Biking and Climbing

Last weekend was a great return to my outdoor activities. Chris was out of town enjoying the warmth that is Texas, so I was afraid that I may end up pulling another weekend of computer games and football. Luckily some new friends kept me out of the house. I spent a lazy Friday night chilling in the hot tub and then opening my friends eye's to the awesomeness that is the movie Clay Pigeons. They all seemed to be a bit disturbed, but I love that movie.


I woke up Saturday morning and decided to join my friend Karen on a mountain bike ride. She has a friend that races alot and is really good. So the plan was for me to join those 2 ladies and one of their other friends on a nice ride in Vail. I kept up and stayed towards the front for the 1.5 hour climb to the top. My strategy was to keep them talking so they would run out of breath which worked well. However, they CRUSHED me coming back down on the singletrack. I don't have much technical experience on that stuff and it showed. There were some great views from a clearing. This is the Gore Range.

We were directly across from Vail Mountain. Most of the front side can be seen from that vantage point.

Here is the group that crushed me. I'm (obviously) on the left, Karen, Kerry (the bad ass), and Sarah (also incredible on the singletrack).

I believe this is New York Mountain (same as in the background of the previous shot).

After the grueling (not really, I just haven't been on a bike in a long time) ride, we scarfed down burgers at E-Town and then watched UT beat the crap out of Mizzou. HOOK 'EM HORNS!

Sunday came to a slow start, but was an awesome day of climbing in Gillman Canyon. My friend Alex and I took some newbies out. The rock was cold, but the climbing was really easy. Good for a confidence booster. While pulling the rope before leading, my arm grew to tremendous proportions.

Here I am before the crux of a fun climb.

The only problem with this weekend is that my taste for climbing and biking was not quenched and now it has started snowing and getting really cold. Guess I'll just have to tough it out.