ridge just before making our final ascent to the summit. The view was pretty good on both sides of the trail:





The summit was pretty cool too:





But perhaps the funnest part of the entire hike was when we were crossing one of the steep snow fields, and decided to follow someone else's slide rather than walk back down. Here's a picture that shows you how steep the slope was:



And here's one of the slide itself:



We also saw a commode that has a view that rivals any:



No, I didn't use it.

At some point during our ascent, my friend told me that I hadn't changed a bit since high school. She added that she was glad that it wasn't weird hanging out again after all this time.

"Really? I think I've changed a lot since high school."

"Yeah?" she asked, "How so?"

I answered, "I'm way more cool now than I ever was back then."

All in all, it was a good day!

The way the scattered ever-busy bright lights of a city might look off to a distant mountain range

You know, some days you just have to get up into the mountains. Here are a few pictures I took when I went for a rather long drive with my brother and his two youngest girls. Of course we had to get out and play around in the water a little bit here and there.

Here are some of the pictures I took along the way. They're not very good because I forgot my regular camera, so had to take these with my phone, but hey, it's better than nothing.

















I would've taken more, but the last half of the drive was in Wyoming, and we all know how ugly Wyoming is.

I posted the second to the last picture on Facebook, which immediately prompted an invitation to go hiking with an old high school friend the next morning. I'll post those pictures later. Wouldn't want to overrun your senses with too much rugged beauty.