East Coast Christmas

We went to New Jersey for the Christmas holidays. Luck would have it that both Deb & Brian have relatives there - so we got to spend time with everyone!

Here we are at Brian's folks house. We were joined on Christmas Eve by Deb's sister Diana and her husband Sean. We ate a meal that was simply delicious, and gluttonous!

Christmas morning it was just us Bowlings!

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Chiricahua National Monument, AZ

On Thanksgiving morning we headed out to Chiricahua National Monument (created in 1924), also known as "A Wonderland Of Rocks."

The forest of rock spires was eroded from layers of ash deposited from the Turkey Creek Volcano eruption 27 million years ago.

The Chiricahua Mountains are in the far southeastern corner of Arizona, one of several "sky island" mountain ranges surrounded by expansive desert grasslands. The Apaches called this place "The Land of Standing Up Rocks."

We parked about 15 miles from the park entrance and rode in. Inside the Monument is an 8 mile scenic road (with perfect pavement), climbing up to over 7,000'.




We definitely plan to return and spend some time hiking the 18 miles of designated trails.

What a beautiful way to spend the Thanksgiving holiday!

Titan Missile Museum, Sahuarita, AZ

The Titan Missile Museum is the only publicly accessible Titan II missile site in the nation. Officially known as complex 571-7, the site was completed and turned over to the U.S. Air Force in 1963. Until 1987, when the last Titan II was deactivated, 54 Titan II missile complexes across the United States stood "on alert" 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

What was once one of America's most top secret places is now a National Historic Landmark. Nowhere else in the world can visitors get up close and personal with an ICBM in its operational environment.

Here's Brian standing next to the engine!


The Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile was the first liquid propellant missile that could be launched from underground. Equipped with a nine-megaton thermonuclear warhead, the Titan II was capable of reaching its target, more than half the world away, in less than thirty minutes. This shot was taken from ground level, looking down into the silo.
Here's the control room, where airmen awaited launch orders, 24/7.

OOPS, I forgot to flip this shot...
But I took this from inside the silo. We really enjoyed this tour -- a bit of history of keeping the peace

25th El Tour de Tucson

The last ride of the Rally was the 25th Annual El Tour de Tucson! We opted for the 109-mile route, of course; but we chose NOT to line up at o'dark-thirty to try to get a better starting position. We planned to "tour" the course anyway, so we didn't even wear the timing chips.

We rolled up just in time to watch the racers start right at 7am.

We went all the way to the back of the 9,000 rider field. Here's the view of the start line when you're dead last:
The beginning of the ride is really crazy, with riders all over the road. There were lots of crashes, and we had to go pretty slow for the first 20 or so miles. Here's the first of two very long washes that everyone had to walk across. At the end of each we had to take our shoes off to dump out all the dirt/sand.
Here's a shot of one of two checkpoints where we stopped for water. Food options were bananas, oranges, grapes, pretzels and animal cracker cookies strewn all over the table. It was pretty gross to take food off a table where endless rider's dirty hands had been.... but we grabbed a handful of cookies anyway. Good thing we carry our own food (mostly Clif Shot Bloks and Gu. Brian also likes Jelly Belly Sport Beans.).
The finish line! Yippee! Brian and I rode the first 75 together; but then the last two days of riding kicked in and he dropped me on a climb. He finished in 6 hours; and I finished in 6:17. Not bad considering we started dead last, spent the first 20+ miles working our way through the masses, spent another 1/2 hour or so walking the washes, and both had Mt. Lemmon in our legs!
El Tour de Tucson is 109 miles with 3,200' of climbing. Far and away the easiest century we've ever done. We're glad we came, but, truth be told, this is likely our first and last El Tour. Been there, done that!
:-)

Tucson's World Class Pima Air and Space Museum

Friday we opted for the 30-mile ride out to the Pima Air and Space Museum. Most of the route was on Tucson's famous bike paths. About 15 other LAB Rally participants joined the ride. On the way, we rode by the "airplane graveyard," which had thousands of decommisioned planes, many of which served in Viet Nam. It was very impressive to see.


The Pima Air and Space Museum is the largest privately funded air museum in the world.

The Museum maintains a collection of more than 275 aircraft and spacecraft from around the globe, including many rare and one-of-a-kind, and more than 125,000 artifacts. We were privileged to walk among the giants of our aviation heritage, including military, commercial, and civil aviation.

We actually got to go on board President John F. Kennedy's Airforce One! This plane was also used by President Johnson.

We could've spent the entire day here - but, alas, we had to leave with the group because we'd never have found our way home without the Ride Leader!

;-)

Mt. Lemmon - Tucson's Premier Climbing Ride

We're here in Tucson, Arizona for the 2007 League of American Bicyclists National Bike Rally. The rally includes three days of riding: Thursday and Friday we choose from several route options; and Saturday is the 25th Annual El Tour de Tucson!

Thursday we chose the infamous "Mt. Lemmon Challenge" - a 31 mile climb with 7,000' of climbing! The ride was spectacular! A super challenging climb, followed by a very rewarding (but freezing cold) descent. Here are a few shots from the day:

Death Valley

After spending several days visiting with Brian's east-coast parents in Las Vegas, we were really craving something other than city lights and smoke-filled casinos... so we headed to Death Valley to get away from it all...

We rode up to Dante's Peak - but didn't have the camera there. Here we are at Zabriski Point, just a few miles from Furnace Creek.


The next day we rode the Artist's Drive. The turn-off is about 7 miles before Badwater. The views are spectacular, and the road on the descent has been newly paved!



Here's our rolling home away from home:

Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas

We always enjoy seeing what's new and exciting at Interbike - but what we like most is our annual Red Rock Canyon ride. This year we were joined by Mike Joyce and Martin Ward (both teammates of Brian on Veloce Santiago and great friends).

Home Again

Our summer adventure has come to an end for now... We're back to work and enjoying life in Southern California.

Next month is the first annual Hoodoo 500 and we're super excited about that! We have a record number of participants for an inaugural race of this distance - which makes us very proud, and grateful for the support and enthusiasm for Planet Ultra events.

After the race we're staying in Utah for a few days and planning a hike down the slot canyon of the Virgin River trail in Zion. We plan to do the entire 22 miles in one day; and will definitely post photos and a report about that.

:-)

Tumalo Falls

About ten minutes from the center of Bend is one of the nicest mountain bike trails we've ever ridden. 18 miles of unbelievable single track (or more, if you have the energy, which we didn't) and breathtaking scenery. We followed the stream up to Tumalo Falls, and then meandered into the forest where we were treated to several more falls, and then out along the ridges with incredible views of the valley below. Awesome!

(The photos are posted in reverse of how I took them)

McKenzie River Trail

The McKenzie River Trail is considered a "must-do" mountain bike ride if you're visiting Central Oregon. Typically, riders shuttle to do this epic ride - but since we only had one car... We parked at the trails end, and pedaled 22 miles up the road to the trailhead. the road ride was beautiful. And when we finally hit the trail - Wow! We enjoyed 26 miles of incredibly scenic, and challenging, single track. Here are just a few shots from this very long day of riding.

Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway

Oregon is home to many National Scenic Byways. The National Scenic Byways Program is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. It's a grass-roots collaborative effort established to help recognize, preserve and enhance selected roads throughout the United States. Since 1992, the National Scenic Byways Program has funded 2,181 projects for state and nationally designated byway routes in 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation recognizes certain roads as All-American Roads or National Scenic Byways based on one or more archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and scenic qualities.

We spent the day exploring the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, by car and on foot. Although the brochure we found indicated you could enjoy the entire byway in a day - we covered about a third. Truth be told, most folks never get out of their cars; and if they do, they walk about 100 yards to whatever scenic thing is closest, take a peak, then leave. In our travels we find that once we venture beyond the first 1/4 mile, we pretty much never see a soul.

We hiked the mile trail along Devils Lake:

We strolled along Sparks Lake, where we really wished we had a tandem kayak or canoe!
Todd Lake was super close to the parking area, so we saw the most people here!
The highlight of the day was our 3 mile hike at Dutchman Flats - straight up to the amazing views of Mt. Bachelor.