After a long and well deserved rest from the world of cycling, I am dying to ride. Unfortunately it is an uphill battle of events to get riding again. But lets start with the off season activities. Of course by off season I mean the complete retirement of my bicycle for the month of September.
All of August and September was spent in training mode... not for cycling but backpacking. Tara and I were planning a Labor day weekend backpacking trip, therefore to make sure we were prepared for the high elevation Eastern Sierra terrain, we spent quite a bit of time preparing.
Here are a few of the weekend hikes that replaced my Saturday Big T Loops
Strawberry Peak
Mount Pacifico
Mount Baden-Powell
All of these were awesome day hikes that we did in the San Gabriel mountain range. For those of you unaware, that would be the giant mountains behind Los Angeles that nobody goes too. In fact Mount Baden-Powell climbs to an elevation of about 9,400ft and its not even the highest peak. You can escape LA and all its madness in less than an hour and be surrounded in high altitude forest. Also added benefit for the cyclist out there... AWESOME mountain biking trails, and also miles of roads for the road bike. Check out the links and feel free to contact me for any info on the trails.
But I digress... It was truly nice to get off the bike for a while. After my first race season, I see now how easy it is to get used to pounding yourself into the ground ride after ride. In fact as I started riding again... it actually felt weird to do a leisurely ride. But, as August gave way to September much more important things were up on the calendar. In fact September 2008 Labor Day Weekend marked 2 years since I had met Tara (my special lady). So as we headed off for our backpacking weekend, unbenounced to her I had a secret agenda. We would be backpacking, however it would only be for 2 days, then hike into the Rock Creek Lodge... where we spent our first anniversary together. So as we hiked into a beautiful lake at about 10,400ft... The Hilton Lakes, for reference... I prepared my big surprise. When we finally settled into camp next to our desolate little lake, I decided to propose. Of course she was shocked and said yes and we had a great amount of time to simply enjoy the outdoors and our new engagement. Day 2 I pulled her out of the torturous weather, heavy wind, and we settled into our wooded cabin for the remainder of the weekend.
Start at the Hilton Creek Trail Head
All of August and September was spent in training mode... not for cycling but backpacking. Tara and I were planning a Labor day weekend backpacking trip, therefore to make sure we were prepared for the high elevation Eastern Sierra terrain, we spent quite a bit of time preparing.
Here are a few of the weekend hikes that replaced my Saturday Big T Loops
Strawberry Peak
Mount Pacifico
Mount Baden-Powell
All of these were awesome day hikes that we did in the San Gabriel mountain range. For those of you unaware, that would be the giant mountains behind Los Angeles that nobody goes too. In fact Mount Baden-Powell climbs to an elevation of about 9,400ft and its not even the highest peak. You can escape LA and all its madness in less than an hour and be surrounded in high altitude forest. Also added benefit for the cyclist out there... AWESOME mountain biking trails, and also miles of roads for the road bike. Check out the links and feel free to contact me for any info on the trails.
But I digress... It was truly nice to get off the bike for a while. After my first race season, I see now how easy it is to get used to pounding yourself into the ground ride after ride. In fact as I started riding again... it actually felt weird to do a leisurely ride. But, as August gave way to September much more important things were up on the calendar. In fact September 2008 Labor Day Weekend marked 2 years since I had met Tara (my special lady). So as we headed off for our backpacking weekend, unbenounced to her I had a secret agenda. We would be backpacking, however it would only be for 2 days, then hike into the Rock Creek Lodge... where we spent our first anniversary together. So as we hiked into a beautiful lake at about 10,400ft... The Hilton Lakes, for reference... I prepared my big surprise. When we finally settled into camp next to our desolate little lake, I decided to propose. Of course she was shocked and said yes and we had a great amount of time to simply enjoy the outdoors and our new engagement. Day 2 I pulled her out of the torturous weather, heavy wind, and we settled into our wooded cabin for the remainder of the weekend.
Start at the Hilton Creek Trail Head
Davis Lake
Camp Hilton Lake 4
View from our Camp
Hidden Lakes Valley
So what did I do in September... well... thanks to a healthy diet I didn't put on a lot of weight, but I did absolutely nothing... and when I say nothing I mean it. I was dormant until the last weekend of September when I finally picked my bike up again and cruised up to SB to ride with my bro (who has just gotten into cycling). Since then I have been trying to get back, but been sick and have a nasty ankle injury... let just say I was working hard for the money.
Labor Day Weekend - Check out the links for the Sierra Hikes... the pics barely do this place justice.
Day 1 & Day 2
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