February + Snowing feet out East = Let's go paddling!

Trying to look tough at the end of a successful day!

With forecasts in the mid-60s and water levels pretty decent, Garrett and I decided to explore the mighty Rio Grande. You might be saying, "I didn't realize the Normal Man kayaked!" Well, it depends on how you define what it takes to be kayaker. If most of your paddling haven taken place in a pool, several extremely mellow floats down small streams in Ohio, and having not been in the boat in about 6 years still constitutes being a kayaker, then that's me!

In this case, maybe smaller is better

In the days prior, anyone to whom we mentioned our upcoming plans generally looked at us in confusion, asking if we realized how cold the water would be. We would be putting in shortly below Taos and the river would be fed by snowmelt in the mountain. But we figured, how bad could it be... Garrett did all the research on the area and I kept myself blissfully ignorant. My biggest concern was that I would severely slow him down on the flat water since my boat is considerably shorter than his (see the picture!). Well, as we soon learned, the little man was the better equipped on the day.  By "soon" I mean the first rapid (see the pictures). 

Garrett cruising the first rapids...then "decides" to take a drink

By the end of the day, we had each taken a swim at least once; swimming through rather large standing waves is pretty exciting. We both learned class III/IV is certainly enough rapids for us! There were many times going into the the white water I thought I would definitely be taking a drink, but somehow found my way through it; I definitely credit it all to luck -- there was no skill to be found. But most importantly, we had a fun, exciting day on a beautiful river -- and we had it all to ourselves.

Beautiful day on the Rio Grande

Relieved to be on solid ground after a somewhat hairy section

A search for a good (non-radioactive) dirt road

Ever since getting out to NM I have been on a quest for a good dirt road. Sure, this sounds lame, but it wasn't until after I left State College that I realized how anomalous it is for the seemingly endless miles of quality crushed gravel roads for running and cross-riding. So, aboard my trusty, Wilier stead I have been scouting all the promising routes based on satellite images. Before today, I have had moderate success and multiple failures. But, that was before today.

It has been a long time since I have had a ride where a smile was plastered to my face. We commonly make fun of my mom...let me re-phrase, one of the times when we make fun of my mom is when she sees impressive landscapes, she typically continually repeats, "Oh my god!" Well today, I admit, I was continually repeating, "Holy sh*t!" and "This is #$@#$ing amazing!" I have finally found exactly what I was looking for, as as you would know it, it is right next to my current residence; well, 500 ft below to be more exact.

The road/trail begins in a somewhat narrow canyon, lined with big rock walls (climbing potential?!?), follows a stream with hoodoos and boulders (bouldering potential?!?). As I continue on, it eventually opens up to a big valley, WITH TREES!!! The trail/road is in amazing condition, and while having a gradual, constant slope to it, it is still quite enjoyable in both directions.

Well, not much more needs to be said, just that I am a happy man, my Wilier is a happy bike, and I even scouted at semi-flat stretches to do 200 and 400m repeats (don't ask, I will just sounds lame)! Enjoy the pictures. Be warned, anybody that comes to visit me, we are definitely going for a ride along my new favorite route!!!!!

Bayo Canyon Road (formerly TA-10, very rich and radioactive history!!)

Update: One of the roads I traveled along (Bayo Canyon Road) had one odd section. It appeared to have been paved at one point and includes 4 large asphalt pads. There was also a very old and faded sign reading: "Temporary Use Road Only By Order of US Dept of Energy." I found all of this very odd, but had no clue. Well, I found out the history. This use to be one of the sites for the lab. I found a report on the area and described it as a facility used to support the development of nuclear weapons. For nearly 20 years (ending in the early 60's) it was used as a firing site to test high explosives, included uranium. In the early 60's it was decontaminated and decommissioned. It is still under the DOE (US Dept of Energy). Here is an excerpt from one report (linked from this site):

The Los Alamos National Laboratory [...] conducted 254 radioactive lanthanum implosion experiments from September 1944 through March 1962. The purpose of these experiments was to test implosion designs for nuclear weapons. Conventional high explosives surrounding common metals (used as surrogates for plutonium) and a radioactive source, as small as one-eighth inch in diameter and containing up to several thousand curies of radioactive lanthanum, were involved in each experiment detonated. (Dummer, Tascher, Courtright 1996)

An expert on the area describes the area as:

...Bayo Canyon, New Mexico is simply unmissable for any hardcore nuclear tourist. there’s the historical dimension:  the radiolanthanum experiments that commenced here in 1944 provided crucial insight into the implosion weapon design validated in 1945 by the Trinity test (and embodied later by “Fat Man” and virtually all successive bombs). But what makes Bayo so special is that the history here is tangible, collectable, and detectable provided you come with a Geiger counter.

YIKES! Just in case you ever forget the history of this place. The best part, if you look at the posting from the expert (http://carlwillis.wordpress.com/tag/los-alamos/), he talks about how it is such a great place to go with a geiger counter to search for radioactive relics from the explosions!!!! But, don't worry, a 2008 report found the radiation levels below New Mexico limits and is safe for recreation, although I guess it is technically closed until year 2142. I am DEFINITELY not in Ohio anymore! It is a beautiful area, see the picture of Bayo Canyon Road above.

He's Back!

Looking down on Los Alamos. Santa Fe Mountains in the background.

Wow, last post: January 2012. I have clearly fallen off the horse, but now I will try to get back on! A lot has happened since my last post. The quick highlights:

1. I finished my PhD work at Penn State (hence why I disappeared from the blog-o-sphere for several years) and,
2. I have moved to Los Alamos, NM to do a post-doc (coincidently, several of my last posts are from when I was last in this neck of the woods: Greatest Day Of My Life and Lubbock I Kind Of Hate You.

There are a couple blanks left in that recap, but I imagine the essentials will fall into place as time goes on. Right now, I feel like a proud Ohioan trying to learn to like the Southwest; so far, I miss humidity, green, and corn/soy fields (and family, of course).

One philosophical change I will make to posts is to shift from rambling, nonsensical stories to concise recaps that just provides enough context for the pictures. While I know I am hilarious, I am not arrogant enough to really think you read what I write instead of skimming and looking at the pictures. Granted if something hilarious happens, like I am chased by a mountain lion, I will likely include more rambling (partly because it might be hard to get a good picture from that adventure), otherwise, less text.

Onward!

OHIO!!

(I will allow you to create the narrative based on the pictures. No matter how outrageous you can think it up, I assure you it was even more awesome! OHIO!!!)

Greatest day of my life.

Granted I have a terrible memory (which I once read about a study arguing that human males have developed an adaptive quality of having a poor memory for negative events, while human females are really good at remembering all memories. This seems to explain a lot, but I digress...), but today was the best day of my life. Being a “Los Alamos refugee,” I have taken the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the Golden/Denver/Boulder, Colorado region. Where to begin...?

I have fallen in love and her name is Golden, Colorado. The USGS NEIC is located on the beautiful Colorado School of Mines campus. The NEIC is where all of the earthquake response and much of the earthquake research is conducted by the USGS. Arriving here, I was welcomed with open arms at the USGS, giving me a desk to work at and an open invitation to stay as long as I need. Beyond USGS, Golden is a small, quiet town. After work on Friday, we headed to the Golden City Brewery where it seemed like the entire town was enjoying a great beer and great company. I feel Dayton is my soul-mate, but Golden could be my girlfriend.

Back to today...Given the opportunity, I jumped at the chance of riding part of the epic Peak-to-Peak highway. This is a classic road bike ride and heralded by one "highly esteemed" journal as one of the best rides in America! This also included my first visit to Boulder. About a half mile into the ride I stopped to make sure I was heading in the right direction. While stopped two riders passed, saying “Hello.” I immediately recognized one as Cam Dye!! I never thought of myself as becoming star-struck, but I could not get over the fact that an athlete that I have read so much about in magazines had just casually rode past me. Heading in similar directions, I ended up following Cam and his unidentified partner for several miles. Don’t worry, I kept enough distance that it could have passed as “going in the same direction” and not “stalking.”

Following my Cam Dye encounter, the rest of the ride offered amazing scenery of riding within rocky, mountainous valleys, along a roaring mountain stream. Simply stunning. On top of that, the ride hosted a constant gradual climb for about 20miles straight! While completely spanking my feeble quads, the 10mile fast decent was equally enjoyed. The amazing thing was the number of bikers I saw. Honestly, I think I saw more bikers just today than I have seen in the past 10 years combined in Ohio and PA. And this was just a normal day here!! At first I found it odd that no other bikers really waved as you passed. But then I realized it is because you would be waving constantly. It would be like trying to wave to every car that you passed while driving. There are just that many! What is this place!?!?

Still unable to grasp the concept of bike nutrition (I mean the thought of simply drinking consistently is such a complex notion to me) I was in a serious hurt box when I finally returned to my car. Looking to return to the world of the living, I headed to Amente for some great coffee and sustenance. As I ate my way back from zombie-land while watching the Tour de France, I struggled with holding back a constant shit-eating grin.

Feeling like Mike again, I then strolled next store to Boulder Cycle Sport. There I was encountered by multiple employees who were more than willing to geek-out about talking bikes with me. Additionally, I got a chance to hold the Cervelo R5ca frame in my own hands!! This $9,999 frame, of which only several hundred where ever produced weighs a meager 700 grams!! That’s right, THE BIKE FRAME WEIGHTS LESS THAN 700 GRAMS!!! SIMPLY AMAZING!!

While the wonderful Boulder Cycle Sport shop specialized more in road/mtn cycling than multisport, I then took a little trip over to Colorado Multisport to check out a famous multisport bike shop. First, this is also where Retul Boulder is located, I cannot tell you how many pictures of pros I have seen getting refit in this shop. While there, I quickly struck up a conversation with one of the co-owners, Chuck. When you imagine geeking-out, this conversation redefines it. I learned so much talking to him. I saved countless hours of internet review/discussion searching by talking to him for a short while. Not only is he a great resource, but super friendly and thrilled to talk bikes. I will admit he was a little bit of a name dropper, but I’ll take it because he was dropping some serious names!! He works on the bikes of the who’s-who in triathlon. Name a top pro triathlete living in Boulder, he is his/her man! Most importantly, Crowie, my most respected and admired athlete of all time, “comes in and hangs out at the shop all the time”!!!! Whoa, further more, this guy is good friends with Crowie, heading over to Crowie’s house to watch the tour with him tonight!! Pinch me I’m dreaming. Like I said, I never thought I was one to get star-struck, but it is so crazy to have these amazing athletes become just normal people. I walked out of the store literally speechless. This had been an incomparable day and it was only 4PM!!

Finally, the day ended with a classic pig roast at a friend-of-a-friend. You might be saying, “OK, when did the amazing thing happen to you today?” But it wasn’t any one thing. Everything about today was awesome and the fact that it all occurred in one day and there were no downers about it is what makes today the greatest day of my life. It is a big statement, I know, but some days it just all works out. Booya!

Lubbock, I kind of hate you.

I knew I was undertrained going in my race in Lubbock, Texas, the Buffalo Springs 70.3 triathlon. I knew it was going to be hot. I even accepted it would likely be windy. And I will admit I may have said something like, “I can probably fake my way through it” in my head. What happened in Lubbock, Texas on June 26, 2011 is something that I kept thinking I was going to wake up from in a cold sweat by safe in my bed.

When I left my car that morning it was 82degrees out and the wind was already blowing. When I returned to my car after the race it was 110degrees and the wind was blowing harder. I’ll spare you the play-by-play, but basically I got destroyed on the bike. Imagine someone in a row boat in the rough ocean while speed boats keep flying by. Well, that is basically how I felt on the bike. The wind pretty much took all the energy and self-respect that I had, threw it out the window, drove over it, then backed up to drive over it again, then spit on it, then vultures ate it. Yea, it went that well! By the time I got to the run, my legs were completely cooked. I won’t say much about the “run,” because I loose a part of my soul every time in think about it. To say the least, “running” the one mile between aid station seemed like a monumental expedition.

But, I finished. I say that not out of satisfaction or any sense of accomplishment. Rather that is the single last thread of dignity that this race let me keep. Fortunately, other people suffered as well; I was amazed to see how many people were getting I.V.’s after the race. It actually kind of looked like the fun/cool thing to do, but seeing some people shaking uncontrollably, I didn’t feel like I was worthy. But considering the speedboats that past my little dingy on the bike and run, there aren’t any excuses to be made.

I would like to say I will never return to Lubbock. But there is a competitive part of me that wants to come back and be the hammer to Lubbock instead of the wood (“The ‘wood’? You mean the ‘nail’?” No, I mean the thing getting a nail slowly driven into it). This was definitely an experience that, despite much effort, I will never forget. My nightmares will never be the same.

Hot, Damn.

There are many things I have not experienced yet in life.Well, the list is too long to enumerate. But, one thing I can check off is fleeing from a raging forest fire, Check. Well, I don’t think that was on my list. As I drove into Santa Fe, on my way back from Lubbock, TX (which was so hot, it might as well have been on fire), I saw some massive nasty looking clouds. I was first happy to see it because it looked like a massive thunderstorm might finally bring some water. As I got close, I noticed the “cloud” had a really strange shape, kind of an arching structure, and it lookslike it was actually rooted in the mountains. Instead of a massive storm cloud, it was actually the smoke from a massive forest fire. As I drove I kept convincing myself it was not coming from Los Alamos. Unfortunately, the road disagreed. As I got up into town, I could actually see flames. The townwas not on fire, but fire was definitely close. The odd thing was that the wind direction was blowing all the smoke toward Santa Fe and away from Los Alamos. I couldn’t even smell smoke.

I woke up the next morning to a beeping from the smoke alarm. My first thought was, “The fire is here!” But the alarm wasn’t actually going off, the power was just out, causing the alarm to periodically beep. With still no evacuation in place, it became a waiting game. Around noon, the wind started to shift and the smoke started to roll in and some ash began falling. It wasn’t terrible, but annoying. You might think, “Oh, I love that campfire smell!” Yea, wellno. It is a great smell when you can take a step back and be out of it. Unfortunately, this experience has put the kaputs on my plan for a smoke scented/flavored toiletries/cologne. I thought it was a great idea, “Smoke’: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” but while the slogan is golden, I no longer think thing scent is a winner.

So to make an already long story, shorter. I became a Los Alamos refugee Monday afternoon. I headeddown to a hotel in Santa Fe, thinking this might last a long as several days. I right this nearly a week later, and the latest headline in the paper was, “Breaking News: Return no imminent for Los Alamos residents.” No houses or really any lab property has burned, but the fire is pushing 100,000 acres, but keep in mind it reached nearly 40,000 acres in the first half-day. After finally getting bored of sitting around, I have now headed up to Golden/Denver/Boulder, Colorado. It is great to see green things, and not see smoke.
No more exciting stories, I’m just totally over forest fires. Although, I am hopeful conspiracy theorists can come up with some exciting stories for the “true” cause of the Los Alamos fire.