Snow, Hikes , Math references, and Rocks... Intrigued? No wait! Come Back!!!

Yes it's true.  Snow will slow down a good hike in a big way.  I mean who can possibly go post-holing through hip deep snow and keep the same pace as one would during summer?  Well, while this first statement is completely true, it's not what happened to us.  We only had an epic amount of 4 inches of snow to deal with, but I'll maintain that our hike was slow-motion-ified even by this minute amount of white.

How could such a short and fun hike be so slow? 

Well, there were a couple of important factors which I will outline in one of the most important mathematical equations seen in years.  If you discount little ones like Relativity and Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem...

Children from the deep south + Snow = snail like progress and constant mischief

The sound of the kids yelling "POW POW Freshies!!!" echoed through the forest whenever they found untracked snow in a clearing.  As to the Pow Pow Freshies joke, you would understand if you watched loads of stupid snowboarding shows featuring overpaid 19-year-olds skiing impossible lines off cliff faces and speaking some form of ski-bum slang that I find amusing.

The kids stopped as often as dogs on a walk.  Picking up and throwing snow at each other was the real order of the day, so we were moving at about a mile an hour.  (that's a generous speed estimate there...)

Here is Brenna with her patient face on.  This was required because every few steps Aiden, without looking, would just chuck a snowball over his head toward anyone behind him.  You had to be paying attention or you were going to have it on your head.  He thought this was the funniest thing he had come up with...EVER.

We also discovered Aiden was putting the snowballs in his pockets to save them.  He was soaked pretty quickly but seemed completely immune to the chill.  There is something about kids and snow that makes them not notice temperature.

An example of the sneak attack snowball.

Notice that Ansley was not in any of the fight pictures. She wisely avoided her brothers to avoid becoming collateral damage.



As the snowball fights raged on, we were actually on a hike.  The idea, at least, was that we were heading up to Arch Rock in the Smoky Mountain National Park.

The hike followed a stream up to the arch which had been carved out of the limestone and shale over millions of years. It was very different than the examples we had seen in Utah's sandstone.  The rocks that made up the arch had a thin layered sedimentary look to it rather than looking like the arch was carved out of a more uniform piece of rock.  Each layer was .5-1 inch thick and looked really jagged where softer stone had been eroded away leaving the harder layers exposed.

We had to cross the creek we were following a few times and the kids loved the log bridges that we had to use.  I was just happy I didn't have to pluck a soggy child out of the creek...

We found the trail actually passed through the arch itself and we had to climb a wet and slippery series of stone steps to reach the other side. The arch is almost hidden from view by trees so there wasn't a good spot to actually get a photograph of the entire structure.  Here is Ansley descending back through the arch.

It was a 3 mile hike and took us just under 3 hours to complete, and I think with all the smiles that it was exactly the right speed.

Christmas - New Years and SNOW!

We did things a little differently this year...well not the part about being nearly killed by the avalanche of presents Christmas morning.  In the line of thought from the rapidly approaching ski trip, I might recommend the adoption of a Christmas Present Mountain Avalanche Rating/Warning System for the next Christmas season.  We wouldn't want anyone hurt or lost on such a festive occasion.  We could even practice Rescue and Recovery techniques prior to Christmas morning just in case.  You never know, and you just can't be too safe, Right?

Wow...now just look at that digression in all its brilliant glory.

Now for a few photos to move the story along...or perhaps this post is going to turn into a slideshow rather than having much of a "story".  whatever...

Opa reading The Night Before Christmas to the eager and attention span challenged children...

The stack of presents was phenomenal...  Hence my commentary on needing avalanche rescue training...

To keep the focus on the fact that it was Christmas and that we were there to celebrate the birth of Jesus, there was a Nativity play that the kids starred in.  No theater nerves among this crowd...

And no...the Nativity didn't include Iron Man...  No matter how much Aiden may have wanted it to...

We did things a little differently this year.  Normally will gather for Christmas in Atlanta, and have a great time hanging around with the family and extended family.  The unusual part was that we didn't head to play a ton of golf in Myrtle Beach or Florida.  We opted to head for the mountains instead!

Admittedly, I was a bit unsure of going to try to find snow in the deep south in December.  Normally, we bundle up with our heaviest coats for the two days that might be considered remotely winter-ish elsewhere in the country, so snow doesn't normally even cross our minds.  We took off for Gatlinburg Tennessee at the base of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (Which turned out to be a place that I am definitely going to return to for some summer hiking.)

Look out Floridian drivers on ice...there should have been some warning flares or something...

I kept laughing to myself about our retired "Floridians" on the trip when they encountered snow.  Perhaps, I wasn't laughing to myself, because Brenna kept punching me in the shoulder saying, "Hey, That's my Dad!"

But we all know the story about when Bill put our van into orbit in Mexico on the speed bumps there,

so who knows what might have come to pass on that snowy road.  

Yep, that joke is still funny...and I'm probably not getting invited back anytime soon!

Lo and behold the morning was cold and the peaks of the pass we had to cross had been hit with a storm that put down about 5 inches of snow the night before.  

Who would have thought!  

And you would have thought the kids had died and gone to heaven.  We had to stop the car and got out to let the kids experience this interesting white stuff that they see so infrequently because they were trying to gnaw their way out through the car door panels, and my orthodontic bills are going to be high enough in the coming years.  I didn't want to find out how much fixing the car upholstery would be on top of straightening their teeth too.

You can imagine that it took about exactly .000267 seconds before someone began chucking snowballs...

Here is Bryce trying to decide if the repercussions of pegging me with a snowball were worth it...he didn't think long before pounding me with it and running!

Par for the course.  Family portrait with only one of the kids even remotely paying attention.

The house we stayed at was a cool place perched on the side of the mountain overlooking Gatlinburg.  I could really see that we would have had some trouble getting there if the roads had iced at all, but we were OK there closer to town.  The snow line was probably above 4 thousand feet, so the white coated the tops of the mountains around us, but not the roads we had to navigate.

The kids loved the fact they had to walk through snow that stayed on the porch to get to the hot tub.  Livin' large...

 I loved the view from the back porch and spent quite a bit of time just looking over the rail at the town and the Smokies.

I'll pause here in an effort to keep this somewhat short enough.  I'll post up the account of our snowy hike out to Arch Rock next, but I needed to get writing on this before it faded from memory and I ran headlong into the rest of the year.

There is some real beauty in this country surprisingly close to my house...

I hope you all had a great holiday season!

Hey That Looks Sour!

Bryce was at a friend's birthday party, and afterwards, as is the custom it seems these days, everyone got a goodie bag.  This bag happened to have candy in it, and Bryce picked out one small green or blue candy and looked to me and said, "That looks sour!  I should try it."  My response was something like, "You bet you should, but let me get my camera out first."

Here, my friends are the results of that piece of candy represented in three photos.  The progression is pretty funny.

Anticipation:

2: Oh!  Now what have I done???

3: AAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKK!

That's my boy.  I'm sure he will eat more of those things in the future, but perhaps it will be a while if he sees these pictures.

Excited about Snow 2000 miles from here...

The group is set and the trip is planned.  I'm going to try my hand (or feet, hands and face in reality) at SnowBoarding at the end of January.  After spending exactly zero time on snow skis in the past 18 years, and two days skidding down an ice sheet that passes for snow here in the Appalachian mountains prior to that, this should be interesting.

It sounds like, from the blogs and other reports, everyone out west is complaining that the snow hasn't come yet.  That there is "barely anything" that is open.  They certainly haven't spent time in the deep south.  I even ran into a mountain biker at Oak Mountain this weekend that said he was taking his climbing gear out to Colorado on his trip in a couple of weeks because there wasn't any "serious" snow yet and he might get bored.  (I guess he skis a fairly significant amount by that statement.)

At the end of the post is a video filmed yesterday December 15th from Whitefish, Montana where we will be going.

The resort is a pretty small one from what I can tell when compared to the Disneyland versions out in Utah, Colorado, and California, but small isn't bad.  It means short lift lines, lower prices, and a laid back small town atmosphere with more locals vs. fighting millions on the slopes as I try to learn to stay upright on a board.

I like the idea of being out in nowhereville, which is probably why I like hiking/mountain biking in Utah so much.

Anyway, the early season complaints I hear prompted me to look at the SkiWhitefish.com website and I found this video.

If that's "early season" and not really great conditions, I'll be just fine with it.  With 5 weeks more snow before we get there, this trip is going to really open my eyes to what can be done outdoors.  I can remember seeing 8 inches of snow once in my life.  They get an average of 300 inches a year out there.  This is a place where you ski by a short bush and find that it was actually the top of a 30 foot tall pine.

Enjoy.



www.Skiwhitefish.com

The Leaves

Every fall the trees around my house conspire to hide my lawn from me and to create a whole bunch of work.  The question is how do I make this entertaining?  Because it's not...  No matter what your Dad told you about raking being good for you.

One thing about our years in Florida is that I never had to rake anything.  The odd palm frond would fall, but that's about it.  A single 10lb frond is much easier to manage when compared to an endless supply of biomass falling from the old oaks around our house.

Well, in an attempt to entertain myself, goof off with the kids, AND rake this year, I decided to make a video.  We discovered the joys of back-yard bobsledding with a kids scooter toy a while back, and coupling that with a leaf pile seemed like a fine idea.

As a side note, me falling down in the leaves is not graceful, but hardly something that I wouldn't post.  In slow-motion no less.  Because, that's what this blog is about; entertaining my friends and family.  Of course, the reality is that my audience is probably getting smaller after my inconsistent posting and silly videos.

Aiden-isms

My youngest has been a wealth of laughs in his 4 years, and I wanted to put a post together to share some of his top comments.

• Upon seeing a small tree with a cage around it to stop deer from eating it he came up to me and with a completely sincere face said, "Look Dad!  They caught that one!" and then ran off to continue playing.

• Riding in the car home from a camping trip.  The kids were playing a spelling game.  Aiden had to spell some simple word that has slipped my mind.  His answer?  K...uh...R...uh...ZERO!!!  *Laugh's hysterically*  Ah, I hope he gets a good education...

• Holding an empty box of waffles up to his face and looking into it.  (He does enjoy a good frozen waffle.)  I said that looking into the empty box won't may any more appear in there, and he said, "That's ok.  I'm invisible!!!"

• The kids and I were scrambling down the stairs to the car so I could take them to school.  (Just like every other day)  We found that Aiden had already climbed in and buckled himself.  His hair was sticking up in all directions, he was wearing his backpack (while being buckled) and still had on his fuzzy pajamas, but he was ready to go to the Big Kids school.

• A friend gave us a box of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.  (A friend that doesn't care about our dietary health it would seem, or was trying to save themselves from the call of the junk food.)  er....  Either way, we had doughnuts and Aiden spotted them, grabbed the box, set it on the table in front of him, and asked, ever so politely, "Dad, can I ONLY have two?" before I had a chance to even say anything.  Only two?  Odd phrasing, but I guess it's better than just licking them all and saying, "Oops, I guess I'll just have to eat everything. 

Parenting.  It's good stuff

24 Hours of Georgia

I was looking for something new and challenging to do, and I wanted it to involve the mountain bike.  The challenge presented itself in the Oak Mountain parking lot one day when someone mentioned that they were doing a long endurance mountain bike race.  The idea of seeing how many laps one can endure on a tough off road course seemed like a good idea, so I started mentioning the idea to other riders I know.  Not too many takers it seemed.  I wonder why?

As fall approached, there were a couple of other guys that decided to take on this challenge with me.  Nathan, my partner in riding through Utah for the past couple of years, and Travis a friend through our team Steel City Cycling.

None of us had done anything quite like this, and we signed up and formulated a plan for the race.

1. Show up with bikes
2. Try to ride the bikes fast and keep them upright (preferably with us still on them...)
3. Try to make as many laps as physically possible without killing ourselves in 24 hours

Seemed as good a plan as any.

Travis had the ultra-camp-chair.  Yep, I had the privilege of falling asleep in it several hours later.

I asked how many laps he was planning on doing on the P-Far (Penny Farthing) for those of you not well versed in bicycle history.

His comment was "What?  Absolutely zero!  I would go over the bars on the first root."

One of my regrets of the weekend was not asking for the chance to ride it...  Next time.

As we headed over to the starting line and checking out the "vibe" of the place.  People were nervous and some people were already having fun.  I'm guessing the folks "having fun" were in support rather than riding the next 24 hours.

Nathan, got the nod for the first lap and donned the "ever so sought after" Steel City Team Jersey.

There was to be a line-up and start followed by a parade lap to let the field thin out a bit.  If you have ever seen a mountain bike race or a motorcross race where everyone tries to get the Holeshot and be first into the woods or the first turn, you will understand why.  It's a wreck fest, and why would the organizers let that happen when it was unnecessary?  They didn't.  It's a 24 hour race people.  There will be time to pass other riders...

Needless to say, people still went out like their first lap was the end-all of their racing careers.  (mine as well...dang that racing fever)

I have to say WOW that outfit matches...in a black and white photo that is...

Nathan running into the transition area after his first lap.

We all planned on rotating each lap to get a chance to memorize the course before nightfall and in case someone crashed out and couldn't continue.  That way when the world was condensed down to a tunnel of battery powered light, we would have an even chance of not crashing ourselves.

 We all turned in pretty fast first laps and then second laps...

This is me after the second lap...I'm trying not to look like I spent too much energy on the course already.  It was only 4pm or so.  Grrr...I still have power...I'm going to need it...  *whew*

Nightfall came and the lamps came out, and we all went from goofy looking guys in Lycra to goofy looking guys in Lycra with big goony lamps on our heads.  Fortunately, as is the norm for nighttime, it got really dark and we resumed believing we were cool (sort of) because nobody could see us except for the blindingly bright lamps on our helmets darting in and out of the trees.  The trail was really getting dusty and in the lamp light this became really apparent.  Clouds of dust would linger for minutes as riders went through and the lamps seemed to intensify the haze by reflecting off of each little microscopic bit in the air.

3 words:  Lamps are good.  

Travis found this out after pulling a double shift on the trail and having his battery run out mid way.  He is a super-hero for finishing the lap using a lamp that would barely illuminate the trail for someone traveling at the speed of a milk-drunk toddler.  Which he was not.  He was effectively running blind.  Impressive my friend.

Travis finished up his double loop at 2am.  I then started off into the wee morning hours.  It stunk.  Period.

I rode two laps from 2 to 5am and thought I was going to die.  Not from speed or crashing, but from old age before my aching muscles would get me back to the pit area.  It was an odd time to be on a bike.

I noted a couple of things though.  Mid-way through my laps, my mental state went kind of dark...

The cool/fun atmosphere of people milling around and having a good time while enjoying a bike race became something I was getting more and more annoyed by.  I was tired and suffering through the early morning hours on the bike while they were still smiling and sitting by campfires with friends.  I envied them, and I really disliked them at that point.  Grrr...

Interestingly enough this nasty, "I'm not really having that much fun" mind-set went to one of kid like grins within the next 2 hours.  I had kind of silly thoughts like, "This is like when Mom and Dad let me outside after bedtime with a flash-light and I get to explore stuff!"  I must have been really tired...

The happier mindset was much better than grumbling and wishing the happy people along the trail had fleas in their sleeping bags...

I finished up my 24 mile slog just before dawn and crashed in the sleeping bag not really caring if we got any more laps in.  Well, I did care, but I didn't have the energy to be the person to go and ride anymore for at lease a couple of hours.

At about 8 we all were up and about and found the energy to go and get two more laps in just before the finish.  It's amazing what oatmeal, coffee and a couple of hours of sleep will do.  Travis rolled out for a fast lap and we hoped that our math would work out to allow me to get one more lap in just before the 11am finish.  If I was still on the course when 11am rolled around, the lap wouldn't count.  We both cut large amounts of time off of the laps we had just done in the dark a few hours earlier and finished up with about 15 minutes to spare.

I ran into a policeman who oddly enough had a bike on his squad car.  I asked if he had been working or racing, and he said "both".  It turns out that we had passed him several times in the evening hours as he was stopping traffic for the racers the cross the road to the granite side of the course.  Then he made a few loops with a team once his shift was over.  That's a pretty good way to spend an evening when he had to work.

Side note: Riding wheelies past a police officer on a public road and not getting yelled at is fun.  I know...really daring...ooooh...

The team goal of finishing the race without dying was a success -- I know we had some seriously lofty goals.

We weren't all that slow and ended up finishing up mid pack.  There were some amazingly strong riders out there.

The race stats:

• 24 hours of race time
• 23rd place out of 35 teams.  
• 16 laps total
• 192 miles covered
• No serious crashes
• Fun

Now that you have read my account of the events, which may have absolutely no reflection on my teammates' versions of the experience, but since they haven't sent me a write up, you get my awesome prose instead!  Lucky lucky!

To add to the awesome content on this blog, you also get the chance to see the product of me running around with a GoPro camera and annoying my teammates with it!

Wheee!

Since YouTube and the UMG Music guys have decided to forego the free advertising for some classic rock music by The Who, I have loaded this up on Vimeo. YouTube also has the version that will probably be available on your mobile phone...I know there are so many of you so desperate to see my posts that you can hardly wait to see the HD video on the computer...


24 Hours from Brad on Vimeo.


The YouTube link HD if the embedded above doesn't work.