5000 foot skin job

Ken scoping our lines

Gobblers opening up through the trees

SLC from Raymond

Rob ripping the glade

Ken finishing off the chute

Rob

My creamy turns near the end

Ken put out the call last night for a shortly after dawn patrol and Rob and I answered. The protected snow of Porter Fork was our destination. The snow was absolutely excellent on the North through East faces. We did a glade run off of Raymond, skinned back up and hit a nice deep sheltered chute off of Gobblers and rode the drainage all the way back to Porter. About 5k vertical of earned powder turns. My kind of base miles.

Vegas is the new St George

We fled the nasty air you could taste Thursday afternoon for sunny St George. Arrived late in the evening to balmy temps and high hopes that were quickly dashed when I woke in the morning to a pitter patter of rain on the roof. Weather.gov kept telling me 30% chance of scattered showers throughout the day so I settled myself in front of the TV and kept one eye on the window waiting for the rain to stop. Around 2pm it looked like it might be slowing down so I suited up for a ride around the neighborhood gravel roads. 15 mins into the ride the sky opened up. Since I don't have proper rain apparel I was quickly drenched and I bagged it.

Saturday the plan was for me to do the Camp Lynda ride and Rhonda was going to ride with the girls. It rained all night and didn't look great when we woke up. I scoured my brain for a solution for everything that is wrong with the world. A light turned on in my head. Vegas! I hopped on the internet, got directions to the Blue Diamond/Cottonwood trails and we headed out. We've never ridden there and didn't know what to expect but were pleasantly surprised. We did a big random loop of the area (appx 27 miles) and were told by some locals that there were around 150 miles of trails total. The trails were excellent. Everything we rode was narrow desert singletrack with a mix of buff cruisers and rocky technical. It was a lot like the Hurricane rim/GEM/Goulds loop which just happens to be one of my favorite rides ever. Loved the trails and we will be back.

On the way back to Rhonda's moms house we stopped at the worlds greatest grocery store and loaded our car to the roof with tasty organics and economical vino. Why in the name of all things holy will they not build a store in Salt Lake? I guess it's just another reason to hit Vegas.

Sunday the weather was much more cooperative. We drove out to Barrel Roll, did a lap of that and a lap of Black Brush. Rhonda drove back to her moms to pack up and I rode through the shooting gallery wash over to Green Valley for a lap of the race course. I wanted to take Bearclaw back to Rhonda's moms but knew it would be a muddy mess so my conscience got the best of me and I took pavement home.

Got in 6.5 hours of saddle time this weekend which was well short of my goal of 10 but it was much better than freezing in the smog for the weekend.

Stuff White People Like

#120 Taking a Year Off
#119 Sea Salt
#118 Ugly Sweater Parties
#117 Political Prisoners
#116 Black Music that Black People Don’t Listen to Anymore
#115 Promising to Learn a New Language
#114 America
#113 Halloween
#112 Hummus
#111 Pea Coats
#110 Frisbee Sports
#109 The Onion
#108 Appearing to Enjoy Classical Music
#107 Self Aware Hip Hop References
#106 Facebook
#105 Unpaid Internships
#104 Girls with Bangs
#103 Sweaters
#102 Children’s Games as Adults
#101 Being Offended
#100 Bumper Stickers
#99 Grammar
#98 The Ivy League
#97 Scarves
#96 New Balance Shoes
#95 Rugby
#94 Free Healthcare
#93 Music Piracy
#92 Book Deals
#91 San Francisco
#90 Dinner Parties
#89 St. Patrick’s Day
#88 Having Gay Friends
#87 Outdoor Performance Clothes
#86 Shorts
#85 The Wire
#84 T-Shirts
#83 Bad Memories of High School
#82 Hating Corporations
#81 Graduate School
#80 The Idea of Soccer
#79 Modern Furniture
#78 Multilingual Children
#77 Musical Comedy
#76 Bottles of Water
#75 Threatening to Move to Canada
#74 Oscar Parties
#73 Gentrification
#72 Study Abroad
#71 Being the only white person around
#70 Difficult Breakups
#69 Mos Def
#68 Michel Gondry
#67 Standing Still at Concerts
#66 Divorce
#65 Co-Ed Sports
#64 Recycling
#63 Expensive Sandwiches
#62 Knowing What’s Best for Poor People
#61 Bicycles
#60 Toyota Prius
#59 Natural Medicine
#58 Japan
#57 Juno
#56 Lawyers
#55 Apologies
#54 Kitchen Gadgets
#53 Dogs
#52 Sarah Silverman
#51 Living by the Water
#50 Irony
#49 Vintage
#48 Whole Foods and Grocery Co-ops
#47 Arts Degrees
#46 The Sunday New York Times
#45 Asian Fusion Food
#44 Public Radio
#43 Plays
#42 Sushi
#41 Indie Music
#40 Apple Products
#39 Netflix
#38 Arrested Development
#37 Renovations
#36 Breakfast Places
#35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report
#34 Architecture
#33 Marijuana
#32 Vegan/Vegetarianism
#31 Snowboarding
#30 Wrigley Field
#29 80s Night
#28 Not having a TV
#27 Marathons
#26 Manhattan (now Brooklyn too!)
#25 David Sedaris
#24 Wine
#23 Microbreweries
#22 Having Two Last Names
#21 Writers Workshops
#20 Being an expert on YOUR culture
#19 Traveling
#18 Awareness
#17 Hating their Parents
#16 Gifted Children
#15 Yoga
#14 Having Black Friends
#13 Tea
#12 Non-Profit Organizations
#11 Asian Girls
#10 Wes Anderson Movies
#9 Making you feel bad about not going outside
#8 Barack Obama
#7 Diversity
#6 Organic Food
#5 Farmer’s Markets
#4 Assists
#3 Film Festivals
#2 Religions their parents don’t belong to
#1 Coffee

Finished Floor

Before

After

We're very happy with the final result and especially with the low cost. I'm glad I did the work myself. It was fairly easy with basic carpentry skills and actually kinda fun to do. Now we just need to find a reasonably priced rug to add a splash of color under the table.

Noon Patrol

Well maybe closer to 11am but you get the point. BC Skiing just isn't fun enough for me to crawl out of bed first thing in the am and rush up the canyon. I like to take things a little easy, sleep in and enjoy my coffee before heading out on a tour. In search of some decent snow Saturday we decided to poke around the back of Reynolds. Parked at Spruces, skinned up Mill D to Dog Lake and finally to the top of Reynolds. We skied off the back shoulder through the trees in some pretty nice creamy protected snow and then skinned back up to ski the main bowl.

Sunday I finished everything but the last course of hall/dining floor and got in a short 1.5 hr skate before dark.

Skinning up Mill D
On the way up Reynolds

Main Bowl

The Peak

Skinning back up

Final Run

Flooring Install

Pre
Tearing up Carpet

Scraping up tack strips and other junk

Underlayment

Install

I'm not sure how I survived until now without a nail gun. What an amazing time saver!

I was on call this weekend and didn't expect to get much done. Saturday morning I finished moving the fridge and got everything in the kitchen ready to install the last top cabinet when it arrives later this week. After lunch I decided to head up to Mt Dell for some skate skiing. I arrived a little after 2pm and just decided to skate until I got called in. Almost 3 hours and countless loops around the course later I hadn't received any calls and it was getting dark so I packed it in. It was a long and exhausting skate but I made a few small breakthroughs in my technique and I'm finally feeling pretty competent on the skis. After dinner I decided to start my Bamboo Flooring project. We cleared out all the furniture in the dining room and ripped out the carpet and pad. The old hardwood flooring under the carped was a disaster which we decided to save for the next day. Sunday we tore up all the tack strips and began scraping away left over materials (thinset, chunks of vinyl and underlayment) from various previous floors to get a nice even surface for the new floor. There was plenty of scraping to do which took all morning. After that was laying the vapor barrier and finally installing the wood. I'm about a third of the way finished laying the wood and I must say it's a lot easier than I thought. We'll see if I'm saying the same thing once I'm finished.

I married Homer Simpson

A quote from Rhonda last night. "I'm tired of working, all I want to do is eat and drink beer." I seriously have the coolest wife ever!

Another Busy Weekend

Thurs- Ate a wonderful New Years Brunch cooked up by Karen, got home, tore down the right side of my kitchen, moved the fridge and installed the new base cabinet, watched Step Brothers (mediocre movie but funny at times), crashed.

Fri- Worked all day, picked up the 600lbs of bamboo flooring, got called back into work for a bit, watched Hancock (another mediocre movie) and slept for 10 hrs.

Sat- Slept in, shoveled the driveway, unloaded the 600lbs of Bamboo, hit Mt Dell for a couple hours of skating, drove home, cleaned up and hit the Last Call Cyclocross party, came home swag-less (rare for me) and crashed.

Sun (B-day)- Slept in again, Rhonda cooked me breakfast, cut a hole in the wall to recess the fridge but ran into a main support stack, decided it wasn't worth messing with just to recess the fridge, drywalled over the hole and ran the electrical for the fridge. By this time it was too late to skate so I threw in Death Race (sweet trainer movie!) and rode the trainer. When I got off the trainer Rhonda had Nick and Willy's pizza and a bottle of champagne waiting. Excellent B-day dinner!

I can't wait for summer so things can slow down a bit.

Winter home improvement projects

Found 300 sq ft of 6" handscaped Cognac solid Bamboo floor remnants on KSL classifieds yesterday. It's $7.50/sq ft retail and the guy sold it to me for $2.50 / sq ft. It should cover most of our entryway and dining room and it's still available from Simplefloors in case I need another case or two. For now though I'm off to PC for a couple hours of skating.