Cycling Season Underway

Jamie, Lisa, Gill, and Jerry laughing it up about pounding me into the pavement. (ED NOTE: John was busy with his head in a shopping bag of food at time of photo)

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Today was our third group ride of the season, and it was a doozy. We did 40 miles of good hills, everybody working much harder than the last couple "wake up the legs" rides. Lisa is a machine, but of course it helps being 87 lbs. At one point Jamie tore his left arm off so he would be lighter and could chase her up a grade.

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Now, when you have a name like Lumpy, cycling up hills is probably not going to be your forte. And, it isn't. But for every uphill, there is a world speed record shattering downhill, and I'm quicky getting back into descending form. 50+ mph this week down Springwater way, and I should be creeping up on the magical 60mph mark in a couple of weeks. Everyone has their own little place in the world.

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The highlight of the ride was when buddy John, the star baseball pitcher/swimmer/sweathog disappeared off the back of the ride. We waited a few minutes for him, but nowhere to be seen. So, I double back. I find him sitting on the concrete at a 7-11, with a HUGE bag of food in front of him, 2 quarts of gatorade, a large coke, and just devouring it all. A hilarious sight (so much so that I forgot to take the pix...sorry). He ate for about 10 miinutes, then finally got back on his bike for the last TWO MILES back to base. Seems he didn't know how close we were, but when the bonk strikes, you have to "Feed the Bonk". And he certainly did, more than many 3rd world families eat in a week. He's looking more less like Roger Clemmons and more like David Ortiz every day. See, I knew he'd come around to the Red Sox!

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This week I head off on a great ride for 4 days, the Great Alleghaney Passage and C&O Canal trail. The ride will basically be from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC along an old railbed, climbing and crossing the Appalachian mountain in West Virginia. Accompanying me are old swim buddy Mark and San Diego buddy John. Should be some good stories inbound next week when I return. Till then, ride safe, and live life to its fullest.

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"Life is one big downhill" Lumpy out

One Cool Chick

Just a quick side story. The keynote speaker at the conference was noted Artic/Antarctic explorer Ann Bancroft < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Bancroft > . She comes onstage this small, unassuming woman, looking like someone's 4th grade science teacher. Then she starts showing off her pictures and telling her explorer stories. This is one tough chick...70 below temperatures, pulling a 200 pound sled with supplies to the south pole (and back), being the lone gal on an all guy arctic team (now THAT's toughness!).

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I was enthralled by her talk, and now I just HAVE to go to antarctica sometime before my time here runs out. But, I'm going to take a luxury snowcat, complete with hot tub and wet bar. Skiing there is just nuts!

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"Get's cold at 70 degrees" Lumpy out

Cynthia, the Human Sled

TOP: Windmill from directly underneath. Very cool "whoosh-whoosh-whoosh" sound

2nd: Human snow sled Cynthia in her descending position. Note the 10 feet of sliding tracks behind her.

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Today we went to a "green" ski resort at Jiminy Peak < http://www.jiminypeak.com/ >. They installed a windmill last year, and it's already doing 1/4 - 1/3 of their energy needs (lighting, lifts, lodges, facility buildings, etc). A pretty amazing story, it took them weeks to get the turbine up the mountain. They ended up using 2 semi trailers (warping the entire trailer on the first one as it hit the 23% grade on the slope!), and finally daisy-chaining 4 (FOUR) huge bulldozers to the front of the semi to pull the turbine up the hill. A massive effort to say the least. The concrete pad for the windmill is 45 FEET square by 9 FEET deep. That's a heap of concrete.

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Our group (about 40 of us) took the lift to the top of the mountain, and then had about a 1/2 mile hike to the turbine (where we got to go inside, very cool). Then, we were to walk down the mountain back to the lodge.

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Well, ONE LITTLE FACT THEY OMITTED TO TELL US...there was still snow up on the mountain. So we arrive up top, get off the chair lift (in our dress shoes and light jackets as it was in the 60's at the base), and promptly start falling all over the place...and freezing. The snow had all crystalized, and it was basically like walking on a 10 degree ice rink in street shoes. It was hilarious, weebles wobbling and falling down all over the place.

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We started pairing up for traction, and I got human snow-sled Cynthia from Ohio. Cynthia was a jesus person, but he apparently was taking the day off, as she fell about, oh, 70 times on the way down the mountain. We'd take a few steps, and the, whoosh, her legs would go out from under her, and either I'd have to positioning to hold her up (thankfully she was light!), or she'd be on her butt.

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The best fall was when we got about half way down the mountain, and there was a bare patch. Thrilled to get off the ice, we headed towards it. Upon stepping off the ice onto the bare ground, it was basically slicker than the ice. She went down, slid for 10 feet, and had a huge pile of wet mud all the way up her butt and back. This did offset the snowpack on her back nicely though, kind of a fall collage of colors.

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After over an HOUR of descending, the facilities guys took pity on us, and started sending snowmobiles up the mountain to pick us up. Cynthia of course falls getting on the snowmobile. As they're picking me up, I hear them talking on the radio about the "foursome lost on top of the mountain"...that will teach them to let people from Iowa alone on a mountaintop. Apparently they had wandered away from the tour group, and now were off in the forest somewhere.

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We finally made it down the mountain, had a lovely (wet) lunch, and then called it a day. But now I'm even more energized about this alternative energy thing.

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"You can lead Moses to the mountain" Lumpy out

Wind Beneath My Wings

TOP: A sample wind turbine (small scale)

2nd: Mountaintop turbine (130 feet to top)

3rd: Wind towers really attract the wildlife

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Evil of evils, I'm starting to look at what I will do job-wise this fall when I return "on-grid". Wish I could just retire, but I'm a looong way from that savings-wise.

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I'm looking at a few fields: healthcare (same), life sciences (i.e. DNA stuff), and energy (alternative...wind and solar). So, to get a bit smarter (OK, a LOT smarter) on the energy stuff, I spent this week at a windpower conference in lovely Albany NY. It's always humbling to go into a conference when you know didly-squat about the topic, and this was no exception. Luckily, I had an outstanding initial encounter. As I'm leaving the parking garage to take the lift up to the conference, I hold the door for some guy. He gets in the lift, and asks if I'm going to the conference. We strike up a conversation, and, lo and behold, he had just retired from running the state wind energy program, and is a national expert on windpower. 2 cups of coffee and a McMuffin later, I'm now close to an expert on wind power. Like I was pre-destined to make this energy thing work!

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The conference proceedings were quite interesting. ROI on windmills has become a real thing, given the recent huge spike in energy prices. This conference focused on community wind power (i.e. not commercial utilities, although nothing wrong with that segment either). Many communities, schools, etc have setup municipal windpower utilities to take themselves off the utility grid...many to a substantial ROI. One community that spoke, Hull, MA, < http://www.hullwind.org/ > started with a single windmill to power their school district. Then, they added a second one, on their town landfill (great place!) to power their municipal electricity needs (street lighting, municipal buildings, facilities, etc). Now, they are adding 4 more windmills to power the entire town...every single residence. Sometime in late 2010 they will be totally off the utility grid, at a pricepoint massively less expensive, with a green energy production situation. Very cool stuff, indeed, and it really got me energized about the field.

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Although I've got a lot to learn, I think this may be where I point my initial job search come august. Fascinating stuff, good for humanity (my liberal side coming out), and a quickly expanding field.

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"Somehow not the blow job I expected" Lumpy out

And You Thought Triathlons Are Stupid....

Fisherman at Salmon Creek...20 degrees out, less wind chill, standing in 40 degree water....to try to catch a fish...

Time to Hit the Slopes, er F'n Creek

TOP: Kathy with a Yeti that she came upon on the trail (NOTE: She does NOT have snowshoes on...those are her real feet size)

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2nd: Peter taking yet another break on the trail. He apparently smelled a snack on the ground

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3rd: Kathy guiding a still inebriated Judy along the trail. The cosmo's on friday night clearly took their toll.

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4th: Lumpy making another world-class skiing move, jumping the creek at speed.

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After a stunning breakfast put on by Judy (a block of chocolate with a light dusting of pancake flour on it, coupled with bear/mountain goat/elk sausages), we headed out for the trailhead. Peter, Jan, Koz, and I were XC skiing, while Gill, Kathy, Judy, and Joel were snowshoeing. Fran waited in the cabin for her paramour to arrive...she apparently had a thing for the cabin rental guy. What a sexpot.

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The skiers headed out on one trail, the snowshoers on another. Apparently we choose correctly, as their trail was an endless series of Fast running, ice cold creek crossings. Kathy, not being an outdoorsman, thought that you name the creeks based upon water speed, so the quickly became the "F'N creeks"....as in "Not another F'N creek". "I hated that F'N creek". "If I fall into another F'N creek I'm going to kill someone".

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Meanwhile we had tons of fun. Trails were nicely groomed, Peter only fell (or stopped for snacks) about every 3-4 minutes, and the snowmobilers were quite courteous, waving as they went by us at 80mph. My highlight was the airborne creek crossing, where I was going downslope, toward one of Kathy's F'N creeks, and realized that there was no way I was going to (a) jump it or (b) stop beforehand. Luckily the ground turn upward just a bit before the creek edge, and I stopped with my ski tips out over the water. As I was about to launch into my "Allah Akbah" chant, I completely lost my balance and just fell right over, missing the creek by inches. From now on I'm praying to Darwin.

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We played for over 3 hours, and got back to the lodge totally exhausted. Fran was just finishing up with the cabin boy (albeit the woodstove was burning nicely), the Koz's were fast asleep (irrespective of the noises coming out of their bedroom), and the rest of us ate every bit of Fran's chicken soup and Lumpy's chili in the cabin. About 8,000 calories apiece I think.

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On to cards tonite, then more snowshoeing tomorrow before heading home. Gotta love those Big Chill Weekends!

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"Nice (ski) Tips" Lumpy out

Revoking my Sierra Club Membership

TOP: Elk (dead)

MIDDLE: Bear (dead)

BOTTOM: Mountain Goat (dead)

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After our first night of cosmo's, we awoke to a bevy of dead animals inside the cabin. Somehow we didn't see them the night prior...probably a tribute to the cosmo's. Although I have no problem with hunting (as long as they're either varmits or you eat your kill if big animals), I never quite understood the whole "hang a head for jesus" thing. At least animals have the courtesy to eat us when they kill us; we should at least return the favor.

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Also, I've noticed that you never see a stuffed racoon, possum, squirrel, or the like. It's always, hey, I killed something much bigger than me. Even though you had a magnum at 20 yards, and the bear had a 6" claw. I think we should start a nationwide "stuff the varmit" competition...that would be cool to see. Squirrels for all my friends!

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"Shoot 'em and Eat 'em" Lumpy out

Ice, Ice, Baby

TOP: Crew at dinner

2nd: Judy and her love slave toasting another night of wild sex

3rd: Separated at birth?

4th: Fran training to take over Judy's "Cosmo" title

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Last weekend we headed off to the Tug Hill area of NY (read: buckets-o-snow) for our occasionally annual "CARP Big Chill Weekend". This year we had a good crew, 9 in total, and were looking forward to a fun weekend of snowshoeing and XC skiing...oh, and booze, and chocolate, and did I mention booze yet? I did? Well, OK then, booze was evident.

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Tug Hill is an interesting place. They get something like 20 feet of snow a year, the snowiest place in the US east of the Rockies. A geographic anomoly positioned a small ridgeline just east of lake ontario, and when it snows, it really snows. There was barely a covering in Syracuse, just 30 miles away, but Tug Hill had easily 3-4 feet of base everywhere. We saw drifts that were up to the roofline of several houses, probably 10-12 feet tall. It's something like June before all the snow is melted up there.

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We're staying at a cool little fishing camp, as this area is a major Salmon fishing area. Gill, Kathy and I got in early and got a couple of hours of snowshoeing in to loosen the legs before the big workout on saturday. Once the rest of the crew arrived, we headed off to a really nice dinner in town (pulaski), highlighted by very fresh salmon filets. Luckily the restaurant had cosmos, so Judy and Fran were able to start their competition for "Drunken Cosmo Chick of the week". We're expecting a good one this year, as they've finally dried out since last year's slugfest in Ithaca.

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Tomorrow....hitting the trails with 50 year old bodies....

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"Downhill" Lumpy out