Crazy Poplar Trees!

So we have a huge poplar tree just outside our back yard ... and it is that time of year when it is spreading it's seeds. I have never seen anything like it (how many trees does it want to plant???). Our backyard looks like a racoon got into a bag of tissues ... take a look:

Some of it's pockets or 'bags' of seeds are the size of baseballs - this is lookint into our neighbors yard from our back step. All of the white stuff is poplar seeds!

Crazy!

More the NW 24hr Solo Champs

Our friend Will wrote a fun write-up on the race in his blog. Check it out here http://will.sitch.org/blog-archive/2008/05/24-hour-mountain-bike-relay-race-in-spokane-wa

He also took some fun photos. Here is one of the podium shot. What a great weekend! Looking forward to a repeat next year!

Commute to Microsoft

Well, it took me a week but I am back on the bike commuting to/from work. The traffic around here is crazy and it takes me less time during traffic to bike home/to work than it does to drive (and that is taking the back roads!).

My commute is around 15 miles and has some good hills - I forgot how much harder the hills are with two paniers - and the waterproof one with a laptop inside! It is a great workout.

On the trails again - 4.5 hrs at Tiger Mtn

I had a little break after Spokane to let the body heal. I did only one ride this past week and it was a short, easy spin. This weekend was my first time back on the trails for real....

Saturday I did 3 loops of Tiger mountain with Frase - 2000 ft of climbing, ~11 miles, and about 1hr 25 minutes per loop. Our loop starts out with a 30 minute climb (if you climb up the road) up a 'fire road'. It varies from 8% to 22% the entire way up. Once you get to the single-track at the top you are rewarded with a very fast, flowy section to warm up your 'single track' legs and mind. This leads into a very technical (think cross between Klakes and Camp Fortune) descent that is fast and furious. I am learning to let the bike 'dance' under me and am getting faster and faster on the descent! For instance my climbing was 4- 6 min slower this weekend (still recovering I guess) but due to my faster descending my lap times were still 2-4 minutes faster than normal!

This technical descent drops you back onto a fire road; where you hammer a few miles of 2-15% rolling hills into another set of single-track. The final set of single-track is a twisty but relatively smooth gradual climb and some flat sections. There are some good up-and-overs in this section along with a crazy root drop off combo section that I always opt to walk. Maybe when it is bone dry ...

This section is pretty long and spits us back out on the fire road that we climbed up, where it is about 1/4 of a mile back to the car/pit.

It is a great loop to train on and we like to mix it up by changing the direction of the climb (of course, when we go to all the work of climbing up the single-track we just go right back down the single-track - not letting that hard work go to waste!!). I think it is great training for Canmore and love riding at Tiger!

To the right is one of the views from Tiger!

Visitors!

We've been lucky enough to have a few visitors to our new home in the past few weeks. The first set of visitors were from Fraser's family - his parents, Marilee (sister) and her two childern (Alex and Elizabeth). It was a real treat to see them after so long.

They arrived just in time to enjoy the hottest weekend we have had yet! We met them at the ferry from Victoria and enjoyed a nice meal here at home. Fraser planted pumpkins with Alex and Elizabeth, we visited the Seattle Aquarium, and we had a nice visit. Here is a photo of Fraser and his family on our front step:

Our second visitor was Vince! Vinny has just gone through major surgery (triple bypass) and we were happy to see him so healthy! Vinny came the week after Spokane so Frase and I were both a bit tired but he enjoyed touring around Seattle and made us a delicious fish and poutine meal (thanks Vinny -- it's been so long since I had poutine!!!). It was great to see him!